Upgrades/Repairs Thread - Big Blue - 2001 Monaco Signature

[Biljol]

Ken

When when will be over to my coach......

I am looking to do the same with blue fire but keep having disconnect issue do you experience that?

And what mod did you do on the nevercold?

[AnotherMike]

Originally Posted by Ken Thompson

I definitely would like to fix the holding tank monitoring system. The stock one does not work worth a damn.

Check out the "SeeLevel II" RV Tank Monitor system. Works well!

Originally Posted by Ken Thompson

One other thing I would like to do, would be to somehow monitor the fan speed on the side radiator. Since it’s Hydraulics, you would need a pressure gauge, and sending unit, and somehow run it to the front of the coach.

How about a optical tachometer on the inside? Years ago I saw a guy measuring fan speed on a city bus. He had cleaned an area on one fan blade tip and painted it white, the rest were (normally) dirty black. I don't know your skill set (or that of any electronic-oriented friends you have) but you can get an handheld optical tach for under $30 on Amazon, maybe you could disassemble it and separate the sensor from the readout with a length of cable...
https: // www.amazon.com/Neiko-20713A-Digital-Tachometer-Contact/dp/B000I5LDVC

https: // www.poultryventilation.com/featured/videos/using-electronic-tachometer-measure-fan-speed

https: // www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZSNMz0m2Sw

https: // www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA0ANrX8nIo

Originally Posted by Ken Thompson

I don’t know if a person ever gets to the end of the repair or upgrade list on an RV. Even though my coach is 19 years old, it is built so much better than any of the newer ones, I have no desire to have a new one other than the updated electronics. It was built in an era where there were still craftsman that cared about the finished product, unlike today were they just throw them together as fast as possible with unskilled labor to make as much money as they can.

The only thing that always works on a motorhome is the owner.

Mike

[Ken Thompson]

Originally Posted by Biljol

Ken

When when will be over to my coach......

I am looking to do the same with blue fire but keep having disconnect issue do you experience that?

And what mod did you do on the nevercold?

I do get a disconnect once in a while, and don’t know why. I haven’t taken the time to contact them to see if there’s something to fix that. It seems like the owner of Blue fire goes out of his way to fix and improve his system.
As far as the Nevercold, I installed the new cooling pack from RVcool.com You have to take out the refer to do it. I just built a box the right height to slide it out of the hole and on the box, then just replaced it right there. Then, as I said, I lined the cavity with aluminum sheeting and installed 3 additional cooling fans just under the hood at the roofline. Those I connected to another fail safe system called fridge defend, look at ARPRV.com to get the info. Happy trails

[Ken Thompson]

[QUOTE=AnotherMike;5249314]Check out the "SeeLevel II" RV Tank Monitor system. Works well!


How about a optical tachometer on the inside? Years ago I saw a guy measuring fan speed on a city bus. He had cleaned an area on one fan blade tip and painted it white, the rest were (normally) dirty black. I don't know your skill set (or that of any electronic-oriented friends you have) but you can get an handheld optical tach for under $30 on Amazon, maybe you could disassemble it and separate the sensor from the readout with a length of cable...
https: // www.amazon.com/Neiko-20713A-Digital-Tachometer-Contact/dp/B000I5LDVC

https: // www.poultryventilation.com/featured/videos/using-electronic-tachometer-measure-fan-speed

https: // www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZSNMz0m2Sw

https: // www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA0ANrX8nIo

The only thing that always works on a motorhome is the owner.

Mike[/QUOTE

Thanks I will check it out.

[JJTL]

Originally Posted by Ken Thompson

I feel your pains! I too bought a 2001 Monaco. Mine is a 36’ dynasty. I too am the 3rd owner, and bought from a retired pilot. I fortunately got a very detailed history of the coach and all of the receipts. I even got the original owners manual. Even though it was well taken care of, I’m a perfectionist, and want everything to work as it was new.

Hi there Ken, seems like we have many things in common indeed! Thanks for sharing your experience, we are following in your foot steps on some of these items for sure. We are thankful to have all the original manuals and schematics as well. What a help that has been! We happen to also be diagnosed with the "perfectionist disease" .

Originally Posted by Ken Thompson

Replaced all of the faucets, including the shower valve with oil rubbed bronze. Not from the big box store, but from a regular plumbing source. People don’t know it, but there’s a big difference between the home cheapo faucets, and ones you get at a plumbing supply house. They may look the same, but they’re not even close inside.

Faucets are certainly pretty high on our list to look at. The main bathroom sink and the outdoor faucet are leaking. We really love these fixtures, so hoping to rebuild them.

Originally Posted by Ken Thompson

I too had issues with the Bose surround sound system. I ended up reusing the Bose cube speakers in their original installed spot, and installed a new subwoofer under the sink, and new Sony receiver in the upper cabinet. The Sony one I found was the only one that would fit in the upper cabinet and not be too deep.

This is the exact plan B I had in mind for the Bose system. Plan A is to try and reuse the existing Bose receiver and sub woofer, keep ya posted on how we make out with it. I have a converter box coming that allows us to connect the optical audio from our new TVs, to the digital coax input on the original Bose (the only digital input available on these units).

Originally Posted by Ken Thompson

The front couch also had to be replaced because the previous owner had a dog with a urinating problem. I definitely would like to fix the holding tank monitoring system. The stock one does not work worth a damn. I don’t know about your gauge cluster on the dash, but mine were for entertainment purposes only. I ended up getting the blue fire system, and hang my iPad in front of the entertainment gauges, using the blue fire system.

We are thankful all the interior upholstery and so on, is in like new condition. So far our gauges are all in perfect working condition (from what we can tell so far). But thanks for the great idea on the Blue Fire System, I am going to look further into it.

Originally Posted by Ken Thompson

The roof is another item that usually gets overlooked. I got up there and buffed and waxed the entire roof, as well as installed a new satellite dish. Another one of the things that had to be re-paired was the nor cold refrigerator cooling system. I’ve seen too many beautiful coaches, such as yours, up in flames because of the fridge. I honestly don’t know why or how nor cold is still in business. The previous owner had the so-called, update installed, but I wasn’t satisfied with that being the only thing that protected me from a fire. I replace the entire rear cooling unit with a different design, as well as adding more cooling fans in the top of the cavity. When I pulled the fridge out, there was charred wood around the chimney area. To keep that from happening again, I installed aluminum sheeting over the wood walls to help prevent that from ever happening again.

We had a few items that we discovered related to the roof early on. Like yours, ours was stored in doors for much of its life, so the roof is in brand new condition. However, the Dicor around the vents and shower skylight was failing. We noticed thanks to a small leak into the shower on our first rainy day. Resealed with new Dicor and all set. The other item we found was all the AC units were not sealed tight against the roof. Turns out the mounting bolts had become loose and this was causing the gaskets not to seal completely. Re-tightened all those and again another "easy fix".

We have an all electric coach from the factory, so we have no propane on board. One of the key reasons we really loved this coach. The factory installed a 120V residential fridge and it works wonderfully. We too are not fans of the Norcold. Instead of the standard 1 90W solar panel, the factory installed 8 along with a second controller and a second inverter. This is all pretty standard stuff these days, but pretty neat for a 19 year old coach.

Originally Posted by Ken Thompson

I don’t know if a person ever gets to the end of the repair or upgrade list on an RV. Even though my coach is 19 years old, it is built so much better than any of the newer ones, I have no desire to have a new one other than the updated electronics. It was built in an era where there were still craftsman that cared about the finished product, unlike today were they just throw them together as fast as possible with unskilled labor to make as much money as they can. Good luck on all your repairs and upgrades. This is definitely one of the best forums to get information on damn near everything.

Could not have said it better ourselves. We have nothing against the newer coaches, but we love ours for many of these same reasons. We also get pretty bored when we don't have a project to work on, no risk of that now!

Thanks again for the kind words and advice, Ken. Have a great one!
Josh

[Biljol]

We took the bose out completely and put in a sound bar with wireless sub. IMHO the space is so small the 5.1 surround is not missed at all. Also we used a sound bar with Alexa In it so playing music is just a voice command away.

[Ken Thompson]

Originally Posted by JJTL

Hi there Ken, seems like we have many things in common indeed! Thanks for sharing your experience, we are following in your foot steps on some of these items for sure. We are thankful to have all the original manuals and schematics as well. What a help that has been! We happen to also be diagnosed with the "perfectionist disease" .



Faucets are certainly pretty high on our list to look at. The main bathroom sink and the outdoor faucet are leaking. We really love these fixtures, so hoping to rebuild them.



This is the exact plan B I had in mind for the Bose system. Plan A is to try and reuse the existing Bose receiver and sub woofer, keep ya posted on how we make out with it. I have a converter box coming that allows us to connect the optical audio from our new TVs, to the digital coax input on the original Bose (the only digital input available on these units).



We are thankful all the interior upholstery and so on, is in like new condition. So far our gauges are all in perfect working condition (from what we can tell so far). But thanks for the great idea on the Blue Fire System, I am going to look further into it.



We had a few items that we discovered related to the roof early on. Like yours, ours was stored in doors for much of its life, so the roof is in brand new condition. However, the Dicor around the vents and shower skylight was failing. We noticed thanks to a small leak into the shower on our first rainy day. Resealed with new Dicor and all set. The other item we found was all the AC units were not sealed tight against the roof. Turns out the mounting bolts had become loose and this was causing the gaskets not to seal completely. Re-tightened all those and again another "easy fix".

We have an all electric coach from the factory, so we have no propane on board. One of the key reasons we really loved this coach. The factory installed a 120V residential fridge and it works wonderfully. We too are not fans of the Norcold. Instead of the standard 1 90W solar panel, the factory installed 8 along with a second controller and a second inverter. This is all pretty standard stuff these days, but pretty neat for a 19 year old coach.



Could not have said it better ourselves. We have nothing against the newer coaches, but we love ours for many of these same reasons. We also get pretty bored when we don't have a project to work on, no risk of that now!

Thanks again for the kind words and advice, Ken. Have a great one!
Josh

As far as the a/c’s leaking, I had the same problem with the rear one, so it leaked right on the bed. I too cranked down the mounting bolts thinking it was a quick fix. It was only temporary. I had to replace the gasket on the rear unit. The front a/c has been replaced, so that gasket is newer.
The wires for the Bose were run when th coach was built, so nearly impossible to re-run wires. I don’t know where your equipment is, but my subwoofer is under the sink in the slide out. I was able to install the new sub under the sink and re-purpose the other speaker wires that were run to the sub.
I thought about replacing the never cold with a res. Refer, but we dry camp, or boondock a lot so the additional power consumption was a concern.

[Vanwill]

Originally Posted by JJTL

Good advice, Tim.

In doing some research and searching the forum, it appears the valve may be a Haldex KN31000 "Pressure Protection Valve". From what I've read these valves close off air to accessories (horns, etc) when the pressure drops to a certain level. The idea being in an emergency the air is saved for the braking system.

https://www.haldex.com/en/eu/air-bra...valve/kn31000/

https://mpparts.com/part/midland-hal...-valve-kn31000

Does anyone have any experience with these valves and can confirm we are on the right track? I see 4 screws hold the top cap on, wonder if maybe it can be rebuilt or cleaned?

Josh

Just replace the valves. They are relatively cheap. They frequently leak, but usually a small amount. Replaced four on my Dynasty.

[Ken Thompson]

For my leaking faucet in the wet bay, I bought a commercial sink faucet with a long stainless supply line and a regular hose sprayer. It took some fabricating, but it’s a lot better than the factory one.

[JJTL]

Originally Posted by Vanwill

Just replace the valves. They are relatively cheap. They frequently leak, but usually a small amount. Replaced four on my Dynasty.

Thanks for the input, Van. We have come to the same conclusion that it's best to just replace it entirely. I think I may have found sources for the part that will hopefully ship to Canada.

Any tips or tricks for removing these valves?

[Vanwill]

I don't remember anything unusual about replacing the PP valves. There is some chance that the fittings are slightly different, or the threaded bosses in different positions. Just look at them before you replace them in case you need a fitting or adapter you don't have.

[Timaz]

Originally Posted by Vanwill

I don't remember anything unusual about replacing the PP valves. There is some chance that the fittings are slightly different, or the threaded bosses in different positions. Just look at them before you replace them in case you need a fitting or adapter you don't have.

Take a picture with your phone...safer

[JJTL]

Originally Posted by Vanwill

I don't remember anything unusual about replacing the PP valves. There is some chance that the fittings are slightly different, or the threaded bosses in different positions. Just look at them before you replace them in case you need a fitting or adapter you don't have.

Thanks. Sounds like a little penetrating oil and go for it. Did you use Teflon tape or some kind of thread sealer? I think I read somewhere they don't recommend Teflon tape as it could get into the valve and cause issues. Do you remember what you did?

Got the valve ordered, should be here Tuesday. Looks to be an exact replacement. Midland KN31000.

https://mpparts.com/part/midland-hal...-valve-kn31000

Originally Posted by Timaz

Take a picture with your phone...safer

Yup! Will do.

[Vanwill]

Originally Posted by JJTL

Thanks. Sounds like a little penetrating oil and go for it. Did you use Teflon tape or some kind of thread sealer? I think I read somewhere they don't recommend Teflon tape as it could get into the valve and cause issues. Do you remember what you did?

Got the valve ordered, should be here Tuesday. Looks to be an exact replacement. Midland KN31000.

https://mpparts.com/part/midland-hal...-valve-kn31000


Yup! Will do.

I used Teflon paste sealant...sparingly, being sure not to allow any ahead of the threads.