Community Forums

NINK · 08-22-2017, 04:40 PM

As I sit here alongside the road waiting for a tow truck to show up to tow my 2001 Monaco Executive with Cummins ISM 500HP and side radiator 74 miles to get the radiator fixed, I am wondering what the typical side radiator repair (is that even possible?)/ replacement costs might be.

Of course, I understand that there are tons of variables, including the shop, location, how hard it is to get in or out of a particular rig, etc. etc., so, prices can be all over the place... however, just wondering, has anybody done this recently, and if so, what did it cost?

MoePo · 08-22-2017, 04:49 PM

Sorry for all your troubles. My charge air cooler failed earlier this year and Cummins of Kansas City wanted close to 5K to replace it. Needless to say since my coach is also a side radiator I took on the job my self. Saved roughly 3500 dollars. If I had to guess you're looking at $6,000 and up good luck and safe travels.

jacwjames · 08-22-2017, 04:59 PM

In 2015, while on our way home, we were driving up and down some good grades in E TN. I started smelling antifreeze, never suspected it was us. Fortunately we decided to stop for breakfast and pulled into a Cracker Barrel. My wife went in but as usually I took a walk around the coach and found coolant pouring out from under the radiator. Took 2 days to get towed due to being a holiday weekend.

Had it towed to Crosspoint Cummins in Knoxville. I knew the manager and though it might help, it did but not much.

I suspected that road debris caused the problem. I called my insurance agent and he said when they got the radiator out to let him know. It was road debris so the claim was filed. Took 3 weeks of haggling over the cost but in the end they approved $7900 for the fix base on the cost estimate from Cummins. My deductible was $1000

Monaco wanted +$6K for the radiator ouch, I ultimately bought a new radiator from CG&J in AL. Initially they did not have a pattern but by chance another Windsor owner went in to have his replaced and they were able to copy. Cost $2500 including shipping. Note if Cummins would have bought they would have marked it up 50%.

I also had my CAC checked it was bad, cost $1650 to rebuild.

I insisted on a new thermostat and water pump plus coolant flush and new coolant.

In the end I spent $7200 so only $300 out of pocket. Got lucky.

If your radiator failed checked to see if it was road debris and put in a claim. Surprisingly my rate did not go up the next year.

arc-a-tech · 08-22-2017, 07:39 PM

Check with Visone RV in London Kentucky bet they have one.

NINK · 08-25-2017, 03:48 PM

Thanks to the folks that replied. I thought I would report back how it all came out.

First, the report on Coachnet. I think they did a great job. We were pretty much in the middle of nowhere, the closest small town was Jeffrey City, WY. It was about 62 miles from the nearest service facility that could help us, which was in Rawlins, WY. We got through the first level which handles the incoming call, to the second level which is a tech that evaluates whether you need a tow, to the third level dispatch that sends out the tow in about an hour. There was a little confusion along the way as to our exact location, but, once we got that sorted out, they got a tow on the way. He had to drive an hour out to get us, but, he came with the right sized truck and the experience to get our big rig with a tag axle towed. There was an issue getting access to the drive shaft to disconnect it. It has to be disconnected to protect the transmission when towing. The alternative was to pull the axle, which is what we eventually did, however, this required a tool that the tow operator did not have on board, because of a peculiarity of our coach. So, back to coachnet, who dispatched a 2nd truck, a mechanic truck this time, with the right tool, another hour out from town. Upon arriving the axle was out in about 15 minutes, and we were underway on the tow shortly after that. An interesting side note, while all this was going on, another person drove up in a car looking for tow help after dropping his travel trailer along the road with a bad wheel bearing. He had AAA and said that upon reaching them on the phone, they had told him they could not help him because he had an RV policy and his travel trailer was not considered to be an RV.

We were towed to Wyoming Diesel in Rawlins and got unhooked from the truck about midnight, by which time the tow operator had been on this job for over 6 hours. The next day Wyoming Diesel was able to determine that the radiator could be repaired in the coach, since it was made of copper instead of aluminum, which they did. The cost to repair the radiator, and put back the axle, etc was 827.02. I had them do some other work as well, all of which seemed to be reasonably priced, and we were back on the road the next day.