Chet P

Check the hydraulic pump and PTO connection.  It is a known problem that the splines on the pump shaft can be worn off and the coupler does not allow the pump to deliver full hydraulic pressure  to the fan motor. Result is over heating such as you described.

This happened to me earlier this year.

Chet P

2004 SIG

About 50-60% of the time when ever my DW or I go out the coach door and close it, the door automatically locks. Luckily the keypad still works so we can easily get back in. However, I sure would like to stop the unintended door locking.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to prevent this door locking?

Chet P

2004 SIG, CASTLE IV

I don;'t know why the photos didn't load. I click on "ATTACH"  after choosing the files, the upload bar progress, I click insert, and nothing happens.

Chet P 

The attached files are the coach in prep at Elkhart Sales and Service, and the finished coach at a campground. The rear cap was done, both colors. You can see how good the color match is since the bottom color on the slide is the original. The top cap color was redone all around the whole coach since the clear coat had pealed in the front and on the sides. There were two 14" tears in the fiberglass right on each side of the exhaust pipe. The repair of these was perfect so you can't tell it ever happened.

Chet P

2004 SIG Castle IV

19 hours ago, vito.a said:

Sounds like a long week.  Was that an upper radiator hose?

I would love to see the pictures also.  

Yes it was the upper.

Chet P

We arrayed in Elkhart on July 10 for an 8:00 Monday morning appointment at Elkhart Sales and Service to have some fiberglass repairs, pealing clear coat repainted and the rear of the coach repainted. The job was scheduled to be done by Friday, so 4 nights in a motel. As not expected, the rear painting turning out to be a bigger job that planned so it wasn't quite finished by Friday evening. The crew came in Saturday morning to finis it up so we could have the coach Saturday afternoon and not hae to spend the week end in the motel. Certainly above the average concern for the customer. 

I should add that the quality, and appearance of the paint and fiber glass work is excellent. The color match is perfect.

As we left ESSI and headed to the local campground for a couple of days of catchup of laundry and other chores, one of the radiator hoses decided to fail and start leaking coolant.  After 4 days in the campground, I had stopped in at the local truck dealer, "truckcentersinc.com", who services the Detroit engines to get the coolant leak. I was surprised, they took us right in the shop and found the failed hose with in 10 minutes. Turns out this was a special hose 90 Deg. elbow that was 2" on one end and reduced to 1.5" on the other end.  There was none to be had in the area so they had to have one shipped in. We spent the night in their lot. The new hose  arrived and we were back on our way by 9:00am.

Truck Services in Elkhart is a first class operation and is th Freightlinner dealer in Elkhart.

Chet P

2004 Monaco SIG

Elkhart Sales & Service does paint and body work. They are going to do some fiberglass repair and painting on our coach starting Monday. Coach is sitting in their lot right now.

The surplus near ES&S has closed. Bontrager's in White Pigeon, MI. is the one I always go to. Will scout around Monday and see if there are any more in area.

Chet P

2004 Monaco SIG

We always schedule a stop at Elkhart Sales & Service whenever we are going from AZ to PA to see family. Tom Bumpus is one of the best Monaco/HR techs around. We're on our way now to stop there next Monday morning for some body and paint work. We have stopped there 6 times in the last 10 years. Always very happy with their work.

Chet P

2004 Monaco SIG

X2 on the Henderson Trim kit with my Safe-T-Plus. I have it and came accost Kansas 4 weeks ago when the wind was holding the flags at 90Deg to the road. The trim kit makes all the fight to hold the wheel go away and makes the drive much less tiring. 

See: "https://designrr.page/?id=93494&token=5644860&type=FP"

Chet P

2004 SIG Castle IV towing a Tesla in a Haulmark trailer

Same frame members broke on our SIG in 2018. Here's a link to my post and fix.

https://www.irv2.com/forums/f115/our-broken-frame-393124.html

We put 15,000+ miles on the coach since the fix and everything is still looking good.

Chet P

2004 SIG Castle IV

Towing a Tesla MY in a 20' Haulmark trailer.

On 5/31/2021 at 1:23 AM, StephenW said:

Thanks guys, I need to replaced a rusted out muffler soon so I appreciate this topic.  It's good to know that I have at least been performing the required Horn test in tunnels!  Sounds like the Engine brake test in tunnels should be added to my testing. Thanks!

It's just a st'd truck muffler. Any NAPA parts store can supply you.

If you want to get a good reading of all the engine and transmission data, invest in a VMSpc interface,  and with your laptop watch what is happening in real time. VMSpc "https://www.silverleafelectronics.com/node/5868"

Here's a screen shot of my laptop. The VMSpc is on the left and I run the last version of TOPO for navigation on the right. This screen is always on whenever the coach is moving.

This has sure been a costly experience for me. The first diagnosis was stuck thermostat, then water pump, then wax valve, then fan motor and finally the hydraulic pump shaft coupler and pump. Turns out the pump and shaft stripping was the whole problem. 

I now have a complete rebuilt fan motor, a hydraulic pump, a wax valve, and a Detroit 60 water pump. as spare parts. 

After 10 days in the shop, we hope to get back on the road Monday or Tuesday next week.

Help!!  Last Saturday when we started out from Erie, PA, the coach started to overheat. I managed to limp to Buffalo, NY to Pacific Power products, the Detroit engine shop in the area. (I have a Detroit series 60 powering our Monaco Signature.) First the thought was stuck thermostat - wasn't a problem. Then the water pump was suspect - wasn't a problem. Then we replaced the wax valve that controls the radiator hydraulic  fan - wasn't the wax valve. It turns out the fan hydraulic motor turns at slow speed when the system is cold, but will not speed up when the system gets hot. This was after 10 days on the road in route to Rochester to see our son and PA to see daughter.

Naturally Monaco used several different hydraulic motors, so the failed one must be removed to get the part numbers off it. Calling around and talking to some knowledgeable folks hasn't been encouraging. Seems the main source of these pumps has been England. 

Colaw in MO says they have no used pumps. They are always getting calls for them. Visione says maybe,( have some on the shelf) but wants a photo and part number, which means removal of the existing pump.

For the record, the coach is a 2004 Signature that has the 500HP Detroit series 60 motor. 

If anyone has had a similar experience, I'd sure appreciate any comments, thoughts, or ideas where we might get a pump in a reasonable time. I would love to hear from you.

Chet P

2004 SIG towing a Tesla in a trailer

Our Stone Vos covers are now 8 years old and are just as good as when they were new. We're full timers, so the slides are out and covers are exposed to the Arizona sun most of the time.

Chet P

2004 SIG Castle IV

My thanks to everyone who has responded to this thread. I got some good tips. I am installing the $321.00 after market hitch on the Tesla. This should be fine for just moving the trailer around during loading and parking. I like the idea of backing in.

Chet P

45' Castle IV Detroit 60

20' Haulmark with a 2021 Tesla MY

Problem solved--maybe. I managed to find a 4 year old Hallmark 20' enclosed trailer and bought it yesterday. Trailer is in good shape and just had $600 spent on new tires all around. Need to get a brake controller installed in the coach. Got it for 1/2 the price of a new Hallmark.  Now I just have to make the first trip and see how things workout.

Chet P

2004 SIG Castle IV Detroit 60

Towing a 2021 Tesla in an enclosed trailer.

By the way I am going to have a 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee  Limited diesel with an IR2 brake, Blue Ox base and Aladdin tow bar, car top rack and Thule hard shell carrier for sale. 42,000 miles with new Michelin tires.

I have always been intregued by TESLA, so last month I gave in and bough a new Model Y. Now we have a 2015 Jeep Grand  Cherokee with all the bells a whistles that we have towed. The TESLA can not be towed 4 down so now I have got to consider a trailer for our travels. The question is do I go for an enclosed or open trailer.  Plus I guess I know have to worry about selling the Jeep.

I would appreciate comments from any of you who are using either type of trailer and are they much trouble.

Chet P

2004 SIG Castle IV Detroit 60

Our SIG originally had a dishwasher. DW did not like it and used it only for storage of pots & pans. Davis Cabinet built three large sliding drawers and did a perfect job matching the coach cabinet doors to replace the dish washer. There was a power plug for the dishwasher which became the power source for the induction cook top.

Davis did such a good job matching the corian that it is impossible to see the difference between the old and new material.

By the way, the wood floor is engineered wood - bambo - installed by Ernie Eckberg.

Chet P

2004 SIG Castle IV Detroit series 60

Our SIG had a propane tank just for the gas stove. (We're full timers and a tank of propane would last over a year for all our cooking.) Everything else in the coach was electric. We were at Davis cabinets in Junction City, OR and had them remove the gas unit, and modify the Corian counter top to accommodate the a two hot pad induction unit. Davis had bought the remaining Corian stock when Monaco went bankrupt and had the exact match  for our cabinet tops. We had the folks at Elite Repair in Harrisburg, OR remove the propane tank and close up the tank space, creating an additional bay in the basement.

We now have an all electric coach and don't have to mess with propane. Wife likes the induction cooktop and has had no problems getting used to it. I should mention that we bought one of the single counter top portable induction units for her to try out before we made the change to induction cooking permeant in the coach.

Chet P

2004 SIG 45' Castle IV Detroit 60

For your engine monitoring system look long and hard at SilverLeaf VMSpc. I've been using it for over 20 years. The updates are free and it shows much more that any of the other systems. I use it with a 17" laptop, split the screen to 1/3 VMSpc and 2/3 GPS.

Another thing to consider is removing the propane stove and replacing it with an induction cooktop. We remover ours, removed the propane tank and got another bay down below.

Chet

45' Castle IV, Detroit, towing Jeep GC diesel

Any of you folks who have removed the insta-hot still have it? We use ours all the time for tea and hot chocolate. Unfortunately the hot water handle on ours broke and the company doesn't sell replacements. I like to buy one of the removed units. I have glued ours up with epoxy and while it works, it is not the best looking; I'd like to replace it. You can send me an email at "chetparks-at-gmail-dot-com." We're located in the Tucson area if you are around here, perhaps I could pick it up.

I found the best price for replacing my front calipers at Kaiser brake and alignment in Eugene, OR. They will ship. Even paying the freight to east coast, they saved me about $400 over Monaco's price.

I am on my second DJI drone. I started with a Phantom 3 pro and now have a Mavic 2 Pro. The Mavic 2 Pro is amazing. I am presently making some aerial  shots to be used on our Co-Op's web site. The control and automatic control features of the M2P make it vey difficult to screw up. The camera is amazing and this thing shoots video that is TV high resolution quality. There is no doubt that the DJI drones are way ahead of all the other competition in both quality and features, even though they are a little pricey. Plus it's fun to fly

Chet P.

"04 SIG Castle IV

towing a 2015 Grand Cherokee diesel

As your fan opens there is a plunger type ground switch that pops up as the cover rises. This plunger switch can get corrosion on it and create a bad ground for the fan, causing erratic operation.  Remove the switch and clean the corrosion off -usually a white appearing deposit. 

Chet P

04 SIG Castle IV