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1st Voyage in My preowned Coach - Monaco Executive


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Thanks again for all the great support pre purchase. 

Did our maiden voyage 2093 miles. From Boise,ID to Pahrump, NV onward to Bay Area, Calif. And back through Reno, NV back to Idaho. Pulling our Bronco with out issue. And an average of 6mpg. Might have been able to stretch it  a bit more but got a little throttle heavy at times. 

Only had a couple minor issue, Sani Switch broke fixed on the road, Passenger visor mount broke. Fix that too on the road reenforced it mounting bracket. And a couple of plastic latches to repair. 

Overall very happy with my purchase and the quality of our Coach. Look forward to more adventurs to come. 

Note: I need to order headlights and change out to LED. Night driving was horrible. I will be checking peoples posts on Headlights, Fog light upgrades to LED. And see what kinda of replacement Back up camera i can put in. 

I was thinking about putting in side view cameras. But the mirrors on the Coach are Perfect minus the chrome bubbling. Not sure i need any side cameras. 

 

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Congrats on the first trip.  I too bought a new to me Executive and made a trip down to Talledega (3 hours 1 way).  No real issues either, but always something to work on or upgrade.  Anyone have a source for a "bra" for the front?  I have a large number of rock chips in the front paint that I'm repairing and would like to investigate something to add a little protection.  I'm thinking the front may have been painted, so they may have not used enough clear coat, etc to prevent it from knocking the paint off.... or the previous owner did a lot of gravel roads??? 

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Don't waste your time and money on side cameras. They are totally useless versus using the mirrors. Unless you have a DVD recorder hooked to the side cameras recording video ALL the time in case of an accident, then they can substantiate your claim, etc. Using them in lieu of the mirrors takes your eyes away from the road versus using the mirrors.

I try NOT to drive at night unless it is absolutely necessary. The headlights on my previous Windsor were totally useless. The ones on my Dynasty are better but I think most of the headlights on the older Monaco's were not that great.

JMHO

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Wow that is great news happy to hear that you are out and enjoying it already I hope you have hundreds of thousands of miles of TFT. Headlight Depot has a set of replacement headlights that would look really good on your coach with that black stripe on the front. I thought about putting them on my 06 but it is really light on the bottom and not sure how it would look on mine.

Headlight Pair Fits Monaco Executive 2005-2009 Motorhome RV Left and Right Black Halogen Headlights Pair (headlightsdepot.com)

I would suggest that if you are only interested in changing bulbs that you do the LED and do local night drive before you head back out for a long trip, not all headlight bodies are designed to use LED and will just cause a large aura of light right in front of the coach and will not project the light forward nearly as much as the Halogen even though the halogen are not great they can be better than LED in some cases.

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Beautiful coach.

I'd recommend updating your headlights with a quality LED kit.  If the original headlight lenses are yellowed, I'd replace them. 

Then convert your fog lights to driving lights.  The fog lights are currently wired to only work with low beams, so you'll need to locate the relay and rewire it.  

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When buying headlight assemblies from our “friends” in Asia, buy from a seller that takes returns.

I have replaced my lights a few times and even buying Dorman brand through Amazon have had quality issues. Inspect your lights upon receiving them. If the low beam reflector guard is not correct, you will never be able to achieve a decent projection pattern.

 

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I do drive at night and yes the stock headlights suck. Just replacing the bulbs with LED isn’t going to do much other than blind oncoming traffic. Need a projector headlight designed for the LED bulb provided.

I experimented with several different LED spot lights and the below were by far the best plus they are adjustable in all 3 axises… need for the curved front. Mounted next to the mirror bases for a better angle downward. Added a foot switch to control them,

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Thanks for all the feedback. 

 

CSS nice setup as well. I have ordered the black headlamps and look forward to see how it plays with the color theme black band. I will look into the Fog lamp replacements. 

I have already replaced all close to 50 little puck lights to LED. That is a HUGE wattage savings for sure. 

I noticed on your signature tag you are running solar. I was going through the wiring diagrams and see that their might be a chase way near the Refrigerator vent. Are you using the stock inverter? Mine is Xantrex which i think will take solar inputs from what i have read so far. Interested in what you have for Solar? We use a lot of Victron which i really like. 

Do you have a photo of the front of your Coach what the leds fog lights look like?

 

 

Edited by MJ.STIGER
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Paul, I understand exactly what you mean.  I have two front slides and they really do add a lot of interior space, but getting to the storage is a real challenge.  The worst thing is that the compartments are to short for a cooler to fit in to. 

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When we owned the 02 Windsor with the PBT Floor-plan, getting to the two large pass-through storage bay trays when the slides were out was always a hassle.

Don't miss that at all.

Love the 06 Dynasty Countess III Floor-plan with the side opening bay doors. One bay has a full size storage slide that will travel in either direction. The second bay has a full size custom storage slide that extends the full distance in one direction (to the curbside) which allows you to retrieve everything stored in the slide tray.

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Guest Ray Davis
1 hour ago, Dr4Film said:

Love the 06 Dynasty Countess III Floor-plan with the side opening bay doors.

We have been very happy with our 03 Windsor but the side-opening bay doors are one thing I wish I had realized would have made life so much easier.

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Replaced the Headlights on the Executive today.  Ordered from Headlights.com Perfect Fit. Since i have the black band in front i went with the black ones. After all said and done it looks fantastic. I feel like when you look at the coach dead on it makes it seem like a newer coach by about 5-10 years. 

Will have to update you all upon a night time run. 

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I'm on the "no need for side cameras" team.

Also when changing the headlights, be aware of blinding oncoming drivers...

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MJ,

Nice looking headlights!  Sending the requested night pics of the driving lights.  The outer diameter of the new lights are slightly less than the openings, so I had cut an 1/8" black rubber to fill the gap.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JH6PWL3/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Regards!

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On 5/27/2023 at 12:22 AM, MJ.STIGER said:

Replaced the Headlights on the Executive today.  Ordered from Headlights.com Perfect Fit. Since i have the black band in front i went with the black ones. After all said and done it looks fantastic. I feel like when you look at the coach dead on it makes it seem like a newer coach by about 5-10 years. 

Will have to update you all upon a night time run. 

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If you have an opportunity some time could you post some close-up photos of you headlight conversion and let us know if you had any issues with the installation.  I have looked at those lights before but have wondered about the quality.  I have a twin to your coach 🙂

 

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Mike i have these photos. The swap out was pretty easy todo. The toughest was getting to the screw that holds the top of the bracket. 

Quality seems to be good thus far. Have yet to hit any night time view with it. But soon enough i will get some night shots. 

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