Notn2bars

Big thanks to Jim and Tom for the information on the why's of sealing the roof vent and the back fridge compartment vent. Had to take a break from the project, think I was suffering from heat exhaustion. Tackled more of the project today. Put together a frame for the platform and as luck would have it, my careful measuring wasn't careful enough. The platform turned out to be 3/8 of an inch higher in the back than the front. Pulled it all out and started again. Wish I had the MH inside a shop instead of a storage lot, it's close to 100 degrees with 60 % humidity. Waste so much time going here and there for parts, cutting, and etc. Frustration was the word of the day:) The pex line for the ice maker is 3/8's. Neither Lowe's nor Home Depot carry any 3/8's pex fittings. Here are pics of the framing and completed platform for the fridge. Getting close, was going to finish up tomorrow. Received a call from the fellow in Progresso, Mexico who is reupholstering the driver and passenger seats. The seats are ready to be picked up. We had them upholstered in all leather, will be picking them up tomorrow. Still have to test the furnace, find the fittings to attach the icemaker line to the 3/8ths pex, remove the insulation from the inside cabinet walls, close off the roof vent and the rear fridge vent and remove the driver's side window. Then the fridge will go in. Platform for the fridge is 1 1/8 inch above the furnace. The instructions for the furnace clearances list 1 inch on top, 2 inches from the sides and 0 front and back. So fortunately was able to meet the requirements. God bless all, Ed & Sylvia

Good Morning to all! Peter, thank you for the input as to trimming around the fridge, not sure how I will trim mine. Jim, what has been the rational for closing of the roof vent and rear vent? Seems to me closing off the rear vent but leaving the roof vent would draw air under the fridge and out the roof. I would think that would increase the ability of the fridge to cool. Looking forward to your thoughts. (Late start today) God Bless, Ed & Sylvia

Jim, your input is valued and appreciated. The first pic is a view of the bottom of the cabinet after the Aqua Defense has dried. Area cleaned up and ready for the furnace. The second pic is the intake and exhaust in the new location, still need to put the aluminum plate in place. Third pic is the cover for the hole left when moving the vacuum port. 4th pic is the shortened gas line installed. This was the biggest PITA. Took me three tries to get it to fit right. Making the loop, bending it and flaring each end. Unfortunately stripped a fitting and need to pick up a 1/2 plug (another run to Lowes or Home Depot). 5th pic is a view of the furnace installed. As you can see there is more room for the duct work, with the added room from moving the vacuum duct. Attaching the furnace ducts was fairly easy. All the electricity is working again. Had tripped a breaker. Vacuum works as it should. Will test furnace after installing plug in the tee fitting. Tomorrow will create and install the platform for the fridge. God Bless, Ed & Sylvia

Jim, my goals for today, as it turns out, were a fantasy. Spent an inordinate amount of time measuring and remeasuring to make sure the cut for the exhaust was in the correct place. Too often I have measured once and regretted it. Since the cut would be to the outside, wanted to make certain it was correct. It turned out fine. Then cut two rounds to fit the hole exactly. The hole saw we have cuts a little larger than the existing hole so I had to whittle them down on a sanding disk. Put some glue on them and using a little hammer persuasion they eased into place. I placed the rounds in the hole below the level of the fiberglass skin. If at a later date I have the desire to patch and level with fiberglass, it will be possible. Currently we will put a piece of polished aluminum plate over the hole.Thanks for the info on the inverter GFCI, will check that out tomorrow. We only had one circuit behind the fridge and it automatically runs off either the inverter or shore power. Looks like we will have a little more than 1 inch clearance above the furnace. Also, coated the holes and floor of the fridge cabinet with Aqua Defense. It's a water barrier for coating the inside of a shower before laying tile. Just a some insurance against water intrusion. Chris, our thoughts exactly on the Norcold. Trying to get it right was a complete waste of money, time and effort. God Bless Y'all, Ed & Sylvia

96 EVO, fortunately, the floor was solid where I drilled through. No wires to hit:). Bill R, hopefully you are right. Will look at that today. Al, looking at the reviews for JC Refrigeration, you will find a mixed bag. Should have paid more attention to the bad reviews when we made the purchase. Mike, happy for your positive experience with JC Refrigeration. Not flaming them, just relating a warning. Bruce, it probably depends on the day of the week. I generally don't pay much attention to negative reviews. No matter how good you are someone will report a bad experience. We just happened to have a bad experience. As a result, I cannot in good faith give them positive marks for the way we were handled. The install is moving along, although not as fast as I would like. The goals for today are: to cut the hole in the side of the MH for the furnace, install the furnace, wire everything together, reroute the water line, reroute the wiring and outlet for the fridge, figure out the electricity to the basement outlet, and complete the platform for the fridge. We will see, this 73 year old body is moving a little slower today. God Bless All, Ed & Sylvia

Finished up vacuum lines and covering holes. Nicked the wiring in back of the outlet when cutting out the wall. Had to pull outlet, strip bad insulation and cover with heat shrink. Put everything back in place. Now no electricity to this outlet, too funny how things compound when working on RVs. The goal today was to reinstall the furnace. Didn't happen. Need to drill one hole for the furnace, the former bottom hole lines up perfectly with top tube of the furnace. Not sure if it's intake or exhaust. So only need to drill a hole for the bottom tube of the furnace. Pray this finds all well with everyone. God Bless, Ed & Sylvia

Rich, thank you for taking the time to look in. Just finished glueing the vacuum system back together. The system came with 2 inch pvc ID. 2 in schedule 40 fittings won't work with the vaccuum lines, as they openings are to large. 1 1/2 inch schedule 40 fittings only have 1.90 inches openings, thus they will not accept the vacuum line. Took a heat gun and heated up the schedule 40 fittings. After the fitting became soft, forced the 2 inch vacuum line into the fitting, the fitting expanded to accept the line. Allowed the fitting to cool and it retained it's new shape. Used the same method on all the fittings before dry fitting everything together. As an aside, if you decide not to use the fitting after heating it up and expanding it, the pvc has a memory, just heat it back up till it's soft again and it will go back to its original shape. It's all glued together now, just need to put the power line back in place and cover all the holes. The first pic shows the how the fitting expanded to fit the vacuum line. Placed a piece of 1 1/2 inch schedule 40 into the expanded fitting to show the expansion. Other pics are of the glued up vacuum system in the basement and in the fridge cabinet. Will work on it after things cool down (it's 94 in the shade) and post additional progress. God Bless, Ed & Sylvia

Birdshill123, my thoughts exactly. Especially considering the money spent. Pulsarjab, we went with the Frigidaire after many hours of searching and reading reviews. Al, we purchased the same model as you. Found one at at scratch and dent outfit in McAllen. Reconfigured the in house vacuum and we are ready to glue everything back together. Will post progress later today. God Bless, Ed & Sylvia

Thanks to all of you who have taken the time to read and reply to the post. In answer to questions: Bruce, No water got inside, just the humidity in the air. The coating wasn't applied correctly and the solder joints leaked. See the pics of the lines where it is obvious the freon leaked out. Jim, Good to hear from you! It's my motorcycle lift. Use it when working on the Ultra Classic. Good idea on the platform, will used plywood on top of the lift to accomplish that.We decided to go with a Frigidaire FRFG1723AV02 after many hours searching for a fridge with good reviews. We were able to pic this up from American Freight Furniture for $900.00 including the new fridge warranty. It just went off sale at Lowes and Home Depot for $1399. Tim, Thank you for looking in. The sympathy is appreciated, wish our luck had been as good as yours. Bob H, Their reputation is the reason we went with them in the first place. They have a great reputation as long as you don't have an issue with a unit that has been already installed and you are close to their shop. My bad for not thinking it through. Fasthobie16, cut the unit apart and threw it out. The compressor is still in the scrap metal trailer. Thank you for looking in Ben and Sharon, Dr4Film, ByronW and cbr046. All input, suggestions and comments are of great value. Here are some pics of the progress. First pics of leaking lines. Next pic measured and marked cut line on platform. Couldn't get to the pocket screws holding the shelf because of the furnace. Then pic of shelf after cutting. Next pic of where old propane line was removed and capped. Next, marked wires and ducts to furnace (I take lots of pictures and mark anything that needs to come apart and go back together:). Pic showing one of the L brackets holding the furnace in place. Our furnace was sitting on top of a couple of 2x4's laid on side. Then a pic of furnace removed. All in all not too difficult a job. Unfortunately the furnace must sit directly on the floor which necessitates the relocation of the in house vacuum port. That is going to be a PITA. Will post more on that tomorrow.

We made the unfortunate decision to purchase an Amish 110 volt cooling unit to refurbish our Nevercold about 2 years ago. The unit was purchased from JC Refrigeration in Shipshewana, Indiana to the tune of $1400.00. This included misc parts, shipping and the cooling unit. Last fall my daughter came to visit and we took the MH to the gulf and noticed the fridge would only cool at the highest setting. I noticed some corrosion at the fittings from the compressor to the coil. Called JC and sent a pic of the corrosion. The response I received was, "you must have it sitting outside for that to happen." No offer of help! About 2 weeks ago, went out to the storage lot and turned the fridge on, waited 24 hours, not cooling at all. Need new fridge. Decided to install a residential unit, which is what we should have done in the first place. (hindsight is 20/20). Pulled the old unit out. Here are pics of the removal. First, remove hinges between doors. This will allow bottom doors to come free. Take pliers and undo the round nuts on top of the upper doors. Then they can be removed. Second, remove the white plastic piece at the bottom of the fridge, the one with three screws. Third, remove the trim around the perimeter of the fridge. It basically pops off. Fourth, remove the 3 screws from the top of the fridge and 3 screws from the bottom. Fifth, (if you still have an original Nevercold, shut off propane and disconnect the line from the back of the unit, undo water line, disconnect plug from wall, disconnect 12 volt lines, you will find 2 screws going through the bottom sheet metal in the back of the unit, remove those) if not just disconnect plug and 12 volt wires (white and black). Sixth, disconnect and remove light fixture in front of fridge. Seventh pull fridge out from the hole and discard. Used a motorcycle jack to help with the removal, worked out great. I took great joy in cutting the Nevercold into two pieces with a saw and throwing it out the door. After removing Nevercold and tossing it outside, I took the compressor off and discovered 2 places where the freon had leaked out. Shoddy craftsmanship at it's best. If you were considering an Amish unit, beware. Will continue tomorrow. God Bless, Ed & Sylvia

Jim, I know you probably already did this. Did you check inside the wrap that covers the wires coming out of the floor to the seat?. I had a similar issue, it turned out one of the connectors inside the wrap had come undone!

Mine was leaking at the Mac valve! We replaced the it and no more leaks. The rear of our step ram is attached through the floor with a bolt that is visible above the generator. God Bless and have an awesome day!

Dick Roberts, welcome to the forum and the Monaco family. You will not find a more helpful or informative group of folks on any forum anywhere. Congratulations on your new hobby! God Bless, Ed & Sylvia

Ray how are you and Marilyn doing? Thanks for chiming in. Al's MH is in Mission, Texas about 40 miles from here, so this venture is going to take some time. Will post info as I get it. God Bless, Ed & Sylvia

Scotty, Jim, Ivan and Adam thank you for the invaluable information. I haven't looked at his MH yet, he had taken it to a repair shop and they indicated the abs sensor was bad, but couldn't locate the parts. I knew that there would be at least one possibly more on this forum who would have helpful information. Will post the progress or lack thereof as we move forward. As always, the folks on this forum are outstanding in offering help and advice. God Bless to all of you and your families. Ed & Sylvia

Trying to help a fellow RVer with his coach. What Monaco MH is sister to the 2005 Safari Cheetah? Trying to locate ABS sensors. Thank for any help and God Bless, Ed & Sylvia

Had the same thing happen to our stove top. Used original JB Weld, easy fix. Figured it would work, as I repaired a cracked head on a v 6 in a GMC pickup back in the early 70's.

Is there a pot on the back of the gauge? If a gauge has a pot, sometimes you can get them to read correctly by moving the pot back and forth. Mark the original location of the pot before moving. Just my 2 cents worth. God bless, Ed, Sylvia and Sage

Thanks for the reply Jim, something I may tackle when all the other stuff gets done! God Bless, Ed, Sylvia and Sage

Just wondering, did any of you do your own prep and paint? God Bless, Ed, Sylvia and Sage.

Looks like we have the muffler on our pacbrake and looks like I need to clean it. God Bless, Ed, Sylvia and Sage

Ditto Ivan K. We were able to address a couple of air leaks doing just as Ivan advised. God Bless Ed & Sylvia

For got to add, any brake parts you need can be sourced at a Utility Trailer dealer. In my experience they have the parts and the best prices. I priced Webb drums a couple of days ago at our local Utility Trailer dealer and they were $150.00 each.

Rory, it sounds like you are somewhat overwhelmed by the amount of work the MH needs. It's kinda like eating an elephant, one bite at a time. At this point you may be better off finding a good road service truck mechanic to tackle the brakes and power steering hose issue. When we purchased our MH in San Antonio, it had been sitting for three years. We started it up, drove to a Sams parking lot and spent the night. The next day we made less than 25 miles and the air alarm came on. Fortunately we were able to pull off the expressway into a parking lot and our brakes locked up. Unfortunately we only made it to the no parking fire lane. At the time we hadn't purchased any towing insurance for the MH. We discovered there was a freightliner dealer less than 8 miles away. Called them and they suggested a couple of tow companies. It was going to cost $800.00 for the tow. Looked at IRV2 and found where someone had a similar experience and they used a mobile truck mechanic. We located one online and called him. He came out, diagnosed the problem. The air dryer for the air system had crapped out. He disconnected the hoses and bypassed the dryer. We were back on the road in a couple of hours and only $200.00 out of pocket. $100 for the service call and $90 for an hours labor and $10 for the coupling. When we go back home I replace the dryer with one puchased on amazon. You might consider calling a mobile mechanic and have him diagnose the issues. Then you purchase the parts and pay him to come back out and replace the parts. You might be able to get the work done to get it home for less than the towing charge. Just and idea to consider. Also, IMHO stay away from MH dealers for your chassis work. Use truck repair outfits. Some of the local mom and pop places do good work and don't try and screw you. Check with the folks who own MH's in your area and find out who they use. Good luck on your project. God Bless ya'll Ed, Sylvia and Sage

Ditto Jim J. If you look at the MH as a hobby and are willing to attempt to do the work yourself, getting it roadworthy is possible. With the help of the fine folks on this forum there hasn't been anything on our MH we haven't been able to repair. Ask questions and be as specific as possible. In addition, pictures of what you are working on go a long way in helping rectify the problem. God Bless, Ed, Sylvia and Sage