Not a pretty sight - Sidewall

[loranimal]

So I went out yesterday to blow out the water lines and kick on the heater for the cold night ahead. Looking up at the side, I notice a couple little cracks in the paint. So I start looking a little closer and the whole side has cracks in it. Front to back, top to bottom. All the colors. Just on the fiberglass though. The trim around the slides, the fridge vents, front/rear cap, cargo doors are fine. This is just on the drivers side. The pass side looks okay.

This hasn't been a good week...........

[Denali]

If they are little cracks, about the size of fingernail clippings, welcome to the club. It has been a problem with Monaco (and, reportedly, other) coaches for years.

Four or five years ago, Monaco was fixing the problem. I saw several coaches at the factory service centers having the sidewalls replaced to address the problem. Then Monaco threw up their hands and told owners "Tough luck, it's a cosmetic problem."

Some folks claim that it's the fault of the gummint because the EPA forced the fiberglass manufacturers to change the way they build the panels. I have never seen a word of substantiation for that urban legend, though.

Our Beaver has thousands of those little cracks, especially in the black areas of the fiberglass.

[steveclv]

It's interesting that the early Monacos (mine's a 1984 vintage) have fully floating fiberglass panels - there is a ply sub-structure but the panels are just hung in place. No stress cracks but it's hardly ripple-free after 25 years.

So I guess we traded one problem for another.

[William Willard]

Carl -- I have the same coach -- I met you briefly in Salem, at the Monaco rally -- I argued with Monaco for over a year, about the lousy paint job (orange peel) on our coach -- Finally they paid to have the paint cut & buffed at a place in Mesa, AZ, but I had to pay half, a little over $900.00 -- The paint still looks like new, & I live in the hot part of AZ --- I do keep a good coat of wax on it -- I`m in the middle of waxing it now after a long hot summer -- It takes me awhile, but well worth the time, since I have nothing else to do -- At the suggestion of Happycarz (Harry Martin) I use PDQ polish on the wheels, & it does a very good job -- Bill Willard

[Pusherpilot]

The paint probem will recurr on coaches with the bad fiberglass. What frosts me is that Monaco got a settlement from the mfgr but failed to recall or even notify us about it. Then they blew us off when we complained. My 04 Imperial is doing it on the driver side. This is because the driverside is to the sun where we park it in 3 different locations.
Another frost factor is the Reported $30k incentive to buy another Monaco when trading. That was not generally advertised either and some of the dealers were reported to be pocketing the $30k and not informing the customer. There is so little trust now that any thing even the new company is telling us is suspect till all the people who were responsable for the policies are gone and new declared published policies are in evidence.
Other companies extend their warranties in limited fashion to cover obvious design and mfgr defects way beyond their stated warranty periods. I have a 4 yr old Sony TV that is 3 yrs out of warranty that they are agreeing to fix a problem with that is an engineering and materials issue. This is an example of customer orientation and concern that was missing in the Monaco culture.
Ron

[loranimal]

Went out again today, in the bright sunlight. Can't tell from 10 ft away unless you look for them. See them bad up close. As long as they stay little cracks and big chunks don't start peeling off, I'll feel a little better. Not happy but a little better.

I had already told myself this is the our last MH unless it completely fails (wreck, fire, etc). I plan on rebuilding, fixing, painting, whatever until the very end.

No sense getting an ulcer over it. It won't fix the paint job.

[bobinaz123]

Does anyone know if it's a temperature (hot or cold) or a stress problem?

[Pusherpilot]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bobinaz123 Does anyone know if it's a temperature (hot or cold) or a stress problem?

We had accident damage repaired by Monaco at Harrisburg last year. I asked the paint shop guy, great tech by the way, about it and he said is was accelerated by heat but happens even to coaches kept out of the sun eventually.
Ours is not progressing further than the little slit looking things so far. I won't do anything about it because I've been told by the Monaco Paint Shop guys that it'll just happen again down the road and a new paint job can cost between $20-30k or more. No sense putting more layers of lipstick on the pig say I.

[bobinaz123]

Do other manufacturers have this problem? Who knows I may buy another coach some day.

[MonacoMama]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bobinaz123 Do other manufacturers have this problem? Who knows I may buy another coach some day.

I believe you will see the paint cracks from all manufacturers on rigs especially that have dark paint - I know of Newmar - Alpine - Winnebago and Fleetwood owners with the same issue.

[Theberrys]

We have a 1999 Tradewinds and have the cracks in the front cap on and around the Genny door. I know there there but you really can't see them unless your looking or waxing. We only have the glass on the front and rear caps and cargo bay doors.

I guess it's just part of it.

Dick

[jimkate]

I just went through all this with our 1995 Monaco Dynasty. Today it has a beautiful new paint job and looks wonderful. It used to have eggshell cracks everywhere on the sides except in the white areas. The front and back of the coach were fine, as were the storage bay doors. It only affected any dark colors on the sides above the storage bay doors. The sides of the coach looked exactly like shattered eggshells.

Well. When the clear coat was removed, what did we find? The dark colors were not paint. They were vinyl! Old, weathered, cracked up vinyl, cooked to death sandwiched between a layer of fiberglass on the back side, and a thick layer of clear coat on the top side. Part of me felt angry that a manufacturer would do that. I thought that they told me that all colors were painted on. The other part of me sighed with relief that it wasn't a fiberglass failure.

Now, the cracks in the vinyl had put tiny shallow surface cracks in the fiberglass gel coat. But they have epoxy fillers for that kind of thing. Repainted with base coat, clear coat, and it looks like it is fixed.

A lot of work, and a lot of money. You know, getting the awnings and other stuff off and back on is a lot of work!

[itdave]

Here is what I heard from a Monaco guy at the recent rally. The cracking is caused by the gel coat recurring after it is painted. This was cause by a EPA required change in the gel coats. What happens is that due to heat the gel coat gets soft then when it cools it hardens again this cause the paint to crack. Dark colors cause more heat transfer to the gel coat that is why they show more cracking. The only complete solution is to grind off the gel coat then recoat and repaint. He did say there was a company that does the job takes about 6 weeks and cost between 15 and 20K. I can't remember the company name but I believe that it was Enoch Hucthcraft that talked about this issue.

[Dr4Film]

This topic is also covered in another thread at:

Paint Problems with 01-04?

It is a fiberglass problem and requires the entire fiberglass to be stripped off and re-coated, then painted. Very costly! You are looking at tens of thousands of dollars! Something that most of us cannot afford to do.

I would like to get a Class A lawyer to take a class action suit against the fiberglass vendor as Monaco won't do anything for anyone regarding this issue.