Community Forums

danes-on-tour · 10-23-2008, 07:23 AM

We are again having our 07 Diplomat in for repair at Camp Monaco in Harrisburg. We still have a long list of items that haven't been repaired.

Just before coming here we discovered another item that really has us worried. The seal between the rear end fibreglass shell and the flat part of the roof is breaking up badly in both corners. Here is a picture of the damage:

Our service writer was also worried when he saw the picture and said that he would have to talk to the service manager about what to do with this. Later on in the day, the service manager – Steve – came around to inspect the problem himself, and after having looked at this, he decided that this wasn't a construction failure. He deemed this to be a maintenance issue which they would fix for us for a price. Bear in mid that our coach is about 1 year old now.

We were then told the following:

If you drive in very warm weather your seals will crack up as soon as 6 month after they have been made whereas if you drive in f.x. Oregon only, the seal could last you for years. Steve deemed that almost all our roof seals are ready for replacement and this would take Monaco about 12 to 13 hours to do, if we wanted to pay them for this.

These seals are obviously an important part of the weather sealing of your coach, and if Steve is right in what he is saying (and why wouldn't he be) this should be made very clear to the owners through the user manual. I think we should be told in clear terms what to do and how often to do it. I also don't think this is not made that clear at all.

We were then advised that we will have to strip all the old sealing completely off using great care and a putty knife. It is not advisable to just pour additional sealant over sealant that is already cracked. It is also not advisable to add sealant leak repair tape over seals that are already cracked. Certain repair tapes are OK to use, but never over self levelling sealant which is the most common sealant..

I would appreciate your comments on this. Is this happening to your coach? How often do you replace your seals? How do you go about replacing seals? Which products are you using?

Hoping to draw on your expertise once again.

Thanks.

danes-on-tour · 10-23-2008, 07:23 AM

We are again having our 07 Diplomat in for repair at Camp Monaco in Harrisburg. We still have a long list of items that haven't been repaired.

Just before coming here we discovered another item that really has us worried. The seal between the rear end fibreglass shell and the flat part of the roof is breaking up badly in both corners. Here is a picture of the damage:

Our service writer was also worried when he saw the picture and said that he would have to talk to the service manager about what to do with this. Later on in the day, the service manager – Steve – came around to inspect the problem himself, and after having looked at this, he decided that this wasn't a construction failure. He deemed this to be a maintenance issue which they would fix for us for a price. Bear in mid that our coach is about 1 year old now.

We were then told the following:

If you drive in very warm weather your seals will crack up as soon as 6 month after they have been made whereas if you drive in f.x. Oregon only, the seal could last you for years. Steve deemed that almost all our roof seals are ready for replacement and this would take Monaco about 12 to 13 hours to do, if we wanted to pay them for this.

These seals are obviously an important part of the weather sealing of your coach, and if Steve is right in what he is saying (and why wouldn't he be) this should be made very clear to the owners through the user manual. I think we should be told in clear terms what to do and how often to do it. I also don't think this is not made that clear at all.

We were then advised that we will have to strip all the old sealing completely off using great care and a putty knife. It is not advisable to just pour additional sealant over sealant that is already cracked. It is also not advisable to add sealant leak repair tape over seals that are already cracked. Certain repair tapes are OK to use, but never over self levelling sealant which is the most common sealant..

I would appreciate your comments on this. Is this happening to your coach? How often do you replace your seals? How do you go about replacing seals? Which products are you using?

Hoping to draw on your expertise once again.

Thanks.

digNbubbs · 10-23-2008, 08:24 AM

Death, taxes, fuel prices rising, cracked seals. Just a few of life's "sure things"

Mine have cracked on every motorhome I have owned. I am careful to inspect them every time I go on the roof. I have resealed the Knight once since we have owned it (almost two years now). I use the self-leveling sealant on there - don't remember the name. In the past, when Sealant Day comes, I scrub the seals real good with a hand-held brush, then scrape away the areas that are bad, then clean again with a towel. The goal is to make sure no dirt/debris gets in with the new sealant. Once that is done, apply the sealant and "help" it go to where you need for it to go.

Even though your coach is fairly young, remember that it probably sat on the lot for a while, so that is to be counted in the time spent in the sun. I would, however, be on Monaco about their intended fix. For that amount of time, they should be doing the entire roof, not just the "bad" areas.

--kevin

Corvette Man · 10-23-2008, 10:05 AM

Make them correct the seals. my 07 Knight had the same thing and they have fixed them twice. Monaco should seal them so they won't crack for 5 years or go broke fixing the ones they built. Take it all the way to the CEO if needed. They will fix them at no charge to you if you raise enough cain with top management.

danes-on-tour · 10-24-2008, 06:09 AM

Picture now inserted. Sorry it took some time - I has been without Internet access almost all day yesterday.

digNbubbs · 10-24-2008, 08:27 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by The Danes Are Coming:
Picture now inserted. Sorry it took some time - I has been without Internet access almost all day yesterday. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Wow. I need to edit my post. I take back what I said. I thought you were talking about some "cracking", not a major disruption to your roof!! That is pretty hardcore. I would talk to Monaco about that as well.

I thought you were more on the lines of:

--kevin

nutensteve · 10-24-2008, 09:25 AM

Danes...I agree with all the other comments. You need to go higher on the Monaco food chain. I have had to repair some of my seals also but they looked the same as Kevins, easy to repair. The damage in your pic is ugly and I certainly would not call that a maintenance issue. Good luck !!

SacsTC · 10-24-2008, 11:37 AM

Henrik,
Sorry, but from what I can see in that photo, I have to agree with Steve at Monaco. I'd be having a heart-to-heart with Benny about what he backed under.
First, the round radius area appears to be pulled away from the side of the coach.
Second, there are several scraped areas along the paint and sealer.
Third, that black area appears to be some sort of sealant that was not applied by Monaco.
Sorry Bud, but there is some heavily scraped paint damage up there also.

Sixpack98 · 10-24-2008, 11:38 AM

Danes,
The Service Manager is giving you a load of crap. I see some cracking (along the lines of Kevin's) but your cracking is NOT normal. Tell the Service Manager you are going to talk to April Klein, she is the VP of Customer Service. His position is unacceptable.

mark

PizzaGuy · 10-24-2008, 11:46 AM

I too have a 07 diplomat. I live in a warm climate in California. I went up on my roof today and found all my seals/seams in good condition.
But -----
as I look close at your picture I see what looks like a long scratch or scrape going from front to back. Is it at all possible something hit your roof while backing? If so, I would be checking with my insurance company and see if I was covered that way. I seem to remember you loaned your coach to a friend when you were in Europe. Maybe you should ask him some serious questions.

Just thoughts, not accuations -----

danes-on-tour · 10-24-2008, 01:03 PM

Hi guy's

Thank you for your input.

I don't think the problem is caused by something the coach was backed under. The reason for this is that the problem is identical on both sides, and being on the roof the damage does not appear as if it was caused by scraping at all - markes or no markes.

Just minutes ago I have been on the roof with the service manager, and I have been given a valuable lesson and guide to roof seals in general. Everybody should have a tour like this because this really opens your eyes as to what is required, and I think that Monaco by spending a few days on making a small instruction booklet could make a "seal manual" that would be an instant bestseller.

Go on Steve - make one for us.

Steve has sponsored the required material to do the repair and I am happy to do the work my self, so for now the problem has been solved to my satisfaction.

A happy ending to the problem and had Monaco just made the repair in the first place I would have missed my personal "tour of seals".

MonacoMama · 10-24-2008, 01:24 PM

Has anyone actually looked in the Owners Manual provided with our coaches? I am sure there is something in there about what the required maintenance is.

I will double check and when I get home tonight I will check and post back. Another question... has anyone searched Robin M's web pages? That man seems to have almost every other maintenance page there...

MM

SacsTC · 10-24-2008, 01:37 PM

Here is the recommendation for roof maintenance. However, without actually seeing different stages of roof problems, most will not know they have a problem.
Henriks is easy to spot and needs to be addressed as soon as he can get to it. Luckily, it is supposed to be good weather there till Wednesday nite

HPH · 10-24-2008, 04:42 PM

Shoddy construction. Monaco ought to be ashamed of themselves! The beauty of a owning a motorhome is you can travel where ever you want from colder to warmer climes or vice versa. I don't care for what this svc. mgr. says. What's he want people to do buy a MH and leave it parked outside the Oregon factory. Those seams should last longer than a year wether you take proper care as stated or not. I do clean my roof everytime I wash the coach but I seriously doubt a little soap and water would of stopped what happened to yours. IMHO the damage to yours was done long before the paint was even applied.