jimkate

I put new Dunlop tires on our coach in the fall of 2009. They have been excellent tires. I will have to change them out in another year or so. To date, they have about 30,000 miles on them and they still look exactly like brand new tires. Last fall we had a road event that damaged a front tire. We switched both front tires out for new Bridgestone tires. They too seem to be excellent tires. If you're thinking Dunlop, do check the GVWR of your axles and check the weight carrying capacity of the tires. Dunlop's load rate G has a little higher weight carrying capacity than some. It was absolutely fine for our coach. It may be for yours too. Jim Sanderson 1995 Monaco Dynasty 36' 2005 Honda Pilot Canada, eh?

Over the last two or three years, I have replaced all the original fluorescent tubes in our coach. Which, considering the age, isn't so bad. Now I'm thinking it's too bad I had not thought of LEDs. O well. Jim Sanderson 1995 Monaco Dynasty 36' 2005 Honda Pilot Canada, eh?

I'm sorry that I don't have any suggestions for you how to fix the Norcold. I don't agree that Norcolds are superior to others, but that's my personal view. Others my differ. From my own experience, I can only offer my opinion for you to exercise caution when spending money on the Norcold. It can be easy to spend a tremendous amount of money on it, and still not have a properly working fridge Another issue; have the safety recalls been performed on the Norcold? Another option is to install a residential fridge. To do that, there are considerations such as Modified Sine Wave Inverter or Pure Sine Wave Inverter, and the size of the house battery bank. Jim .

Boy, that looks great! Any chance you can ship it to me? Jim

Ray, Good catch. It seems that the folks at Monaco were doing that for a long, long time. Our much older coach had exactly the same problem. Ours was easier to fix because we have no slides. By your pictures, I say, 'Good work'. Jim

I wouldn't put up with this. I would package everything up and send it back to TST for examination, repair, replacement or refund. I have never believed that my TST system was perfect, but I have been impressed with the folks at TST to try to support their product. I do believe it is wise to have a tire pressure monitoring system, irregardless of brand. Jim

I empathize with all the thoughts about the inaccuracies of tire pressure monitoring systems. I have used a TST system for several years, and have not felt that I was totally happy most of the time. Finally I sent the system back for examination, repair or replacement. I received the system back from TST the morning we were hitting the road. I'm an old diesel mechanic, driven truck for years, so I thought 'I'll set this up tonight.' I walked around, checked all the tire pressures and we hit the road. We stopped twice that day. Each time I checked the tires and the bearings with my hand. All was good. All was cool. Late in the day we decided to pull into a truck stop for the night. As we stepped down from the coach, the front tire was flat! Not only flat, the bead was broken from the rim, and the rim had been running on the tire sidewalls! You could have knocked me out with a feather! I had not felt any change in the handling of the coach. The last half hour on the highway, we were floating along at 65 MPH. Oh boy! Fortunately the truck stop also sold and serviced truck tires. With my wallet a bit lighter, the next morning we drove away from the truck stop with new steer tires installed and balanced. The friendly tire man helped me to install the tire pressure monitoring sensors. He thought that it would be a good idea to keep the sensors on the wheels. I agree. Jim

I agree that we should not stray off the topic of this thread, which is a discussion about the new Holiday Rambler Ambassador. Jim

I found the solution to the wandering problems for my coach here: http://www.irv2.com/forums/f115/wandering-sway-bars-alignment-ride-height-oh-my-124491.html Jim

Opinions will abound. My propane air cooled generator does not have a block heater. When I wake up in the morning, the batteries need charging, it's cold outside, oh what the heck, I push the start button. When the Onan starts, it immediately runs at full governed speed. I expect it to start in the cold and begin to work at full capacity within a minute or two, and do it well for a couple of hours. Then I will shut it off until the next cold morning. I use 10W30 car oil. Jim

I'm not complaining about the demise of the Roadmaster Chassis, because it has taken until this past year to discover why so many of the 8 bag Roadmaster chassis have had wandering issues, right out of the factory. It's great that the reason has finally been found, and wonderful for anyone purchasing an older Roadmaster chassis coach today, because they can easily and affordably modify their coach to be one of the absolute best handling coaches on the road. It's unfortunate that the solution didn't come from Monaco or Roadmaster themselves, and disturbing that so many folks that bought brand new Monaco and Holiday Rambler coaches relied on Monaco and Roadmaster for solutions received no help at all. Having said that. Even considering the shortcomings, the Roadmaster (ie. Chrsyler, ie. Belguim bus) chassis was years ahead of its time. It is unfortunate that it has been destroyed. Someday, it may be realized that the basic tenants of design of the Roadmaster chassis are superior to much of what will continue to be used on the road for many years to come. But, I believe it's a sign of the times. Profit is the only bottom line. Very few customers care about semi-monocoque chassis. It's all about fancy and glitz. Talk about floor plan. It doesn't matter what's underneath the floor. So. I agree with all opinions thus far. The new Monaco Dynasty is an American Eagle with different decals. Please understand, I'm not knocking the American Eagle. It's a fine coach. It has always been a fine coach body built upon a Freightliner chassis. It has never been a proprietary semi-monocoque chassis that some expect to be able to have when they buy a Monaco Dynasty. I think that the new Holiday Rambler Ambassador is a price point marketing stategy on a Freightliner chassis. I think the manufacturer is assuming that the new generation wants a coach for the occassional weekend holiday a few short miles from home, and possibly the occasional trip. Again, focus on the floorplan, and don't talk about the chassis. I think there will be a few of our older generation that will search for quality coaches on proprietary chassis. I suspect that the manufacturers believe that the next generation of purchasers don't care about details. They just want the fancy and the glitz. I believe that eventually the next generation of purchasers are in for a bit of a surprise, and the suppliers to that generation are in for a wake up call. While the purchasers are only concerned about the glitz, they are assuming that the quality is already there, and won't put up with surprises. They have been trained by the evolution in the automotive industry. The RV manufacturers are waking up to supplying the glitz, but so far they don't have a clue regarding the quality. I'm not trying to argue here. I'm just sharing my opinions. Jim

When we bought our coach about 8 years ago, it came with the FMCA 206229 goose egg on the back door. The PO had done a great job of mounting it on the rear engine grill. After we repainted the rig, we removed the old goose egg and simply mounted FMCA 407500 in its place. It looks like it has always been there. I've sometimes wondered about somehow letting FMCA member 206229 know that their coach is still being babied and appreciated, but a lot of years have gone by. Jim

To Ehoger, If you want to find out why your 2013 Roadmaster 8 air bag chassis motor coach is wandering, I am confident you will find a solution if you join the conversation here: http://www.irv2.com/...-my-124491.html Jim Sanderson

It is a confirmed fact that some of the coaches built on the 8 air bag Roadmaster chassis have serious wandering problems. It has been proven to be caused by an inadequate design of the trailing arms and panhard rods that maintain the position of the H frames within the chassis frame. In addition, many of these chassis were fitted with inferior suspension bushings at the factory. New design aftermarket bushings have recently been produced to address this issue. As per the threads in irv2, trailing arm cross braces have been designed by Van Williams and have been installed in many coaches with resounding success. Van Williams has since designed an additional improvement in the form of a Watts link to further stabilize the positioning control of the H frames. It is also a confirmed fact that the Sheppard steering boxes have produced a wandering problem in that most of those steering boxes have too much steering wheel free play, and the boxes are not adjustable. Some owners of Roadmaster chassis coaches have found that switching over to the TRW steering boxes solves this problem. My coach was a road wild, uncontrollable wandering all over the road white knuckle beast. None of the standard approaches such as alignment, ride height, etc. had any influence whatsoever on solving the nightmare. The new design suspension bushings and Van Williams rear trailing arm braces changed our coach into what I believe is now one of the finest handling and riding coaches on the road today. Jim Sanderson 1995 Monaco Dynasty 36' Canada, eh?

Our local tire dealer(s) can sell any tire that has decent looking sidewalls and a reasonable amount of tread, irregardless of age, for gravel hauling trailers at a price of $150.00 per tire. The demand is greater than the supply. Jim