Dragracer

I’ve had it 6 months. It was like that when I got it.

What caused this?

I’m currently building a 38 Chevy gasser.

Thank you for the windshield information. I would like to talk to you sometime about my slides. I have a few questions. You are the highly recommended person for adjusting the slides. If I were closer I would make a appointment & come see you but I'm in Texas. If I message you my phone number could you call me some time?

I made a reply about this on a different windshield related post & no one replied. Also did a search & nothing came up. When I drive through a drive approach or something similar that twists the body you can see the windshield’s moving up & down in the rubber. The roof is not moving so it must be the bottom where they sit on the dash. Anyone else’s windshields moving? Don’t know if this is anything to worry about.

While driving over unlevel surfaces like drive approaches in our 2001 Diplomat the front windshields will move up & down from the bottom. The top part of the coach doesn’t move but they are moving with the dash. You can see them sliding up & down when you look up at the tops of them. Hasn’t caused any problems that I’m aware of. Are they supposed to do this?

I'm a new Diplomat owner & this is my first Class A. I got our 2001 Diplomat with 57,000 miles. To me I think our is real clean & in good condition for it's age. Previous owners all took good care of it & must have kept it under cover. So far the most major things I've done is residential refrigerator replacement & replaced all 8 shocks. Also changed all fluids & filters generator, engine & transmission & used factory OEM filters. Also greased the chassis & checked diff fluid. Had to repair a kitchen sink leak by removing the back out of one of the kitchen cabinets to get to a 1 1/2" flex hose that Home Depot had, $15 repair but I did it myself. Had to adjust the entry door linkage to make entry easier. Luckily I have done everything myself which has saved me a lot of money. So far we have used it quite a lot camping & pulling our 28ft enclosed race car to the dragstrip. With the colder weather I'm going to have to replace some of the gas charged cylinders that hold the storage doors open. Currently in the market for those. We love it. We also had a 45x24 RV port built to keep it under. I prefer older diesels instead of the newer ones with DPF & DEF. So far my decision to buy a older one has really paid off. In the future I will be resealing the roof, probably replacing the eternabond tape, getting new tires & replacing the radiator & air bags.

Ray Davis. Yes I will be racing against some of the Street Outlaws that are on TV. I entered in the unlimited big tire class. The street outlaws that are TV run it a race that is a invitational meaning you have to be invited to run in it. There will be some of the street outlaws that didn't make the invitational running in the class that I entered.

Many thanks to everyone for all the good replies. Lots of useful information in all of yalls posts. Looks like keeping our Diplomat will be a good decision. We really like it! I have upgraded the refrigerator to a Frigidaire residential unit. Also installed new Bilstein shocks. I performed a full service on the coach when we got it, generator new Onan filters, transmission new Allison filters & Transend oil, greased every fitting on the chassis including the driveshaft & checked the differential fluid. We are planning on camping at a local lake this weekend. Next weekend it will pull our enclosed trailer with the drag car so I can race some of the street outlaws. After 43 years of drag racing I'm retiring. Looking forward to going full time RV'ing.

My wife & I are planning on going full time when we retire in a couple years. We have spent a few years as over the road as owner operator truckers. We kept our house but would stay gone for up to 2 months sometimes. Back then we used a PO box at the post office & would pay our bills online. We are planning on selling our house & staying in RV parks all over the USA. First question is how do you get your mail? We have been all over the USA when we were trucking. We never stayed in a motel, took showers at truck stops & slept in our truck every night. We had a power inverter in our truck & had a refrigerator & a electric burner we got from Walmart to cook on. If we hauled a load to somewhere that we wanted to stay & check out for a few days, we had a commercial rental car account with Hertz. We would park the truck at a truck stop & run around in the rental car. We have already bought & currently use a tow dolly when we go camping to take a car for transportation. Second question, We want to purchase a new car when the time comes & what kind of vehicle is recommended for towing behind a RV full time? We have a 2001 Monaco Diplomat with 57k. By the time we go full timing it will have a few more miles. I've been a mechanic all my life. I rebuilt the Detroit 12.7 in one of our semi's myself at my shop. I have done all the maintenance & repaired a few things wrong with the Diplomat. With that being said I can do any repairs on the Diplomat while I still have my shop but once my shop is gone, I will be limited on what I can repair on it. My biggest concern is the radiator. It still has the original radiator in it. It's in fairly good shape but does have some rust around the petcock. Apparently, it has metal (not brass, copper or aluminum) tanks. Before we go I would get a new radiator & while it's out replace the water pump, belt & all the hoses. The charge air cooler looks ok but may need replacing too. By this time, I will need new tires. I estimate by buying tires, radiator, water pump, thermostat, coolant, belts & hoses I'm going to have to spend 10k or more depending on what I find when I tear into it. Third & last question, should we look into buying a new or newer RV or keep what we got. Anyone know how good the new ones hold up compared to the older ones? When it comes to semis the new ones are junk compared to the old ones, especially compared to the ones made before 2003 that don't have a EGR or any emission controls like our Diplomat.

I didn't take the caps off mine. I don't know what would happen if you did.

No apology needed. The awnings I'm referring to are my slide out awnings. They both were barely hanging to the roof. The middle of them came un sewed & just a little on each end was all that was holding them to the roof.

Steve. What I meant was that I turned the rollers that the awning was rolled up on by hand to un roll them in order to get the awnings off the rollers. I didn't have to purchase new material. I cut 3 inches off where it attaches to the roof & resewed it. The material on both my awnings was in real good shape except where it attaches to the roof.

Mine was still partially attached to the motorhome roof so my awning rollers didn't come un wound. I unrolled them by hand & used some 1/4" drill bits in both ends of the rollers to hold them in place while we made the repairs to the awnings. There was holes in the end of my rollers & thats where I locked them with drill bits. In order to remove the awning from the slots in the rollers I googled & found a trick to take a 1/4" drill bit & drill & elongate the slot about a inch on 1 end so you can get the canvas out of the roller. It went back together pretty easy. I attached the canvas back to the roof by sliding it back into the track with the Tv coax cable inside the canvas before I put it in the roller.To me the whole job was very easy to do. The first one took be about a hour to get off but after I figured it all out the other one came off in about 20 minutes. I used 2 ladders & had my wife help me put them back on. I removed them by myself. It took us about 10 minutes each to put them back on. If your rollers have come un wound you will need to find out how many turns to wind them back up. I bet someone on this site will know or you can find the infformation on google if you need it.

What I found was in bulk. Just buy what you need.

Thought I would share this. Our slide awnings came unsewed at the roof end & we thought we were going to have to buy new ones. After we removed them we found them to be in real good shape except for the part that attaches to the roof. We cut 3 inches off & sewed the end back up with our home sewing machine. Went to Hobby Lobby & got a heavy duty needle & some heavy duty canvas thread. The 1/4" plastic rod that inserts into the awning then goes in the aluminum channel on the roof had become brittle & broke into little pieces. I looked all around my shop for a substitute & finally found something that would work.lol I used some TV coaxial cable for it's replacement. I measured it with my dial caliper & it's the same size as the plastic rod. I had a whole used roll of it that I guess I was saving it for something. Got the awnings put back on & done made one successful camping trip to Lake Whitney in Whitney Texas. The wind blew 25-30 mph all weekend & on Saturday we had a pretty good thunderstorm. That was a good test for our work. Awnings held up good. I found the 1/4" plastic rods on google but didn't want to wait on shipping. Hope this helps someone else.

We've been going to our local lakes & staying the weekends. Having a lot of fun & really enjoying the RV life. Had a few bugs to work out like the Norco replacement with a Frigidaire house unit. Ol Norco would do pretty good in the mornings & at night but in the evenings in the hot Texas weather 107-108 degrees it didn't like it.lol Also had a sink leak from behind the slide & got that taken care of too. Done some maintenance, changed the fluid & filters in the Allison Transmission & the Onan. Greased the whole chassis & installed 8 new Bilstein shocks. Rides pretty good now. Going to pull the drag car to a dragrace if it ever cools down a bit. Meanwhile what is everyone doing in their RV's. I 've got 2 1/2 years before I retire then can just take off to anywhere. But for now we are just weekenders.

Axtell Texas

I just took out a Norco 1200 out our Diplomat & swapped for a Frigidaire house refrigerator. My Norco would still work sometimes so if you need some Norco parts I might could help you out. I have the floor furnace under the Norco & the house refrigerator I got fit without lowering the floor. I did add some additional bracing with angle iron under the floor the refrigeratorsits on. I also put back 3/4" plywood for the house refrigerator to sit on insteadof the OSB board. Also I drilled through the floor & installed two 1/2"eye bolts. I used a 2" ratchet strap over the refrigerator to hold it in place.

You are correct!

I have a Trace control panel but the Trace inverter was changed out for a converter/charger.

How are you getting power all the time without the generator or being plugged in?

This is the only plug I can find. I removed the old norco fridge. It was hooked up to 12 volts, propane & this electrical plug. This plug is hot when the generator is running or when plugged into shore power. Evidently i dont have a 12v DC to 110 v AC inverter. The only thing my inverter does is charge the house batteries. Is this plug a GFCI?

Yep I only have 1 outlet for the notsocold & a 12 volt DC hot & ground. From What I'm figuring out I'm going to need to get me another inverter to run the house fridge off battery power while traveling if I don't run the generator. Since I'm in Texas & it's 100 plus everyday we have been running the generator while traveling to power the AC's to stay cool. But when it cools off & we don't need the AC's that's when I will need a inverter to run the fridge. I don't think the WF 68100 is nothing but a battery charger.

When the generator is off & I'm not plugged into shore power the plug is dead. With the generator running the plug has 110 volts. Also when plugged into shore power the plug has 110 volts. So 1 wire must be for the generator & the other for shore power. Looks like the inverter is not connected to the plug. I guess the notsocold was operating off 12 volts when the generator was off & unplugged from shore power. The OEM Trace inverter has been replaced by a WFCO WF 68100 inverter. From what Incan figure out all this inverter does is charge the house batteries. When the coach is unplugged from shore power & the generator is off there isn't any 110 volts to anything. However the 68100 is plugged into a electrical plug in the compartment beside it. How can I hook up the plug to the inverter?