Mods/Upgrades to our 2003 Dynasty

[zmotorsports]

I have posted individual threads pertaining to many of the upgrades and/or modifications that I have done to our 40' 2003 Monaco Dynasty Baroness over the years, however, I have decided to start one specific thread where I can update them in the future rather than multiple threads, kind of a "blog" if you will of our coach related repairs and/or modifications. I decided to do this after seeing one started by another forum member who keeps his updated. I have also done a lengthy buildup thread on my Jeep on another forum so I decided I may as well start and maintain one for our coach as I see us not only keeping the coach for a while but also as it is aging I see myself doing more and more repairs and/or upgrades in the future.

Hopefully this will either assist someone with any issues they are having or possibly inspire someone to tackle various jobs on their own coach.

Thanks in advance for looking.

To start off my wife and I purchased our 2003 Monaco Dynasty in Feb. 2007 with 55k miles on the odometer. It was in pretty fair condition but suffered from some neglect. It had two major issues and I think that is why the previous owner traded it in on a newer coach and which also allowed me to negotiate with my dealer on the price purchasing it in "as is condition". My wife and I realized that this coach was a huge upgrade from our 1991 38' Beaver Contessa and that with my mechanical aptitude we would not only be able to afford it, but also be able to maintain it properly.

The first two issues I had to deal with were the chassis batteries being discharged and not staying charged. Secondly was the leaking Aqua-Hot unit. Second one being the most worrisome as it could potentially be the most costly, also more than likely being the one that forced the previous owners to cut bait and run. I had never owned an Aqua-Hot equipped coach but after snowmobiling with a couple of people the previous couple of years it was on our "must have" list. Also a tag axle, minimum of 400hp engine, 10kw Onan genset and triple roof airs were on our list of must haves. Not easy to find in a 40' package but we had a very specific list of items we were looking for and we were in no hurry. We had looked for 9+ months before stumbling across this coach and purchasing it.

Upon getting the coach home I immediately found the charging issue, the 200 amp battery isolator was open and not charging the chassis batteries with the engine running. I replaced it but also rebuilt the Leece/Neville alternator because I was worried it may have damaged it internally and it would be much less costly do rebuild it in my shop vs. having to replace it with a remanned unit on the road somewhere. Once that was done I commenced on a major service of every fluid in the coach.

I then moved on to tackle the Aqua-Hot issue. It was leaking the glycol and upon some immediate research was told the unit had frozen and I would need to replace it. I had called and priced remanufactured units prior to purchasing the coach so I was prepared to spend the approx. $7k dollars to replace it. The Aqua-Hot unit is buried deep into the middle of the coach on the Dynasty models.

I removed the unit so I could get in on the bench in the shop and see if it was something that I could repair or worse case I would have to order the remanufactured unit and replace it, but either way the unit had to come out of the coach. Upon removing all covers I realized that on this unit the domestic water line ran around the outer permiter of the boiler tank and not internally. This wasn't making sense but the tech person @ Aqua-Hot (Vehicle Systems at the time) informed me that there was no sense messing with it and to just replace it. I didn't buy that because it didn't make any sense so I began running some tests of my own and I realized it was merely a solder connection between the steel boiler tank and the copper filler neck that had become disbonded.

I removed the filler neck, cleaned the joint and re-soldered everything back together. No cost to repair and it works great. I did replace all of the glycol mixture which was a couple hundred buck while I was reinstalling it because I was not sure how much the previous owner had diluted the glycol mixture. So for less than $400.00 overall in parts I had fixed both major issues (battery isolator/alternator and Aqua-Hot leak) that the previous owner had gotten rid of her for.

Next up was a MAJOR detailing job on the exterior. It took me about a week in the evening but I polished the entire coach and for the most part it was in good condition. It had a couple of scratches that I could not remove and one major one in a compartment door which I repainted. The Accuride aluminum wheels were appallingly neglected so off they came for some much needed polishing. I used a wool pad with tripoli at first followed by some jewelers rouge and then hand polish but they turned out amazing.

Here is a picture of our first outing with our coach back in 2007.


We used the coach pretty consistantly over the next couple of years with very few issues. I did install new drive tires during the spring of 2008 and unfortunately I replaced them with the same Goodyear G670 295/80R22.5 tires.

Fall of 2013 I commenced on another major service which included the following: changed the oil, oil filter, coolant filter, primary and secondary fuel filters along with both the serpentine belt and the A/C v-belt. I noticed that the serpentine belt tenstioner pulley sounded a bit dry so I replaced the tensioner. I am 100% sold on the Roadmaster S-Series chassis but I think they could have done a better job on the assembly line routing air lines. Over the past 6 years now of owning this coach I have re-routed and repaired multiple air lines going to air bags. I thought I had taken care of all of them a few years ago when I decided to look at ALL of them after repairing /replacing about the third one. I was wrong. They had routed the air lines for the two rearmost airbags on the front suspension right behind the shock. This not only pinched the air lines but they were ran around sharp edges of steel brackets. I decided to remove the shock and re-route them behind with some frame clamps to support the lines. I also greased all of the steering components along with the brake slack adjusters, s-cams and driveshaft slip joint/u-joints. I then serviced the wet hubs on the steer and tag axles.

While I was changing the oil I decided to add a Fumoto drain valve as they are much easier for draining oil. I installed one on out last coach but for some reason never got around to adding one on our Dynasty. When I changed that.

Here is the Fumoto valve after receiving it the other day.


Fumoto valve installed in the Cummins ISL oil pan after draining all 28 qts. of oil.


Oil filter and coolant filter replaced.


This is where I cannot for the life of me figure out why Roadmaster decided to mount the air dryer. It is just inside the left framerail slightly behind the left tag axle tire/wheel. I have found it much easier to service this desiccant cartridge by removing the tag axle tire/wheel on the left side and removing two of the bolts fastening the drier to the frame, swinging the assembly downward slightly, replacing the cartidge and then pivoting it back into place and resecuring it. When I say easy what I meas is less of a PITA, it is still far from easy. This alone took almost two hours to complete.

View of the air dryer from under the coach.


View with tire/wheel removed and the two top bolts removed allowing the dryer to pivot down slightly.




Cartidge removed. Be certain to clean the seating surface very good to prevent air leaks and also replace the o-ring with the new one supplied with the new desiccant cartidge.


New cartidge installed and the air dryer bolted back into its original position.


Torquing the tag wheel/tire back on. Torque is @ 475 ft/lbs.


New belt tensioner with new serpentine belt. I replaced the belts when we first purchased the coach back in 2007 but I thought it was time to replace them again. We have only put 40k miles in it in the past six seasons but I would much rather change these at home vs. on the side of the road.


New belts installed.


Belt tension set to spec for the A/C v-belt.


Toolcart. Holy cow it is amazing how many tools you can drag out for a simple job like replacing belts.


Mike.

[JohnRR]

From what I've read of your postings in the past I'm looking forward to this one.

[foretexas]

Very nice.

[zmotorsports]

The next major upgrades were the televisions. We started having sound issues on our front TV so I decided to replace the 26" CRT and upsize it to a 32" LCD/LED flatscreen. My wife wanted me to replace the rear television as well but I didn't want to merely throw money away as the rear television was still working perfectly fine.

Here is the typical 26" CRT Sony television in the mid-2000 Monaco's.


Television removed.


This is what I am replacing it with, 32" LCD flatscreen by Magnavox.


Many opt to use the swing away residential mounts but I chose to go a different route. I decided to use my metal working skills to fabricate a more permanent solution that would also result in no rattles or vibrations.
I started with some 3/4" thin walled square tubing.


Mounted two vertical tubes to the back of the television. I drilled the larger holes on the outside so the screw heads and screwdriver could fit through and attache to the inner wall of the tubing.


Then once the width was determined, I welded to horizontal pieces of the same size tubing to the vertical ones.


One of my welds on the television subframe.


Next I commenced on the actual tapered mounts that will weld on to the horizontal tubes. Just inside the cabinet running vertical are a tube on either side with a 3/8" bolt welded to them protruding inward towards the opening. These two vertical supports will slide down and in towards the cabinet.


Subframe welded and showing the tapered side pieces.


This shows the tube mounted just inside the cabinet that has the 3/8' bolt welded onto it in which the side brackets will slide onto. Multiple measurements were taken to ensure when the television is all the way down that it is also all the way back tight against the cabinet.


These two pictures show the subframe test fit into the opening and to ensure all the connection points are making full contact. Nothing worse than driving down the road just to have the TV fall and knock me on the melon.




Television permantently installed. I trimmed the OEM outer trim ring down to use the bottom section. I then took that to a local cabinet shop to see if they could match up the Walnut wood and grain and make me a filler panel for the top of the TV. The television actually bottoms out against the cabinet just prior to contacting the wood at the bottom. This holds the TV in tight against the cabinet so no rattles, squeeks or noises. The top trim ring barely makes contact with the top of the TV to keep it from moving upward at all.


Guess what? The wife won out, shocker I know. I ended up replacing the bedroom TV at the same time and in the same manner.


Thanks for looking.

Mike.

[zmotorsports]

Originally Posted by JohnRR

From what I've read of your postings in the past I'm looking forward to this one.

Originally Posted by foretexas

Very nice.

Thanks guys. Some of these may have already been seen as like I mentioned they were posted in various other places. Now they will all be in one thread.

Sorry if you have seen them before.

Mike.

[zmotorsports]

Moving up to last spring. I replaced the chassis batteries with new NAPA HD 31 Commercial batteries, I also noticed that they have a few more CCA than the previous ones (950CCA vs. 900CCA). I also noticed that the battery end on the positive cable had some corrosion starting and it had gotten into the cable strands. The cable was barely long enough to reach as is so there wasn't enough to cut off and install a new battery end. I had to build a new cable so I picked up some new 4/0 cable and some ends while at NAPA as well.
Here is the new cable cut, crimped and heat shrink applied next to the OEM cable.


New cable with the convoluted casing and ready for installation.


One item that has bugged me since purchasing the coach back in 2007 was the fuse holders that were merely folded back upon themselves and zip-tied to the battery cables. There are seven of them and they were ziptied to the positive battery cable down between the chassis batteries and the engine belt/accessory train near the battery shut-off switch. This looked cluttered and horrid and I am frustrated with myself that I didn't do something about this seven years ago when we first purchased the coach. It is the one thing that kept bugging me every time I would open the engine access to check fluids and/or perform any maintenance.

I decided to use a piece of 2"x 1/4" aluminum angle that I had in my scrap pile. I know it is overkill and could have used some much lighter gauge aluminum but I didn't feel like digging out the break to bend up a thinner piece. This was handy so it is what I used.


I laid out the fuse holders to figure out a configuration in which to attach them that would look nice yet allow me to keep the same wiring without having to completely rewire the whole thing.

Here I am drilling the holes to attach the fuse holder. There are also two 1/4" holes on the top side that will be used to attach the aluminum panel to the crossmember which goes across the engine bay just above the chassis batteries.


Painted and ready for installation.


Here is a picture with the panel installed and all seven of the fuseholders installed. I also added some convoluted casing over the wiring.


When we first purchased the coach I had a lot of interior (house) lights that did not function. Upon quick voltage checks I realized that I was missing about half of my circuits. I traced back through the electrical distribution panel and found two 12 volt continuous duty solenoids that when energized transfer the 12-volt power from the house batteries to the electrical distribution panel. One of those relays/solenoids were bad. I replaced it and all was good. However, fast forward to 2014, the coach is 11 years old with 95k miles on it and upon testing I found the other relay/solenoid was bad. Upon testing with a meter I found that I had high resistance when the solenoid was activated so the contacts inside were pitted/damaged. I just decided to replace them both so I wouldn't have to worry about it throughout the RV travel season.

I also carry a spare solenoid just in case but I replace the two in the rear electrical panel located in the engine bay. Here are the solenoids/relays with the electrical pane cover removed. The very bottom one is the original that I did not change when we purchased the coach.


NAPA/Echlin part numbers (ST85). These are continuous duty solenoids that have an isolated ground on the coil (not grounded through the mounting). The ground is actually the side that is switched from a small switch just inside the door of the coach to kill all of the house 12-volt electrical.


New solenoids/relays installed and ready to reinstall the cover.


Rear engine bay all completed and ready for another travel season.


Next up will be paint work.

Mike.

[zmotorsports]

Last year I noticed that on our 2003 Monaco Dynasty there were a few spots on the left side (the one that is in the sun when parked at home) where the clearcoat was starting to peel. I had gotten a couple of bids to have the coach painted and we eventually will but for now I opted to try to buy us a year or two by repairing the areas. The right side of the coach looks like it just rolled out of the factory so if I can get the left side where I am happy with it then we can postpone having the entire coach painted for a couple of years. If the right side were just as bad as the spots on the left side we probably would have gotten it painted over the winter. I would love to paint it myself but just don't have anywhere to do it and outside is too unpredictable as far as weather goes plus I don't want to shower the neighborhood with that much overspray. The few spots that I am repairing do not produce much overspray and I am doing each section seperate.

Here are a couple of pictures of the clearcoat peeling.








Removing the caulking that seals between the fiberglass side and the aluminum trim around the bedroom slide. This will ensure the paint and clear get into the corner completely. I will re-caulk them with Geocel 2300 afterwards.


Sanding and feathering the lifted edges of the clearcoat.




Bedroom slide masked, areas where I sanded through the base color sealed and ready to paint.


Bedroom slide completed.






Moving on to the next two small sections. The small sandstone area right behind the dining table window had an area where the clear coat was almost completely gone. The gray strip in the front slide had the lower edge starting to peel. I originally was going to re-paint the entire slide but overall it looks really good other than these two spots.

Here are the two small spots masked and sanded.








Sealer applied and ready for paint/clear coat.


Completed. The clear coat blend turned out extremely well. Don't worry, I moved my truck and my son's Jeep prior to painting. I had them parked out front on the street and just pulled them back into the driveway in this picture.




I removed the refrigerator cover and trim ring to remove the caulking and ensure complete sanding and paint coverage/adhesion.




I don't particularly care for painting these days. Having my workbench covered with masking paper to avoid any spills and contain the mess.


I was able to complete the work over Easter weekend 2014.

Here is the large mid section after I sanded, prepped and masked everything. The factory had installed the refrigerator trim ring and painted over it. I didn't like that as it had a paint bridge where the trim ring and the coach side. This paint bridge started to crack a few years ago and had some pieces of paint and clear coat come out and has bugged me ever since. I decided to paint the side of the coach and the trim ring separate and then install the trim ring and caulk afterwards for a cleaner looking job.


This is the only section where I had to blend the clear coat. It was a small, approx. 3" wide, area under the bedroom slide.


Areas where I sanded through sealed with PPG's DP48LF.


Here the gray stripe was painted.


Refrigerator trim ring.


The black and gray were masked off and now the sandstone was applied.


Colors unmasked and clear coat applied.




Clear coat blended in nicely.


Completely unmasked.


The area over the windshield was probably the worst. There was hardly any clear left. Here it is sanded down prior to masking.




Masked and sealed with more of PPG's DP48LF.


Gray and clear coat completed.


Overall, that is one job that I am glad is DONE!!! I hate painting anymore and all in all this particular paint touch up job took me about 3-weeks start to finish.

Next up is a good detailing and she was ready for the 2014 RVing season. No more embarrassment over the peeling clearcoat.

Mike.

[zmotorsports]

During one of our trips last year our step well air cylinder became disconnected from the step well cover. This has happened once before as the nut on the end of the air cylinder came off and the rod moved freely without being connected to the cover. That was a quick fix of simply removing the end cover and re-installing the nut to the end of the ram.

However, this time it was the other end that became disconnected and a little more time consuming to get to. I had done a search and came up empty handed so I thought I would throw a thread up because I am sure I am not the only one who has had this happen and it really is a simple repair.

This repair should cover most of the late 90's thru about 2004 Monaco coaches with the front door entry. I beleive in either 2005 or maybe as late as 2006 Monaco went away from the air cylinder and installed an electric step well cover.

First off remove the cover or face of the step well cover. You have to extend the step well cover and while looking up under the backside you will see four screws holding the cover/face piece onto the metal angle that the air cylinders rod attaches to.


If you are lucky enough to just have had the nut come off of the end of the ram then this is as far as you need to go. Put the nut back on, I prefer to use some blue Loctite but that is up to you. If the nut is still on here and the other end of the ram is the loose part then you must remove this nut and continue onward.


Once the nut is removed and the rod is free from the front of the step cover, you must remove the four screws on each side of the step cover which hold the cover to the slides/tracks. These are not hard other than you kind of have to stand on your head to get to them. Once the step cover screws are removed you can remove the step cover and gain some access to the air cylinder. No need to remove the large angle iron bracket on the face of the step cover that the rod and the cover face attach to.

Look up inside and you can see the cylinder end of that is loose/disconnected from the body or floor.


Make certain the rod is retracted and you can flop the cylinder end for end to get to the broken bolt. Here you can see the configuration from Monaco. Not the best in my opinion. There is some oportunity to have the bolt rock back and forth the way it is bolted from the factory. Although I can't say it is a poor design or a problem because it has lasted 10 years and 90k miles, however, I have a solution that should be a permanent fix.


I made a block out of .500" thick carbon steel and drilled and tapped it to 1/4"-20 so I could thread a piece of allthread through it and put a nylock nut on the top holding the cylinder to the block. The block is just large enough so it will fasten tight to the floor of the step well rather than the cylinder being the point of contact with the floor.


Here is the underside of the block with the 1/4"-20 allthread threaded through it. I tightened the nylock on the top of the cylinder to the block so I could just tighten the assembly to the floor from underneathe the coach. This will drop into the hole and the whole assembly will be attached by a nut from underneathe.


Here it is dropped into position and ready to be bolted from the underside.


Access is obtained by pushing the generator out the front of the coach and above the generator there is a section of spray on insulation. Remove that and there is the access for the attachment point. It is covered with metal covering but there is a whole cut where the attachment point is, after installing the washer and nylock locknut I covered this area with a black sealant to protect any moisture from getting into the wood and under the metal covering which covers the underside of the coach.

I assembled using a large fender washer to spread the load agains the plywood structure.


Not shown was the sealant that I put over the large washer nut. It was getting late.

Mike.

[zmotorsports]

The weather had been holding out thus far this winter here in northern Utah and I have been needing to put new tires on our 2003 Monaco Dynasty motorcoach. I have NOT been happy with the POS Goodyear G670 that were on the coach one bit. They have developed an irregular wear pattern and I thought I would have an alignment done prior to installing my new Michelin's.

The alignment was within spec but to the high side of the allowable thrust angle of the drive axle. Monaco Roadmaster rear suspensions are not adjustable, as many other heavy RV chassis are either. The guy who performed my lazer alignment told me he wouldn't do anything with it as it was within the allowable range. That isn't me. Between he and I we calculated that the driver's side drive axle needed to move forward just under .125" and the tag axle slightly less than that.

On many heavy OTR trucks they use adjustable ends on their suspension links and Volvo uses an ecentric that allows for some slight adjustment. I thought about drilling the holes out and machining some ecentrics but wasn't sure if I wanted to lose any material on the chassis mounting points as well as several of them would be difficult to get a drill in due to space limitations.

Again, the gentleman who did the alignment suggested leaving it if there were no adverse handling issues. My wife and I like to travel mainly on two lane country roads when we travel and I notice that due to road crown the coach does drift off slightly when letting go of the steering wheel. On concrete interstates it is fine. I opted to move the driver's side forward .125" so it will actually help to hold to the road crown a bit.

First off, the reason for all this. Baby gets new shoes. Michelin XZA2 Energy tires in a 295/80R22.5 size. I am replacing all four drive tires, taking the two best tires from the drive axle and moving them to the tag axle and I will also be putting two new steer tires on. Good thing I am done paying for my son's college because there went a years tuition.




Here are the two trailing arms (control arms) that I will be removing to lengthen. Upper and lower on driver's side. Don't worry, all the weight of the coach is NOT sitting on those two jackstands under the hub. I have my 20-ton jackstands under the rear of the frame and those two 6-ton jackstands are merely holding the weight of the drive axle because I dumped the air out of the rear suspension to allow some movement of the axle.


Make-shift jig setup on my welding table. I clamped some large tubing down so I could make two borders to hold the trailing arm, take some measurements, cut and then insert the trailing arm back into the jig and clamp it to the correct length.


Cutting the trailing arm in my horizontal bandsaw.


I had measured the outside diameter of the square tubing of the trailing arms and had prepared for two separate methods of sleeving the trailing arm. I dug through my steel supply and found a piece of trailer hitch receiver tubing left over from one of the various trailer hitch projects. This measures 2" inside diameter and would work to sleeve the outside of the trailing arm. I was really hoping that the 2" square tubing that Roadmaster used for the trailing arms was .250" wall thickness because I also had a few small pieces of 1.5" O.D. x .250" wall square tube in my scrap bin. This would be my preferred method which would allow me to sleeve the trailing arm internally keeping the outside dimension the same as OEM. Not that sleeving it externally would be any weaker or stronger, just that I wanted to keep the trailing arm as near OEM appearance without sacrificing strength as possible.

All the planets were in alignment, the wall thickness of the trailing arm was .250" so I was able to use 1.5" square tubing to sleeve internally.


I then went one step further and put the trailing arm back into the horizontal bandsaw and removed a .125" sliver of steel. This will allow me to have just enought of a gap in the joint to allow full penetration and let the weld bite hard into the inner sleeve as well as both halves of the trailing arm for a very solid link. In addition, I knew there would be some shrinkage or pull back putting that much heat and weld into the trailing arm. I actually set the overall length @ .156" thinking it would pull back approx. 1/32" upon cooling.


I also drilled a few .500" holes in both halves of the trailing arm to allow me to rosette weld (plug weld) the inner sleeve to the trailing arm. Root weld and rosette welds completed. For some reason I don't have any pictures of the internal sleeve but there is a 6" length of 1.5" square tubing inside the trailing arm.


While I was waiting for the root weld to cool slightly I decided to grab some polish and run a coat of polish around my wheels.


When my wife and I bought the coach in 2007 the previous owner had neglected the wheels badly. I don't think they had seen a coat of polish in their first four years. Upon our purchasing the coach, I removed all the wheels and polished them with a compounding pad using tripoli and jewelers rouge bringing them back to nearly new shine. Now once or twice a year I merely have to run around them with a coat of Busch's Aluminum polish and they look amazing and bead water off nicely.

I then moved on to complete to top pass on the trailing arm.


After cooling I threw it back into the jig to test for the final measurement. Dead nuts on @ 1/8" over the starting length. It shrunk back exactly where it needed to be.


After cooling I applied a heavy coat of chassis paint, installed the lower trailing arm, removed the upper trailing arm and performed the exact same procedure. Here is the upper trailing arm completed and ready for paint.


I will now move on to perform the same modification to the tag axle trailing arms. Final pics of the modified trailing arms and wheels/tires installed.

Here is the upper trailing arm completed, painted and installed.


Here is the lower trailing arm completed, painted and installed.


Inner dual installed, Balance Master installed, Crossfire installed and torqueing the wheels on with my Proto 3/4" drive torque wrench. Yes that is snow that is starting to fall that you see on the ground. It started just as I crawled out from under the coach from tightening the last two bolts on the tag axle trailing arms.



View of completed project. You can see how much better it looks after all that work.




After completing everything I had another alignment done and it was dead on the money. The guy who did my alignment was very impressed with how accurate it turned out and how I modified/lengthened the trailing arms.

Mike.

[zmotorsports]

This brings me current to this past weekend. One more small item I wanted to complete on our coach before the start of the new RVing season. I decided to finally replace that poorly designed door mechanism that Monaco uses. I don't know why they didn't get with the times like most every other manufacturer but they insisted on sticking with a poor out of date scissor type mechanism to hold the door open as well as act as a stop.

There have been a lot of write-ups over the years and I finally decided last fall that I had tightened up the scissor assembly for the last time and ordered the parts to convert it to the gas strut style.

Here is the only part where I really had to deviate from some of the other write-ups, my Dynasty had the small molded drip rail over the entrance door so it needed a small amount of trimming to clear the swing of the gas strut.


I then started measuring where I wanted to the bracket to mount on the coach. I ended up 4" back from the front of the door molding to the center of the first hole in the bracket. I also drilled a third hole in both brackets to give a little extra support.


I then opened the door to 90-degrees and marked where the bracket needed to be on the door itself. Then drilled and installed it.


This is what it looks like with the door closed.


Next I wanted to machine a couple of covers to cover the openings of the two OEM mounting brackets.

I used a pieced of .125" aluminum, measured, machined, drilled and countersunk the screw holes for the coach mounted piece.


I then used a piece of .188" thick aluminum that I flycut to flatten out, measured the bolt holes, drilled and countersunk for the rivets using a .375" end mill.


I made the part slightly oversize to completely cover the square recessed hole in the door itself. The part measures 1.5" x 3.0" overall dimensions.


I then flipped it over in the mill vise and machined the border to the exact size of the OEM bracket. This will allow the cover to orientate itself down into the recess of the door.


Cover installed on the coach inside the doorjamb.


Cover installed up on top of the door into the recess of the OEM bracket. Sadly this cover will never be seen up on top of the door. But I will know it is there and what it looks like.


All in all the complete job was quite easy and I highly recommend it to anyone who owns a Monaco coach with the scissor style door support mechanism.

I cannot however take credit for this modification as I remember seeing it somewhere else, on this forum if memory serves.

The part number for the gas strut and brackets are as follows:
RV Designer G22 20"/20 lb. gas strut
RV Designer G825 3/4" gas strut brackets (2 per pckg/1 pckg req.)

I obtained the parts from Amazon as they were the least expensive.

Also not shown in the above pictures is after I completed the installation I touched up the heads of the six screws with some black paint to blend into the mounting brackets. It actually looks like something that should have come out of the factory this way.

Mike.

[MSHappyCampers]

All I can say is WOW! Great job!

[zmotorsports]

Originally Posted by MSHappyCampers

All I can say is WOW! Great job!

Thank you. I really appreciate that.

Mike.

[Coma]

No kidding, Wow! So……what is your hourly rate and do you take appointments?

Back to the Air Dryer. Mine is also buried and I was considering relocating it. I have plenty to space at the engine access area. Any considerations to do that? What kind of line is used and where do you source the hose?

I see you also have the same Air filter. I want to replace with a cartridge type, what needs to be done to arc weld some brackets on to protect ECM's?

BTW, what gas mix are you using to get those splatter less welds?

Thanks for posting this stuff, it's got my juices going.

[Papa_Jim]