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Preplanning servicing the rear end. Does any one know the capacity?

hi all,

i had been adding coolant since spearfish. hoping it was just filling up the tank, but not to be.

i have added about 3 quarts since we left there and have driven about 1400 miles.

this morning all of us were ready to leave for the columbia ice fields and we pulled out of the rv park and stopped on the highway to hook up the cars. i noticed a puddle under the coach engine area.

i pulled up the engine bay door and the side radiator door and there was coolant dripping down the drivers front side of the radiator where the mounting bolts are. on the inside of the radiator i saw no leakage when looking through the fan blades, but there was some coolant puddled on the stainless under the middle of the fan.

i would guess all in all it was about 1/4 cup. it was dripping down on the exhaust and making a little puff of white smoke.

i had filled the overflow tank to the fill when cold mark at the top.

so....not to take any risk i said farwell to the hockwalds and oliviers and they headed up to the ice fields and darlene, missy and i drove 200 miles south to lethbridge where her brother lives. he is very mechanical and we will figure it out.

here is the strange part. on the 200 mile trip home, no leaks and the overflow tank was actually a little higher on the site tube than when we left.

no sign of leakage. but i know it has been using coolant and for sure there was quite a bit this morning.

so we will let it cool down and look at it in the morning.

a few questions for you all,

1. for those of you who have taken out the charge air cooler and radiator, can you give some hints and instructions?

2. does anyone remember the name of the place that makes the radiator for newell?

3. for those of you who are in lethbridge, come on over for dinner.

thanks

tom

        Cruising south from Hampton Beach, NH. on fathers day we suddenly lost power on I-495 and coasted to the shoulder. A quick check revealed a fire in the stainless steel box containing all the 12v wiring. I soon discovered my extinguisher, mounted in the engine bay, was useless due to the plastic handle becoming brittle from prolonged exposure to heat. It immediately broke in my hand. My wife gave me the one from inside and I extinguished it, only to flare up again. I cut off the kill switch (eng. compartment) to cut the source from the batteries. With my extinguisher exhausted a State Trooper saw the flames and stopped with a large ABC dry chemical unit and saved the day. Now for why it happened. We had dry camped at the state park over the weekend, using the front and rear A/C units alternately. Having all new Lifeline batteries, all was well. We proceeded to head south and I figured the batteries would re-charge from the engine alternator (320 amp Delco) but no one ever told me I should start the generator to "separate" the load. With all current blazing through the isolator, it melted down and went up in flames, taking all nearby wire insulation with it causing everything to short together. Had we not lost power we would never have known we had a fire in the rear.
Ended up replacing the entire rear board (2 sided) with all new components and a new (huge) isolator, so large (fins) that it needed to be mounted under the coach. Newell was super helpful in fabricating the new board and helping the electrician install the old harnesses. Incredibly enough, none of the coach wiring was affected outside of that box and the coach is running again, all systems go. I hope someone out there that does not know you need to run the generator after dry camping learns from this and is spared the grief. Side note, if any of you big guys ever need to be towed, make sure they send a tri axle wrecker. The huge 2 axle unit's front wheels came right off the ground when they lifted me. Cost thus far, approx. 15K.
Ray & Donna coach 596 triple slide 2001 bath and half. We love it.

This was discussed at Spearfish and others have spoken about Lithium batteries as an replacement for the lead acid batteries.

The following link has a lot of info on the subject in several articals including one regarding the 787 problems.

Interesting read.

http://www.technomadia.com/lithium/

Seems that my mid ac unit fan is having a difficult time starting up more and more so I have shut it down. My front ac fan was squealing
so I figured the shaft might be drying out so I got in to it and sprayed some silicone on it and it works fine for now. Wondering if the mid ac fan has the same problem or it may need replacing due to dry bearings.

Not to take away from Forrest's excellent post on his close call, let me make a second post on another incident.

Outside St.Louis, ten drivers in my lane decided to panic stop. I didn't hit them, but I will always be convinced that two recent changes in my setup kept me from hitting them.

First, I have towed for years without supplemental brakes. I decided to install an M&G system before this trip.

Second, I never ran with the jake on in flat ground because it fights with my cruise control. I customized the jake brake wiring to have it activate off the brake pedal. I was in that mode when the panic stop happened. I also installed a switch that allows me to use accelerator off as the jake activation per normal.

I got on the brakes as hard as I ever have and happy to say I had twenty feet to spare.


But, without jake on full and toad locked up, I don't know.


PS. Father in law says he will never shave in a moving RV again.

We are in the consideration stage of going to Alaska maybe next year.
Wondering if anyone has taken their newell there.
We are also considering not taking the newell but something small enough to tow behind the Toyota FJ cruiser.
Any input is appreciated.

Brad

I have one speaker (above passengers seat) that emits a soft sound (much like a quiet air conditioner) when the radio and TV power is off. No such sound coming from the balance of my other speakers. Any thoughts??

Greetings All...
A few weeks ago, I met four seasoned 'Road-Warriors' (Larry, David, Biil & Ron) all members of the NEWELL GURUS Fraternity at Newell headquarters in Miami, OK and discovered what an excellent web site and quality resource Newell Gurus has to offer fellow coach owners. What a timely find... And most importantly, what a great bunch of guys!!

Patti & I (Tom) live in Rancho Santa Fe, CA, enjoy a 2000 coach and in the process of closing on a beautiful lot at the Motor Coach Country Club (2 1/2 hrs away) in Indio, CA. Our stunning beauty was practically brand new when we purchased it a year ago. The Good News... The coach had been in storage for 10 years and with only 7800 miles!!! And naturally the BAD News... The coach had been in storage for 10 years and with only 7800 miles!! I've practically replaced nearly everything in the coach from front to back and accumulated way too many learning experiences, crazy travel tales and endless road stories to tell!! Bottom-line: We do love it and looking forward to year two!!

Back in my working days (for pay that is) whenever someone had an incident at work that resulted in a minor or no injury they had to fill out a "close call report" so that any changes in our safety policy could be made.
So here is my close call report:
While looking for the leak in my front slide Tom & Clarke had unbolted the awning arms so that we could inspect the top of the slide. Later that day we decided to pull the slide back in so Clarke was on a ladder and I was on another ladder. We were attaching the awning arms when Tom asked me if he should level the coach. I said sure, why not? Well I had my left arm through a rung on the ladder for balance. When the coach started lowering the top of the ladder was under the drip rail on the coach top. The coach was actually pushing the ladder downwards. The ladder started bowing towards the coach with my arm trapped between it and the coach. I yelled at Clarke that my arm was trapped and couldn't get it out. Then a 1/2 second later I yelled that "IT HURTS, HELP!!!!" Clarke ran over and began pushing the ladder away from the coach allowing me to yank my arm out. Meanwhile Tom was frantically trying to raise the coach! Luckily my arm was only bruised.
So the airbag suspension can not only hurt you if you are under the coach but also if you're on a ladder!
Be aware of what's going on whenever you're working on your coach.
*hit happens!