New Radiator

I had the one in my DP replaced here with a copper one they said came from Freight Liner. Total cost out the door was around $2300.....Any one stand still for some of the prices above must have a lot more money than I have.

Aluminum is ok in small gas stuff but in heavy equipment I would want copper/brass.

I have a 2003 Safari Cheetah with a CAT 3126E Diesel engine. I am the original owner.It came out of the factory with an Aluminum radiator which started leaking after 1,500 miles.Monaco replaced it with same radiator which lasted another 5,000 miles and started leaking badly. Monaco replaced it with the same radiator which lasted another 4,000 miles and failed as well.All of the failures were under warranty so Monaco stood up to the bar. The third one died within 60 days of the warranty ending so I drove to the factory in Coburg, OR and told the VP of Maintenance/Customer Service etc. that I wasn't leaving until they replaced radiator until they installed a copper/brass one. They argued,balked, said no and on and on for three days.

I didn't threaten legal action etc. but they got the message and finally relented with a new copper/brass radiator. They paid for the extraction of the bad radiator, the installation of a new one and the labor. I have now gone 45,000 miles without losing a drop of coolant.

Many Monaco 2001,2002, 2003 & 2004 owners (Safari, Holiday Rambler, Beaver & Monaco)were not so lucky. Monaco told them they wouldn't fix their problem basically because it wasn't a safety issue. I was one of the lucky ones. Monaco made lots of enemies over this issue!

smlranger wrote:
... Country Coach, for example, had lots of issues with aluminum radiators and many have been replaced with copper/steel radiators.
Find a reputable radiator shop in your area that does commercial truck/heavy equipment radiator repairs/replacement and see what they say.

In some models during some periods of time. It wasnt rampant thru the CC lineup

Well Gang,
As SMLRanger says, go copper/brass over aluminum. I know the threads a bit old but, I thought I'd throw my 2cents in. Long story short, I had a leak, on and off with my aluminum radiator in our '04 Itasca Horizon 36GD with the C-7 330HP CAT. I found I had clogged fins in both the radiator and the CAC.

So, I pulled both. That took me around 6 hours, plus or minus 'cause I was not in any hurry. What I found was a bad section/flange where it couples with the plastic tank in the lower left section as you looked at it from the rear of the coach. Well, I figured I might as well roll over and play dead because I pretty much figured I'd have to empty the bank account on a new radiator from Freightliner.

Well, they had, at the time, 7 of them in Memphis TN. The cost, $1,842.00, without SHIPPING AND TAXES. So, off to a local shop I went. They said, that radiator is junk, throw it away. They said "Don't buy one from Freightliner, buy one from us. And the reason, it will be a Copper/Brass one that can be repaired at a later date, if needed. And, the cost, for the exact same radiator in size and shape, was $1,250.00 OUT THE DOOR.

Now, we've been on a few trips in some fairly heated conditions and, to be real honest, there is "0" DIFFERENCE in cooling. It runs the exact same temp, in various conditions as the aluminum one did. So, to those who may run into this kind of situation in the future, without a doubt, go with the Copper/Brass unless some one GIVES you a new aluminum one which, is probably not likely.
Scott

$10,000 is about right and could have been worse for me. I have a Monaco Executive and the aluminum radiator was leaking badly. Called Monaco, they wanted $9800 for a replacement, not including labor or freight. I looked around and found one, exact replacement delivered for $5100 and it was copper/brass/steel. $5100 still seems outrages for what you get. But, way better than Monaco. Cummins did the labor, about $2700 for labor and misc parts and 12 gal of new fluid. They had to put the coach in the air on jacks to remove the radiator out the bottom. Scary seeing a coach flying in the air like that. So, bottom line was $7800, most expensive bill I have had owning a motor coach since 2006.

GypsieRoad glad you are back to running cool but the $10K hit was over the top. On the road repairs are a wildcard from what I read.

I find myself having to explain in detail what I want fixed and HOW I want it fixed. It is not easy for anyone out there. Try to look at the jobs in the shop and size up the abilities of any shop. Gas is much cheaper to repair but you drive too much I expect for gas to be a good option.

We read about $10K repairs from time to time and often a radiator is in the mix.

There should be no reason for water pump bolts to jiggle off so maybe you can find a good place that can go over the chassis from time to time if doing it yourself is not an option. Doing ones only oil changes and grease jobs is how I catch a lot of stuff like that.

Again glad you are running well and cooly.

Short of long story- I have a 2001 Monaco Knight (with aluminum radiator) and after spending 13 hours at mile marker #32 on the I-10 just outside Quartzsite was towed by Good Sam to Salome Motors in Salome. (Could not get a call out due to lightening and no Hwy Patrol ever stopped to help, cutbacks)Good Sam finds this shop and he says he repairs RV's. They could not find anything in Q.
The owner lets me park on his lot for 2 weeks in 116 heat in June while he repairs my radiator etc. He said bolts from my water pump jiggled off and broke the fan and all punctured the radiator. Well, seems no one will repair aluminum radiators in Arizona, so he has a copper one built in Phoenix, total job $4400. Right away my diesel pusher is running hotter (temp out of shop is 200 which I questioned and used to be 175)So I keep over heating and figure something is wrong as I must stop every while to cool down. I'm now in Colorado and he says bring it back in, really? We worked out I could in January. Fast forward January, he finds nothing wrong and does not know why. I take it to MDS Diesel Service in El Cajon, CA. They say it should have NEVER had a copper radiator and by the way the guy put the fan in backwards and one of the blades is broken. So $5100 and a few days later I get a new aluminum radiator. I've been 10,000 miles all over the Maritimes and east coast and NO overheating. Now I'm in this for almost $10k total. Salome refuses to reimburse me. Your comments confuse me because of my experiences. Being a single RV'er I must say this happens often with my road repairs. Tired of taking it, Help.

I pulled the radiator it was about a 3 hour job. I took it to a radiator shop that was recomended to me by friends in the trucking business. They said to get away from the aluminum one espescially if you are going to spending a lot of time back east. they told me there, that salt builds up quicker and the electrolyze tends to break down the aluminum ones quicker. I am not an expert in this area I am just going by what they said. The radiator shop told that the radiator on the sparten chassis was made by volvo. So I ordered the new one which was picked up yesterday it all metal or brass it is an exact match to the old one. I thought I would post this to see if buying this one was the right thing to do.

I went from the original Aluminum radiator that began leaking at the core seams after about 4 years old. Could not be rebuilt/fixed so replaced with a copper/steel one custome made to fit perfectly. Now if I ever have problems it has a chance of being rebuilt. I noticed absolutely no difference is cooling ability while traveling up mountains and in high heat areas.