Compare Monaca and Holiday Rambler Endeavor

Hummm.. I have lot of friends with the Monaco 8 bag chassis and not one of them have ever mentioned the problems Neverhome describes. We had the R4RR chassis in our 08 Safari Simba and it was a rough riding rig. We had to replace the trailing arms after two years of ownership. Of course, the dealer never mentioned this problem to us when we bought it new. Fortunately, our extended service provider picked up the whole bill.

I will check out the post at IRV2. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

Ron

PS... ok, went over to IRV2 and looked up that post...There are over 100 pages for this post.... I went through the first few pages before I got really bored with it and never saw anything about trailing arm bushings or H frame problems. Can you be a little more specific as to where I can find this info you're talking about?

OP, do a search on RR10S... You'll save yourself a lot of $$$.

X3 on the 8 airbags handling very GOOD but the 10 handle even better.

If you look at Ron's list, Knight and Ambassador dropped off the "bad 4 air bag trailing arms list" because they were put on the rr8r chassis in 2005 and on.
We are very happy with our 08 knight.

As for the Windsor, some of these had "cheater" rear axles, with a 23,000 pound rating axle on a non tag chassis. CCC with these is huge.
Our knight is heavy in the back.

I'm not sure where NeverHome's remarks are coming from.
Our knight is a smooth rock. Never bothered by anything, steer with one hand, etc...

Ron,if you look at pictures and specs of early 2000 to 2006 the Endeavor and Diplomat they are exact copies including paint and interiors. If you have ever driven a coach on a RR8R Roadmaster chassis it steers itself and you have to constantly saw at the steering wheel to keep it on the the road. When a truck passes you the air it is pushing pushes the coach over and when you make a quick lane change it has so much yaw that it becomes almost out of control. When a wind comes up it is almost undriveable. This is caused by the H-frames moving due to trailing arm deflection. In the early Monaco coaches the bushings in the trailing arms were of a too hard durometer and they would break. The fix is a softer thermoplastic encapsulated bushing but because they are press fit the recall replaced the whole trailing arm. All the history and detailed engineering to fix the problems are in a large thread on Irv2.com. the thread is titled "Wandering, swaybars, alignment, ride height, oh my..." Take the time and read it, it is very educational.

bazdad wrote:
Thanks to everyone that gave me some needed advise. I have been looking online sales paying attention to 2003 to 07 years in the Diplomat or Camelot series 40 ft. Does the tag axel make driving much easier? Does the 8 air bags make driving easier than the Newmar at the same length without tag axel? Thanks again

Tag axle gives you more CCC, more stable ride, smoother ride (I know same thing), more braking, less affected by trucks going by and cross winds, and looks cooler! Tag axle will have 10 air bags if you go with a Monaco. Beaver and Safari were a different and some say better coach from 2003 and below. Even though the Chassis will be a road master it is a a Magnum chassis. Some say magnum better, some say the 2004 and newer with the Roadmaster RR10S is better with the monococial (spelling) frame is better. My 2003 has characteristics from both companies. good luck.

One more thing, I'm not sure when Monaco quit making the Windsor, but it was most definitely above the Diplomat and didn't have the tag axle. I have one on each side of me right now. One is a rear bedroom the other is a rear bath.

Ron

NeverHome2 wrote:
The HR Endeavor and the Monaco Diplomat are exactly the same. They are the top coaches in the single axle group. The higher coaches have tag axles and are longer. I hope this helps but the coaches built by Monaco before the bankruptcy are of much better quality. If the electronics haven't been updated then they will need it.

The bad bushings in the trailing arms were corrected by 2001. The later coaches have a much more substantial bushing but beware, the Roadmaster chassis had a design defect which caused deflection of the H frames and made steering a nightmare. There is a fix now and it is not very expensive to do.

Sorry, but the Monaco Camalot (and sister units in Holiday Rambler, Beaver,and Safari) were inbetween the Diplomat and Dynasty and was available with and without a tag axle, depending upon the length.

I have never heard of a problem with "bad bushings in the trailing arms" on Monaco products. I googled it and found nothing. Additionally, I also googled "deflection of the H frame"...and once again found nothing. Please provide some substantial info on these two problem...if they do indeed exist.

However, Monaco did start a recall of the trailing arm defect on the following coaches:

Monaco Knight 2002 - 2004
Monaco Cayman 2002 - 2009
Holiday Rambler Ambassador 2002 - 2004
Holiday Rambler Neptune 2002 - 2009
Safari Cheetah 2002 - 2007
Safari Simba RD All Years
Safari Zanzibar/Sahara 2002 -2005
Beaver Baron All Years

The recall affects Rear Suspension Trailing Arms ONLY ON THE R4R and RR4R CHASSIS with the "Monaco Gold" or sometimes referred to as "R-Way" suspension. Monaco started replacing these trailing arms with exact replicas which also were defective.

After the Monaco bankrupcy, a private company (Source Eng) started making an upgraded trailing arm that would replace the defective Monaco unit. These replacements are still availible today.

Ron

Thanks to everyone that gave me some needed advise. I have been looking online sales paying attention to 2003 to 07 years in the Diplomat or Camelot series 40 ft. Does the tag axel make driving much easier? Does the 8 air bags make driving easier than the Newmar at the same length without tag axel? Thanks again

The HR Endeavor and the Monaco Diplomat are exactly the same. They are the top coaches in the single axle group. The higher coaches have tag axles and are longer. I hope this helps but the coaches built by Monaco before the bankruptcy are of much better quality. If the electronics haven't been updated then they will need it.

The bad bushings in the trailing arms were corrected by 2001. The later coaches have a much more substantial bushing but beware, the Roadmaster chassis had a design defect which caused deflection of the H frames and made steering a nightmare. There is a fix now and it is not very expensive to do.

gemert wrote:

dougrainer wrote:
HR and Monaco were like Chevy and Oldsmobile. Monaco and HR had the same basic models, but each had items that were just for that brand. Some think Monaco was the slightly better and some think HR was slightly better in the same basic floorplan. BOTH are equal. Doug

And Beaver, also part of the Monaco family were the best of the bunch! Just saying!! LOL

Don't forget Safari!!!