Trailing Arms Cracked on Roadmaster

[Jim Stewart]

The Safari Archives show the 2002 as a Magnum by Roadmaster the 2003 Archives show it as a M4R. It could be that Monaco renamed the Magnum chassis to Magnum by Roadmaster in 2002 and then called the same chassis M4R in 2003. In the 2004 archives, they definitely call it the RR4R. That was the last year for the Sahara model.

I do not know if those arms in the Magnum or M4R were the same as the RR4R or not. If your arms do not look anything like the pictures or are above the axle instead of below the axle, they are probably OK.

Look for the phone number in this thread for Scott from Source Engineering and give him a call, he can tell you for sure. He used to work for Monaco on the chassis of that era.

[soberjoe]

Hey all,
We were able to put about 500 miles on since the arms and shocks were upgraded. What a nice change in the ride. I'm sure the Koni FSD shocks helped the most. My wife noticed it right away and we are happy campers. Lots of money spent on items that should have been on the coach right from the factory.

[Nonno]

Quote:

What a nice change in the ride.

Joe,

Thanks for the report. I still have the oem shocks but expect the trailing arms will make a difference. I'll soon know as we leave for FL in a few weeks.

[Brazels RV Performance]

If anyone is interested Brazel's RV will be installing there upgrades in Quartzsite. We will also be out at the Monaco coach gathering on friday the 15th to talk about them and do inspection's. Jim from source MFG. will be with us as well. If interested in having them done call Mike at 541-441-0377

[philm]

if any one has had this problem fixed, i would like to know if a service agreement paid off on it and who they were. i am still fighting with company that wanted to hve it welded and i refused to acept that and had it fixed and paid for it my self. would welcome any information.

[Nonno]

I'm sorry to hear you are being jerked around. My extended warranty thru Prizm (same company old Monaco used for its Monaco Extended Care) covered mine. Shop called Prizm, they sent someone to inspect, agreed it was a problem and paid for repair less deductible and freight.

If you haven't spoken to Scott Zimmer at Source Engineering (541-935-0308 or 541-915-1149), I'd call him and see if he would help by speaking to your extended warranty company. Also, I would request/require that the insurance company provide you with a letter signed by someone in authority stating that they guarantee their "fix" is safe to operate on the highways.

[07cayman]

Philm,
I had both trailing arms snap on interstate 5 just north of the Grapevine in southern California. The rear axle pivoted, drove the driveline back into the transmission and took it out. Fortunately for us, i was able to keep the coach (07 monaco cayman) on the road, but things got real hairy for a bit. We ended up being transported via flatbed to Valley Power in Fresno (an authorized Allison dealer) for repairs. Our product insurance was with Progressive insurance. Total bill to repair was almost $15,000.00 of which the insurance company paid $12,000.00. Still looking for an additional $1000 for hotel and food. We were actually down for 2 full months, but got to see the kids and grandkids during that time so it was a positve thing. Scott and source engineering are a blessing to anyone that has to experience this failure. They are the only real way to fix this problem. The ride and handling are like driving a completely different coach. The porposing has stopped, the sway and tailwag are completely gone, all of which i am sure were the result of the inadequate engineering by Monaco. I would not settle for the welding, unless a structural engineer can give it to you in writing, that it will hold up and still give you the change in performance that we experienced. By the way i had just had new Koni fsd shocks put on about 500 miles before this all happened, hoping to solve some of the handling problems and the arms had to have been cracked at that time and never got caught. Good luck on your repair.

Bruce
07cayman

[07cayman]

Philm

Sorry to mislead you, my product insurance is with Western General not Progressive.

Bruce
07cayman

[tvnerd]

Bruce: How many miles on your Cayman?
Everyone should note that the management that brought you this failure are still with Monaco. How many other major safety issues with Monaco coaches did they hide while manuvering Monaco into bankruptcy to avoid their liability on these issues?
Bob
02 knight 32pbd

[jhoch]

Hello,

I just got finished reading all 19 posts on the thread about the trailing arms. I have a 2005 Neptune and had the first recall completed. It is really distressing to know that they are failing, or will eventually go bad. After reading everything, I am not hesitating in getting the repair done...even though the loss of money will hurt, it is still better than the damage that could happen. I'm glad to see that there is a service center near me that is on the list from Source.

Before reading this thread, I contacted Monaco. I got a cryptic note from the "senior technical advisor" --someone should educate them about what should be done to inspect the arms. It was very illuminating to know from one of the posts that 6 people looked at the arms and didn't see anything wrong until they were taken off. Here is the response from Monaco:

Not all trailing arms failed if you are concerned all you have to do is look under the coach by the axle and look for cracks where the u-bolt tightened down. Normally recalls are forever but since Monaco Coach Corp was liquated at auction the recalls do not fallow

Bob Presson
Monaco RV LLC
A Navistar Company
Senior Technical Advisor
877-466-6226


I can only hope that eventually there is some sort of class action suit filed. This is wrong on so many counts. More importantly, I just wonder how many poor souls have no clue that they could be driving a "disaster waiting to happen."
Thanks for all the information.

[Nonno]

jhoch,

Welcome to iRV2. Glad to have you join us. Of course since you've read all 19 pages on this subject you've already been with us a while.

Let us know how the repair goes.

[07cayman]

Bob
At the time of failure, I had 17,680 miles on the coach. It is my understanding that many of the failures on this chassis are somewhere between 15,000 and 20,000 miles. It would be nice if someday, someone will be able to figure out how to go after Monaco in a class action suit. The problem is the bankruptcy. Someday, someone is going to get hurt when these fail. In our case we had just come down off the grapevine on Interstate 5, and were just an hour north, when they failed. If we had been on the downgrade and had this happen, who knows where we would have ended up. Since in our case we also lost the transmission which would have taken any chance of using the exhaust brake out of the equation. I am sure we would have ended up as a run a way coach or else flipped over since the rear axle was moving and causing the rear end to swing out. Don't even want to think about it.

Bruce
07cayman

[07cayman]

Phil

Posted my response wrong, see forum for Monday, Jan 11, 2010

Bruce

[MonacoMama]

I just finished reading 07Cayman's post... That is some scary stuff! I am glad that Jim from Source Engineering will be out with Mike from Brazel's at the Monaco area to talk to folks who have questions about this issue on Friday the 15th!
I would suggest that any of you RR4R chassis owners try to come out tomorrow. You can check location in the Monaco thread.