Dick Roberts

I’m glad mine are, it’s going to make searching for air and hydraulic leaks much easier.

So that is not a standard item on all Monaco's? Hmmm, might explain why I never saw any posts about it. I even mentioned it to an Allison mech who serviced my tranny and installed 8 new airbags. He said " naw, I'll lay on my back underneath and do it the hard way". I should have insisted, might have saved me several hours labor.

I knew I needed new rollers on my slide so I've been reading all the posts I could find on the subject.. With so many different configurations on different models, I just kept putting it off. A slight (OK, a large) miscalculation on my part necessitated an urgent repair of the slide and the rollers. Other posters talked about a roller on the front, inside the wheel well, through an access panel of some sort. Upon closer inspection, I discovered that the fender was hinged. I have never seen any discussion about this awesome feature on the RV. Six screws hold the bottom to the coach body. Remove them, the fender swings up out of the way. BTW, all four fenders are hinged and swing up out of the way to access things like air bags and shocks. Who knew? That front roller was the hardest to replace, I can't imagine trying to change it while laying on my back underneath the coach. As you can see from the pic, one bracket had pulled loose and was hanging by one solid screw. Removed the roller and reattached the bracket and installed the new roller. Not an easy job for a 70 year old man, but nobody told me RV life was easy, they just said it was interesting. 🙂 Went inside the RV to remove the roller under the stove next. Removed the bottom two drawers, and the bottom drawer runner, to give myself some working room. R&R'd that roller, no issues. On to the roller under the sink. Again, pretty straight forward, move pots and pans, remove black plastic cover, R&R roller. The main issue I have with this repair, the rollers are on the floor. Someone put the dang floor way down low, and us old timers sometimes have a hard time getting down there, much less back up again. On the bright side, my slide now sits squarely in the hole in the wall and the gaskets are tight against the wall. Haven't tested it yet today, it's raining all day. Tomorrow I expect it to be smooth and quiet. BTW, rollers came from RV Elite Parts out of Grand Rapids MI.

I can start mine with slide out and jacks down. Jacks will retract with ignition on. Slide will not go in or out while ignition is on. Mine is a 99 diplomat.

tj, I don’t have a diagram but I do have a 99 diplomat. My inverter gave me problems until I replaced it last September. Giving it a good smack made it work sometimes. My remote never worked right, issues with the communication cable. My advice, start pricing inverters. I waited to long and killed my house batteries too. My inverter charged the batteries on 30 and 50 amps. Your generator will also charge them if the inverter is working. As far as an external charger, a trickle charger will not keep up with your power consumption. Invest in a smart charger and you’ll be able to keep your batteries up until you can replace the inverter. Connecting the charger is fairly simple. If they’re setup correctly, the two batteries on the left will be connected neg to pos. The same on the right two batteries. On my setup, the left rear post is POS, and the front right post is NEG. That’s where you connect your 12vdc charger. Hope this helps.

So we left Angels Landing CG, one of my favorite CG's due mainly to the quality RV techs on site, and headed to N.C. Stayed at 4 or 5 CG's there and then headed towards Kentucky Lake. Stopped overnight at Crossville TN KOA. Beautiful CG, and the next morning continued towards the lake. 20 miles into the journey, I discovered what the term 'electronic transmission' meant. An intermittent short was causing the tranny to surge in and out of gear. Took an exit and had to stop at the red light. Lost all 12 volt power, motor still running but no turn signals or flashers, and of course, no transmission. 20 minutes later and a mobile diesel mechanic, Ron Kizer, pulled in behind me. Towed me 1/2 mile to his shop and found and fixed a few bad connections and broken wires. Not going to jump to conclusions, but all the damage was next to filters the Cummins tech had changed. Two hours later and we were on the road again. 50 miles down the road started having similar issues and again took an exit. And again had to stop at a red light. And again lost all 12 volt power. This time a guy in a pickup towed me the 1/2 mile to the nearest Pilot. I called my new friend Ron and told him what had happened. He showed up the next morning, Saturday, in the rain, and found another set of broken wires, complements of the Cummins tech. Then back on the road again. We made it to Prizer Point on Kentucky Lake with no more issues. Then on to Springfield IL area to our son's house. Stayed at numerous CG's around the area, and spent a lot of time parked at our son's. While at our son's, I had to drive to a SP 10 miles or so away to dump my tanks. From the entrance off the hi way, up to the actual park, you have to drive a very steep, very winding road up to the parking lot and dump station. Ten feet from the top, I lost voltage again and of course no tranny. Motor still running so I still had some control, I nervously started rolling backwards down this narrow winding forest road. It took me about an hour to reach the bottom. My son came out and we got the batteries charged, made the dump, and made it back home. I had an appointment to replace the airbags scheduled for the next day, so I charged the batteries overnight and made it into the service bay at the Allison Transmission shop. Well, almost. Lost power as the rear wheels went into the rain gutter built into the shop floor and stayed. No more power. The tech said he could do his work where it sat, so I went to talk to service manager about the no power issue. He was busy so lady behind counter told me she'd get someone on it soon. I waited 2 hours after the airbag job was done, and nobody seemed interested in working on my issue. So I went back to to the service desk where the manager stopped his phone conversation with his buddy long enough to tell me, rudely, that he'd get someone to look at it in the morning. I politely told him I was fine with that, I had no problem sleeping in my coach. He might, however, have an issue with his bay door being left open overnight, because 10 feet of my coach was sticking outside his door. He looked out into the shop, saw my coach blocking his door, and freaked. He ran out and grabbed his head tranny guy and sent him to see what was up. I told him the history, the issues, the symptoms, everything I could. He checked a few things though the hatch and from underneath. He checked the battery compartment. He came back into the coach scratching his head. He said, 'I got no idea what's wrong.' "I don't know what to try next." I called my friend Ron in TN and explained the situation. With the phone on speaker, Ron explained to the Allison tech what he needed to do. The tech followed Rons instructions and 30 minutes later I was out of there. Our son has been RV'ing for 20 years, and knows all the good camping spots. We had a great time. We also made it up to Montague MI, my mom's hometown. Spent some time in school there when I was a kid. Was nice to see some old friends. If you ever go to MI, the little town of Montague is worth the time. North of Musgegon and west of Grand Rapids. On the shores of White Lake and Lake Michigan. The city turned some unused, marshy land into a city owned RV Campground. It's in downtown Montague, right next to a 70 mile paved bike trail. There's a big grocery store next door, with ice cream shops and diners and such, all walking distance. We, reluctantly, left Springfield area and headed south at the end of August. Our first major stop was in Laurel MS. Woke up the first morning to no house power. Batteries dead, won't take a charge. Found replacement Trojans online for obscene prices, plus shipping and a week wait. Did more research, and then used Apple Maps on my phone. Searched for Trojan Batteries near me. Low and behold, a gulf cart builder five minutes away from me stocked multiple trojans. Four brand new T105's for less than $700. After I installed them, I realized my inverter wasn't working. Dead, fini, caput! And only 25 years old. Searching this site, there seemed to be two main brands people on here used, but a third option was quickly gaining ground as lithiums and solar became more widespread. I decided to go with the newcomer, Victron, and used apple maps again to search near me. And across the street from the guy that sold me the batteries was a Victron dealer. His main business is adding solar to RV's. He uses Victron inverters and other victron devices when installing solar panels. He is also a Harvest Host host. Headed on down to the gulf and took a left. 8 or 9 CG's in FL later and we were headed to the Keys. Long drive from Gainesville area, and as it was starting to get dark, driving on the FL Turnpike in 5 O'clock rush hour traffic in Miami Gardens, I start losing 12 volt power again. Volt meter shows good. I still got a tranny and headlights. Then the lights go dim. Then the tranny downshifts in 4. Now I'm struggling to stay above 45 mph. I finally make it off the turnpike and make it to an O'Reilys auto parts. I now have to completely dead chassis batteries. Won't take a charge. Replaced both. Manager tests my alternator and declares it dead. Somehow the manager knows I need Leece Neeville 2824JB. He orders me one, delivery in the morning. One of the other counter men knew a mobile diesel mechanic and called him. He came out, checked it out and called a mechanic friend who showed up 30 minutes later. My genny was starting hard, so they looked at that while they were there. Discovered Cummins had neglected to change spark plugs when they serviced it. The next morning the mechanics, Dave and Donald, showed up, swapped the alternator, and back on the road again. Sitting here now at Leo's CG on Key West, enjoying our live. Our 10th month on the road. Covered a little over 6k miles. Met a lot of interesting and friendly people. Saw a lot of this awesome country we call home. We'll finish up our first year on the road back up near Gainesville and our old home. Not sure what the next year holds for us, but this past one has been awesome. And the help gained from this site was invaluable. Thanks to all.

I bought a TPMS system from Tire Minders off of Amazon earlier this year. Also bought a compressor from them. It’s small but produces 200 psi and runs off of DC.

My wife and I are newbies to the full time RV life. We knew almost nothing about RV's in general. When we decided to sell our FL property we had no intention of becoming RV'ers. While looking for a new place to live, she came across an ad for an old RV. She suggested we buy it and travel the country to visit our kids and old friends. I thought she was crazy but I had picked our current home on 30 acres of woods on the river and it was her turn to decide our next adventure. Though I'm new to RV living, I'm an old timer when it comes to life. I know that 50's, 60's and 70's model cars and 60's and 70's motorcycles are much better than new versions. I know that older diesels were touted as being able to run over a million miles. So when she asked me to check out this 1999 Diplomat with a Cummins ISB with only 113K miles, I didn't object. Turned out to be one of my better decisions. Fairly low mileage, fairly low price, fairly good overall condition. I've replaced both AC's, Awning Springs, Microwave, Inverter/House Batteries, Roof Vent Fans, 8 Airbags, and installed a Tankless WH. Tires were the first thing replaced. I had the MH inspected by CW (never use them again), I had the engine serviced by Cummins, and the Tranny by Allison. Not sure what any of them did as they wouldn't let me watch. We're nine months into our first year of this adventure, and will end up back in Bell in Feb. Between now and the beginning of our second year, I plan on replacing shocks, radiator, hoses, belts, etc. Getting the fridge and the LP furnace replaced is also on the menu. That just leaves a brake check, with possible replacement, and resealing all the seams and window gaskets. Then, I'll have a basically new, 1999 luxury coach. Better than a lot of the "newer" MH's out there for sale. Knowing what I know now, I guess what I'm trying to say is I wouldn't hesitate to buy a 2001 Diplomat with that low mileage if the price was right. We don't tow so I can't help with that question. I wanted to get a Harley on a trailer, But wife squashed that idea right away. I'm stuck on an e-bike. 😞

MODERATOR EDIT This should be here since it deals with the MultiPlus and all the knowledge folks seem to respond. If no activity or help, do some PMing… Thanks for asking…. END EDIT @Dick Roberts Tom, I might should've started a new post, (feel free to move if you think it should be) but this post and your responses, as well as your many other useful posts on this subject, helped me correct an issue I've had from day one of owning this MH. The house batteries, 2.5 year old Decca, were not being reliably charged with the old Freedom 1500. Some days the inverter worked, some days it didn't. While here in Laurel MS, the HB went completely dead. Wouldn't even take a charge when disconnected and charged with a new stand alone smart charger. Bought 4 new Trojans, <$800 at Custom Carts of Laurel, hoping the inverter would see new batteries and start charging again. Of course it didn't. I went through many posts here to try to make a choice between Xantrex and Magnum, and after reading this post I added Victron to my choices. Further research revealed that I could get a Victron here for less than the other two, which had to be shipped, Convinced me that the Victron Multiplus Compact 2000 was the right choice. It was <$1500 at Panels Up Solar here in Laurel. The owner, Justin, set up the inverter at his shop, showed me how to regulate it with the blue tooth app, and I went back to the CG and had it installed in less than 3 hours. And with the phone app, no need to pull new wires for a remote panel. Now if I could learn what device to replace this board/solenoid with?

They are, including the expensive maintenance. 🙂 I haven't been able to find an owners manual for my Diplomat, a 99, but a 98 manual says to deploy jacks before dumping air. I usually wait for the air to be half way and then set jacks. I wait for all the air to dump and then fine tune the level. As for the bang, look under your coach while someone else lowers the jack. As far as getting under it, I don't. Others do, and have posted details on where to put blocks, not jacks, between frame rails to make it safe(er?) to get underneath. Search this site and you'll find the posts. Good luck finding your mystery bang.

Jason, my 99 36B Diplomat has the same mirrors. If you're still looking for a solution, I hope this helps. The large mirror on mine broke on the bottom. I used packing tape to cover the entire mirror so it wouldn't shatter, and then left it alone until I could get to a good place to remove it. By that time it had begun to bow away from the wall. I used a wooden yardstick to slide between the mirror and the wall and broke the seal of the remaining glue. Then I just slid it out of the wooden tracks. Yours being the inside mirror, that won't work for you. The top track on mine is pinned in three places, circled in my pic's, but you don't have to remove that. Cover your mirror in clear packing tape to prevent a mess and/or injury, and break it some more. There is a vinyl backing on the mirror, so it's not going to shatter all over your coach. It'll take some work to pull it loose from the glue, but it'll come. Also, it's only the outside mirror that goes to the floor. The inside mirror only goes a couple of inches below the counter top. As you can see, I haven't finished removing the remaining glue. Also, Monaco put the same wallpaper on that wall as the rest of the coach before they installed the mirrors. So if you get the glue off, you don't have to cover it with anything and it'll still look good.

I have a 99 36B Diplomat, bought it in Jan. I put new Samson 255's on it and run them all at 110 psi. Rides good but I've also got new air bags so that may help. I didn't think 275's would fit, but if you don't have any issues I may have made a mistake going with the 255's. On a side note, you don't have an owners manual for your 99 by any chance? The PO of mine misplaced his copy and I've been searching for a copy. Good luck and have fun on your travels.

We broke down on I-40 between Crossville KOA and Nashville and were stuck at a red light on the off ramp. Ron Kizer of Kizer Mobile Diesel Service happened to be 20 minutes behind me. He quickly diagnosed my transmission issue, towed me to his shop, (a half mile away from the exit) and had me on the road in an hour. We became friends in that hour, and when I was 50 miles down the hi-way an hour later and broke again, I didn't hesitate to call him. At 4 PM on a Friday night. He told me he would try to get the parts then, but if he couldn't, he would see me in the morning. He showed up at 8 AM on a rainy Saturday morning. He found more broken wires, courtesy of a careless Cummins service tech, and had me back on the road in 2 hours. Two months later while in Illinois I again had issues while at the Allison shop getting tranny serviced. I had dead chassis batteries and no tranny again. The Allison tech had no clue. I called Ron, described the issue, and over the phone he diag'd the problem, told the service tech the fix, and voila, back on the road. So if you're ever in TN and have diesel issues, call Ron Kizer. He can save your day, get you on the road, and he's very easy on the wallet. You can reach Ron on his cell phone, 845-551-1054.

Welcome, you'll find this is a great place to get good info on your soon to be new DP. I knew nothing about MH's in general this past January when my wife and I sold our home in FL and bought a 1999 36B Diplomat, for a really good price. And now a little over six months and 5000 miles later, we're still on the road having a blast. We had the engine serviced and tires replaced before we left FL, and had a few issues on the trip up to IL but nothing major. And we met a great mobile diesel mechanic in TN who's now our great friend, Ron Kizer, who will come to you if you need help. We have replaced both AC's, the microwave, installed a tankless hot water heater, and many small items that will be a continuing upkeep cycle. First tank of fuel I was getting almost 6 mpg's. After the service at Cummins, I'm getting over ten. Now that I'm getting used to driving it, it handles really well. If yours has the same steering system as mine, you'll love the way it handles. I can do a 4 point turn on most two lane roads. At least one of my airbags was leaking, so I replaced all 8 of them. I'm replacing all of the ladder stanchions tomorrow. We'll be heading back south again over the next 5 or 6 months, and along the way I'll be replacing roof fans, roof seals, and such. By the end of our first year, I'll have fixed or replaced just about everything in and on the coach. We'll have an almost brand new 25 year old luxury MH. You say you're not looking for the highest end or best built coach, but that is exactly what you're looking at. If it passes your inspection and you buy it, put some new tires on it and take it to Cummins and have them service both the engine and the generator, then take it to an Allison shop and have that serviced. I only suggest that so you would have a base line for future service that you'll be doing. As far as comfort while cruising the hi-ways, not quite as comfy as my old 08 Impala, but I can handle 3 or 4 hours without a break. And I'm old. 🙂

Angels Landing RV Park in Pineville South Carolina has great service techs. They ordered the parts needed to repair my awning and had it working in under two hours. It’s also a nice park right on Lake Moultrie.

My Diplomat (99) came with 255's, and that's what I had put back on. Should I have gone with 275's do you think?

We know the joy they bring when they arrive, and the sadness they leave when they're gone. Prayers to y'all

Tires were bought new in Jan 23. Less than 500 miles on them. Date codes say 18th week of 2022. Quality Samson tires from Vietnam. Now I know why most people seem to like Toyo.

So, It's been a while since I've been able to access this site. CW convinced me the damage to the roof seam was old and not caused by them. The high labor bill they explained by saying 'that's what the book calls for'. Lesson learned. Nough said. As for our life on the road, that's been, mostly, great. First stop was at Travelers CG in Alachua FL. Nice place, and once hooked up to 50 amp, all was well with all my electrical appliances with exception of rear AC, No issues with anything. Next stop was Beverly Beach north of Daytona. Ocean front view out our windshield. Awesome. (very expensive) Had lots of family visit for our big send off to the wilds of the American hi way. My brother even got the rear AC working, sorta. Headed north on I-95 and 10 miles into the trip had my first blowout. Right steer tire at 70mph. My TPMS warned me about 3 seconds before the blowout. Didn't lose control and got slowed down and off the hi way. Two hours later we were back on the road. Two nights in Savannah, then on to Santee State Park. Nice CG on Lake Marion in SC. Replaced our broken micro wave while there. Easy replacement and wife is so happy she now has a convection oven/micro wave. Learned that most state parks don't have individual sewer hookups at sites. Packing up just to drive to the dump station has taught me to be very conservative with water use at that type of site, ie, don't do laundry in the coach and use bath house showers. Five days before we were to leave, our water heater sprang a leak. Flooded the rear before I got the water shut off. Got a tankless delivered before we left, but not installed. Called ahead to our next stop and got that install scheduled with their service department. Less than an hour drive from there is Angels Landing on Lake Moultrie, another reservoir connected to Lake Marion. Another beautiful CG. Their service guys are the best. They came and checked out the water heater job our first morning there. Made a list of materials they would need and showed up the next morning and 2 hours later we had hot water again. I asked to be put on the schedule to have both AC's replaced and the awning springs replaced. They ordered what they needed and 5 days later they said they would be at our site the next morning. They got both of those jobs done before noon. Nice to have two working heat pumps on these cool SC mornings. No need for that noisy gas furnace. And when they pulled out the awning to replace the springs, I got my first look at the fabric. We are thrilled that it looks and feels almost brand new. Going to enjoy our last week here relaxing, fishing, and drinking some cold beer and good wine.

Thanks Tom, and I never take offense from learning. My outlet is a single, and when the IC is working my tester detects 120v there. And elsewhere inside the coach, IC is active when diesel is running, off the alternator I would think, and also when only the genny is running. Still don't have shore power, still parked at home. We go to our first CG with shore power next Thursday. Hoping all works then. Fridge got cold enough running on LP to make ice water in a cup in the freezer. And this time the IC ran the entire time I was testing the fridge. Over 4 hours. So maybe both issues have self resolved. Fridge seals seam good, very pliable and felt no leaks. Haven't done the dollar bill test yet but will soon. I'm going to wait until I'm plugged into shore power next week to finish testing circuits. Need to finish clearing the house for the new owners and running out of time. Thanks for all the great advice and tips from all y'all. I'll update after spending a few days just drinking wine and listening to the birds sing. Time to get to work now so I can leave on time.

Thanks for all the great info. I'm going out to start the fridge on lp and leave it running all day. Hopefully in a few hours I'll start to see it's cooling. I've checked all the wiring that I can see, and nothing looks burnt. pulsarjab, are the wires you refer to visible from the outside door, or do I have to dig into the guts to get to them? Thanks again for the help.

I don't hear a fan running, just a low hum. The case does not get hot, When the humming stops, it's not putting out ac, per my line tester. Turm switch off then back on and the humming returns and ac is detected again. It's over 20 years old, I think, so I'm probably gonna bite that bullet and get a new one. I don't want to be on the road and not have power.

The lp burner fires up but the fridge doesn't get cold. Inverter doesn't work so I'm limited to gas. How long should it take to start getting cold? Or is it time to replace it? Thanks

My IC works for awhile, then stops. I can turn the switch off and back on and it works again for a few minutes. Then rinse repeat. Am I wasting my time troubleshooting this old thing? Do I just need to bite that 2k bullet and get a new magnum? If so, Does anyone know if Talin RV carries them or something comparable? Thanks

Took my Diplomat to Cummins Ocala yesterday for oil/filters service. Service manager was awesome, even though he was absolutely swamped with the Regional Call Center making appointments he knew nothing about until they showed up. Like me. He worked me into the schedule and got me out by EOD. Reasonable price for the work, and overnight parking for those who need it. My only complaint is they only work on chassis issues. No coach work, though some Coach Care shops do I hear. Anyone have any experience with the Cummins shops in Summerville or Columbia SC? They're both listed as Coach Cares. Thanks