Community Forums

wade1and2 · 10-06-2015, 06:47 AM

2006 MONACO Dynasty Diamond II 42' Quad Slide - The Bus Stop!
I have posted a number of times about this coach and have gotten wonderful advice. This is a first for myself and husband. We will be FT as he travels as an insurance adjuster.
We have not personally seen this coach yet, we have been researching, going to dealerships and looking at online sites and believe this to be a good coach for us.
Questions: how reliable in general are independent inspections?
www.flrvinspectors.com is who we are using. I have seen nothing but positive about them.
I have spoken to the inspector a number of times explaining how we will use this coach and our experience with them...NONE!
I told him some of our biggest concerns were the Cummings ISL 400 engine and the recall. Tires, radiator...etc. I received that info from this forum, THANKS.
Anything else that we should look for when the report comes back?

We put a deposit on it to "hold" the coach and plan on seeing it and purchasing it this coming Friday.

Husband is flying in town Fri. and we will drive, inspect ourselves and hopefully purchase it. He has about a week here before we will go to his job sight in NY and live in it until January.
Thanks,
Mrs. wade1and2

Steve Ownby · 10-06-2015, 06:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wade1and2

2006 MONACO Dynasty Diamond II 42' Quad Slide - The Bus Stop!

I have posted a number of times about this coach and have gotten wonderful advice. This is a first for myself and husband. We will be FT as he travels as an insurance adjuster.

We have not personally seen this coach yet, we have been researching, going to dealerships and looking at online sites and believe this to be a good coach for us.

Questions: how reliable in general are independent inspections?

www.flrvinspectors.com is who we are using. I have seen nothing but positive about them.

I have spoken to the inspector a number of times explaining how we will use this coach and our experience with them...NONE!

I told him some of our biggest concerns were the Cummings ISL 400 engine and the recall. Tires, radiator...etc. I received that info from this forum, THANKS.

Anything else that we should look for when the report comes back?

We put a deposit on it to "hold" the coach and plan on seeing it and purchasing it this coming Friday.

Husband is flying in town Fri. and we will drive, inspect ourselves and hopefully purchase it. He has about a week here before we will go to his job sight in NY and live in it until January.

Thanks,

Mrs. wade1and2

Make sure the AquaHot is thoroughly tested. These are wonderful, reliable and generally transparent systems, but a failure of the boiler tank is a $10,000 experience. The most common mode of failure is inadequate winterizing and the fresh water loop inside the boiler tank splitting. It's not field repairable.

If you don't mine saying, who is the dealer? You have a number of mega dealers in the area.

Steve Ownby
Full time since '07

dadej · 10-06-2015, 07:01 AM

When you drive it don't go just 20 miles like I did in July. It took mine 100 miles before the voltage started doing crazy things. Good luck and take your time.

Dan

wade1and2 · 10-06-2015, 07:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve Ownby

Make sure the AquaHot is thoroughly tested. These are wonderful, reliable and generally transparent systems, but a failure of the boiler tank is a $10,000 experience. The most common mode of failure is inadequate winterizing and the fresh water loop inside the boiler tank splitting. It's not field repairable.

If you don't mine saying, who is the dealer? You have a number of mega dealers in the area.

Steve Ownby
Full time since '07

I did send an email to him yesterday and included the aqua hot on my list of "very important" items. Again, I never would have information on these issues without feedback from all of you iRV members.
Thanks!
Debby

sbleiweiss · 10-06-2015, 07:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wade1and2

2006 MONACO Dynasty Diamond II 42' Quad Slide - The Bus Stop!
I have posted a number of times about this coach and have gotten wonderful advice. This is a first for myself and husband. We will be FT as he travels as an insurance adjuster.
We have not personally seen this coach yet, we have been researching, going to dealerships and looking at online sites and believe this to be a good coach for us.
Questions: how reliable in general are independent inspections?
www.flrvinspectors.com is who we are using. I have seen nothing but positive about them.
I have spoken to the inspector a number of times explaining how we will use this coach and our experience with them...NONE!
I told him some of our biggest concerns were the Cummings ISL 400 engine and the recall. Tires, radiator...etc. I received that info from this forum, THANKS.
Anything else that we should look for when the report comes back?

We put a deposit on it to "hold" the coach and plan on seeing it and purchasing it this coming Friday.

Husband is flying in town Fri. and we will drive, inspect ourselves and hopefully purchase it. He has about a week here before we will go to his job sight in NY and live in it until January.
Thanks,
Mrs. wade1and2

If you have no experience RVing and are headed to FT in NY until January I just have to ask. Are you going to live in it dry and winterized? You will have a lot of water problems in NY winters wet.

wade1and2 · 10-06-2015, 07:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wade1and2

I did send an email to him yesterday and included the aqua hot on my list of "very important" items. Again, I never would have information on these issues without feedback from all of you iRV members.
Thanks!
Debby

Here is the link, it is really not at a dealer, it is at a high end motor coach customization company called "The Bus Stop, LLC".
2006 MONACO Dynasty Diamond II 42' Quad Slide - The Bus Stop!
We did go to many dealers down here looking, RVT.com & RVtrader.com were the sites that we found it on and did comparisons for the last 6 mos.
We would have rather found an individual but thought that this was an good price for this particular coach.

Twomed · 10-06-2015, 07:43 AM

http://www.irv2.com/forums/f278/ente...em-120941.html

Print out the PDI checklists and check these items yourself as well as checking your inspector and you should be in pretty good shape. The more eyes looking at stuff the better.

wade1and2 · 10-06-2015, 07:43 AM

sbleiweiss,
Exactly!! We are hoping to find a place w full hookups. It makes not be possible. Currently I am staying at our home in Naples, Fl. Without him. He will be relocated the first of January to the south. We decided that FT in a Motorhome would allow us to be together over the next couple of years. We have three small dogs that will be with us, that makes it difficult to find a short term place to live while he is deployed.
We may be fooling ourselves and started to discuss this last night. Do you have any knowledge of winter camping? We are researching as much as possible on the subject....this coach seems that it would be able to do the job if it is possible...
Would love any advice that you might have.
We know that we need heated hoses, heaters in the bay's, electronic temp monitoring of all and insulation of any exposed lines.

Steve Ownby · 10-06-2015, 08:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sbleiweiss

If you have no experience RVing and are headed to FT in NY until January I just have to ask. Are you going to live in it dry and winterized? You will have a lot of water problems in NY winters wet.

I have lived in my Monaco in temps down to zero with no issues. It is best to park with as small a % of "bio diesel" in the tank as possible and add some anti gell additive. The AquaHot burner doesn't like bio when the temp is in the teens or below.

Steve Ownby
Full time since '07

wade1and2 · 10-06-2015, 08:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve Ownby

I have lived in my Monaco in temps down to zero with no issues. It is best to park with as small a % of "bio diesel" in the tank as possible and add some anti gell additive. The AquaHot burner doesn't like bio when the temp is in the teens or below.

Steve Ownby
Full time since '07

Steve, with your experience, do you think we can attempt living in this RV for the next three months? My will definitely be cold, we are going into this thinking that this coach would be able to handle the cold. Are we crazy? We have been married for 29 yrs. and don't want to be separated any longer...it has been almost 4 mos.
This seems like a great option for us. He will be deployed after December to either Atlanta or Florida.
The dogs are a must for us, also having a place of our own.

Steve Ownby · 10-06-2015, 08:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wade1and2

Steve, with your experience, do you think we can attempt living in this RV for the next three months? My will definitely be cold, we are going into this thinking that this coach would be able to handle the cold. Are we crazy? We have been married for 29 yrs. and don't want to be separated any longer...it has been almost 4 mos.
This seems like a great option for us. He will be deployed after December to either Atlanta or Florida.
The dogs are a must for us, also having a place of our own.

These high end Monaco's are built like tanks and are well insulated. The heat pumps will heat the coach down to around 38. The AquaHot will heat the coach to below zero. The diesel burner must run which was the reason for my caveat about bio diesel. The AquaHot doesn't burn cleanly with bio diesel in low temps. If you start with an AquaHot that's running cleanly and add a big dose of anti gell, it will be ok.

We've been married 33 years this month and have been retired and together 24/7/365 for the last 8 years. Two little dogs complete the pic. We are currently south of you at Sunshine Key RV park on Big Pine Key. Come on down!

Steve Ownby
Full time since '07

Gordon Dewald · 10-06-2015, 08:45 AM

Curious -- looked at the advertisement and do not undertand the unit has an aquahot as well as a 10 gallon hot water tank. Our aquahot heats the water for the house as well as the interior heat. Is this one different?

Good looking coach. Like the paint. Looks like it was well cared for.

Steve Ownby · 10-06-2015, 08:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gordon Dewald

Curious -- looked at the advertisement and do not undertand the unit has an aquahot as well as a 10 gallon hot water tank. Our aquahot heats the water for the house as well as the interior heat. Is this one different?

Good looking coach. Like the paint. Looks like it was well cared for.

I'm sure that it's a mistake. The only other tank is a small 3-4 gal tank for the Instahot if so equipped.

Steve Ownby
Full time since '07

super_rep · 10-06-2015, 09:36 AM

Be sure and check the seals around the edge of the slides. It is not uncommon for the seals along the top of the slides, under the canvas slide toppers to be rusted and falling down from the top of the body opening. We had to replace all the side seals on our Monaco when we bought it.

The TV antenna and TV's are probably standard definition. You will probably want to consider replacement of them with the new HD TV's. The Winegard Traveler dish is great for HiDef TV from either Dish or DirecTV. You can get the antenna from Amazon and of course Costco is the best place for TV's. When we signed up for DirecTV, the local installer did the antenna replacement and installation for us.

Steve's comments about the AquaHot are right on. You might want to consider a water softener. When traveling, you will encounter areas with very hard water. This will cause scale to build up in the tubes of the AH and reduce both it's life and efficiency.

The coach sure looks nice and the price seems reasonable if the condition is as good as it looks and is described.