For those of us who own the 2000-2003 Fleetwood Expedition with the following setup, I offer first hand experience, ideas, options and possibly advice:


XC Chassis
5.9L ISB Turbodiesel
3000 Series Allison 6-Speed
30 Amp Shoreline Connect
Onan 7.5K Generator

OEM Waterheater – The Dometic waterheater that comes with the 34W is extremely inefficient. It uses LPG at a ridiculous rate, and the offgassing temperature is hot enough...

RV Projects: Wet Bath Flooring -- 8/5/19

We have a molded fiberglass step-down wet bath in our NewAire. Some may think a wet bath is a compromise (we certainly did), but it's a pragmatic solution that fits the original NewAire constraints on overall size and space.



The bath came with a fitted carpet section that is comfortable to walk on, but pulling the carpet out when we use...

RV Projects: Battery Bay Blues -- 7/29/2019

We recently had trouble starting the NewAire; turns out one of the pair of Interstate cranking batteries had a weak cell. A closer look showed that both batteries were 9 years old and in dire need of replacement.



So we shopped around and found a great deal on a couple group 31 commercial cranking batteries (1,000 CCA each) with a 2 year...

RV Projects: Clearing the (New)Aire -- 7/23/2019

One of the few things that we disliked about our original NewAire is the lack of proper ventilation and air movement. The rig only has 6 small windows and small powered vents in the bathroom and galley. Yes, there are three doors, but who wants to leave doors open?

What to do? Install a high capacity MaxxAir 7000K Roof Vent, of course.

...

Trip to Medina Highpoint.

We left last Thursday for a quick weekend to Medina Highpoint RV park in Medina, Texas. Medina is between Kerrville Texas and Bandera Texas smack in the middle of the Texas hill country. 1 hour west of Fredericksburg for the wine drinkers, 1 hours SW of San Antonio, 2 hours from Austin, 45 minutes off I10 from Kerrville.

Medina Highpoint is part of the Katherines Landing RV Park Group. We have stayed at the Katherines Landing in ARK and...

RV Projects: Repairing a One-Of-A-Kind Mirror -- 7/12/19

If you read my previous blog posts, you know our driver's mirror was damaged in our former storage yard by an unidentified culprit. (Culprit because whoever hit the mirror tried to cover their tracks, pushing the mirror back in place and pocketing the broken pieces, but they missed a small one.) Here's the damage I found:



...

As all good things must come to an end, on day five, we had to check out of our campsite by noon. I had everything packed up by 10am and all that was left to do was hitch up. Easier said than done! No matter what I tried, the coupler latch would not engage.
After sometime, I asked the next door RV camper if he could help me. The gentlemen tried over and over. While scratching his head, he stated that he had been RVing for years and had never seen a problem like this! While we both...

RV Projects: Fixing a Goof on the Roof -- 7/7/2019

When we first got our NewAire, the rearview camera was flakey; it kept cutting in and out. With the DW watching the monitor, I climbed up the rear of the coach and jiggled the wiring around the camera itself. Sure enough, we determined there was a gamey wiring connection.



I got up on the roof and found that the wiring junction between...

RV Projects: Converting Fluorescents to LED Strip Lights -- 7/2/2019

All our planned RV projects have been completed -- and then some. The first project was conversion of our fluorescent galley lights to extra-bright LED strip lights.



If you have an RV that's more than a few years old, you probably have 12V DC fluorescent fixtures with replaceable tube bulbs. Ugh. I have converted...

We have a new (1-year-old) Brittany Spaniel. Being a puppy, she does what puppies do, chew on everything, furniture, windowsills, toys, and BUS WIRRING…

We came home a few weeks ago to find a small section of wring harness on our back porch, OOOHHH CRAP...

Steep learning curves ahead…New lessons to start, in 3-2-1..

Slide under the coach and spot 3 sets of wires chewed through, connectors missing. Get...

Update: It's RV Project Time! -- 6/16/2019

It's finally here: RV project time.



Two weeks of blood, sweat, and tears - a veritable labor of love.

We are house/dog/chicken sitting for the next two weeks. That means we can park the NewAire in our kid's RV-friendly driveway and work through a list of projects that have been lining up for months.

So...

Update: Am I seeing Double? Again? -- 6/6/2019

I recently took my 2001 NewAire in for service at my regular shop: Scott's RV Truck and Auto in Rockford, Illinois. I can't say enough good about these folks, and apparently the word has gotten around, cause what should show up while mine was in but another NewAire!



The picture is courtesy of Scott's Service Manager, Terry Adkins....

My List of Monaco Diplomat RV Mods

Living Room:

Put Beware of Dog Signs in the Windows
Replace all the Overhead Lights
Replace all the Down Lights
Replace all the Lightbulbs with LED Bulbs
Replace the Switches for the Down Lights
Connect the Color LED Strips over the Slides to HomeKit Modules
Install a New LPG Furnace
Make a Guide for the Drawer under the Dinette
Install a Cat Scratch Post
Get new Dinette...

We left Austin with no major issues headed to Amarillo TX. Made it away from the house without forgetting anything. Planed on boondocking in a Walmart in Amarillo TX. My brother and I switching drivers, wife and daughter riding shotgun and co-co pilot respectively. About an hour out of Amarillo, my lead co pilot informs us that “we” have located a RV park on I40 that had after hours check in, spots open and we would not be boondocking at Walmart, rather we would be at Oasis RV Park for 59ish dollars...

Last year before we put her away for the season we had a few items that needed repairs and in true fashion, I put the off until 2 days before we leave for Colorado for a week.
1. Level jack alarm would sound when turning ,,, Low fluid easy fix. Check and done
2. On the way home on our last trip we drug the front nose on a low driveway. No body damage but we broke the gennie latch clean off.

After looking into many different options I decided...