peepafox

To All: Moving the contactor to outside the battery box will not solve the problem. I have replaced at lease six of those relays for the problem you just discribed. The problem is that most of the time the contactor is connected very little current is flowing (both sets of batteries are charged) and the contacts then corrode. The corrsion also is generated each time the contact make contact. The better solution is to replace the contactor with one that has silver coated conatcts. They are a little more expensive. An example is the Bear Family 12 volt Contactor PN 114-1211-0200. It can be purchased from Mur Cal Inc sales@murcal.com Price is approximately $33 plus tax and shipping. Telephone 661-272-4700 Larry Fox Monaco 04 windsor

George: When the tempature is low and the 50-amp cord is hard to retract, the reality is that you are not using the air conditioning units. Therefore a 15- or 20-amp circuit is all that is needed to keep the battery up and do all the standard tasks you do in the coach. This assumes you are not using electrical heaters; in that case, a heavy extention cord is all that is required to get power to the coach. It is much easier to coil up. We camp in tempatures down to about "0" F and have found that using the extention cord works better than messing with the 50-amp cable. Cheers Larry

All: I have been reading what Wolfe states on battery charging both coach and house. I would like to add my experiences on this subject. On my Monaco Windsor I have replaced the isolator relay (when it was under warranty) 4 times with the White-Rodgers solenoid PN 586-10511-3 12 volts continuous (Monaco supplied). The fault of these relays is that they would pull in when the relay coil was activated but the contact resistance was too high to connect the batteries as they were close in voltage so only low current would be flowing. Now that the warranty is over I replaced that relay with a Napa PN 85-120. It has been working correctly for about 18 months now. My coach system for activating the isolator relay is somewhat more complex that I have read in the forums. On the coach power control circuit board (located in a cabinet in front of the left front wheel there are two relays in series. The first is a time delay relay that activates about 60 seconds after the engine is running. This is to be sure that the alternator is charging the chassis batteries. In between it and the isolation relay is a second relay that in its normally closed position allows the first relay to active the isolation relay. This second relay is active when the generator or shore power is available and turns off the isolation relay so the inverter and alternator do not fight each other. Just to say that the isolation relay is subject to fail at conducting current between the two battery systems. Larry

Herman: My TDI is a reel and not the tub type. As it is a reel the cord was not in a birds nest. The problem was that the reel would not wind the cable back in under with it's motor. I had to wind the reel by hand to get the cable on the reel. The reel unit can be mounted to the floor of the coach and not on the floor of the storage compartment . This saves space in the storage compartment. I think that the tub type must be mounted on the floor of the storage compartment. Note: TDI web site is http://www.tdiproducts.com/ Larry

I have a 2004 Monaco Windsor coach and it has a power-driven, 50-amp cord storage reel. Over the New Year's camping trip I was in the process of rewinding the power cord back into the coach. It stopped winding in and all I could hear was the motor running. Now I had to hand wind the power cord on to the reel. That was not fun and If it had been cold it would have been less fun. I got it back on the reel by hand and we proceeded with our holiday travels. On returning home I looked for information on the reel. I had none and I could not see the label on the reel as there is not much space on ether side of it in the compartment it is installed in. I called Monaco and they said it was a TDA RV 5036 reel and not repairable. I then got on the internet and located TDA in Florida. The RV 5036 is no longer in there catalog so I called them. (1-904-242-0742) and they informed me that they had a gear replacemant Kit for less than $25. I was not sure that it was what I needed but for $25 I would take a chance so I ordered it and it came to me in 7 Days. So today Saturday Jan 16 I took on the task of repairing the reel. The real challange was getting it out of the coach. There is not much space to work in the compartment it is located in my coach and it is heavy (over 40 lbs. with the cord on it and over 20 lbs with the cord pulled off of it. The task of removing it was to disconnect the input feed wires that come out of the reel on a HEAVY and HARD to bend pegtail from the coach wirings. disconnecting was easy as all I had to do was loosen some wire nuts. I also had to disconnect the +12 volt motor drive leads. Remove 4 bolts from the top of the compartment and drop out the reel. It was not easy but not that hard. Installing the new gears was a simple task of drilling out 10 rivets and removing a cover and the old gears. Clean the area and install the new gears. (Yes the small sun gear had broken) on the motor shaft and grease the new gears. Reinstall the cover and 10 new rivets (supplied with the kit). Now the problem was to get this heavy reel assembly back in the compartment. I used a small hydrolic jack to lift it up so I could get it attached to the floor above. It is in and working as it should be but it took me about 6 hours but I think it saved myself about $1,000 if I paid to have replaced or repaired.

Brett: The axle PN and SN are located on it. It may take some cleaning to read them. The Part Number and SN on on my coach's front axle are as follows: Dana Axel PN E-1462W1462BN202-1 Axel SN HU00340643 Larry

Tom: I assume you have the same brakes. I have not seen that problem on any post so I guess the failure is rare. You do not want to know the cost. I replaced rotors and brake pads on both front wheels so I had a matching set. The lining on the old pads was above 80 % on both wheels and that was after the near fire on the left one. I just wanted all new on both wheels. Cost was about $2500 for parts and $1500 labor. We are now up and running and have put over 1200 miles and all is OK. Cheers, Larry

I have a Monaco 2004 Windsor Coach. It is equiped with Air Brakes and the front axle brakes are disc type. I had the caliper on the left front wheel start to drag and create excessive heat that caused the disc to get so hot that it looked like it had just come out of the foundry furnace. The drag was not sufficient to cause the steering wheel to pull to the left. I had the coach pulled in to a large truck repair facility. They found that the left caliper was the fault. Now the problem was to identify the PNs for new parts. That is normally done by the axle PN and SN. This was Dana on my coach so the Parts Manager called Dana with the Axle PN and SN and was told that the SN was not a Dana SN. Note: The PNs are not on the brake parts. On the caliper was the manufactor name (Spicer). In approxmitaly 2005 Dana, Spicer and Bendix formed an LCC with all brake parts to be supplied by Bendix with Bendix PNs. Monaco did not have the brake items PNs, as they purchase a complete axle assembly from Dana and that contains the brake sub assemblies. They had supplied me with the axel PN and SN on my coach. Below are the PNs for the normally needed brake items: Caliper Bendix PN is K022919, Note: is reversible will work on left or right wheel. Rotor Disc Webb PN is 59173B, Note: Webb will not sell the disc to anyone except Bendix. Rotor Disc Bendix PN is 977699 Disc Pads Bendix PN is 328863, Two per kit one wheel only Seal Chicago Rawhide PN CR35058 On edit, by Moderator: For those who might print/save this for their later reference, here are the axle identification numbers so others will know if these brake component part numbers are relevant for them (see Larry's post below). Still safest to contact your axle manufacturer with YOUR axle serial number to verify the correct parts for your axle. Brett Wolfe: The axle PN and SN are located on it. It may take some cleaning to read them. The Part Number and SN on on my coach's front axle are as follows: Dana Axle PN E-1462W1462BN202-1 Axle SN HU00340643