Fisean

You can buy a polarity checker for RV's at the rv store or on line. This is the one I bought and we love it. Progressive Industries 50 Amp RV Receptacle Tester, RRT-50. Paying more fore one is not mean its better. We check every single time and it has a safety set up so you won't get a surge in your coach and that may have been what caused the failure. A mysterious surge. I understand it happens. Over all the Monaco are one of the best built coaches so don't let it bother you. The little boxes housing the electrical stuff are designed to contain a fire and the circuit breakers should trip before anything got too crazy. It still makes you think.

Been there done that. This was caused by reverse polarity at a camp ground. not loose wires. You will need to call the company that bought Monaco out. I think its RVT. It is a bummer but they will likely have the part or refer you to a vender that will. You're lucky you didn't have a fire, this has caused many RV's to burn up. Many of those transfer switches were recalled on numerous RV makes. It's not a Monaco exclusive thing, and a reverse polarity checker is a must. Lesson learned. A park near Niagara Falls was the culprit on ours and it was also the roof heat/Ac that exposed it. We never plug in without checking polarity now. The part was about 500.00 and an electrician needs to put it in or you can if you can find a very similar unit with wire posts identical basic electrical knowledge is a must. No guess work with electrical. We fixed ours on the road, you can to if you need. Good luck and that's our experience.

Seems like the expectation is for the engine alternator to fully charge the starting battery's, which it won't, as it was designed to top off a fully charged starting battery's. Our house batteries are charged by the generator and shore power. We took our 10 months old batteries back to Interstate where we learned that. They re-charged the starting battery's at 10 amps and it still took 36 hours on the industrial charger they have for a full charge. Our alternator finally failed and needed replacement, it can strand you if and when it expires. When we replaced the alternator we learned of its capabilities. Everything 12volt improved with that replacement , lights got brighter, ABS light never came on again. Then charging wasn't an issue because we were driving daily. Our alternator always appeared in good shape and had been tested by many technicians, just never under a load and that's where it was weak, how we don't know. Bottom line shore power charges house batteries and engine alternator tops off charged starting batteries. We put a charger monthly on the starting battery's to keep them up to fully charged when we're not driving. Hope that helps. Although many say shore power should charge everything it 100% does not on ours and all systems are functioning properly.