Jump to content

Frame broken?? and dashboard now loose, stairs in their housing shifting


Recommended Posts

I posted on the forum last February 12, (https://www.monacoers.org/topic/3917-coach-frame-maybe-shifting/#comment-34478) and got some good replies about my problem.  5,000 miles later I still haven’t fixed the issue, but the issue remains and the truck body shop I asked to repair it can’t see anything broken so far, so they are kinda stumped.  So I thought I would describe the issue again after driving 5000 miles with it, and ask any further thoughts.  The issue is:

 I heard a loud bang under the steps while driving my 2005 38” Holiday Rambler Scepter.  I did not see anything in the road to run over and get thrown up against the coach (rock, etc), but that could have happened.  We pulled over but could see nothing wrong, so we kept going.  About 10 miles later, we camped for two nights (dumped air, leveled the coach.)  We then drove another hour and camped for another night, once again dumping air and leveling. The next day after driving 5 miles and getting on an interstate, we noticed the whole right side of the dash vibrated and squeaked, and it appeared it had pulled away a bit from the side wall.  The dash stopped squeaking when my wife kept pressure on it with her feet.  We camped after about 90 minutes.  Then we noticed the step well had pulled away from the side of the coach maybe 1/8” to ¼”.  It was like the stairwell was moving a little. Then, a day later, we noticed with air dumped and looking down in the stairwell, we could see daylight along the new opening by the front stair well (see photos in above URL).  (But we could have just not noticed the gap and daylight earlier.)  After driving 5,000 more miles, nothing visible has gotten any worse.

The outdoor generator compartment door now has a wider gap on the curb side.  I can’t see anything broken from underneath or from the generator opening.

I did not notice any difference in ride when the bang happened so I don’t think it was an air bag.  They feel firm when pumped up and I don’t hear any leak.  Also, when pumped up, the visible gap between the coach outside wall and stairwell is half the width it was when the coach air was dumped (it got narrower when pumped up).  I don’t know if this is still true after driving 5,000 miles since the event. 

The main suggestions I got last February were broken body struts (can’t see any), have the entire frame and all attachments checked (so far no one has found any breaks), Question asked was "Do you have one centre jack? It looks like the generator housing assembly may be where the issue is." (Needs further examination), and removing the door frame to look for broken welds.  (Great suggestion, to be further examined.)  The body shop plans to get serious about fixing the issue next week, so I thought I would see if anyone had other suggestions.  Photos of the issue are on , (https://www.monacoers.org/topic/3917-coach-frame-maybe-shifting/#comment-34478).

Dave Jones

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...