Door seal and noise reduction

[Dan Murphy]

Our door seal is not working on our Contessa. The problem seems to be the valve assembly and I have found the part but it is expensive as are ALL parts it seems.
What I would like to know is if anybody has noticed a big reduction in wind noise with this seal working. I don't believe ours has ever worked since we bought the coach and we do seem to have some wind noise. Its not bad but I wonder if a working door seal would make our ride even quieter?
 
Has anyone had experience with and without the door seal??

[Jerry Carr]

Hi Dan, My seal is working but I have had a problem a few years ago. Yes the seal does a good job not only with wind but with the door rattles

[Joel Ashley]

Ditto here, Dan.  Although there is still some noise, we saw a noticeable reduction over when ours wasn't working correctly a while back.  The copilot usually notices rattles, wind, and air intrusion more than the pilot of course.  The air bladder stops the bulk of it.

Joel

[Dan Murphy]

Thanks Jerry and Joel! That is the feedback I was looking for. I guess I will order the part.

Dan

[Lee Welbanks]

Dan,

With my 06 PT we have basically zero wind noise at the door, I've taken off with the door not fully latched and that you know right away with the noise.
What part are you needing, usually these parts can be had without going through Monaco or BCS as these people are way to proud of their parts and shipping.

[Joel Ashley]

I don't know how exactly you determined the issue was the valve as such.  Commonly it's a poor electrical connection to the valve solenoid or an air connection.  Those should be repairable without replacing the valve, but if you're certain it's the valve itself internally...

just my 2 cents
-Joel

[Dan Murphy]

Ive tried to attach a picture. This is the part that a tech from Master Tech in Elkhart told me was bad at a recent rally in Goshen. He was trying to find a replacement for the brass part on the left of the pic which I thought was a valve. Im really not sure what its called. When I sent a picture to Veuruinks using their I-phone app this is the part they said I needed and it only came as an entire assembly for $270.00.
Its certainly not the most expensive part Ive neededin this adventure so far but I was surprised!
Any suggestions as to obtaining it more reasonably??

Dan

[Gerald Farris]

Dan,
Have you checked with Northwest RV Supply in Eugene Oregon. They purchased the surplus Monaco inventory when Monaco RV moved from Oregon to Indiana, and they are usually more reasonably priced.

Gerald

[Joel Ashley]

I can't get under my coach enough to quite make out the label on the air solenoid (eyes too old), and in storage it's dumped all the way down so I can't get my head under the apron.  My attempts at research for you went nowhere without the label info.

That said, perhaps the attached will be useful in your understanding of its operation.  The air supply is continuous to the black valve part that has the adjusting knob.  It shouldn't go over 5 psi or you jeopardize the air bag around the door frame.  One caution to new owners, you should try not to open or close the door if the engine is running and in gear;  perhaps that seems common sense as it is, but I've seen copilots try to do that underway when realizing the door isn't quite shut.  Or they exit suddenly having forgotten something, and the driver (forgetfully and foolishly) had his foot on the brake but was in gear. The inflated air bladder regularly gets torn that way.

The air supply goes through the black regulator first, and only moves on to the bladder around the door frame when the brass solenoid opens when it's activated by 12v. power via the wires you see emanating from it.  That power comes from a relay controlled by the neutral safety switch of the tranny and the engine crank relay.  That's why I asked if you were certain power was supplied to the solenoid in the first place, and that a relay wasn't the issue;  but I assume the tech knew what he was doing, and likely applied an alternate 12v source to test it or bypassed relays in the electrical bay.  I'd shop around first before shelling out for the entire unit, just in case the solenoid alone was available.  NW RV Supply is a good start, as Gerald suggests.  But if you can get more info off the solenoid's label, do some searching for it online.

-Joel
(click on the paper clip icon underneath the image to open a more readable format)

[neil omalley]

Along the same lines of noise, I have a couple of small leaks in the gasket. if this were your coach, how would you repair these small holes ?

[Dan Murphy]

Joel
I finally found the picture of the actual part the tech in Goshen took off the coach. He could not find the replacement so he was replacing it so I could get on the road when I took a photo. I had a tech in Fl this past winter tell me the solenoid was bad. He said he had applied a power source to it and it didn't work.I didn't have him go any further with the repair at the time.
We noticed more road noise than normal going to this rally in Goshen and decided we would have someone at the rally look at it.The rally fee included an hour of labor so we thought we would use ours on this issue.
The tech found the supply hose kinked inside the door frame but even though he was able to repair that the solenoid was still bad.
Your explanation helps a lot to understand how this works. I assume the regulator is ok but the solenoid is bad.The only parts place I have contacted so far told me the part was only sold as a complete assembly.

Now that I have found the "real" picture I will try a Google search for the part.How does a person know there is only 5 psi or less when it hooked up if I can find a replacement?

Well forget the picture I've tried for an hour to resize but can't get it done on this iMac!  it says KIP Inc.valve #1x1181

[Lee Welbanks]

Have you tested the solenoid to see if it is getting 12 volts and that the solenoid tests good with a ohm meter? Its rare for a solenoid to go south, but it does happen.

[Joel Ashley]

I searched that part but didn't find an exact match on the norgren website, Dan.  You might go here and chat with them Monday:
http://store.norgren.com/us

Admittedly I didn't have time to venture much further into any other search results, but you could do what I did... simply google or bing search  "KIP Inc.valve #1x1181"  .    You may also see what you want among the bunch on Ebay, and they're a whole lot cheaper than an entire unit.

Not sure how the pressure is set except by means of what appears to be a dial the writing on which I can't make out.  Perhaps in a pinch one could attach a dial gauge to the outlet port.

As to patching holes, Neil, I've never dealt with that issue, though I think others here have.  I reckon I'd consider an old-fashioned bike tube patch kit;  it should hold up against less than 5 lbs.

-Joel

[LaMonte Monnell]

Dan,

With my 06 PT we have basically zero wind noise at the door, I've taken off with the door not fully latched and that you know right away with the noise.
What part are you needing, usually these parts can be had without going through Monaco or BCS as these people are way to proud of their parts and shipping.

I hear that Lee! They wanted my SMC IDS hyd jacks for practically nothing.....

[Joel Ashley]

Dan, if you go back to "Home" here on the Forum and scroll down to General Discussion, clicking on it, you will see a link to Mike Way's Mac Guide to Compressing/Resizing Photos.  You may find a little help there for your iMac.

I've pretty much zeroed in on using Paint on my Windows computers since it is about as simple as it gets and I now do it several times a week, whereas a couple years ago I had no clue.  I learned a lot when Steve Huber and I worked together formulating our Guide to Compressing/Resizing Photos for Windows (also pinned on the General Discussion page), and I think we all appreciate his creative help there.

That said, when the time comes for my own iMac I'll probably be referring to Mike's Guide cuz my only Apple exposure has been my 4 year old iPad, which has minimal photo processing capabilities.  Otherwise I'd try to advise you straight up;  I definitely look forward to ditching the old cantankerous XP desktop for a new Mac, and weaning myself off this troublesome Vista laptop. 

If you still have trouble, perhaps we need to develop more info for Mac's and include it.  I have a grandson that uses only Apple products anymore and is a professional photographer;  I'm sure he'd help if needed.  From Mike's brief guide though, I'd assume it is relatively simple compared to our multiple Windows options.

Joel