We left Venice yesterday afternoon and went to a campground in Kissimmee to stage ourselves for our appointment at Josam Truck Alignment shop in Orlando at 0700. All went fine, we got in right at 0700 and by 0715 they informed us we had a serious problem. The drag link, the part of the chassis responsible for connecting the steering wheel to the front wheels, was shot. I went down into the pit to take a look and wow, did it ever wiggle around! No good! Then we found out that not only is the part unique to our chassis, it is proprietary, expensive, and since it is a special order, it would take up to 3 weeks to get it. Put quite a dent in our plans! By 0800, our ride height had been adjusted and our alignment including a road test was complete. The coach was then moved over to another bay to have all new Koni shocks installed, the front hubs converted to oil bath and the bearings checked, and the dessicant cartridge replaced. Josam is a very good place. Clean, competent, fair priced, and friendly.
The drag link has to be ordered straight from Monaco which has been done. Now we wait. In the meantime we are returning to Venice, restarted our electric, newspaper, and notified the campground we are returning.
We just can't escape...... Feeling the beam...pulling us back, pulling us back:-)
Maybe we'll do the awning conversion now??
9 comments:
Better now than when driving down a winding road......might as well do the awnings with your down time. There must be a reason you are being kept in fl. Enjoy the perks whatever they may be! On our way to Auburn, taking Riley and Caleb home then babysitting Hunter and Elizabeth thru July 10. We will need a vacation after this! Good luck with swift delivery of your part!
I agree with the winding road thoughts. It looks as if the awnings will get done. Jan is going to fly out to Kelly's, and from the sounds of it, you will need a vacation after all that!
Wow what a high quality piece of equipment the boys at monaco made, in the scrap bin at less than 100,000 miles. Suddenly replacing links on Macks and Peterbilts at 750k miles seems cheap!
I agree Sandy! Evidently they had a company, Industrial Steering make a unique drag link that is only rebuildable on one end, guess which end is bad? Then exacerbated by their bankruptcy, the company will only sell one through Monaco, and since it's unique they get to jack the price and set the time as they can work it into their machine shop schedule. Basically it sucks!
Wow!
It seems NTSB should look at this.Recall? Have you talked to Monaco? What should I look for?
I have 65000 miles. I really have no idea as to what to look or feel for with shocks or for that matter brakes. They seem ok but...
What in the world is an oil bath hub. What does it replace? Is it easier just to buy a new RV and skip all this crap?
Just spent $2000 on the Jeep for new rack and pinion steering. This after $2000 for transmission work. This fortunately was covered under lifetime drive train warranty offered by Jeep because apparently the word was out that their transmissions in 2009 were junk.
Also need $50 part to fix ability to regulate heat through the registers. Oh and $600 to drop the dash to replace the part.
So I'm paying the service department cashier when a salesman appears and asks me if I am ready to upgrade to a new Grand Cherokee. I "politely" told himI wasn't loving me Chrysler products at the moment and unless he had a Mercedes 350 to sell me take a walk.
I'm beginning to feel true financial freedom will come the day I sell the RV and Jeep.
First of all I understand your frustration, as to recall, no, although somewhat common, it is still rare to have the drag link go south after less than 100's of thousands of miles. Monaco made the problem worse by using a unique part that only has one rebuildable end. More research is showing the end that failed may not have been greased as often as it should have been, but that is not definite.
The oil bath hub is for the front wheels. Our front hubs and I believe yours has its bearings packed in grease, very normal. They should be looked at and have the grease repacked every so often, so at 75,000 miles I wanted ours checked. The grease was breaking down as was expected, but both bearings looked good and it could have been repacked with grease and all would be good and then in 30,000 miles or so they should be rechecked and so on. It was only a $70 upcharge to put new hubcaps on to be able to use gear oil instead of grease. That way just making sure the oil stays full and there are no leaks, there is no prescribed maintenance. Nothing wrong with either method.
As to the Jeep, stuff breaks. I'm not familiar with an ongoing problem with the steering or transmission, but it's good the warranty paid for the tranny. It is a complex vehicle with four wheel drive, etc. We got burnt with an AC issue just out of warranty several Jeeps ago and decided to get an extended warranty from then on. I don't usually buy those things, but it has come in handy with other Jeeps. On the other hand with 30,000 miles on the new one already! It has been flawless! MB's break too, ask Jason.
NTSB recall on a maintenance issue, sounds like a lib position. I gave up on Jeep products in about 1995 with my Mom's Grand Cherokee. They are all junk unless you are lucky to get one built under a rainbow. Motor coaches are an odd collection of component parts that are motivated by enough horsepower to go down the road, generally in the same direction.
The worst Mercedes product line every built are the ML series. Warranty claims are more than triple the rest of the fleet at MB.
Oh just trying to use NTSB to get my fair share-to get what's coming to me.
CT
:-)
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