throgmartin

For what its worth, we bring in a mobile hydraulic guy to custom make all new hoses with fittings. I blew a hydraulic line on a backhoe last year and the mobile guy came out, made a new hose, replaced the line and I was back digging in an hour. These guys do this for a living and are excellent at repairing these lines. When you consider renting specialized tools not to mention your time and labor you maybe better off calling in a specialist who knows all the work arounds, can effect a perfect repair that wont leak in the future and also warrants his work.

Since we are on the subject of parts, let me add this famous quote - " Don't shoot the messenger ". My service center is also experiencing frustration. We are having a helluva time sourcing certain parts. We try and maintain an inventory of popular parts that seem to be in demand but the manufacturers are getting hit with component shortages. Other manufacturers closed down during Covid and have been trying to play catch up since. Combine this with ransomware that hit 2 large awning manufacturers and the factory backlog is horrendous. We quit ordering certain parts such as Carefree slide topper assemblies. We can order them but never know when they will arrive so dropped that product offering from our list. We ordered a pallet load of awning springs this year and it took 6 months to get them. Coleman has yet to finish off manufacturing a particular AC unit because of a 50 cent plastic part they cannot get. Hundreds of these units have been made but cannot get shipped till their part source in Asia manufactures this plastic part and ships them to Coleman. I could go on and on with examples but wont waste the bandwidth. One blessing for us is we have yet to run into a shortage of Penguin II AC/Heat pump units. We have a National supplier who keeps us stocked. I lost track of the number of Penguin II installs we have done. It seems all the units from the early to mid 2000's are starting to fail. As a matter of fact I have a huge trailer load of old AC units to haul to the recycler and I am adding to the pile every week. We have also experienced backorders on some thermostats and circuit boards. One other issue - prices. The price increases on parts have been staggering. For those of you who replaced your AC units 2 years ago count your lucky stars. The price increases on Penguin II units have nearly doubled in the last year and a half and every time we place an order they go up again. Other parts that we order, we are seeing large price increases. Until our economy and parts shortages stabilizes ( God knows when that will be ) I can predict an ongoing increase in prices on parts along with continued shortages. I will pass on a tidbit though. I am finding some hard to find parts availability through out of the ordinary channels, namely Mom and Pop places that have old parts sitting on shelves collecting dust. But to find them takes a great deal of patience and a whole lot of googling. Kind of reminds me of an old Amish farmer in Elkhart who had a barn filled with new Monaco factory parts. He bought them all at auction. People would show up looking for a part and he would hand them a lantern and escort them into the barn to find the part they wanted. Several years ago I was trying to track down some obsolete Carefree parts. I contacted an out of the way parts supplier who sent a guy back into their darkened warehouse. He found a treasure trove of these parts and I bought their entire inventory out. When the shipment arrived the boxes were layered in dirt and dust. Inside were brand new gleaming parts. I sold out the entire inventory in less then a year. One has to search hard sometimes for old obsolete parts.

Ask and you shall receive. First photo is of the bite mark. Notice the swelling of my arm. I bled for 48 hours straight out of that wound. The second photo is of the little bast*** that bit me. The third one is of a coral snake that slithered under my coach with me and assisted me in greasing my U-joints. He was 2 ft from my head when he turned and moved away and curled up next to the dual tires. Red touches yellow - Kill a fellow. Needless to say I am not a fan of snakes. I allow non venomous snakes to live as they are awesome at cleaning up rodents. The venomous ones is another story. I don't need my dogs getting bit by one. How we went from IOTA's to snakes is beyond me but both will kill you given the chance.

Tom: I don't play games with electricity. I have been zapped too many times. 2 of the worst jolts I ever took was 240 and once off a 24 V DC control circuit that was inside a 4160 switch gear cabinet. That was a hellvua jolt and left my entire hand and arm numb for the day. Sadly I lost 3 co-workers in electrical accidents. One was instantly electrocuted off a huge power bank capacitor that had not been properly discharged. One was killed when a re-closure exploded on a pole. The third one got tangled up in a guy wire which was laying across the road. A drunk ran the roadblock we had set up, hit the guy wire and took my buddy down the road. It slammed him into the pavement and killed him instantly. I had 2 other buddies electrocuted but survived. One took a hit from a 4160 Volt line that came into contact with a ground that was laying in the bucket with him. He was in the hospital for 3 months due to massive burns across his entire chest plus his leg where it grounded out. I can remember an underground powerline with a lead splice that gave way. It was extremely high voltage and the explosion blew a manhole cover off the underground electrical vault. The manhole cover was never found. We believe it landed in an empty coal car parked 200 ft away. The problem with electricity is can be a once in a lifetime deal. People have died from 120 and people have died from 240. A lot has to do with how the current travels through your body. From what I have been told if it travels through your heart you can die instantly by going into cardiac arrest. What saved me from the 240 V charge I took was it went into my right hand and grounded out my right foot. If my left hand had been touching a source for a ground it would have went through my chest. In regards to snakes, I am not a fan of them. Many here remember the day I was bit by a rattler at a Monaco International Rally. The snake was hidden inside my basement compartment of my coach and nailed me when I reached inside. I was lucky that time too. I seem to be a cat with nine lives............ The problem is I do not know which life I am currently on. 4 or 9. 🙂

I was going through this thread and noticed that someone had mentioned that I recommended the surge guard transfer switch. I wanted to make a correction and give credit to the proper person. I wanted to replace my IOTA so I went to the electrical Guru - the late Bill Groves. Bill spent a career designing large switch gears and relays and had forgot more about ATS's then anyone will ever learn. He was an expert on our electrical systems. He was my go to guy for anything electrical or battery related and all of his recommendations was based on his ongoing research. He suggested the surge guard for my coach based on many factors which is way beyond my pay scale. With that said the surge guard is not for everyone. My suggestion is before buying a transfer switch is to make sure it will fit inside the bay. I had just enough room for mine and it was so heavy and large that it took Dustin and another tech to install it. Since this post was originally started on August 9th we have had 2 more coaches roll into our service lot with burnt up IOTA's. I have heard so many coach owners say " I have never had a problem with my IOTA so I am not changing it out. I just tighten the lugs ". These guys do not own an RV service center like I do and I have seen so many close call's with these switches I have lost track of the number. Many were burnt and melted and they were extremely lucky their coach didn't burn to the ground. It will be a cold day in hell that I ever lay my head on a pillow and sleep knowing I have a potential fire hazard laying underneath my bed tucked away in a basement compartment. My life will always be worth more then a $ 300 safety upgrade. If you have an IOTA change it. If you are one who likes to roll dice and gamble then may I also suggest you go to church, light a candle and pray to God your coach doesn't burn up.

Not a problem but I suggest you call well in advance and book an appointment. We are starting to fill up for fall and winter. It wont be long before we will be booked 3 and 4 months out for the winter months. Call Bethany to book your appointment as soon as you know your travel dates - 352-942-2653. It is starting to cool down now. Today it was only 90. 🙂

We are located 50 miles North of Tampa, FL.

Rear bedroom slides typically have rollers and have adjustment bolts facing to the outside. These bolts will raise or lower the slide. NEVER adjust rollers with the weight of the slide on the rollers. Always jack up the slide to take the weight off. We just had a customer come in who didn't take the weight off and made an adjustment and busted the roller assembly. The slide now will have to be pulled and the roller replaced. Final bill will probably be close to $ 4,000. $ 3,500 of that is just pulling the slide and replacing it. It is extremely time consuming. This is why I am very hesitant on giving slide adjustment instructions. Adjusting slides properly requires experience as there are several parameters that have to be measured along the way. I could write a book on the horror's I have seen from owners and half baked technicians who made a mess of their slide by making adjustments. Flush floor slide adjustments should never be attempted by anyone who is not experienced. We recently had a coach come in from Texas where 2 technicians made an adjustment on a flush floor slide. These guys were certified technicians. They wiped the puck lights off the ceiling and then dented the roof of the slide. It took Dustin and I 3 hours to get the slide back to near its factory settings and to where we could get a final adjustment. One other big problem are the technicians who adjust slides according to the paint stripes. Things settle over time which is why Dustin and I never pay attention to paint lines. We adjust according to our measurements and how the motor and assembly performs. Dustin and I have a system down for making slide adjustments. With 25 year's of combined experience we know exactly how to adjust a slide to provide a smooth operation. It is not uncommon to have owners drive thousands of miles to have us adjust their slides after a technician made a mess of it during a prior adjustment. People think it is an easy task but it is not. Some slides are a nightmare requiring adjusting outboard rollers in addition to adjusting inverted interior rollers. Getting the adjustment off just a little can impact the motor and assembly operation and put undue stress on the motor and components of the slide system. If your slide is a simple bedroom slide with 2 rollers then the adjustment is an easier process. If it is a slide with a bed on it then inverted rollers also have to be adjusted. Going to far in either direction will place a strain on the motor as well as the slide assembly. In either case a slide with rollers should never be adjusted without jacking it up first. Hope this helps.

That is a double bulb seal. We only use seals from Uni Grip. We dropped Steele rubber because of failures and fitment issues. Uni-Grip produces a high quality seal. We buy hundreds of feet of double bulb seals at a time because our work is predominately on Monaco brand coaches. Since you own an executive I can tell you to be sure to buy a bottle of advil for your hands afterwards. The higher up the food chain in regards to Monaco coaches the harder seal replacements are. The Dynastys, Exec's and Sigs have very tight slid/side wall clearances making seal replacement difficult. Don't be surprised if you invent some brand new curse words during the project. One trick is to steal a flat wooden spoon from your wife's kitchen drawer to help push the seal into place. If your wife catches you, blame it on me. The list is long and distinguished of the women who want to choke me for being a bad influence on their husbands. Kind of reminds me of the time I suggested to a husband to use the dishwasher to clean some parts. That scored me some points with his wife. 🙂 Good luck. Replacing seals on the higher end coaches can be a miserable job. Your hands will ache for days afterwards.

Many, many years ago I used to dangle off 45 ft power poles and work on power lines. I am not going to get into the technical details of high voltage on Single phase lines as it gets complex. High voltage on a single phase 120 volt line is not nearly a headache as in a 3 phase system which has one leg feeding a higher voltage then the other two. In industrial 3 phase systems/feeds this can overheat motors and destroy them. Just so happens we have an electrical engineer here on this forum whose career was all centered around designing power line systems. I am sure, since Scotty Hutto has so much time on his hands ( in between his fancy seafood dinners ) he will give you a run down on why residential power lines can be over the voltage max. Most people do not know that there are many components to an electrical power line feed that one answer doesn't fit all. People like to pull the transformer gun from the holster but there are other impedance issues as well. Substations, re-closures, regulators, relays, capacitors, etc. I have witnessed fires and explosions on all of these and have taken many electrical shocks to know anything and everything can go wrong in a power line system. It also helps to remember that a single phase power line feed is a single phase. Power companies and linemen think in 3 phase terms X-Y-Z. In other words your area maybe fed off X phase while the subdivision across the street is fed off Y phase. Phasing is very important to a lineman and I have seen phasing get switched to where industrial motors run backwards. While electricity can be a scary thing it also can be complex once you start working back from the pedestal. I think Scotty can better explain what could be happening better then I can. I built and repaired powerlines, Scotty designed them. In other words he outranks me. Besides Scotty has a lot more free time then I do. 🙂

Your question is one for the Roadmaster Guru/Expert, Van Williams. There are so many variables in the front steering linkage that come into play that what you are experiencing may not be the fault of the steering box. If the steering and handling is bothersome for you then I suggest a trip to see Barry's guys at Josam's in Orlando. They are the # 1 Roadmaster chassis shop in the country and have forgot more about our coach chassis then any other shop will ever learn. Van and Craig French did my conversion ( TRW - Watts Link - Rear Cross Bars ). I have no experience with just a TRW change out. Everything was done at once and wow what a major difference in handling and steering. I do know, talking to a few customers who did just the TRW improved steering, that they got some improvement but they later added the watt's link and rear cross bars which made a huge difference. As an aside, my coach was an ill handling beast. I hated driving it as it was all over the road. Ironically I was on my way to Van's house for the chassis mod's when I nearly totaled it. I got hit with a real bad cross wind that came out of nowhere and I nearly rolled it off a Savanah overpass. It took 3 lanes to get it back under control and took 2 years off my life. I have been hit with some fierce cross winds landing airplanes but unfortunately our coaches do not have ailerons or rudders to crab and correct against winds. I think I pulled 3 lbs of foam from my drivers seat with my rear end after that near miss in Savanah. All that saved me was there was no traffic anywhere near me as I gobbled up all the north bound lanes. 🙂

After spending too many years in this industry I can give a good take on Carefree awning issues. Monaco used many different models of patio awnings but the two that have caused us the most headaches at our service center is the Eclipse and the Latitude. The eclipse for all of its electrical/slow retraction issues and the latitude for its uncanny ability to go out of adjustment and it being a royal pain to get aligned again. The eclipse has its electrical issues which is compounded by the fact that many Monacos came out of the factory with too small of wiring to power the awning as it ages. Dave Pratt's post pretty much covered everything so I wont waste time going over it. When we get eclipse awnings in that have problems we troubleshoot starting at the motor and working back to the factory power supply ( incoming wire ). Rarely is the problem the motor. Loose connections, wires, bad controllers and insufficient voltage are almost always the culprit. Dirty mechanisms are also at the top of the list. These awnings need ongoing lubrication using Boeshield T-9. You lube every joint and movable part on the awning. I will say, despite the issues with the eclipse I still like the model and design. It is one of the very few automatic awnings that can have the pitch adjusted by simply pressing snap buttons and dropping the arms. It also can be tilted to one side for better water run off and adjusting the pitch it provides better shade. Getting past all the electrical issues of course is the trick to enjoying an eclipse. I have one on my coach and wouldn't consider going to another model. One final thought - Be very careful of how much money you put into a One Touch. The hardware and parts supply for these awnings are long gone. Sinking money into an awning assembly that has no available parts could come back to bite you. My suggestion for those with One Touch awnings who are facing hefty repair bills is to consider abandoning it and going to the eclipse. While the One Touch has been a great awning assembly, the parts availability should make any owner think twice before putting an expensive new fabric replacement on it or paying big dollars from a salvage yard for parts. Most salvage yards have a policy of selling the entire assembly and wont part out an awning. JMHO.

Tom: Your post brought back a memory. I had a customer call and order a set of slide toppers. He actually was my beta tester for the new Zip Dee toppers I was launching at the time. He was a government spook who was a CIA analyst. I got to be good friends with him and he always teased me about " Be nice to me......... I can bring heaven or hell to your front door." Strangely he went dark a short time ago and ceased all communication with the outside world. No idea what that was all about. One of my closest friends did black op's for the Fed's in ( of all places ) the Panama/Columbia ) jungles. He would only say he was there on assignment. He has never discussed what he was there for or what he did. I do know he was a weapons and explosives expert in the military. That is the one thing I love about my job. I get to meet some of the most interesting people who had amazing and interesting careers. :)

Chuck: You typically offer great advice but this time you are way off the mark. Plating just the bottom does not nothing to stop floor rot. It actually will hide future floor rot. I know this to be true because I have torn dozens of plates off coaches that other service centers plated the way you describe. Underneath it was floor rot. To better clarify, floor rot is caused by water intrusion from the bottom trim piece at the edge of the slide. This trim piece has to be removed and a Guardian plate with a 90 degree outside angle covers the abandon trim piece. Slapping a piece of metal on the bottom will do nothing to prevent floor rot. The only time we use flat plates is on rollers that are located inboard of the edge by more then 9 inches. Alliance started this fallacy about slapping a flat plate on the bottom of a slide near the edge and pronouncing the floor rot cured. I lost track of the number of Alliance plates I have ripped off because I had to get to the floor rot underneath. Flat plates near the edge are nothing more then band aids that hide future floor rot. One other thing, I designed the Guardian Plates to do is take the side brace and lock it into the floor to provide a much more rigid structure. This helps square the slide as well. It takes a weak slide which Monaco designed and provides much more support and a more solid structure. I spent 2 years researching, making and customizing floor rot, roller damage issues, flush floor failures, glide bar design and problems and roller designs to arrive at the Guardian Plate system. Speaking of Alliance, did you know they made their plates from aluminum ? There were a lot of complaints because as the aluminum aged, it tarnished. When a slide was brought in it wiped black tarnish on the carpet which is nearly impossible to remove. It also is a weak alloy and I have seen aluminum plates dent from the rollers. This is why I only use American made 304 mirror Stainless. It wont rust, form indentations and the rollers perform better on it. It is so darn hard that I have to have a fabrication company use a massive hydraulic press to bend the 90 degree edges. You will never get a nice aesthetically pleasing and perfect 90 degree bend using a hand brake. You can with cheap Chinese stainless but the 304 stainless we use is sourced from one steel mill who produces stainless for military fight jet projects. Anyone can make Guardian plates by copying our design but none will have the same high quality. I am OCD about every single item I source for our plates.

A little history on these plates. I wasted thousands of dollars on stainless trying to perfect the Guardian Plate system. I had 2 beta testers who worked with me that were first class mechanics. They would install them then call me and we would go over changes that needed to be made. There ended up being 6 CAD drawing revisions made before I arrived at the perfect plate system. Many of the early plates were installed, ripped off and after revisions installed again on my coach. I had many failures in the beginning. What prompted me to begin production of the plates is that I lost 3 ft of floor on my driver front slide. I had it replaced and a year and a half later the rot started again. I worked with a close friend of mine PJ McGann on designing the plates. He was a former Monaco factory supervisor in charge of body construction so his expertise was invaluable. We later expanded our offerings to include custom roller plates for the bottoms of bed frames. We have had 2 customers come in just in the last two weeks who had to have their bed frames rebuilt and plates installed because their bedroom slide would not operate correctly. We have done a great deal of them over the years. I never considered plates for the bed frame rollers till 2018. They work great and makes the bed frame stout and run smoothly. That is another weak spot on Monaco/HR coaches - the inverted rollers on the inside of the bed frame tear up the wood. I actually formed Talin out of boredom. I founded Stone Vos in 2006 after needing toppers for my coach. I wanted toppers that would last over a decade so I began making my own. Soon after others wanted me to make toppers and which turned Stone Vos into a thriving company that has produced well over 50,000 awning fabric products. After my wife retired from teaching and took over Stone Vos I had nothing left to do so I founded Talin. I launched the Guardian Plate system and soon after customers wanted me to do the installs so I began doing installs myself alone. After installing hundreds of plates I hired Dustin and now him and our team do the installs. I have since semi retired ( whatever that means ). I make every team member work with me on Guardian plate installs including our Vice President, Bethany. I have no idea how many plates we have turned out since 2017 but it is in the thousands. Of all my accomplishments in the RV Industry the Guardian Plate system is the one thing I have remained proud of. It has literally saved Monaco/HR owners hundreds of thousands of dollars in floor replacement costs. Before the Guardian Plates the only alternative coach owners had were expensive floor replacements. Large slide floor replacements are running $ 8 - 10,000. Full wall slides are between $ 15,000 and 20,000 dollars for floor replacements and many start rotting again once replaced. The Guardian plates correct the floor rot problems and roller damage forever. It is a crazy story to think boredom and necessity launched Talin. It is even crazier when you consider I had 2 brain cells left at the time and one was holding the other one hostage. 🙂

That is true Ben. We plate almost all rollers with the exception of the large 9 inch rollers that are wrapped with hard rubber. These rollers rarely do damage to the laminate.

Hi Mike: Almost all Monaco slides have rollers with the exception of the flush floor. Some gas models have bedroom slides with no rollers. Otherwise, if it is a Monaco raised floor slide it has rollers. If it is a galley slide it will have a combination of coach mounted rollers and inverted rollers. Not to confuse you but some floor plans on the upper end models like the dynasty, Exec and Sig have inverted rollers on the wardrobe slides in the bedroom. I am assuming you are searching for rollers on your galley slide. If it has inverted rollers ( typically tucked underneath the kitchen cabinets. The rollers that are attached to the floor of the coach are going to be 9 inch rollers located near the slide opening. Most are steel with some having a hard rubber wrapped around them. On these slides we do not typically plate the rollers. Instead we install Guardian plates on the slide edges and these are normally our 300 series plates. The reason we rarely ever use CRP's ( custom roller plates ) for the rollers is that the 7 and 9 inch rollers rarely ever damage the white laminate. I have a strict policy and that is - I will not sell you something you do not need. Typically the best way to find rollers is by using a jack. Jack up one corner of the slide and look to see if you can find them. I have inspected well over 5,000 Monaco slides and found only 2 of these slides with 9 inch rollers that ever had damage and needed CRP's. Those 2 were due to the rollers breaking and gouging the laminate. If you see no damage to the under slide of the slide and you have minimal floor rot then I advise you not to order CRP's. On some of these galley slides that have a fridge on them I always recommend a 600 series guardian plate to add more strength to the corner. Otherwise we routinely use the 300 series plate system. In the end I have been doing this for a long time and was the inventor of the Guardian Plate system. My policy has always been to sell my customers only what they need. I have to get up every morning and look at myself in the mirror and like who I see. I wont " bleed " customers wallets just to make more money by selling them plates they do not need. In regards to Tom's coach, if memory serves me correctly his galley slide " blew" a corner out. That was from using the couch with the slide in. I believe that corner did not have an inverted roller but cannot remember. Tom can comment more on that. I do remember designing and then making plates for his coach and it was a real headache. His driver rear slide had the weirdest internal slide floor bracing system I have ever encountered. One of the cross braces was really inboard by a large distance. When I inspected his passenger front floor slide at a Gathering once all I could tell myself was " Here we go again ". 🙂 If you need any guidance Mike, give me, Bethany or Dustin a call. We do all we can to assist our customers.

Rarely do I encounter a broken glide bar. I have only seen 2 in my career. Typically it is the plastic glide plates that the factory installed on the bottom edges of the slide that break apart. I always remove them and replace them with Guardian Plates. We have to remember that structurally, the flush floor is the weakest slide we have on Monacos'. There are no cross support braces under the floor and no frame on the inside edge. When I invented the Guardian Plate system I made sure the plate was wide enough to lock the sidewalls and floor together to provide a beefed up support system for the slide itself while also eliminating future rot.

Hi Mike: I am a little late on this topic and for that I apologize. I looked over your pictures carefully and can tell you that the good news is you have no rot - yet. Unfortunately you will need Guardian Plates to correct the problem. So you can better understand the problem and so others can maybe learn as well let me explain - your floor is called a flush floor. In other words it runs on an internal glide bar. There are no rollers. I have seen this type of damage hundreds of times and it is normally caused by a loosening of the laminate on the edges. One has to remember that on a flush floor the vast amount of weight and forces are applied at the edges of the slide during operation. This is why some Monaco's have a glide bar in addition to what are called corner blocks. These blocks are thick and stout and are 5 to 6 inches wide and are mounted to the floor of the bus at the corners. The fix is an easy one - install Guardian Plates. Luckily you caught it early. I have seen it where the laminate has ripped inward by 24 inches and at that point the fix requires custom made plates ( much wider ) which are a PITA to install. My advice is to use a razor knife and trim the loose laminate off. Do NOT use glue or tape or you will create an absolute mess. Remember the bottom of the floor rides on a plastic glide bar and whatever you apply to the laminate will get wiped off the very first time you run the slide in and will get stuck on the glide bar creating a hell of a mess. Trust me when I say owners who applied tape, adhesive or whatever to the damaged areas of laminate on a flush floor slide have cost themselves a lot of extra time, money and headaches. It all gets ate up by the glide bar. If your coach is sitting in our service lot you are going to be paying one of my techs a lot of labor time to clean the gunk from that glide bar completely before installing guardian plates. I have done numerous slides like that and it takes time and effort because the glide bar is NOT in an easily accessed area. Never apply anything like tape or adhesive to the bottom of a flush floor slide. Give my VP, Bethany, a call on Wednesday ( I closed the office and shop on Tuesday so my staff could have a long holiday weekend ). Her number is 352-942-2653. She knows the Guardian Plate system inside and out. Make sure you tell her I have already assisted you here on the forum. She can get your plates into production and ready for shipment. If you have any other questions let her or myself know. We can also assist you via phone and facettme during the installation process in the event you run into a problem. I also encourage you to watch my buddy Mike Z's youtube install videos. He made those for me and does a great job explaining the install procedures. Just to make you feel better, here are some photos of slides I myself have plated. Obviously the owner never seen the damage as few owners ever inspect and look for this under their slides. I was able to fix all of them with the Guardian Plate system.

I was just researching this the other day and came across some yacht owners who use Starlinks on their cruisers. They can be out in the Pacific or Atlantic oceans and still stream and have cell service. Isn't technology amazing ? And to think we never had calculators ( never mind computers ) in high school. This guy mounted his flat on the deck by his bridge. The first video explains about the starlink system and the second shows how he modified his dish. I watched the second video and thought to myself " This is a job for our machining wizard Van Williams ). Thought I would post this as yachts and coaches can be similar in many ways. First video: Second Video: I have been watching a lot of videos on yacht operations, ownership and cruising. Owning a yacht ( a money pit ) has been on my bucket list for a while now. There could be one in the future if I decide to sell my coach and make the transition from land to sea. Still in decision mode. 🙂

If you think you have problems, check out this poor Sig. The sections of rotted floor that we cut out went all the way to the frame. That black area you see is actually lining " UNDER " the coach. On some model year Sig's Monaco used 2 pieces of plywood sandwiched together. The water damage rotted out both layers of plywood. The wall section next to the driver was so rotted that you could poke your finger into it and hit the outside fiberglass wall. This was all caused by some jackwagon technician at a service center who thought he knew how to re-set a window, ( he used the wrong materials and sealants - 2-sided tape and silicone caulking ). I will not comment on the final repair bill as this coach belongs to one of our Monacoer members here but lets just say it was huge. 50 hours of labor for 2 technicians plus a plethora of various materials is not cheap. At one point I had all 4 of my tech's on this job removing the drivers window, clamping off the wall section, etc. I do have to say I am proud of my team as the repair came out perfect and the wall section is stronger then when it came from the factory. Sadly, this is not the worst job we ever had. Ken replaced an entire bedroom and bathroom floor in a Diplomat last year. The cause ? A technician who didn't know how to set a new toilet properly. The floors were completely rotted away. That repair bill was massive. Moral of the story ? Never let technicians who are hacks and half ass'es work on your coach. There are still techs out there like mine who are craftsman, take pride in their work and love seeing a perfect repair. In addition, and as I have stated in many of my seminars - Water is a coach owners worst enemy. Always periodically poke, prod and inspect and look for water leaks inside your coach. I will post the finished project pictures later.

Looking at this I am not sure how I would tackle this without standing next to it and seeing first hand the extent of the damage and the issues. This post is timely though as we just finished rebuilding a wall next to the drivers seat as well as the cockpit floor leading back to the slide on a gorgeous Sig. It was a major job and the damage to the sidewall and floor was extensive. Guess what caused it ? A technician at another service place who used the wrong materials to re-set a drivers window. The side wall and floor rot was so bad we had to replace entire sections of floor and half of the interior wall. I always call in my hired gun Ken, one of my techs to do these jobs. He is an old retired master tradesman highly skilled in paint, fiberglass, welding, fabrication, etc. and works part time for me. He has performed magic on some of my customers coaches and I am always amazed at how he blends certain materials and crafts things to arrive at a perfect repair that will last a lifetime. I am blessed to have an old school craftsman like this on my staff. When we get jobs like this in Ken and I inspect the damage carefully and then start putting together the repair process together. Looking at your picture I can see a blend of materials being used - 3-M 5200 and POR 15 are 2 along with possibly using some Bondo products. If memory serves me correctly, that opening is framed in metal. If so then I would sand that metal down and apply POR 15. ( If anyone has ever restored a classic car then they know about POR 15 paint ). The integrity of the fiberglass wall looks good as does the refrigerator floor. I would seal that wall cavity at the top with a bead of 3-m 5200. For boaters/mariners you know 5200 not only seals but is one helluva adhesive. It is made to live its life underwater so is 100 % waterproof. The adhesive portion of 5200 is astounding. In regards to the frame, no rubber seal is needed. Those plastic covers are prone to cracking and by putting a rubber seal between the cover and frame will stress the cover and those 2 plastic screws causing it to crack and it will end up in the ditch of some highway after it blows off the side of your coach. The water damage in that area is normally caused by a leaking roof vent or ice maker water line. Check those 2 items. Going forward I would recommend 1.) Taking your time 2.) Don't make the job more work then it has to be 3.) double check the entire area around that area for damage. 4.) Think the process through and use high quality materials ( regardless of its cost ). Trying to pinch pennies on repairs will cost you a lot more down the road because the failure rate will be higher using cheap or the wrong materials or using improper application techniques. With the horrific damage Ken and I have repaired on customer coaches, yours looks to be a straight forward job. Just double check and make sure there are no other problems that extend past that area. Remember, water runs all over inside wall cavities so check the lower belt line to be sure it isn't popped from rusted screws. Check for delamination of the wall underneath and 2 ft to the sides. Investigation is the key here. Ken and I never focus on a given area of damage. We always go further to see how far out the damage has extended. By the looks of things it appears the damage you see is very local to that specific area and you caught it in time to effect a great and lasting repair. Good luck.

Ray, you are correct. The upper end Monaco's came on 295's. What I meant to say is all Monaco brand coaches in the Diplomat/Endeavor lines as well as the Knight Ambassadors came on 275's. Many of us with 275's have went to 295's. I know I did on the very first tire change out. I always felt the 275's were marginal on the Dip's and Endeavors as well as the Knights and Ambassadors. I wanted some extra safety margin with the 295'sand will never come close to overloading them. I also can run a little less air pressure which gives me a more comfortable ride. In as far as tire clearance issues, I have had none going to the 295's.

The Goodyear 275's as mentioned were standard equipment on all Monaco brand built coaches in the early to mid 2000's. My 05 came with them and while I didn't have any blow outs they rivered terribly. I ended up junking them after 3 years as I lost faith in them and the rivering was horrible. In about 2015 I was on my way to a 419 MS. Up ahead of me was an Imperial with brand new Goodyears. He was cruising along at about 62 mph when he had a double steer tire blow up. He ended up in the ditch. The tires had less then 1,000 miles on them. I wouldn't run Goodyear's even if they were given to me.

Forgot to mention, I use a Dewalt 20 V grease gun when servicing my farm tractor, coach, show trailer, open trailer, Kubota RTV, etc. Best investment I ever made. I bought it since I have a huge pile of other Dewalt 20v tools. Works awesome. https://www.amazon.com/DEWALT-DCGG571M1-20V-Cordless-Grease/dp/B00FL2SOXW/ref=sr_1_2?crid=3TVKNI6KXRKDE&keywords=dewalt%2Bgrease%2Bgun%2B20v%2Bkit%2Bwith%2Bcase%2Band%2Bbattery&qid=1652969566&sprefix=dewalt%2Bgrease%2Bgun%2B20v%2Caps%2C127&sr=8-2&th=1