My Wife thought I was nuts and embarrassed her when we were shopping for our MH. I pulled kitchen drawers out, took a penlight and checked how the cabinets were fastened. I have printed your post out and saved for others to see before purchasing a MH. Thank you for enlightening others of what to look for when shopping. I had a brand X before and same thing, rattling cabinet when the staples pulled loose after a couple of years. This purchase was screw mounted cabinets or we walked.
Chuck
02 Travel Supreme, 2 street side slides
02 Jeep Liberty Toad
After 25 years of travel trailers, new and used, we purchased a new 96 Pace Arrow Vision, it was 18 months of hell, delamination on one wall, 3 months back to factory, having it return with someone else's wall, exterior handles used etc. within three that wall and the opposite wall were delaminating, and on the last outing, my mother stepped out the door as we dropped her off, the cabinet over the stairwell dropped to the floor.
Quickly traded for our present coach, no major issues in 10 years bought new.
Eugene & Stella Theriault,
1999 Endeavour 34CG/V-10 (No Slides)
2005 Honda Element. Blue Ox Aladin.
FMCA 318247
We have crawled through, under and into every nook and corner in our 05 Endeavor, as we had a 2003 FW DP that fell apart as you described. We have found that the construction is 99% screws, metal and wood, not staples, plastic and particle board, as was the Fleetwood. I would be conversing with Monaco, if I were in your shoes, as there is something fishy with that coach, IMHO.
Bob & Betsy - USN Ret'd '78 & FL LEO Ret'd '03 FMCA #F203528 '05 HR Endeavor, 40PRQ w/400 Cummins - With -'05 GMC Sierra LT, CC Z-71, the pusher '07 Arctic Cat 500A & Wilderness Kayak, riding in the pusher - Our Current Location
I found considerable improvements in the overall quality, engineering and workmanship between my 03 Camelot 38 and my 06 Camelot 42. The 06 is not perfect, but it is one heck of a lot better than the 03. I'm really glad we upgraded.
LLT....Sorry about your issue.....I'm a Monaco owner and as others have said, I've been through every inch of mine and find that it's very well built. I'm also a Monaco fan so my opinion is bias.
Your coach is approaching 5 years old and who knows what kind of abuse it took from the previous owner in terms of overloading the cabinets, etc.
In one of your past posts you stated: "We love our Endeavor 40PDQ. Only problems we've had have been my own stupidity." In another post you talked about flooding the coach and haven't to bring professionals in to clean up the mess, including running the heater to dry out the heater ducting. This can create a tremendous amount of humidity and weaken things such as cabinets.
I would be the first to admit that your cabinet shouldn't have fallen apart, but you've apparently been happy with your coach until now. Something must have angered you to cause this post, like Monaco turning you down for repairing the cabinets.
Every motor home has it's issues, but suddenly yours went from loving it to hating it almost overnight.
Don & Mary
2005 Monaco Diplomat 36SKT
400 Cummins
2007 Dodge Dakota 4WD
LLT: Your situation is precisely why I am so reluctant to "upgrade." Production built coaches are just that and there is bound to be some that are put together with staples and glue. I see no need to make blanket condemnations of a particular manufacturer and/or model. Buyer beware is definitely a caution to be observed. My coach IS a production machine and will be 16 years old this December. So far, it has held together nicely and certainly serves my needs. If I were in your shoes, I would make repairs to ensure a safe machine OR if to finance such improvements that would resemble a bottomless pit, I would get rid of the coach and get something more suitable. I would not, however, give up RVing. Jim
JAG
1993 Pace Arrow Diesel
2004 Saturn VUE V6 AT
El Cajon, CA
There is no excuse for the staples and screws missing, a cabinet falling down! wow.
But, comparing an entry level Monaco to a Newell is just not realistic.
A Newell will cost about six or seven times as much.
Most people when they get a new rig take about a year to get all things working reliably.
A lot of people prefer a one or two year old rig for this reason alone.
If you get rid of it after you get everything working and fixed, you will start the cycle over again with the next rig.
Unless it is a Newell.
Al C
One thing is for sure, this thing is going "down the road" when the current issues are resolved. If I regain interest in RVing, I'll most definitely be going with a Newmar, Newell or similar.
While I needed to vent/rant a little bit, the primary purpose of this post is to remind you not to leave things to chance. It's worth taking a few minutes to inspect things like your cabinets to ensure everything is kosher and you're not at risk for something like what happened to me.
We toured the factory the last time we went past Eugene. (Coburg's just about part of Eugene at the north end) My impression is Monaco has gone into ''fast production mode'' with various brand coaches moving down the assembly line. There were HR's followed by Monacos in front of Beavers. The Safari line is about all but dead these days too, (Compared to years past) and the new trend is a ‘’double brand’’ such as Safari-Monaco.
I've posted before about the dashboards being vacuum formed vinyl instead of the old Safari hand-stitched leather etc. Also, the sidewalls are vacuum formed glue-sandwiches instead of riveted aircraft aluminum and stainless steel as we have on the Continental. I figured right then 'n' there that, unfortunately, Monaco's not a consideration should another coach be in our future. It doesn’t surprise me that cabinets are stapled into place.
Brobox wrote: My Wife thought I was nuts and embarrassed her when we were shopping for our MH. I pulled kitchen drawers out, took a penlight and checked how the cabinets were fastened. I have printed your post out and saved for others to see before purchasing a MH. Thank you for enlightening others of what to look for when shopping. I had a brand X before and same thing, rattling cabinet when the staples pulled loose after a couple of years. This purchase was screw mounted cabinets or we walked.
Embarrassed wife or not, that's about the ONLY way to see how something's REALLY put together. My thinking is when they cut corners on relatively easy things to see such as quality (or lack thereof) in a removable galley drawer, where and what else have they cut corners on?!? That’s also why I like ‘’sneaking’’ into an RV lot to inspect a coach. You can’t easily do the drawer pulling routine when a salesman is yapping in your ear about how great brand X is.
FMCA# F355513. 1997 Safari Continental, 40 foot, 1 slide. Cat 3126B, Allison MD3060. 2000 Durango SLT 4x4 toad with a Blue Ox Aventa II and stopped with a Brake Buddy. Seen on the Road Photo album
My Wife thought I was nuts and embarrassed her when we were shopping for our MH. I pulled kitchen drawers out, took a penlight and checked how the cabinets were fastened. I have printed your post out and saved for others to see before purchasing a MH. Thank you for enlightening others of what to look for when shopping. I had a brand X before and same thing, rattling cabinet when the staples pulled loose after a couple of years. This purchase was screw mounted cabinets or we walked.
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