trailmug

Tire and wheel manufacturers publish recommended cold pressures and make no mention of hot pressures, only to say never to let air out of a hot tire. Our steers (120PSI) get up over 145 in the summer, and they're 22.5". The tires on a Monarch IMO are going to be working harder.. If the tires are wearing OK and are not too hot to touch, run it and get used to what's normal. 👌

Our Sig has a switch in the galley for its share of Aqua Hot blowers in the zone. The dash vents tap into the dash A/C blower via what I believe is relay logic.

Our front vent coughs out a piece of fiberglass batt every once in a while.. I'm afraid to look. 😅

The one case where I'd disagree with running the compressor after summer is in OP's case of a known leaking system. I don't trust the binary switch to fail open, because I've seen my (reasonably new) switch still closed when the system was under vacuum. Well, and on my Cadillac, where the short-cycling of the system during winter due to close proximity to the frost point caused a constantly wet and musty-smelling evap.

Pictures: bad crimp (puckered out MEI fitting), good crimp (Gates fitting), ParkerStore discharge hose I had made with Gates crimp fitting attached. Both crimps made with the same MasterCool manual crimper.

IMO, electronic leak detector is the only way.. oil doesn't always leak out unless it's a huge leak. Monaco field assembled the hoses using manual crimpers, I'd bet lunch it's leaking at a crimp joint (well, at least one), as you've been finding. My discharge hose would only leak when the system was operating, and it held vacuum fine. Took me a couple of years to find it, and the first replacement fitting also leaked. If you can, avoid crimping onto the old hose wherever possible (have short hoses or short segments of long hoses made at a hydraulic shop), and if you have to for the long hoses, I recommend fittings from Gates. They fit much better than what you can get through MEI, for example, in my experience. IMO, barrier hose is very unlikely to develop a slow leak in the middle of a run.. it has a solid sleeve of nylon on the inside. You can get to most of the hose except the area where it passes over the fuel tank, but I wouldn't bother unless you're replacing it. I'd disconnect the pressure switch at the receiver; that way the compressor connector is still watertight. In case it's interesting, I've seen it suggested that cooling performance doesn't suffer until a system loses 60% of its charge. That was certainly the case for me when I discovered my last leak.. only recovered 2 of 4 lbs and it was still cooling fine. Edit: sorry, my browser wasn't showing the latest posts.

I'd say ours is sufficient down to maybe 50 outside and then the aqua hot pumps become necessary even for driver comfort (though we don't need to run the diesel burner). Wonder how well it was burped after the valve was installed. Maybe try burping the hoses to see if you can release an air bubble? A/C does run on defrost.

Amen to that.. 62MPH but we get 7MPG in the Sig. 🤷‍♂️ Any higher than that and the boost, fuel, and heat runs away with the EGR.

Yep, extra summertime propulsion engine fuel usage is from the fan. Compressor eats 5 max HP which is negligible. Now if you've got a side condenser a/c that runs the fan on high speed all the time, that would be tough to call.

Checked the fuel pressure yet? I understand this is crucial.

Silicon diode drop is 0.7V.. might not provide good float voltage?

Sure thing, I had some cables made from custombatterycables.com (details below). Battery isolator: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00WTAFR84 Battery cage: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/TGI-301347-KIT Battery: Optima Red Top 78 NSI ITOG-1 wire splice (for splicing the Monaco 2ga hot wire to the battery isolator cable). Painted battery cage and riveted to generator front cover. Ran 1/0 ground cable to generator negative terminal, leaving the existing ground wire in place. Ran new #2 from battery isolator to rear of generator, cut off and discarded the factory red lug, spliced to new red 2ga battery isolator cable. Ran new 1/0 hot cable to generator positive terminal. Attached isolator battery side terminal to aux 4ga from red battery cable. Butt spliced isolator ground wire to aux 10ga from black battery cable. The side terminals they used were too thick for regular battery bolts, so I had to get extended ones. Maybe next time I'd get a 34/78 battery and use regular clamp lugs. I like to sit tools on top of the generator, though, and didn't want one to fall down across the battery. Using some air compressor hose worked well to measure the necessary cable lengths (roughly the same size and flexibility). I recommend following the existing wire paths as much as possible, as if you have a generator slide, the cables need to lay in such a way that they're not pinched when you retract it. #70 - Custom: 112 in, 1/0 ga SGT Black, Side Mount (short bolt) , std 5/16 lug AUX: 10 in, 10 ga L no end $88.89 USD 1 $88.89 USD #70 - Custom: 74 in, 2 ga SGT Red, std 1/4 lug , no end $34.25 USD 1 $34.25 USD #889 - Add Loom - Per cable Options: $5.00 USD 1 $5.00 USD #70 - Custom: 98 in, 1/0 ga SGT Red, Side Mount (short bolt) w/cov, HD 5/16 lug AUX: 24 in, 4 ga L std 1/4 lug $100.36 USD 1 $100.36 USD #889 - Add Loom - Per cable Options: $5.00 USD 1 $5.00 USD

Decided to check the alternator brush wear on our 12.5kW HDKCB today.. service manual says if you can stick 1" of wire in into the hole, it's time for replacement. I can stick 1.4" in 😑 Guess it's (past) time to replace. Our genset has 4,200 hours on it. I haven't been able to find a lot of info out there about the brush service life, but based on my experience, I'd say it's less than that. I'll post up if there's anything weird about replacing it.. looks straightforward enough.

My understanding is 450-500 ft/lbs.. gets you into 3/4" wrench territory, although everyone at truck tire shops seems to use 1" guns that are at least double that.

Do you think water only drains to the roof if the tube is clogged or the coach is tilted? My front unit drains water to both.. 🤷‍♂️

The scraders look the same to me, but I never paid them much mind.. their job is to keep the system from dumping when the cap / switch is removed, but otherwise they don't do a lot -- the O ring is the primary seal. If you're pro, you use a core tool to remove them in order to make vacuuming faster but I've never bothered with it.

Should be something the size of a tall boy beer, between the condenser and the TxV (should be the other end of the hose you pictured earlier). See if NAPA still has the MEI/AirSource catalog.. it has a ton of truck A/C parts. That's where I got mine. http://www.meicorporation.com/pdfs/Driers09.pdf The switch is MEI 1512 or 1513, depending on the threads. If you're ordering parts, grab some oil, too.. The Sanden oil is MEI 8248 (presuming you have a Sanden compressor.. that info was in my coach info sheet). It's recommended to put a couple oz in the receiver if you replace it.

Re: the receiver/dryer.. there's a cake of desiccant in it that absorbs any residual moisture. If the system lost its charge it would have taken on air/humidity and saturated the desiccant. You might be able to bake the old one in the oven in a pinch. If you do get a new one, you can cut open the old one to get an idea of the condition of the system. This is what mine looked like. Gross. That oil should be clear. I hear you re: the new skill.. I ended up with a recovery machine, cylinder, and an EPA license out of working on our coach (charging liquid from a 30lb cylinder is way, way easier). 😛

Switch is probably just stuck.. they're not very reliable, especially if the system has had dirt or sludge in it. You'll want a new receiver/drier for sure if the system was flat for a long time. Did it have any pressure in it before you charged? Moisture in the system will cause the TxV to freeze and restrict the system, or form acids that will eat a hole in the evaporator; the presence of air causes high pressure spikes. No need to pull the system down to replace the switch as mentioned, but you'd obviously need to empty it to replace the receiver, which would find you needing a vaccum pump. My switch is in an R134a system but the fitting Monaco used is for R12. Pressures are the same, but double check the threads.

Check the gap on the electrodes with the gap tool that's bolted to the side of the motor?

That one looks like an electric pusher which is probably wired up to run anytime the clutch is engaged. Mine willl even do it engine off, key on.

Yeah, looks like a shutoff valve like you'd use to pump down a residential unit.. never seen one on a mobile application. Any chance of enough hose slack to turn it 90 degrees and hook it straight up to the condenser? The O rings on those kids of fittings are the primary seal.. if it's replaceable, it definitely sounds like a promising place to start.

Just did this. My coach is wired such that the generator starts from house batteries. I tried wiring up the gen start switch to trigger the Big Boy and still had starting issues. Onan manual for my 12.5 recommends 2/0 cable for the run length where Monaco has 2ga coming from the FRB. I riveted a battery tray to the front of the thing and rigged up some cables and an isolator. Highly recommend. Edit: measure the genset pos/neg terminals when cranking.. the ECM cuts out starting when the voltage sags to 6V, which mine definitely did. 40 something feet of 4/0 plus 20 something feet of 2ga plus the ground cable and frame plus crappy crimp joints.. there's a LOT of loss from the rear of the coach to the front. Cranking power I measured at 300A.

Yep, these are called tactile switches. Bet you can find a suitable replacement here: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/filter/tactile-switches/197?s=N4IgjCBcpgzADFUBjKAzAhgGwM4FMAaEAeygG0QAWeANhtpAF0iAHAFyhAGU2AnASwB2AcxABfIgCZYAViQhUkTLkIlyIWAA4wdRMxDtOPASPFixQA

What's the tstat set to? I suppose on the wilder end of the spectrum, the dish box could be injecting RF noise onto the sensor wire.