Need FRONT SHOCKS for 1988 Monaco, Roadmaster R-600 Chassis

[SKYMASTER]

Anyone happen to know what shocks to use for the front end on a 1988 Monaco Crown Royale Series 36' diesel pusher with a Roadmaster R-600 chassis? The rig has a 230hp Cummins 6BTA-A motor.

I discovered the right front shock absorber hanging from it's top connection and the shock pin that connects the bottom of the shock to the leaf spring is missing. No airbags on this coach, just leaf springs and shocks. Need new shocks and a shock-pin.

The front shock absorber I removed was made by "4-Way" and has a number stamped into the metal of "640198" but none of the supply houses have any cross-reference to that number. "4-Way" must have gone out of business, or was bought up by some other company, but no one in the automotive parts houses or the local RV shops have a clue.

The GVWR on this rig is 21,500.

Any ideas??

[DCGarcia]

Welcome to iRV2,
While I do not have an answer for you, there are two forums that may well be able to help. Under the main page for forums, scroll down until you find the Monaco and Roadmaster forums.
However, surely if you take your unit into a suspension shop they can get you back on the road again.

Dan

[SKYMASTER]

I had an interesting talk with the Monaco parts department guy this afternoon down in Oregon, and he was able to use an 'older' computer with an old version of 'DOS' and came up with a couple of original part numbers for our '88 units. The original OEM shocks were made by 'NEWAY' and they're apparently still in business. The front shocks have a part number of 90044794 and the rear shocks are 90044769.

While you will find those numbers with a Google search, I never could find a source where to buy them, and calls to NAPA and a couple of other local shops didn't net me any results. I finally ended up going thru a couple of other searches to cross-reference the OEM numbers and came up with numbers to both Gabriel and Monroe, however, I'm still not for sure if these cross-reference number are correct or not.

The FRONT shocks cross-reference to Gabriel FleetLine, #83127 which also cross-references to Monroe #66633. Gabriel specs these with extended length of 20.12 inches, compressd length of 13.13 inches and a 6.99" stroke. The rebound rating is 940-lbs and a compression rating of 218-lbs. The only place I could find Gabriel shocks was Autozone and they have to special order them with a 4-day delivery and priced at $41.99.

On the Monroe 66633, the specs are an extended length of 20.75 inches, a compressed length of 13.75 inches and a 7.00" stroke. The rebound rating is 812 lbs. The eyelet at each end is coded as 'LS54' which looks to be 3/4"... which seems too big, as I recall the bushing size is between 1/2" and 9/16", so again, I'm not sure.

I also spoke to parts gal at a National Auto Parts store and she cautioned me on cross-referencing numbers. She seemed to think that the closest match was a Monroe #65143 that has an extended length of 20.25 inches, compressed length of 13.25 inches, and a stroke of 7 inches. This one shows a 5/8" bushing size in the eyelet ends and has a rebound rating of 708 lbs. There are two additional numbers in this series, one with #65144 with a rebound rating of 882 lbs, and a #65145 with a rebound rating of 1270 lbs. All the rest of the specs read the same. I was quoted $108 apiece for the #65143 on special order... and $62 apiece for the #66633, also a special order item.

The trouble with all of these is that nobody has them in stock, so you can't pull one off the shelf and maybe even take it and see if it'll fit. Autozone told me they'd refund the purchase if they special ordered the Gabriel's and they didn't fit... but that might be a sales gimmick just to get the sale. Who knows!