zmotorsports

I like the theory of the Balance Masters in that they balance the entire rotating assembly and not just the tire/wheel.

I think you'll like the Balance Masters. I am getting ready to replace all my tires and while I have them off, I think I'll sand them and repaint mine as they are getting some age on them, 17 years now on this coach alone.

I guess I'm a little late to the discussion, but have any of you guys considered running a device called Crossfires? They are a pressure equalization system designed to run on dual wheel setups and control the pressures to keep the tire pressures and therefore circumferences similar. I believe there is another one a bit older called Cat Eyes. With variables such as road crown causing more weight carrying characteristics on the inner and the heat from the brakes having a larger effect on the inner tire, they work to keep the pressures more equal while driving. I started running them about 24 years ago on our first DP after testing them at work and have had them on both our diesel coaches now. Personally, I'm not a fan of running extensions just as a way to extend the valve stem as it creates another potential leak point. I haven't had any leak issues in either of the 3 sets that I have owned although they are a bit of a pain when removing the drive axle duals. I have to remove the Crossfire valve, then disconnect the outer hose and as I am removing the outer tire/wheel I have to reach behind to the inner tire/wheel and disconnect that hose. Not a huge deal but a bit more cumbersome than just removing the outer tire/wheel then the inner. While having a TPMS system will help you monitor tire pressures, they don't compensate for them while you are driving. The Crossfire is a constant tire equalization system. They also have a built in safety valve in the event of a blowout or large leak/pressure drop. Here is a short video I found online explaining them in case anyone is interested. While on the topic of tires, I also been running Balance Masters on our current and last coach, I ran Centramatics on our first coach which was a gasser. I didn't particularly care for the audible sound of the steel balls at low speeds of the Centramatics so when we purchased our first DP, a 38' Beaver Contessa on a Gillig chassis back in 2000, I installed the Balance Masters. I liked them so much I also installed them on our 2003 Dynasty when we purchased it in early 2007 and they've been on it ever since. A little off-topic of the valve stem position, but kind of related.

Similar situation here. I flushed my cooling system and switched over to Fleetguard ES Compleat back in 2008, within a year of purchasing our 2003 Dynasty. Then in 2016 I had a water pump failure while on vacation out of town. I was fortunate enough to be able to locate a water pump and repaired it at the campground. Upon returning home I drained the system, replaced all radiator hoses, coolant hoses and then flushed the system several times with distilled water until clear. I then switched over to Peak Final Charge coolant. It is currently @ 8 years but only has about 45k-50k miles on it. I purchased some test strips and tested it a few weeks ago. It is still like new condition so I will continue to run it a while before replacing.

Frank that is a gorgeous property that you have there and you should be very proud of it. By reading through your description it sounds as though we had a very similar thought process throughout our builds.

Yes, plus the lighter overall weight of those with the ISC was already an added benefit, even before bumping the power. My cousin's 36' Allure weighs right around 26k pounds and ours is already more than 10k more than his before we even hook anything to them, so there was a big advantage already. Seeing you mentioned your traveling speed and economy, funny story. I generally travel around 65-67 MPH which seems to be where our coach is happy. Not a fan of going much faster because tire ratings and for safety margin but that seems to be where I like to travel. On average I net right around 7 MPG. When we were towing our enclosed trailer loaded it was closer to 6.75 and when just flat towing we are between 7 and 7.25 the vast majority of the time. On one trip about 10 years ago, we invited my wife's sister and her family along on one of our trips as they had just bought a bumper pull travel trailer. Her husband at the time would NOT go above 55 MPH the entire trip. 🤬 I think he was afraid to be behind the wheel of that setup as it was the first time he'd towed anything. For that entire trip as I tried to increase speed and "hope" he would keep the gap somewhat tight, he would just drop behind in the mirror. I did notice however, that trip we got the absolute best mileage we had ever gotten out of our coach at 9.5. 😲

Yeah, that old Banks Powerpack kit really turned some of these rigs into hot rods. Bumps the power output to 430hp/1200+ lb/ft of torque. I put one on my cousin's 36' 2000 Country Coach Allure with the Cummins ISC about 15 or so years ago when they were available, and it totally transformed his coach. Kind of sorry I did that afterwards as it made it nearly impossible to keep up with him. Granted his coach is only 36' with one slide and towed a 20' enclosed trailer weighing around 8k loaded and with our 40' Dynasty we were towing a 13k pound 26' enclosed trailer, but still, it was hard to run with him up the grades.

That's a nice looking building Jim. For those looking to build, if I could offer two big pieces of information, or at least what I think are big. Make the RV storage bay wide enough to extend slides, larger than 14' wide, and go wider than a 12' wide door, minimum of 14' wide. We have a few friends who were trying to save money and/or had space constraints when they built their RV garages and went 14-16 feet wide with the bays and only used 12' wide doors and that seems to be their biggest two complaints. Fortunately, I saw these buildings and envisioned what I wanted long before having the opportunity to build my own RV garage and therefore these areas were addressed and part of the original design from day one. My RV bay door is 14' tall by 16' wide and is a pleasure to pull in and out of without being tight. The RV bay itself is 20' wide. This allows me to hug the curb side (driver's) wall (about 36" off wall) during normal parking conditions and have a good 8+ feet on the street side to avoid having to get near the coach's paint during the majority of the time. I have a seam cut in my floor that allows me to back in and place the tires right on the edge for normal parking duties. In the event I have some repairs to make I will shift the coach a few feet to the curb side when backing in thus giving me plenty of space on both sides to have the slides extended and still work around the coach. Just thought I'd share that for anyone preparing to build an RV garage.

Thanks Bob. No lottery player here either, just a lifetime of working a full-time job and running a speed shop as a part time business for 20 years at our old home shop. I'm only in my mid-50's and still working full-time and even though we no longer have our speed shop, I do still take on the occasional side job here and there for extra money and learning opportunities.

Dick, I remember reaching out to you years ago about the specifics of your RV garage. It is quite impressive. I did make mine 50' in depth in the event that we ever decide to get a 45 foot coach, but currently it makes our little 40 footer look tiny. Here is a view from the street which gives a bit better ratio to the house. This was just after the shop was completed and before our gates were installed. And a view from the backyard showing both the house and shop. The shop sits 45' behind the house's back door, yet offset enough that the RV bay is a straight shot from the street. The front of the shop is about 75' from the gate separating the backyard from the front drive. I can easily park two 45' coaches with toads and still have access to the shop. A third is possible but it would block the shop's entrance. After living in our first home for 26 years, raising our family and having our coaches parked outside, I never in a million years would have ever believed that the wife and I would have a place where we could park the coach in a temperature-controlled garage much less pull it out and hook up the Jeep all in the backyard before ever pulling out of the driveway.

Bob, here is a shop tour video I did about a year or so ago. It goes into a few details about the actually building, but mostly it is a shop equipment and toolbox tour. If you would like, when it warms up a bit, I could do a video geared more specifically to the construction aspects of the building if that is something that you'd like?

Similar with our 2002 year ISL400, flat highway 65~ish mine reads around 8-9 PSI. Climbs to 29 when working her on the grades but I've played with the boost pressures to get my EGT's down a bit. Originally, it would only generate about 23 PSI of boost pressure, but the 5-15 at cruising speeds is pretty accurate.

Agreed Jim. It definitely pays to do your own research. When I walked in to apply for my building permit, I had a copy of the plot layout from the county with exactly where the shop would be located to scale, the rendering showing the shop matching the house, the blueprints and lastly, the subdivision's CCR&R's stating exactly how accessory buildings were to be constructed in matching materials and colors. I also had it right to height as the shop could not be taller than the house so the blueprints showed the shop's roof peak being 6" less than the house's peak. The building and code inspectors both mentioned how impressed they were and wished more people did their homework before buying the home vs. after and the city having to have those hard discussions letting the homeowners know that they couldn't do what they wanted because of one reason or another. That is probably why my building permit only took about 4 days to approve and I was off and running.

I realize this is an older thread but much of the information should still be relevant to anyone building an accessory building/shop/RV storage. We lived in our first home for 26 years but had outgrown our 1150 square foot shop years before moving. After a couple years of planning the ideal property for us and looking around at various cities within the adjacent county we were in, I figured I would need a 3k square foot shop, 2k square foot shop with 1k square foot for RV storage. My last shop was 34'x34' with 14' ceilings and I now thought a 40'x50' shop with a 20'x50' adjoining RV storage bay all with 16' ceilings would be ideal. After meeting with the county and city building and code department, we were told that in order to build a 3k square foot accessory building we would need a minimum of 3/4 acre lot. We set out on the search in early 2016 looking for a home and property that fit our needs as well as wants on a 3/4 acre to 1-acre lot. I didn't want any more property than necessary as I didn't want something that would be too difficult to maintain as I aged as this would be our forever home. Our realtor friend tried finding us the property with an existing shop but I kept telling him the shop didn't exist anywhere but in my head and to just find us the home and property as I had a contractor friend already lined out to build the shop. It took us a while, 8-months to be exact, but we eventually found our perfect home on 3/4 of an acre. Shortly after taking ownership, like a couple of days, I applied for the building permit. The permit was issued and within a month of owning the house we broke ground on our 3k square foot shop/RV storage building. It took 8 months to have the building completed and for my son and I to put the yard in, including sprinkler system, fence, gates and all accompanying landscaping and work on the property. We waffled on plumbing in the shop but permitting for that plus the piping from the front of the house was going to bump the cost of the building a little over $10k and I just didn't see the benefit, especially with the house having a bathroom just inside the attached garage on the house and within easy walking distance from the shop. I designed the shop with certain requirements of mine, with heavy emphasis on electrical as I hate extension cords as well as concrete requirements with deeper pours and rebar around where my columns would be placed for the 2-post lift I was bringing from my old shop. For electrical, I have quad outlets spaced every 6' with 30, 40 and 50 amp receptacles in certain locations for shop equipment such as bandsaws, lathe, milling machine, and welders. Also, I installed multiple welder outlets near the doors and near the 2-post lift in the shop for those occasions I need to weld something on a vehicle on the lift or outside the shop. The power for the mill as well as some power outlets were dropped from the ceiling as I hate extension cords across the floor. I also added multiple air drops from the ceilings, down the walls and in the RV storage bay where I placed my air compressor to keep noise in the shop down. My shop is not a pole building as those are not allowed in our subdivision, all stick and brick construction that must match the house exactly. The wife actually preferred this as she didn't want the shop to look like an afterthought and wanted it all to look like it was built at the exact same time. I think we nailed it as we were able to match the brick, stucco and shingles exactly to the house and it all looks like it was built at the same time. Before concrete and sheetrock, I ran multiple conduits from the house to the shop as well as from the meter out front to the shop so the power does not go through the house for the shop. It comes directly off the main meter so as to keep them separate as well as conduits to eventually add a transfer switch when I get around to adding a standalone generator that will be able to power both in an emergency. I also ran network cabling from the house to the shop as well as 3-way switches for exterior lights. This way I can turn on or off the shops exterior lighting from either the back door of the house garage or the shop, this is especially nice when going out to the shop in the dark or coming in from the shop when dark, which is quite often. For power, I also installed "buddy plugs" in the shop so we can have friends plug in when traveling through the area and needing a place to stay for the night. This feature has become quite well used over the past 7 years now. The RV bay has a 14' tall door by 16' wide and I love how easy it is to back the coach into the shop. I had the concrete guys place one of the saw cuts down the RV bay just off-center to where I can watch the line in my mirror and makes for easy positioning of the coach. Once we arrive home from a trip, I back the coach into the back yard, we unload it and then I can wash it outside of the RV bay before backing it right in. This way the coach is always clean while parked inside and travel ready. The shop is heated all winter long and with how well the building is insulated and with my 150k btu gas fired heater, the RV bay never gets below about 40-degrees. The fact that I no longer have to winterize the coach is a much-welcomed bonus. Washing the coach on the shop's apron before backing it into storage. Tucked away in her home. Friend's coach backed up to the shop and plugged in as they were passing by for the night. Another friend's coach in the back yard plugged in for the night as they were traveling past.

I thought I had posted this before, but it must have been on "that other site" when I did my air spring replacement posts. I learned this when talking with a Monaco factory tech years ago. I was told that in the 90's Monaco used the 1/4" NPT port sized air springs in earlier years on the front with 1/4" lines. Rears were 3/4" port size with I believe 1/2" lines but later, around late 90's, determined that there was no significant difference in ride, handling or fill rates so just went with 1/4" lines all the way around. They already had a stockpile of both 1/4" port and 3/4" port air springs when they converted over to all 1/4" lines and therefore just used a reducer. Somewhere around mid-2000's they just went to all 3/4" port air springs and used reducers to the 1/4" lines as the costs and availability were better. When I have replaced air springs I have just used the ones with 3/4" ports all the way around and used reducers. My cousins 1998 Signature had 1/4" lines yet his friends 1996 Executive did have the combination of 1/4" lines and the larger lines for the rear, again, cannot remember if they were 1/2" air lines or 3/4" lines. I'm pretty sure they were only 1/2" air lines and the connectors were 3/4" NPT 90-degree to 1/2" nylon compression fitting. Long story, you will be fine running the 3/4" port sized air springs all the way around with reducers to 1/4" NPT. Just be certain to use a good quality thread sealant for the threads and not tape. I'm not a fan of teflon tape.

^^This. I did the same procedure on mine years ago after performing a repair and then I could be certain I had the correct mixture as well as nothing was contaminated in the boiler system from the previous owner.

WOW, that combustion chamber is nasty. I think it looks like it is surface carbon and as long as there aren't any holes in it then it should be savable. I have used those small brass or stainless-steel brushes to clean them before with great success. The kind you get from a welder's supply house, then use a shop vac to suck up the debris before reassembly. Looks like you will have a lot of fuel cleanup required as well in the bottom of the pan. That should be easily sucked up with paper towels or shop towels though. Should make for a nice clean pan in the enclosure after though. 😜 As for the melted electrical connector, that is actually for the fuel solenois and not the blower motor. Was the connector loose? Did it come off easily? If so, I would either crimp the metal connector a bit so you get a tighter connection on the spade OR replace that particular connection with a new one. I have not seen one of those wire connectors melted like that before.

I just text you. I have a few minutes if you want to talk.

Same here Dick, I'm at about the 5-6 year mark on mine but I'd have to look at my notes to be sure. I think I replaced it soon after my new shop was completed in late 2017 and although the exhaust is still clean as can be, I think I'll replace my nozzle and filter this spring before our travel season starts. Ours doesn't get run all too often on diesel either being part timers but I think I will still change mine as a precautionary measure.

Sorry, I should have looked at the year of the OP's coach. Yes, this is definitely a plus of the older units. I guess just another reason I'll keep our ole' girl as I haven't seen anything that I'd trade her for lately.

I have been able to remove tag tires/wheels by raising the tag and dumping the steer (front). This pivots the coach on the drive axle and gives just enough clearance to put a large prybar under the tag tires and walk them out of the wheel opening. That being said, I prefer to raise the coach up with the air system, place my 22-ton jackstands under the rear chassis frame rails along and then dump the air. If I need just a bit more elevation then I slide my 30-ton air over hydraulic jack under to raise it enough to place the 22-ton jackstands. I do this in the front as well as I made long extensions for my 22-ton jackstands which allow me to remove all tires/wheels if necessary. I generally only remove those tires/wheels around the area I'm working but when I've replaced tires in the past, I've had the entire coach off the ground on jackstands without any worries or issues. Once the weight of the coach is safely supported by the 22-ton jackstands at each corner I can then merely use my smaller and much more maneuverable 3-ton floor jack to raise one side of whichever axle I'm working on to remove the tire/wheel. I then set the axle weight down onto a 6-ton jackstand which is more than enough to support the actual weight of the axle and H-frame itself. I use my IR 1/2" impact to remove the lugnuts, then walk the tires/wheels out of the wheel openings to perform the necessary work. Upon reinstallation, I roll the tire/wheel up to the wheel opening as close as possible to avoid contacting the paint, lean the tire outward, roll onto a long prybar and walk the bottom of the tire under the axle then stand up and onto the wheel studs. I start the lug nuts by hand, zip them down snugly with the impact gun then use my 3/4" Proto torque wrench to properly torque the wheels to spec.

I would recommend running the diesel burner occasionally to keep the fuel fresh in the system as well as nozzle clean. Yes, you can remove them and clean them, but letting it run for a few minutes every so often is so much easier. Also, the diesel burner IS the primary heat source for the Aqua-Hot, electrical is the secondary. When we arrive at a campground, after checking in and getting to our site I turn the diesel burner on to let it run through a cycle, and then turn the electric element on. I keep both switches on throughout our trip(s) and seldom does the diesel burner come on during the warmer months unless the wife and I shower back to back with no recovery time for the boiler tank. In the spring and fall trips when running the heat registers the diesel burner will come on in the AM when I bump the T-stat up a bit but I still keep both the diesel and electric switches on whenever we use the coach on vacation.

I hate to say it Richard, but this was the biggest reason I quit participating in the Facebook Monaco group. I have been dumbfounded just how many people who have bought Monaco coaches over the past few years that had to ask how to work their "furnace". When people would ask if they had a regular LP furnace or the Aqua-Hot unit, many didn't even know what they had in their coach. I guess more money than brains comes to mind that people are buying these things without ANY research or investigation yet expect others to bail them out of every situation that comes along. Having one of these coaches is not for the faint of heart nor the uneducated when it comes to knowing the systems. Yes, there are a LOT of great people on various forums willing to help but there has to be some effort put forth by the owners and as these coaches age, this is becoming even more important. I am so glad I found this forum for this very reason. Seems like so many like-minded people here that are willing to help, but also people willing to put the time in to learn their rigs. Makes for a win/win forum with such a wealth of knowledge to be shared.

It's also worth mentioning that many shops' idea of fixing something is loading a parts cannon and firing. This isn't the proper way to fix the issue and only ends up costing more time and money in the long run. Granted there are times when multiple parts being replaced make sense such as on an older unit and while it is out on the workbench. However, to fix an issue some shops (and technicians) will just throw parts at it in hopes one of them fixes the problem. As owners of these aging rigs, I feel it is our responsibility to know these systems and the proper sequence of operation. Knowing when something is supposed to happen next and doesn't helps greatly to know where the system failure is occurring. Even if you choose not to perform the work yourselves, having a working knowledge of the sequence of operation aids tremendously in communicating the problem to whomever is going to work on it. This too will save a lot of time, money and frustration.

If you're not going to work on these commercially I personally don't think a certification is worth the paper it's printed on. Some of the worst advice I have seen given on RV forums has come from those who claim to be "certified" Aqua-Hot technicians. As for the OP's issues, it sounds like either he has a failed fuel pump which is leaking OR a fuel line. Either of which will dump fuel out the tailpipe and cause excessive smoking. As someone already mentioned, I had done a video of how to diagnose and replace a fuel pump about 10 years ago but recently linked it to the YouTube video section to the Monacoers.org site. Here is a link.