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My ailse lights not working, i dont have 12v to bedroom floor or the kitchen floor lights.  I have searched both fuse panel  not kinding a fuse blown. Would anyone have sugestion.
Thank you,
James Price
Coach 647, 2003, 60D

So I have been thinking a bit about airbags especially the drive axle air bags. I noticed that my coach tends to lean and sway quite a bit and I think it’s also part of the reason the coach tends to wander when going down the road. I know there are other potential issues for wandering so do not want to get sidetracked on those for this discussion. 

So my thoughts are that the ping tanks with the large line going to the axle may be contributing to the excess lean. So my rationale is as follows, because the air is not limited to what is in the bag but also the volume in the tank, now you have more volume that can be compressed. I think this is allowing the coach to lean more by compressing the increased volume. Question I have is for those folks that have done away with the large line bags and have gone to the smaller line bags do they notice any lean difference?

Another factor that I am sure affects things is my coach is a hump back coach so the center of gravity may be higher. 

So I may end up doing an experiment by using some reducing fittings and running smaller lines to my drive axle air bags direct, get rid of the ping tanks and use the smaller fill line. See if this improves the lean and hopefully also improves it when driving down the road which would also help a bit with wander possibly. 

Just some musings to keep my mind busy while I have a thousand other things I am trying to get done.

i deal with these alot since i sell the rebuild kits for them.    i know i have posted about this before but thought i would refresh everyone.

these valves were used in newell leveling sytems from the late 80's to about 2003.  in the earlier coaches newell made their own manual leveling system with toggle switches on the dash (my 90 had that).  they still used these valves or the earlier kip valves that were the same except for the coil.  when they went to the hwh leveling system they all used the rap1940 valves

they are also used on a wider range of foretravels and any other coach of that vintage that used the hwh leveling system.  

these valves are designed for much higher activation rates than what the leveling system or ride height system gives.  so why do they faieaning leak).  first of all the coils almost never fail.  i have only seen a handful fail (one was on tims coach when he was here doing his slide seal and i had a spare coiil to replace it with)

so...the leaks come from 3 different ways from what i can see.  i have replaced dozens of these things on mine and friends coaches.  

1.  i attached a picture of 20 some old plungers that are inside the valves.  you can see the indented ring in the blue seal.  the orfice inside the valve body is raised up and kinda has a sharp edge.  when the valve is not energized, the spring on the plunger inside the stem pushes the seal on the plunger onto the orfice....thus sealing it so no air can pass.  the only time air should be passed from the valve is when the plunger is pulled up by being energized and allowing air to pass to or to be let out.  when you are in "raise" mode on one of the valves, the raise solenoid is energized, pulling the plunger in and allows air to flow from the air system to the airbag you have selected.   conversely, if you are wanting to "lower" the air bag, the lower solenoid is energized and the air is let out of the airbag by the plunger being pulled in and air being let out.  

that seal is the culprit.....if it leaks when closed, then you can have the airbag slowing raising....or slowing being let down....

these are just a rubber seal....1.  as it gets old it gets less rubbery....2.   our systems are not clean systems.   water and rust and junk is often in them, and if a piece of anything small goes through and gets between the plunger seal and the orfice, it can make a little dent and cause it to leak.  slowly. 3.  it is possible though incredibly unlikely that the spring that forces the plunger to seal against the orfice has gotten weak.  my kits have new springs to eliminate that issue.  

as we have all learned, if you have a corner of the coach that is dropping or raising then there are lots of things that can cause it.  air lines, fittings, the airbag, the seal leaking like i have described above, etc.  it is not a sure thing to replace the plunger and spring, but does eliminate that with a fairly easy job.  

i posted  a few other pictures.  the fender washer is actually my tester to see if the valve is energized.  if you dont have one a screwdriver will work (ha)   when the valve is energized the coil is just an electromagnet.  so if you put the washer on the nut or end of the stem on the valve it will stick.   dont need no expensive meter....ha

the other is of a valve that was replaced.   i have seen a number of these from rigs.   it was tightened too tight in the manifold and in so doing distorted the inner brass ring that holds the o ring.....why does that matter?  my picture isnt great, but it shows with the o ring out the damage that was done.  that brass outer lip was distorgted and it broke a hole in the bottom that allows the air to leak by the oring to the manifold.   do not overtighten these valves in the manifold.  i put some o ring grease on them and just snug them in.  the o rings seal them, not metal to metal contact between the valve body and the manifold.  

well, thats all folks.   

hope that explains some things about these valves and how they leak and fail.  

with keeping your air system clean of water and rust, once you rebuild these valves they should last a very long time.  

later

tom

    Thank you all for alowing me to join.  I currently own a Monaco and am looking at a 2002 Newell.   I have joined your group to learn.

I have attached a photo of the Unit I am looking at.  It is advertized as damage to the roof.  If anyone here has information on this coach I would love to hear from you.

Rick McLain
Stockport, Ia

I have a 1994 Newell 45 with an 8V92 at HT740 Allison. My transmission is shifting late and I’m assuming it’s a modulator air pressure adjustment. Owner’s manual states it is in the passenger side engine compartment but I can’t find it. 

Anyone have any experience with this?  

Coach 349

My new fangled a/c system arrived yesterday. This is a complete kit sans refrigerant of which I bought a small jug of R134a. We have some rain storms heading in so I will try to get some of this installed or at least figured out where they "should" go.

I have my coaching right now had the tag bushings replaced and also a tag bearing on the driver side and the wheel seals.. they had also called Newell to get the correct ride height adjustments. They are getting it aligned now.They  have those and have it set to what Newell told them. they kind of thought the ride height control valves operated slowly. Is that normal being something different from more of a semi application that they would work on? My coaches 465 He said there was one ride height control valve in the front and one on each side in the rear buy a frame rail. Does anybody know what those part numbers would be on those?

for a number of years darlene and i have hosted a bbq for our friends.   there is no cost as we supply the entire meal of pulled pork, beans, brownies and chips and water.  

all we ask if for you to bring gently used clothing to give to our local food bank thrift store.  last year we had two pickup loads of clothes for them.  they used the thrift store profits to pay for the utilities of the food bank.  it is Saguaro Janes in wittmann.

the date is april 13, saturday from 5 to 9 pm come and go anytime during those times   

last year we had about 125 people attend and it was a lot of fun.  

we would love for any of you that are interested to attend.  just reply here and i will send you the info on it.  

we had a number of gurus last year attend.  no coaches as we will be full of cars.

so let me know so we can make our plans for food.  

we hold it in our shop out back of the house.  

thanks

tom and darlene

Looking for sister coach 740, are you on here??

When Tim Wade was here in my shop and we did the slide seal and other things he got me more interested in Lithium batteries.   he has a very powerful setup in his rig and does alot of dry camping.

so....i am experimenting slowly at first.   when tim was here we used my scissors lift.  the batteries were dead and bloated.   he said....why dont you do a lithium setup in the scissors lift.  so.....

even though many of you have played with them, i have not.  so i started researching.   there are places that sell lithp04  conversion kits for my genie gs1930.....they are 2k dollars.  

then you can buy cheap china 24v batteries.   on a slow boat and according to will prowse and others could be junk.  might not but could be.  

then i talked to jack haupt who evidently has converted everything he owns to lithium.   

then i ran across this fellow in the industrial area of old phoenix.   i went there and bought 3.2v calb ca100 100amp hour cells from him and a daly bms he happened to have.  

his name is trevor and he gurus username is higherwireinc   and his business is https://higherwire.com/     a very classy and smart guy.

i am playing with the scissors lift first and then will decide if i want to do anything with the newell.  trevor is more than willing to help in getting a coach set up with lithium.

the cells i bought were used in forklift batteries.   what i learned is that warehouses want 3 shifts of use from a single charge of an electric forklift.  it saves them time and allows them to have fewer forklifts.  when the battery pack (huge 48v) needs charging in less than 24 hours they immediately replace the pack.  trevor gets them and takes them apart to get at the individual cells, testes them and gets rid of the bad cells and then cells the good ones.  the cells i got from him had the amp hour, resistance and were charged to 3.2 volts.  

my scissors lift had 4 6v golf cart batteries in it.  in my very infrequent use they only last about 3 years.   and they are 500 bucks for the set if you find a good deal.  

they are 220 amp hour.   so if you use the rule of thumb that you get half the amp hours out of them, around a 100 lithium should be ok.  the new genielifts have 90 amp hour ones in them and the kits you buy are 105 amp hours.   i am starting with 100amp hour and have enough cells to do 200 if needed (but will be tight in the battery box)

there is a problem there though.....i am an EE.  so once i started getting into this....i ask too many questions and research too much.  and watch too much youtube and call to many of you guys....ha

so....feel free to contact trevor if you have questions.  he is a very interesting guy.

thats my 2 cents worth and i am sticking to it

tom