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I saw a clean 99-05 Tan/gold going NB on Hwy 101 Saturday (3/28) at about 11:30 am, South of King City in CA. You were towing a white Honda Crv maybe, it happened so fast. I was going SB in my Newell and it was a quick view.

The coach is back and I thought I would post a couple of shots of the replaced rear air bags, as it might help others contemplating  replaceing theirs.
The old bags were Firestone 1T15M-0 which are still available under a new number.
New bags are Goodyear  2095 , which were sourced in Las Vegas. I am unable to Google 2095 airbags.

224.00 each with a total of 6 hours labor for r and r of the bags. Labor rate was 115.00 per hour.
I had overnight air charges that I am sure were loaded in to the coast of the air bags. The shop also replaced airlines to the brake canisters. Got to love the cost of 1.45 ft for air lins , and brass fittings at 3.00 each. Since I ended up at a full service industrial shop, I had them replace our rusted out exhaust system. A lot of welding was done, as the muffler was determind to be in excellent shape but all the piping was replaced.

Next season we will replace the front 4 bags....

I thought U turns were a real pain, until watching this video, and saw how easy they really are.

My first day heading back north from Key West is always a tough day.   I am alone and I have found no good stopping place for a 45' coach towing my Jeep until I am just south of Ocala, at Ocala Sun RV Resort.   That is a lot of hours behind the wheel without ever getting up.  I tell you this as it is part of the reason my thinking is dull at the end of that journey.
I was happily putting off at my destination exit and waiting for the light to turn green.   Eventually it did, I straightened myself up and eased down on the accelerator.  RPM's responded but the coach did not move!  Oh great!  "D" was just blinking at me.  No amount of going back and forth between "N" and "D" produced the desired result.  If horns were honking, they were so far behind me I could not hear them.
Finally I looked at my air pressures - Oh no - way low.  I put the coach E brake on and pressed down on the accelerator to run the compressor at a high speed.  I watched the needles go up.  Reduced to idle, canceled E-Brake, and pushed "D" and I was moving.  Within a mile or so I was at the campground and waiting for a golf cart escort to my site.  When that was ready, you guess it, flashing "D" again.  I had sat there with my foot on the brake - mind numb from all the driving, and air was low again.  Went through the whole thinking process and got air and got parked.
I called Richard just to have someone to talk to.   Bless him, he listened and offered any assistance I might need.  What I really needed was fluids, food, and rest.  I told him we would deal with it in the morning when I could think straight.

This is something I have done you might want to consider.  I purchased, some time ago, an expandable rod that mechanics use to hold up the hood of a car whose spring shocks are shot.  I purchased it with the intent of being able to hold the brake pedal down when I was away from the seat.  Drive axle spring brakes have been known to slip on a steep incline.   The rod was to keep that from happening if I had to be outside the coach.

I aired up, chocked the wheels, put the e-brake to off installed the rod and exited the coach. The air leak from the front passenger wheel was awesome.   Well, Houston the problem is identified.

I asked Richard if he thought I could get away with driving if I would handle stopped situations, after stopping, with E-brake and foot of brake pedal.  That sounded pretty stupid as it came out of my mouth and we soon agreed it was just not worth the risk.

He said he wold load up some tools and see me soon.
In the mean time I raised the coach and cribbed it.  The air hose was just hanging down and no longer connected in any way to the brake chamber.

When Richard arrived and crawled back out ( we did not remove the wheel ) he said the brass fitting at the end of the air hose had fractured.  Part was in the brake chamber and part still on the hose.  We hope we could replace the fitting, but it turns out it is part of the hose assembly and not replaceable.  Thinking it was probably a custom assembly we shopped for a fitting to screw onto the few remaining threads on the hose.   But, at that point of the pipe thread fitting it had tapered out enough that another fitting was not going to thread on.  He suggested, and I was okay, with cutting off the failing end and using a hose barb and clamps to get me back on the road and a DOT compliant repair at a later date and a more convenient location.  The Easy Outs were purchased as were the fittings, and on the way to his truck he asks if I would be willing to try a truck parts place where he had been once.  It was going to close shortly, but I said sure and off we went.  The counter guy kind of looked at the brake hose and goes, "Well ours have swivels on both ends"  I have rarely been so happy.  We bought one the correct length .  Now if the Easy Out worked we were home free and better off than new.  Having a swivel on both ends, versus no swivel was a much easier install.  No leaks and I am ready for my next leg of the trip.
Hope you enjoyed reading and maybe this will help someone down the road.
Many thanks to Richard the Ultimate Guru.
Russ

So it looks like I have a code indicating a vane failure. After reading the detroit tech manual it seems maybe I have a bad egr actuator that is not 
moving the vane this causing the code.

Anyone dealt with this?
Trying to find the actuator  pn 23531930

Thanks in advance

my son in law has gotten into guitars in a big way.  he is a budding Luthier and has been picking up alot of different kinds of very collectible guitars.  in fact he was the biggest buyer at the recent Mecum classic car auction (they did collectible guitars after the cars) in phoenix a few weeks ago.  

he has been also buying classic Luthier tools.  He just got a number of them in an auction batch and he knew what every one did except for this one tool.  even after research, so far nothing.  it was from a batch of tools that a violin luthier sold him.  

any brilliant minds out there know that this tool is for?

he also is starting a collectible guitar store.  here is his link to his facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/wickenburgguitar/

now go figure out what the tool is.  

tom

This may be a very tough year to be a "snow bird".  

I regularly read the "RV Goddess" blog https://rvgoddess.com/more-changes/?unap...omment-146 who winters at the Motorhome Country Club through the Winter/Spring months near Palm Springs.  But this year, the country club  (like everything else in Palm Springs) is largely shut down - restaurant, golf course, gym, pools, etc.   Worse yet, California is a "shelter in place" state currently.  While it's not fun there right now, if this continues as expected into the May or June months - you'll have people trying to survive in the desert...in summer...in RV's.  

While there are a number of Newells that also stay there - can even a Newell handle 115+ F "dry heat"?

And if not, with all the states shutting down public parks (with many private parks forced to follow suit), where is a full timer to go  with no "stick and brick" option to fall back to???

I have been able to complete a number of projects while at Newell House for the past 3+ weeks including the removal of our 38 year old 12 gallon tank type water heater, and replace it with a Girard Tankless water heater.  I bought the Girard from a source on eBay who was selling these as 'scratch and dent'. It cost me just $430 shipped, and except for a small cosmetic dent in the metal case it works perfectly.  This Girard is a side vent water heater.  Most Newells have regular water heaters located in their water bays, but our coach was built with a side vent setup. After removing the old tank type water heater (quite difficult by the way) I cut the flange (11th picture) off of it so I could remount the old door, which was painted by Newell to match our Newell paint scheme.  I had to create a wood frame (3rd picture) out of 3/4" plywood to fit around the Girard as it was much smaller than the original hole cut for the original water heater.  I had to align the heater so the vent pipe was lined up with the vent screen on the original door. I painted the wood frame black, as the Girard door is also black (9th picture).  Once the Girard was installed (8th picture) I remounted that original door (10th picture), and it looks great.  There was a coolant hose connected to the old tank type water heater to heat the water while we were underway, so I had to connect the two ends together (2nd picture).  I used PEX and Sharkbite plumbing fittings (5th picture) to connect the original 1/2" copper plumbing to the Girard, and it was easier to do than I first imagined.  The pictures below show all that I am writing about.  The installation took place over a couple of days as the old water heater took so long to remove.  I probably spent about 10 hours in all from beginning to end.  The final task was to install a 12 volt interrupt switch (7th picture....switch located to the right of a light switch) between the Girard, and the digital control panel (6th picture) located in our bedroom so we can turn shutoff power to the Girard when we are dry camping/boondocking  the picture came out sideways for some reason.

                                 

                           

I also took apart our 38 year old Thetford dump valves to replace the large, circular rubber gaskets which seal against the paddles in the down position, one of the paddles, and the gasket between each half.  The gray dump valve had always leaked a little water, but recently the black valve developed a pretty steady leak.....as long as we were connected to a sewer  connection things were fine, but it made dry camping a little difficult.  Tom was of great help, and moral support while I wrestled with the 18 stainless steel screws which hold the two halves of the Thetford valves together.  They are located on the blind side of the valve between the valves and the segmented tank.  You can see in the first picture below the 9 stainless steel screws on the backside, or blind side of the valve.  All but the 9th screw shown in the picture, were relatively easy to remove, however, due to its location, the 9th screw was very, very difficult on each valve.  I removed one, and Tom graciously helped me get the other one out.  I guess it took over 90 minutes to remove each of the 9th screws.....crazy.  After cleaning the interior valve surfaces, and installing the new gaskets it took about an hour to put it all back together.  Now nothing leaks.  In all it took Tom and I 6 hours beginning to end to complete the task.  You can see the rubber gaskets that hold back the effluent when the paddles are in the down position in the fourth picture.  The one on the right was the one in the Thetford valve for the black tank....it was trashed, but the gray water gasket still looks pretty pristine, and could be reused, if an emergency arose.  I had bought a new Thetford valve as well as one rebuild kit.  I took the new stainless steel pull rod, and paddle from the new Thetford valve and used it to replace the old paddle in the Thetford valve controlling the black tank. In addition I used the new round gasket, and valve gasket from the new valve combined with the same gaskets from the rebuild kit.

                         

I recently replaced all my basement AC units in my 1994 Newell with Roof AC units. Several of the AC components are still in working order and are available for sale.  These are Dometic units used in many of the early 90 model coaches. I currently have 3 compressor units, all still work. I also have 4 thermostat boards all working.  I also have 3 Air handlers, one of which does have a bad circuit board. My coach number is 350 and I can be reached via email @ [email protected] or by phone @ 251-979-9900.
Gene

First, our gratitude to the health care professionals and other essential workers who cannot avoid exposure. 

For those staying pretty close to home as Rhonda and I, we hope that your experience is a calm one like ours. Our days are serene and peaceful. We can’t change or control what is happening outside our little cocoon, but perhaps we savor each other a little more. We are more appreciative of each other’s strengths as we weather this storm. 

We look forward to seeing all of you again in person. We wish good health for you and your families.