Bilsteins and More (a little long)

[ziaptrn]

Just thought I’d share some recent information:

I’m the guy with the squeaking furnace fan, rough ride, and cracked windshield.

Furnace: Atwood 8535-IV was squealing loud all the time, and I asked about lubricating bearings. Answer: not possible. The bearings are sealed inside the electric motor. So I pulled the old motor, replaced it with new and also replaced the sail switch which looked bent/funky. Now all works beautifully, although there is slightly less air volume moved (at least it seems that way to me).

Next tackled was the extreme roughness/jarring when driving over bad road surfaces. First I adjusted the ride height to Monaco specs, and that helped a lot. Yesterday, I finally finished putting the last of 8 of the Bilstein re-valved shocks (BE5-F627-HD) on. WOW what a difference. Drives like a dream, and handles amazingly. The coach has 60k miles, and I removed what appeared to be the original Monroes.

Removal of the front shocks was no easy task; 1 bolt (grade 8 stainless) actually stripped inside the nut itself, so I ended up getting a nut splitter to remove the nut and then pull the bolt. (I went through about 3 hacksaw blades trying to cut the bolt before I shifted tactics.) Next, the upper shock mounts on all 4 fronts needed a little filing to allow the new shocks to be placed; seems all that jarring slightly deformed the outermost edges enough that the new shocks couldn’t slide on. The rears were a dream to replace with no problems whatsoever.

Now she drives like I imagine she did when new! The whole coach is even quieter than before, and the ride improvement is noticeable in all aspects: not just rough road, but curves, turning, and vertical movement.

We did go with the Bilsteins mostly because of the expense of the Konis which everyone seems to love. Total cost for 8 shocks delivered was 680.00 plus 2 weeks of my labor (!) Couldn’t be happier. Coach now drives as smoothly as the Spartan 4-bag chassis which she replaced, only handles much better with an almost sports-car feel. Love it!

Now that the shocks are replaced and the ride not jarring, the passenger side windshield (which developed a stress fracture on our last trip) is next on the list.

Hope this isn’t too long-winded; I just wanted to share experiences in case it may help someone else...

Happy RVing...

John Scarbrough
00 Diplomat 36B

[motojavaphil]

John,
I have to hand it to you climbing under the beast and doing the surgery. I had my shocks replaced, went with Koni's, and it did cost me more for sure. MH's are new to me so I just did not want to get in there. Later I climbed under the rig and it looks pretty straight forward for replacement. Have you had to do any alignment since you did this? The ride for me was night and day. We eventually had motion control valves installed by Redlands which was the final piece to our handling puzzle.
Good luck with the windshield!
Moto

[Diplomat Don]

ziaprtn.....Good job......I learned how to adjust my ride height and it solved a couple of problems, improved ride and height at my hitch. I put the Koni's on for the same reason as you...JARRING ride. That was a couple fo years ago. Two months ago, I had to change the front tires because of a sidewall separation. I had the coach aligned.....that was also a huge difference.....tracks sooooo much better. I had it four wheel aligned.

[Robin_M]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ziaptrn Now she drives like I imagine she did when new!

Nope. Now she drives remarkably BETTER than she did when new. The Monroe shocks are terrible. And I agree with Moto... Kudos to you for tackling that job and sticking with it.

[ziaptrn]

Thanks for the support, guys.

It started off sounding like 'fun' and then became more like a personal vendetta! The front bolt that was stripped was a bear, and produced quite a few choice words before the cry of victory.

We had the rig front-end aligned soon after purchase, and that helped with handling from the get-go. I called Monaco today with some other questions (where is the hydraulic jack fluid reservoir, should I have the rig re-aligned, and what do you do if the ride height is maxxed out but still 1/4" shy of specs?)

Answers:

1. Under the left rear
2. No need to re-align just due to shock absorber change
3. Don't worry about 1/4" off ride height.

I have the adjusters all the way 'high', and both front and rear are still 1/4" short. There are adjustment holes where the rods can be shortened and go lower, but not higher. Monaco says that so long as both are 1/4" low that the drive shaft angle should be fine, and don't worry about it.

Now I'm ready to hit the road and planning our next trip to really try everything out.

John

[chirohand]

I have read alot of the threads mention ride height. How would I find the correct ride height for my MH? It is a HR Endeavor 2007 PDQ. How do I make the correct measurements to check it? I learn so much from these threads. They are great! Thanks again.

Scott and Jo
Almost Heaven West Virginia
but i am glad I am in Florida

[ziaptrn]

Here are the written instructions from Monaco.

Each coach has different values, so it's best to call Monaco to get the specs for each coach.

It's really easy to do, and makes even more sense once you crawl under and have a look :-)

JS

[chirohand]

Thanks Ziaptrn, this will help a lot.

Scott and Jo