throgmartin

Jim: Whenever I was ready to buy new tires I would reach out to fleet owners and find out which tire they were using along with their overall experience. They are putting millions of miles on their equipment every year and know what is holding up best. I also will get input from tire service people at truck stops, the same ones who go out on the road and change flat or blown tires for truckers. Their experience is also very telling and their input valuable. Asking RV'ers is something I have never done. For the most part, RV'ers are a poor example of how well a tire performs. There is a major difference in putting 5,000 or even 12,000 miles a year on a tire with long stretches of being parked versus 150,000 miles a semi may put on theirs a year and which is constantly running down the highway. I might add that truckers abuse the hell out of their tires with not only weight but heat from running long stretches at a time in addition to hitting every pothole on a highway. I wont get into the care truckers take with their tires. How many truckers have you seen wash and then apply 303 to their tires ? How many cover their tires when parked with tire covers ? Truckers install them and then run them to death. I mean no offense to RV'ers for saying I do not want their tire input but for me when I need new tires I want advice from someone who has used hundreds of sets of these tires and put a million miles or more on them across several semis. That kind of usage is the true test for just how rugged a tire really is. I encourage everyone to check with fleet owners and semi tire service centers before buying a set of tires. Richard, Yes. That is what I run on my coach and they were readily available throughout the US. They are also below the price point of Michelins, Bridgestones, etc. I forgot to add that on my Ambassador it came with 275's from the factory. I always felt they were marginal according to the weight ratings. I went up to 295's as an additional safety measure by adding extra weight capacity to the tires. This also allowed me to reduce tire pressure providing a better ride as well as not worrying about overloading a 275 tire to the max. Almost all Knights, Ambassadors, Endeavors and Diplomats came with 275 tires. They can all be upgraded to 295's with no chassis clearance issues with the exception of maybe one or two tire brands that are wider. I highly recommend to all my customers to upgrade their tires from 275 to 295.

The hitch rating for most Monaco's is 10,000 lbs and 1,000 lbs tongue weight. Tongue weight can be adjusted with the load you are carrying. When I was still traveling and doing RV events I towed a 26 ft enclosed trailer. My overall weight changed constantly according to the amount of product I was carrying. I purchased a tongue weight scale and used it before each trip and adjusted my load accordingly. It isn't hard to do. I was very OCD about using my trailer and loading and adjusting weights was on the top of my list for each and every trip. One only has to tow a poor handling trailer once to know how important load adjustments truly are. The max weight I ever towed with my little Cummins 330 was 8,500 lbs. It did well but I wouldn't want to tow more then that. Many Monaco's can handle more then 10,000 lbs but the hitch has to be completely redone and beefed up. I ran into a Prevost owner at an NHRA track. I have never seen any rig combination come close to what he had. Large Stacker trailer which when connected to his bus he was 80 Ft. long. His hitch was custom made and beefed up to carry 20,000 lbs which he said the Detroit had no issues with. He also stated he had never been pulled over or harassed once about the length - except in CA where they made him drop his trailer and arrange a truck to take it to the track. I watched as It took 3 people to park him with walkie talkies at the tracks. Can you imagine finding parking places in rest areas with that rig ? Crazy. Most semi's are 65 ft and I believe the law is 65 ft in most states. There are a few exceptions.

I have 5 years under my belt with the 295 Yoko's. They have been a great tire. Many large fleet companies run Yoko's on their semis as they are reliable and readily available at many places such as Love's. I will go back to Yokos when I change out the tires later this year.

I have the surgeguard as recommended to me by Bill Groves. Never have had a problem. The one thing I will caution everyone on is to take the time to inspect and measure inside your electrical bay. Not all ATS's will fit in some of the Monaco bays. You also need to take into consideration the wiring entrance and exit points of the new ATS. The ATS models out there are not a one size fits all. Some of our Monaco coaches have different electrical bay setups and some like the Southwire/Surgeguard are large units and wont fit into some of the bays. Make sure you do your due diligence before ordering an ATS.

The very first place to check is the switch. They are known to fail and sporadic operation is one tell tale sign of a bad switch. I have said this before on here and will say it again - start at the power source and work forward. In other words check the voltage to the switch. Next check the voltage going out of the switch with the button depressed. Next check the voltage at the motor. If the voltage is good then you probably have a bad motor. Twice in the last 3 weeks we have had customers come in with inoperative awnings. The owners swore they were bad motors. Both times it was the switch. One of those customers started going off on me telling me the motor was bad and we didn't know what we were talking about and was wasting his time and money screwing with a switch. The conversation got heated between him and I and at that point I got PO'ed and ended up telling him we will go through " our " troubleshooting process or he can take his coach elsewhere to have it fixed. He agreed and stormed off. It was the switch. I have never nor will I ever allow my techs to just start replacing parts and take shots in the dark. Start with the simplest, stupidest thing first and work your way forward. Never assume the worst and go to the end of the system and work backwards. I could write a book on the failures of components I have seen on coaches that were attributed to the dumbest things you could imagine. Corroded terminals. loose wires. Bad grounds and the list goes on. Simple, stupid little issues that bring components down and make it inoperative. In regards to the Mirage OTD assembly, Carefree had a big issue with their 05/06 models. They never sealed the ends of the assembly to protect the motor from water. I believe in 07 they corrected that issue. It was not unheard of for customers to go through 2 and 3 motors that were all fried by water intrusion.

It takes very little pressure to remove the wooden fascia on these cheap towables.

Will, you have a Lippert slide. Schwintek didn't come out till years later and thankfully Monaco never used them. If there is a slide that is going to give you headaches, it is a Schwintek. They are a royal pain in the neck and one of the worst designs ever. The picture below is a schwintek. From what I was told the motors got out of synch, the limiters failed and the owner held the switch down. The motors getting out of sync is a common occurrence with them. I believe there are 4 motors, one for each corner. We cringe whenever we get one in the shop. They are so bad that if we get one in the shop for repair we send them elsewhere. I simply do not want the liability when the slide develops another issue. Fix one thing and another problem develops and they would blame us. They started putting these on small towables several years ago and have since been adopted by several coach manufacturers. I have seen them on newer diesel pushers. If you think a hydraulic slide with a couple synch valves or an electric slide with one motor are a headache, try a slide with 4 gears, 4 gear tracks and 4 motors. The engineer that designed the Schwintek should be walked out into the woods and left there.

Steve: Yes, let it run through all the faucets, especially the kitchen. I didn't mind microbio. It was kinda cool growing bugs in a petri dish or test tube. I retired Lansing's municipal utility. The benefit working for them was I was able to cross transfer from power plant operations to water plant operations to thermal energy to the line department and finally the corporate offices which is where I retired from. I preferred suit and ties to grungy jeans. I did stints in corporate planning, water engineering and thermal energy engineering. My last 2 years were the best. I was the company prince and had it made. I did what I wanted, worked the hours I wanted, and had a great deal of perks. Actually I was kind of like a Veterinarian at that point. Made great money and did very little. LOL 🙂 I might add that it was one helluva great company to work for. I was truly blessed and I worked my guts out for them till I went into the corporate world and got the cushy jobs. Before people get the wrong idea.............. I am not crazy. I refer to myself as being mentally amusing. 🙂

I think I am completely off...................... My Rocker. 🙂

I always hesitate to respond to treating fresh water tanks as in the past many thought I was full of crap or my chemistry was off. But few know that I am licensed by the State of Michigan to treat municipal drinking water systems and for several years treated 17 million gallons a day for the city of Lansing. I wont bore you with all the chemistry as I hated chemistry classes. I loved the microbio, physics and fluid dynamic's classes but hated chemistry with a passion. Stoichiometry was not my friend. Tom hit on something that is important to remember - Free Chlorine. What this means is how much residual chlorine you have after treating the bugs in a water system . Our prescribed method was to maintain just a small amount of free chlorine after treatment. It got real complicated and the chemistry was atrocious to arrive at a minimal free chlorine at the ends of a water system that was a dozen miles or so from the plant. With a coach fresh water system you have to remember you are treating a " closed system " and not a freshly drilled well or swimming pool. With that in mind, this is my prescribed method for " SHOCK " treating your fresh water tank. 1.) Drain the water tank. 2.) Partially fill the tank and then add one cup of clorox bleach which is approximately 6 % chlorine. 3.) Fill the tank up all the way and allow it to sit overnight. 4.) Drain the tank the next morning. 5.) Fill it all the way up again. 6.) Drain the tank and fill it up again and you are done. Points to remember - You do not need to drive the coach around to slosh water inside the tank. Just the flow of water going into the tank will distribute the bleach. By letting it sit overnight the chlorine has time to attack and destroy the bugs ( bacteria loads ) completely. It takes time for chlorine to find the bugs and kill them. Filling it afterwards and draining it will provide you with fresh water and prevent the water from being heavily chlorinated. You have to remember that toxic and carcinogenic byproducts ( mainly THM's ) are produced when chlorine is added to regular drinking water at heavy concentrations. This is why I recommend draining your tank and refilling your tank and draining it again. A couple foot notes here: Did you know that 1 1/2 teaspoons of bleach ( 5.25% Sodium Hypochlorite ) will treat 100 gals of drinking water with a free chlorine of 1 PPM after treatment ? Did you know heavy concentrations of chlorine can mix with organics in drinking water and produce THM"s ( Trihalomethanes ) ? Do you know what THM's are ? Google it. You do not want high concentrations of THM's in your drinking water. And lastly, this is for Steve Parvin - Did you know I did my microbio classes at the real MSU ? Michigan State University.......................... Not Mississippi State where you and that other Bulldog ( Scotty Hutto ) went to school. Since you are a Vet you had to have had a bunch of chemistry. I suggest you go back and revisit some of that to arrive at the proper dosing levels for chlorine. My chemistry days are over and I wont revisit them again. Did I mention I hate chemistry ? I will pass the torch to you Steve to educate the masses on chemistry. I will stick with Bernoulli's principle. I always liked that Italian. LOL. 🙂

If you had the old sanicon and then installed a 600 then you should have changed the fuse. The new 600's require a re-settable 30 amp fuse. I cannot say how your old sanicon was installed but with the ones I have installed I ran all new 10 gauge wire. I picked up power off a block in the battery compartment and placed a 30 amp auto re-set fuse. The new 600 sani cons come with an inline fuse just off the sani con on/off switch box inside your wet bay. The reason for the upgrade in wire and fuse amperage is because the new turbo motors suck more juice.

Whenever trouble shooting an electrical circuit always start at the power source. Is there power to the switch ? Yes. Is there power after the switch when depressed ? No. The switch is bad. If yes then go to the motor. Just last week I had a customer come in with two brand new motors for his front shades. He said " I need the motors replaced ". He got real testy when I said we would check the switch first before doing anything else. He swore up and down that the motors were bad. I refused to listen. Turned out it was the switch. Never assume the worst. Always start with the simple stupid stuff first. If I had listened to the customer I would have had the motors replaced by my techs and he would have had a hefty labor bill. If you have a pain in your kidney and go to the Doctor do you want him to test to see if it is a kidney infection or just cut you open and remove your kidney ? Same applies with many components on your coach. 🙂

They could be part of a gear assembly from a patio awning. Not quite sure. Or they could have fallen off a Southwest Jet that was flying overhead. Heard Southwest airlines maintenance operation is coming under FAA scrutiny again.

Mike: It saves time and it saves a lot of aggravation, unless you like poking salt through a hole with a pencil. I wished I had discovered the regen kit a long time ago. I also recommend their pre-filters. They are of higher quality then the camco blue filters and last longer. I am so sure you will like the regen kit that I am authorizing Dave Pratt and Tom Cherry to refund you your money in the event you don't like it. 🙂 lol Besides, $ 50 is a drop in the bucket to a guy like you who has almost as much money as Elon Musk. 🙂

Mike, I went without a softener for 2 years. My water heater was so loaded with calcium deposits it took hours of flushing to get all the deposits out. My shower head was getting plugged off and the faucet screens were nearly plugged off. Every drop of water that goes into my fresh water tank is softened. I just ordered a second softener for washing coaches and all my equipment and vehicles. Which reminds me our 2 service vans need washing. This the season for pollen in Florida. My beautiful burgundy Ram 2500 is now yellow. 😞 Ever been to Yuma, AZ ? There is a reason why there are large bottled water dispenser machines on every corner.

Mike, yes you can use the Pro Aqua regen kit for your On The Go softener. Check out Richard's setup ( Dr4Film). Since I rarely travel, setting up the softener inside the bay is something I wont have to tackle. When I do travel it is for limited time periods. Since I travel alone, I fill my fresh water tank and use that water. I once got into bad water at a CG that was on a private well and got sick. I had to flush my entire water system, sanitize the tank and system and then run 100 gallons of water through the system. I was PO'ed. I knew it was the CG water as the couple traveling with had the same thing happen to them and their coach. I miss camping sometimes. Every trip I make is for business purposes so I overnight in weigh stations and rest areas and live off my fresh water tank. I hate overnighting in CG's and my schedule is always so tight I have no time to sit. The CG residents also hate me firing up the coach at 5 am departures. I did do a trip at Christmas time alone to Richmond, VA to see my daughter. I left with 100 gal's of water and returned home with a 1/4 tank. You can conserve water when alone. I also learned how to take quick showers in the Marine Corps. 🙂 The bracket you pictured is a pretty cool idea.

I rarely jump on here and tout a product but wanted to post my experience with a new softener I bought for my coach. I wanted some experience with it first before posting about it and now have 2 regeneration cycles I have gone through so can comment now with more info. The softener is a - Pro-Aqua 16,000 grain unit. The build quality is very good but what I like about it is the regeneration process. It is the easiest one I have ever experienced and I have owned 2 softeners prior to this one ( On-The-Go & Essential ). I hated unscrewing the top cap and feeding table salt down through the top ( while poking clogged salt down the throat ). With the Pro-Aqua you simply remove the pre-filter, dump 2 - 1lb containers of table salt into the cartridge filter canister, screw the top on and adjust the flow. Very simple. The nice thing is being able to see when all the salt has dissolved. I do encourage those who buy it to spend the extra $ 50 and get the regeneration kit. It makes things even easier. I am so impressed that I am buying a second one to be used for washing coaches at the shop in addition to my private vehicles, Farm Tractor and Kubota RTV. Florida water is notoriously hard, loaded with calcium which impacts everything from water heaters to faucet screens and spray nozzles. I also despise the spots it leaves on vehicles, windows, etc. , which really sends my OCD into over drive. Like I have done with all of my softeners, I will pickup some hardness test strips from a pool supply store and test the water coming out of the softener periodically which will more accurately tell me when I need to regenerate. Just wanted to post this in case someone is considering a new RV softener. Here is the Pro-Aqua unit: https://www.amazon.com/PRO-AQUA-Pre-Filled-high-Capacity-connectors/dp/B079N2L7L6/ref=pd_lutyp_d_sim_sccl_3_2/142-7237555-6326956?pd_rd_w=8BJqK&content-id=amzn1.sym.47380f6c-b66a-4c76-8776-af610be1f13d&pf_rd_p=47380f6c-b66a-4c76-8776-af610be1f13d&pf_rd_r=EC6176A4EHD9K09FFDXF&pd_rd_wg=2lC2w&pd_rd_r=1be3bd84-2d53-4b68-a3da-bb0f252c6edc&pd_rd_i=B079N2L7L6&th=1

Not a problem. I am all for advancements in technology and product innovation but I am always the last to board the train whenever a new product hits the market. Look how long it took me to invent, design and release to the market the Guardian Plate System !! 2 Years. I am too OCD for my own good I guess but have been around this industry long enough to know - Not all new products are worth what they state and while some fix one problem they create another. That is the one benefit of owning a service company. I get to see it all - The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. I also see problems that defies logic and/or physics ( how could that have happened ).

I have had a few members contact me asking for input on the True Toppers. Unfortunately I cannot comment until I see one in person. I need to get my hands on one, see it, check the materials being used, understand the mechanics of it and most importantly put it through some tests, especially water shedding. Watching a video of it in operation does nothing for me. One reason for water testing is because of the poor ability Monaco coaches have for shedding water on the top wiper seal. We get coaches in our shop for topper change outs almost on a daily basis. One thing we see quite often is that the top wiper seals on Monaco's are too short and barely touch the roof of the slide. We have had several come in where the top wiper seal doesn't even make contact with the slide roof. Without toppers the water can and does run right under the wiper seal and into the coach. From there it hits the inside top flange on the slide and then heads to the sides of the slide and runs to the floor. This ends up rotting the interior floors. I don't care what anyone says, no one can level a coach perfectly. You will always have a corner or side with a tiny rise or drop and that is all water needs to take off and run. That is where my concern is - Can these devices prevent water from channeling under their seal and prevent water from hitting the coaches top wiper seal ? This is why I say I would need to get one, install it and test it on my own coach before jumping on a band wagon and touting this system. I have tried buying one but have had difficulties with communicating with the company. I have a large following of members, customers and RV'ers who trust my recommendations. Because of this I have a huge responsibility ( which I take very seriously ) whenever recommending a product or system. With this product I will not recommend it till I get one, install it, test it and am sure it will work under all conditions. As a side note, Monaco slide roofs will handle the contact and scrapping of this device but some other manufacturers roofs may have problems. We had an American Coach in yesterday for a topper change out that had EPDM ( rubber ) roofs on their slides. The ends of the roof were bubbled and soft. I would worry about installing this system on that coach. Entegra coaches also have EPDM slide roofs. I would need to see what material is being used on the leading edge to confirm it being safe for some EPDM slide roofs. In a nutshell, I have too many questions that are unanswered and with not being able to buy one of these True Toppers I have no way of knowing. I do not have the time to chase this company down with continual phone calls to get one. I sure as hell am not driving to Red Bay or Oregon to have one installed. Especially when I own a service center with extremely capable technicians that could install it. The jury is out.

The inside evaporator coil is a mus to clean. It gets packed with dust and dirt over the years because of the flimsy filters used for these units. The best way to clean these coils is to remove the metal shroud, lay a tarp or whatever on the floor inside under the unit, soak the coils down with a coil cleaning solution you can get from Lowe's. Then with someone standing on a step stool, have them hold a large trash bag over the opening while you blow the coils out from the roof. This is how we do it at my service center. You will be surprised at the amount of crud that comes out, especially if you have pets. This process will increase the efficiency of your AC units.

Just an FYI / article for those wondering about the future of Cummin's diesel engines. Cummins to Launch New ‘Fuel-Agnostic’ Engine in 2026 - RV PRO (rv-pro.com)

There seems to be a lot of confusion here so let me try and clear things up. Monaco installed ( on all flush floor slides ) two items - 1. Glide Bar - 2. Glide Block On some models they also installed glide plates or runners to the outside bottom of the slide. Not all Monaco models had glide blocks. Most of the Caymans, Knights and some of the Dip's had no glide blocks. The blocks were added on some models because of the weight of the slide. As I have stated many times in the past, the vast amount of weight and forces during the operation of the slide are on the edges. Monaco thus used glide blocks to carry that weight. Since there are no rollers on a flush floor slide the entire slide runs on the glide bar. The glide bar runs the full length of the slide from one end to the other. It is beveled at the edge to provide a ramp. The inside edge of the slide has an identical bevel. When the slide is fully deployed the slide floor settles into a depression and the two beveled edges meet, thus creating a flush floor inside your coach. When bringing the slide in, the glide bar helps raise the slide floor using this bevel. Once it goes in 8 to 12 inches, the slide tilts, levels itself and then rides along the flat part of the glide bar. If you look at the photo below you will see the glide block. Sitting behind and to the left of it you will see the glide bar. This glide bar runs all the way to the other end. In regards to what material this glide bar and blocks are made of I am not sure. For the most part these glide bars should last the life of the coach. The ones I see damaged are caused by foreign objects caught in the slide, owners who installed their own plates creating excessive wear, owners who allowed the plastic glide plates on the outside of the slide to deteriorate and the edges and screws gouged up the glide bar and of course the DIY'ers and service centers who created their own plates. I have seen some glide bars destroyed by homemade plates because the angles were off, they used screws or the plate length was not sufficient.. A word about the simple task of making your own plates. I have lost track of the number of homemade plates we have removed that promoted slide floor rot, damaged the glide bar, used inferior materials, angles and lengths wrong, etc.. The costs to owners has been substantial. It took me 2 years to design and develop and research the Guardian Plate system. I worked with slide experts from the Monaco factory in developing them. It took a lot of work and research to find the failure points in our Monaco slides and then engineer the plate to compensate for the factories failures. The Guardian Plates are designed with 3 elements in mind - 1.) To prevent future floor rot using high quality parts and materials and sealants. 2.) Preventing damage to the slide floor by rollers 3.) To take a weak slide and strengthen it by locking the corners in place and providing a rigid structure. In almost all cases, the homemade plates I have seen was like putting a band aid on a gaping wound created by a machete. In regards to the glide block in the picture, I do need to make all of you aware that we had to remove this block at our service facility. It was NOT an OEM block. Some technician at another service center after installing flooring decided he knew more about these blocks then the Monaco engineers and crafted a new one to replace the old one. Instead of adjusting the slide to get more height he installed a taller block. In the process he also cut half the bevel off the floor. The height, width and depth of the block was off not to mention it was installed at a slight angle. All the weight of that right hand side of the slide was placed on a small section of the block leading it to crack and break. Never mess with glide blocks or a glide bar. Leave it to a professional who knows these slides inside and out.

I should add, I am surely not trying to trash someones 08 or 09 Sig, Exec or Dynasty. That isn't me at all. They are amazing coaches. I never have nor ever will I trash someones coach on here. But I do have a reputation of being honest and ethical and if I am contacted for advice about buying one of these models, that person deserves honesty when asking my professional opinion. There are thousands of owners out there who own these coaches and have never had the problem. I myself would never roll the dice and hope I don't lose my Kronberg system. With my luck I would drop $ 150 K on one of those coaches and the next day the CCM fail. I simply cannot afford to roll the dice while praying my insurance company makes me whole. Tom, you have known Dave and I for many years and you know we are straight shooters with a wealth of knowledge about Monaco's. People who may be afraid of an answer shouldn't ask either one of us because we will always give our honest opinion. We won't sugar coat it and both of us feel our members deserve honest answers based on facts.

John, those are glide plates. Gary was asking about the glide bar which runs inside on the floor of the coach.

Brett, I have been following this saga since your coach got hit by lightening. I knew all about the Kongsburg issue and if they fried you parked your coach, put a fence around it and homesteaded it. Dave Pratt and I have had many discussions about this over the years. I put a strict policy in place that my techs are not allowed to do any electrical work on a coach that has this system. I do not want to be in the path of a lawsuit if that unit fried. In the legal world, any service center that touched a coach prior to a major problem will get sued and blamed. It is the same reason I wont touch a Norcold. I am very sorry this happened to you. Over the years I have had many customers call me for advice before buying a coach and any of them that was interested in an 08 or 09 Dynasty or above I told them to walk away, simply for that reason - the Kongsburg. It is downright scary to think a circuit board with crazy programming can render a beautiful coach such as yours dead forever. Lightening strikes and bad power at campgrounds happen. God Bless you brother.