Georgia Mike

Thanks Kevin, I have been looking at getting the BlueFire system for a while. I had Silver leaf on my previous coach and liked it but I like the fact the BlueFire is wireless. It says on there website that it does both active and inactive codes so hopefully it will. As for now since I have driven many miles and it hasn’t come up again I think I will take Dick’s advice and just forget about it for now and wait till I get back in a few weeks and see what I want to do. As far as reading engine and transmission temperatures I don’t really look at the gauges I look at the Aladdin system for all my temperatures. Jim at Source Engineering told me that it’s very accurate so that’s what I go by.

I drove from Glenwood Springs to Moab yesterday and no sign of the stop engine light. I have shopped around and found the Blue fire system does both both active and inactive codes. If anyone has this system is it good for reading codes? I like the fact that I can have the extra gauges and that it’s not just a code reader. I can’t find any information if the Scan gauge reads both active and inactive codes. As far as engine and transmission temperatures one thing I did when I first got my Dynasty was change from the electronic fan control to the mechanical wax valve from Source engineering. I did add a hydraulic needle valve so that fan would come on at a slow speed until it got up to temperature for the ac. I think the mechanical wax valve keeps the engine cooler by running the fan wide open when the temperature gets about 190. When running normal grades it stays around 178-182 all the time. So again does anyone that has the BlueFire system like it for reading codes?

What code reader could I purchase that isn’t to expensive that could read active and inactive codes? I am leaving in a few hours to Moab and there is a Napa store and O Riley’s that I can see. We are going to be there 5 days so it’s possible I could order from Amazon. Not sure how fast they deliver our here. As a side note I’m sure you are all familiar with the I-70 route west of Denver through the Eisenhower tunnel. I monitored all the temperatures on the almost 6 hour drive and it preformed great. Engine never got above 190 degrees and transmission never got above 195 climbing the steep grades.

I am on a trip out west and was leaving Cheyenne KOA headed towards Glenwood springs in Colorado. When I started the engine in the morning, I got on the road for about 10 minutes and the stop engine light came on. It went off after about 2 minutes and never came on the entire 5 hour drive over the mountain on I-70 towards Moab. I read online that your coolant level being low might cause this, but I am skeptical because I checked the coolant level and it was a little above the minimum line. When I got to the campground here in Glenwood, I added some coolant just to be safe. I still have a long journey ahead of me. Do you think it’s some thing to worry about?

Can’t help you on the difference in sound but I went with carpet. I would like to replace it all with tile but time was a factor in my decision. The carpet cost about a $1000 and I installed it myself. Took about 3 days in total. I had a local carpet company do some edge binding to make runners and stair treads and it looks a lot better then the old yellowed beige carpet that was there. The wife is happy and as we all know that’s what counts.

When I owned my 38’ Fleetwood Discovery it had two ac units. It was from the factory a 30 amp Coach. When I was looking to buy it from the owner and found this out I was like “30 amps are you kidding me” he said he never had a problem at all and I was like sure buddy. He eventually convinced me and I owned it for almost 10 years and ran both ac’s all the time. It did have a shedding system that would have shut off the compressors on one or both units when needed but both ran simultaneously most of the time. The front was a 13500 and the rear was an 11000 bth. Both units were old and starting to fail so I changed them both out with 13500 Colman Mach power saver units that only draw 10 amps max. Those 13500 units kept that 38 foot Motorhome very cool even in 100 degree Florida weather. I would think two of those running on any 40 foot motorhome would work and only draw 20 amps max. They shedding system it had kept them from starting at the same time so you would need soft start capacitors. That set up worked for me well on that old Motorhome.

Thanks Tom, I only have the one toilet and it’s non powered so you are probably correct in that the wires were cut and taped off. There doesn’t seem to be a direct fuse for it as you said. My bathroom is directly above my wet bay so it will be easy to run a line up to the night light/ voltage display I got to fill the hole. Who knows Maybe while I’m digging around under there I may find the cut wires. I thought this was going to be so simple but ends up being a project.

Thanks for all the replies. I have 3 wires red, black and white. All three are dead. Also there is no continuity between them. They are just open wires that I can’t find where they go. I am assuming the previous owner that replaced the toilet might have had the wires disconnected. I will look at the wiring diagram. We just left today on a 43 day trip so when I have some time I would like to find out where these wires go. It’s bugging me now. As far as electrical skills I worked for the power company and retired from the phone company so I have used a meter or two. I have a wire tracer that I wish I had brought along it sure does come in handy for stuff like this.

The macerator toilet was taken out of my coach before I bought it, and the switch was missing. So to cover the switch hole I found a 12 V meter I want to install there. The problem is I have no power. I think the fuse has been pulled. From what I have read online It’s supposed to be in the rear run bay but I can’t seem to locate it. Does anyone know on the Dynasty where it’s located? There doesn’t seem to be a label for it anywhere in the front run bay or rear run bay.

I agree, that looks like a nice porch light. Going to order one

I didn’t want to spend a lot so this one had good reviews and it has preformed pretty darn good. As for wiring there were a few harnesses behind the radio that weren’t being used so I used one of those for power. I installed the sub in the dash behind the radio since there was a lot of space in there. https://www.amazon.com/Rockville-SS8P-Under-Seat-Powered-Subwoofer/dp/B079PRCP9W/ref=sr_1_2?crid=HXIQLSA7TEWY&keywords=Rockville%2BSS8P%2B400w%2B8"%2BSlim%2BUnder-Seat&qid=1680916650&sprefix=rockville%2Bss8p%2B400w%2B8%2Bslim%2Bunder-seat%2B%2Caps%2C245&sr=8-2&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.f5122f16-c3e8-4386-bf32-63e904010ad0&th=1

I just upgraded my dash radio and had a heck of a time finding the correct radio harness. I didn’t want to wire it direct so I could disconnect it when I needed to take off the front bezel. If you have the ford plug in the picture then this link is the correct harness. I ended up adding a subwoofer in the dash and it made a huge difference in sound. The Atoto head unit I got came with a dash cam and wireless CarPlay. It was less then $300 and so far has been fantastic. The only issue I’m having is trying to find a bezel to go around the radio. I ordered one and it was to small. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002BEWZQ?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1

Tom, I agree tire covers do help as I have them as well but getting out and driving at least once a month to exercise the tires as well as the engine is the best preventative maintenance you can do. Nobody puts tire covers on there cars because we drive them all the time. You rarely see side wall cracks on car tires because they don’t need them and we replace them only when the tread gets worn out. It’s just the opposite for Motorhome tires we often replace them even though the tread is great it’s more about the age then anything else because we don’t use them as much.

I made this listening device to find air leaks. Its a 2 foot piece of 1/2 inch pvc and 5/8 vinyl tubing. Hold the vinyl tubing end to your ear and probe with the pvc pipe in the area that is suspect. If there’s a leak you will hear it with this. It’s cheap and it works.

I went over today and changed the clock spring and everything is functioning perfectly as before. So if your steering wheel control’s suddenly go dead most likely it’s the clock spring. Also, don’t go 100% by the testing procedures for the control box because if I did I would have immediately assumed it was bad and it wasn’t. For instance it says I should have had voltage at three different locations on the control board with the key off but I only had it at one location. When I turned the ignition key on those other locations became energized. When checking the clock spring make sure you have continuity on all four conductors. There is a plug at the bottom of the steering column and one in the steering wheel itself on top. Just remove the top middle cover to find it. Have someone turn the steering wheel back and forth while checking to see if continuity fluctuates at all. Hope this helps someone down the road. I plan on trying to take this old clock spring apart to see how it works and possibly fix it to keep for future problems.

We have a Mofi 5500 router with a pep wave 4x4 mimo antenna on the roof. It picks up very faint cellular signals and makes them usable. We were just at Vogel state park in Georgia and the cell service is non existent there. Are friends that came with us have a we boost and it didn’t work at all. We were able to stream Netflix and use the internet without any problems. Are friends who were on the site next to us just used our Wi Fi. I don’t think anyone in the park had service but us. We use as I said Netflix, HBO max which is free with att and Prime video. Also we have a new Samsung tv in our bedroom with all the streaming apps and also Samsung TV which I had never heard of. It has a ton of channels including all the big news networks like Fox, Newsmax and a bunch of others and it’s all free. I would like to get a cloud DVR like YouTube tv and other tv services have eventually but for now this works for us when we are on the road. Here is a picture of my setup and cellular roof antenna.

Ha, yep it seems like every time I delve into something on this Coach I have scar to remember it by 😄

Im sure that Tim at RV cams will get you set up with what you need. I bought my monitor from Beetronics it was not plug and play but it is a great monitor with lots of features. It is a 10 inch and just fit in the area so it’s a nice big screen. It has a feature that you can display an image from a usb stick I plugged into the back for 5 seconds then it goes to the Aladdin screen. So I copied a Monaco screenshot online and put it on there. It’s a nice little touch that looks more factory. I had to put the 12 volt to 8 volt transformer to make the rear camera work. Here are a few pictures.

My sony monitor only had a 4 wire plug and a round S video type cable that connected to the Aladdin system box in the dash only a few feet away, here is a diagram of the s video type cable i used to help figure things out.

When i changed the hoses and coolant last year i used this refilling system and it worked great. It creates a vacuum and just sucks all the coolant back in no air gaps. i have used it on my sons car also. It sucked in about 8 gallons in 5 min. it also lets you know if you have a leak. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BW39HJS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

So I came over to the motorhome today and did some more tests and found that the clock spring is bad. There was only continuity on one of the wires. The other three were open and after taking it off and moving it around now there’s no continuity on all four wires, there’s no part number on this clock spring but I think it’s the same one as most of the Monaco’s around this year. Does anyone know where to get one of these at a good price?

Thanks Richard that makes me feel better now I just need to figure out why I don’t have power on J6. It says to do the test with the key off so like I said, I’m not sure if the power comes from the board internally or from the wire plugged in. edit so after doing some more testing I have verified that the J6 wire is energized with the key on not off as the testing process states. I am starting to think Im looking in the wrong place and now going to focus on the clock spring. I’m just not to confident in the testing procedures in this file from vip. I have already checked the connection at the steering wheel base at the floor and it seems ok.

I followed the initial testing procedure for the smart wheel master box and have come up with some different readings. I know some coaches are wired differently then others so I don’t know if what I have found is correct or a problem. It says on J2 pins 5&6 I should have 12 volts.l only have 12 volts on 1 pin which I think is pin six pin five has no wire going to it it’s vacant. J6 is supposed to have 12 V but it is dead. When I trace back the J6 yellow wire, it goes to a connection on the board that says wiper and the fuse is good. You can see on the Schematic that there should be two 12V wires connected together at the J2 plug which I don’t have I have two ground wires that are connected together as you can see in the picture. The picture I drew of connector is what I am finding on the plug. The one wire that goes into a different harness with the blue splice on it that changes to black is the horn wire which looks correct according to the schematic. Since I have 12 V On J2 to and not on J6 does that mean the control box is bad? Should the 12 volt power on J6 be coming from the board or from the wire?

I have a question about the testing process. It says to disconnect J5,9,10,11 and 12 then to check voltage on J2.5 and J2 .6 I assume that is pin 5 and 6 on J2? The pins aren’t marked and it doesn’t say to disconnect the J2 plug or the J6 plug so I guess you just stick your probe in the back of the harness while it’s connected?

Thanks guys for the information. I thought the box was under the dash somewhere. I’m glad it’s easy to get to.