Bill D's Monacoers 2022 Gathering Review

[David Pratt]

The 2022 Gathering is now history. This was the 10th Gathering we have held since initiating the idea in 2011.

I want to personally “THANK EVERYONE” who attended. It makes all the hard work worthwhile, especially seeing the Seminars filled every day. The Presenters were very grateful that the tables were filled and many questions were asked. Your attendance helps to get them to come back each year and support our group.

My reward for putting together the Gathering is to Honor the Legacy of Bill Duckwitz, Fred White and Rex Darley. It was great to see old friends and see everyone, renewing old friendships and making new ones. Hearing the laughter from many, seeing everyone enjoy the friendships and the company of each other while sharing this RV lifestyle with one another makes all the hardwork worthwhile. It was great seeing all of you.  

May you all be blessed with many safe and memorable miles of travel this spring/summer. See you at the next GATHERING.

We had 47 Coaches in attendance

I hope all of you that attended received a lot of good information out of the Seminars and Presentations

Special thanks to Chris Throgmartin and Bethany who stepped in when one of our Presenters and  the Chef was unable to do their Seminars.

Thanks to Van Williams. His chassis presentation on why our Beasts drive and handle the way they do. Explaining the Chassis improvements with the Steering Box Upgrade, Watts Link and Crossbars. I feel we have now achieved a major milestone in having JOSAM”S as a partner willing to install Van’s, Craig's and Mike Hughes equipment to tame our beasts. Van provided his expertise to members on chassis handling issues. His in depth knowledge on our chassis’ has helped so many of our members make our coaches safer and more pleasurable to drive. I am convinced that the Steering upgrades,  Watts Link and Crossbars greatly reduce driver fatigue and give you more control and a better “ride” as in you are not being buffeted around by Wind and menacing trucks…  Van did an Excellent job.  

Thanks to Paul Whittle for his Seminar on the Intelitec Modules, Switches and 3-D printing. He also spent Saturday programming backups of the MUX Modules for the members.

Chris Throgmartin’s inspected many coaches for Slide Out, Topper, Awning and Roof  issues. Chris and Bethany gave the members a copy of the Inspection Report describing the issues that needed to be addressed on their Coaches.  His presentations on Exterior Coach Maintenance, Guardian Plates and Slide Out Floor (underside) wear & damage and Moisture Infiltration and Roof Maintenance/repair. Chris’s Inspections found the same nagging problems on numerous coaches - slide floor rot, slide topper issues, hard to operate slide locks and other known and ongoing problems with the Monaco brand coaches. Chris doesn’t like finding these problems and reporting them to coach owners, but then he does feel good about catching these issues early saving them many thousands of dollars in the future. Chris is slowly changing his routine and putting a larger emphasis on teaching owners how to inspect their own coaches and what to look for so they can keep a vigilant eye on things.  Chris looked like he shed about 10 pounds after all his inspections. 

Bethany’s presentation on Interior coach Care and maintenance was excellent and filled with a lot of good information.. 

The Tire Safety and TYRON SEMINAR presented by Chuck Thatcher was excellent. That generated quite a bit of interest about the need for TYRON BANDS and using Nitrogen instead of Air to fill and maintain the tires ,

The Cummins Engine and Generator Presentations included a lot of information from Cummins on maintenance and the operation of our Engines and Generators. Some tweaking of the info on maintenance schedules and such.  Bottom line, the “CONSENSUS” is that you DO need an Algaecide (JF Biobor is the most used and recommended). The amount of Biodiesel and the concentrations vary… A couple of things that stood out in my mind were there is no longer a need to change the engine air filter every 2 years. The filtration media materials have improved greatly and the advice was to wait until the filter minder showed it was time to replace the filters. The best way of maintaining our generators is to use them

The Allison Transmission Presentation also included some very good information on the maintenance and use of the transmission. The new Allison Transmissions have a "Prognostic" diagnostic system built in. Push a button and it will tell you in % how much life is left in your Transynd fluid or press again and it will tell you % life left in the filters. There's a lot more this system can do. The "bad news" is it cannot be retrofitted to existing transmissions because they don't have the necessary sensors.

Other Allison tidbits were always shift D-N-R or R-N-D. Many members thought the newer ones would go D-R or R-D, but the Allison Rep(Derek Gallo) says no, always go thru N.

The Fire  Suppression Seminar by Jim Bounds from FireFight was a very interesting presentation and we all learned more about fire suppression. Those members with the Halon(Gas) bottles in the fridge compartment were advised to try to mount the bottle ABOVE the air intake slots in the grill. That would prevent incoming air from keeping the extinguisher so cool that it would never discharge.

Saturday was set aside for our Round Table Discussion so all the attendees could meet the Moderators and talk about motor homes, maintenance, safety and anything else that was important about operating and maintaining our coaches. Van Williams, Paul Whittle, Dustin from Talon and Myself Moderated the Round-Table Discussion. We covered a lot of territory and learned a lot of good information from all in attendance on the many subjects that were covered. The Round Table Discussion lasted over five hours. One of the longest and best Round Tables Discussions we have had.

Saturday evening was our final Dinner Together. It was an excellent Barbecue Buffet with all the fixings. After dinner we had a 50/50 Raffle and raffled off items donated by Chris Throgmartin–TALON- Coach Care Kits, Paul Whittle-a Magnum Opus circuit board, Dave Pratt- Space Coast Plating-a Kitchen Knife Set and a Gift Certificate to have a set of Mirror Bases and Arms Chrome Plated and Scotty Hutto donated other items for the Raffle, The other half of the 50/50 Raffle will be split and donated to the “Brevard Humane Society”, non-euthanize Pet Rescue/Shelter and “Paws With a Cause”, an Organization that provides pets to our Wounded Veterans.

Lazydays did a great job for our group and made sure everything ran smoothly and attended to all our needs, The complimentary breakfast each morning was very good and consisted of Scrambled eggs, Sausage-link and patty, Bacon, Potatoes, Biscuits & gravy and Bagels. The Lazydays Exit 10 Restaurant did an Excellent Job providing us with very good evening dinner buffets.

In a few months I will start on planning for the 2023 Gathering.  I will notify all of you when we have dates locked in with Lazydays.  In the meantime, hope everyone has Safe and Happy summer travels!

THANKS AGAIN to all of you who attended. I enjoyed meeting and seeing everyone.

GOD BLESS AND SAFE TRAVELS.

[cbr046]

First time attendee here and it was FILLED with great information. 

Tip of the visor to Chris Throgmartin, Bethany & Dustin for their inspections and identifying an issue (leak!) that could have cost thousands down the road. 

The ladies breakout session came away with some great ideas also.  Tips on travel apps, places to visit, experiences.

On the way home I was very cognizant of how the RR8R chassis stayed planted in the lane (not much wind), much better than the drive down with heavy cross-winds.  We're a good candidate for the Watts Link, now that we know what it is and what it can do!

Lazy Days, as cramped together as the sites were, was much quieter than the spacious state park we overnighted at on the way home.  Different crowd!

And let's not forget what our coaches are for - to entertain our furry friends.

- bob & anita

[Martinvz]

Dave, 

We were also newbies and thoroughly enjoyed the gathering. Thanks to you and your helpers for all the effort to arrange the gathering, all the topics and moderating the sessions.

Well Done and see you next year.

Martin & Dina van Zyl

[FireFish]

This was Doug and my (Nicki) first time and we LOVED it. The information as well as meeting new friends was great. I came to almost all the sessions and took my own notes too. 
 

The breakout session on Saturday was informative as well. Thank you to Exit10 for allowing us to use the space while they had not opened yet. 
 

We are hoping to attend next year. 

[miacasa_2000]

Dave 

All I can add is a heartfelt thank you to you and all the others that made it happen. I also would like to thank the other Monacoers that attended it was nice to see the faces of people I have spoken to on this site and to make new friends. 

Roy Mercier  Cape May, NJ

2003 Dynasty

[Guest rangerboat]

Dave

Sincere thanks to you and all who contributed. It was our first time to a rally and it exceeded our expectations. Meeting new friends and, learning new things...it was great! We look forward to being invited next year.

Best wishes to all

Malcolm & Barbara, Vero Beach, FL

2004 Dynasty

[Bill R]

Dave,

As a new owner I had other commitments during this event, but rest assured, as soon as you publish 2023 dates, it will go on my calendar.  Too much great information for a Monacoer to miss!!

[tmw188]

Edit, wrong thread.

Edited March 10, 2022 by tmw188

[David Pratt]

The Cummins Rep explained that the two year rule should be used if you do not have a working Air Filter Minder. He also explained that if your Air Filter Minder is working properly that when the red line appears and shows it is time to replace the air filter that you should reset the Filter Minder and replace the air filter when the red line appears again.

Another recommendation was; that you never remove the air filter and blow it out to clean it and reinstall it. You must replace it and make sure you wipe down the inside if the air filter housing with a damp towel to remove any dust or dirt before installing a new filter.

This has been every Cummins Rep's position at every Gathering in the past 10 years.

[tmw188]

I like hearing that but it also has been advised at two yrs because of age. 

[Hubert wells]

I’m sorry I missed the gathering , I'm a new member and didn’t know about It. I would love to attend the next one. Sounds like a lot of good information for a fairly new RV owner.

[FLynes]

I’d love to go, but it doesn’t sound like there were any seminars for those of us with the Workhorse chassis.

[cbr046]

11 hours ago, FLynes said:

I’d love to go, but it doesn’t sound like there were any seminars for those of us with the Workhorse chassis.

I wouldn't let that stop me.  There were plenty of seminars on coach care, cleaning, tire safety, fire safety, cooking (almost - chef had to bail), body repair . . . I'm sure I'm forgetting a few.  Every year is a little different.  Plus there are open sessions where you can play stump the chumps.  Very informal but the information is priceless, even if you have a gasser. 

- bob

[FLynes]

2 hours ago, cbr046 said:

I wouldn't let that stop me.  There were plenty of seminars on coach care, cleaning, tire safety, fire safety, cooking (almost - chef had to bail), body repair . . . I'm sure I'm forgetting a few.  Every year is a little different.  Plus there are open sessions where you can play stump the chumps.  Very informal but the information is priceless, even if you have a gasser. 

- bob

Add in a few Workhorse classes and I bet there would be a lot more people attending.

[Martinvz]

Looks like we may have to create our own breakout session at the next gathering. Either way I need some backup at the gathering as I was somewhat lonely there.

How about it?

[FLynes]

16 minutes ago, Martinvz said:

Looks like we may have to create our own breakout session at the next gathering. Either way I need some backup at the gathering as I was somewhat lonely there.

How about it?

I think it's a great idea. What would be awesome would be to get Jon Brazel, or someone who was a Workhorse factory guru, to give a class on our chassis, maintenance tips and what can be done to improve it....I bought the upgraded ECM & TCM, as well as the Safe-T-Plus front steering stabilizer and the TigerTrak rear stabilizer...I have yet to install the latter two, but I'm looking forward to seeing the results. My understanding is that Workhorse doesn't acknowledge the W-series chassis anymore, much like REV doesn't acknowledge pre-'09 coaches...the last time I called REV, I was told that that was a different Monaco company, and they have no information to give on those coaches.

The other factor to consider is next year's location vs the price of fuel. Two years ago we would have paid less than $150 to fill up from completely empty; the last time we filled up (Costco) I had just under 1/2 tank and it cost us $210. It's not that we can't afford it, it just pains me, every time we go to the pump, to see those numbers. I just read an article this morning stating that the CPI is now at +9.1%. Fuel itself was up 59.9%.

[Martinvz]

I feel your pain and we experienced the increasing prices on our trip (we just got back from 6 months on the road). When we left the price for gasoline was $2.19 and it has more than doubled since then. Costco pumps stop at $250 and yes, we encountered that. I am just glad I am not paying diesel prices. 😎

We will be in FL for the winter months and have a 90 min drive to Lazydays, so not a big incremental cost.

Our first upgrade was a Trackbar and it has made a big difference. Adding a Safe-T-Plus further improved the handling. White knuckles are not frequently needed but constant steering adjustment still remains. 

I will send you a PM to connect.

[FLynes]

38 minutes ago, Martinvz said:

I feel your pain and we experienced the increasing prices on our trip (we just got back from 6 months on the road). When we left the price for gasoline was $2.19 and it has more than doubled since then. Costco pumps stop at $250 and yes, we encountered that. I am just glad I am not paying diesel prices. 😎

We will be in FL for the winter months and have a 90 min drive to Lazydays, so not a big incremental cost.

Our first upgrade was a Trackbar and it has made a big difference. Adding a Safe-T-Plus further improved the handling. White knuckles are not frequently needed but constant steering adjustment still remains. 

I will send you a PM to connect.

Costco here in ID cuts you off at $100, which was a real pain in the butt for the people behind us.