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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!

I've had a water leak in the roof of the slide 3 times since I've had the coach. Only a slow drip each time but wasn't able to see the top of the slide because of the awning toppers.
Last night we had a heavy rain and about 2am I woke to find water dripping on the sofa. We covered the sofa and cleaned up the mess. I dropped the front right side to keep the water away from the outside seam of the slide since I thought that was where the leak was. The next morning we pulled in the slide, unbolted the awning and while Tom & Clarke were holding the awning arms I ran out the slide. I climbed on top and inspected the roof and silicone seals. Couldn't find any obvious places where it had leaked.
On the top of the front slide there are aluminum panels where Newell had glued over some holes where the locking pins had punched through the roof when the computer went wacky. There is a hole at the front & rear where the panel doesn't cover. So I built up that area with 3m 5200 to level it out. It looked like the water could maybe seep through the seal since there was a depression there.
Tomorrow once the 5200 has cured we'll spray water on the top of the slide to see if there are any more leaks.
And yes we pulled the valence and have been cleaning the inside of the upholstered ceiling.
Update tomorrow.

Replaced o rings in shower handle fixture and now don't have hot water.Anyone had this problem.

The kitchen faucet stream slowed down and I checked the filter in the handle. Black particles had accumulated sufficient to slow the flow. Checked bathroom sink faucet and same thing. After checking full hot vs full cold, the black particles are coming from the hot side.

Thoughts?


Phil Horton
Newell Coach #470

Driving along and it starts to rain (natch!). The wipers start up fine and are running. Suddenly, the driver side wiper stops (natch!) in the full left position. The right side wiper continues to operate. Since the right side still works, the motor must be OK and the problem will be the linkage. How do you get to it? Remove the dash & what is next?

Phil Horton
Newell # 470

I thought I might relay the issues I dealt with in the recent 4000 mile tour. Before I start keep in mind that the coach had not seen any use in the three years we have lived in West Virginia due to narrow twisty roads, family health challenges, and a trivial little thing called work. So a lot of the little things you would fix with regular use I expected to deal with on the road. That was not the case at all. I had a handful of new to me issues.

Problem one, Splendide washer pouring water into the catch pan. Thanks Newell for the drained catch pan or otherwise a flood ensues in the coach. My initial reaction was,that I had not properly winterized the washer and the containment pan below the washer tub was split by frozen water. So out comes the washer. I discovered that removing the pantry shelf above the washer makes it much easier to remove the washer. After I disassembled the washer I discovered a simple problem, the rubber drain hose had simply slipped off the containment box. Sweet easy fix.

Second problem was too ironic. After a last minute failed attempt to get bill appels genie going I returned to the coach to leave for Wyoming only to discover my gennie would not stay running. I held the fuel solenoid open and Rhonda told me none of the gennie gauges were moving. I suspected a ground issue so I wiggled all the grounds at the engine and voila, it cranked. I recrimped the grounds and cleaned and tightened the ground bolt.

Ok, so far, frustrating but not too bad.

Then a minor disaster struck at one of the Wyoming campgrounds a few minutes after plugging in. I was still setting up the outside stuff when Rhonda called me into the coach. She said I heard a loud pop, and I could smell burned electrica
l smell. The noise and smell was in the overhead console but I could not find the source. The micro convection oven was dead, the front DVD player dead, and worst of all the coffee bean grinder was dead. I took to the oven out and removed the cover but saw nothing obvious on first glance. It was late in the evening so I gave up. The next day I removed more parts until I got to the printed circuit board for the control panel. I had the shop manual for the oven so I started tracing continuity with the voltmeter. There was an internal fuse but it was intact. Then I noticed something that looked like a big capacitor that was charred. Hmmmm, schematic says it is a varistor. Keep in mind I'm in the hinterlands of Wy with no Internet access. So stop right there. When we got the Jackson hole a few days later the radio shack had ONE, so I bought it and replaced the exploded one on the board. Nothing. Nothing at all. Well, seeing that I'm working on this outside and it's about a 100 degrees, I was a little plunked out. However the back of the PCB had some discoloration. My best interpretation of the schematic was that I should have power between two points on the board and I didn't. Insure was wishing for Tom or Russ to help me read the schematic right about then. So, taking a slight risk, I soldered a jumper across the area. Voila, oven back in business.

DVD player had a simple fuse. Five minute fix once I removed the cover and found the fuse. I did notice the plug on the DVD was discolored. That got me to looking at the surge strip all the up front electronica was plugged into. Yep, found the "pop". The surge protector was smoked. I took it apart for curiosity and found two exploded vaistors inside. The Internet now tells me that varistor a are used as surge protectors.

I was not so lucky with the coffee grinder.

So I will buy a surge/power protection unit for the coach, but I am not sure that the campground caused the surge. All of the impacted devices were on the ac circuit powered by the inverter. It makes me wonder if something went nuts with the transfer switch in the inverter. I was lucky I did not lose the sat unit, tv, and sat receiver. I am thinking to permanently install the power monitor in a way that feeds the inverter power, gennie power, ans shore power through it.

Toward the end of our trip I heard a metallic rattle coming from the front dometic basement air. Knowing that couldn't be good, I dove into the unit. For those of you with domestics, you understand what I mean by confined space. Anyhow, the squirrel cage fan was loose at the hub. The hub was not loose on the shaft, but the fan itself is flexing and causing it to hit. I could not fix it with what I had, so I crossed my fingers. It made it home. Good, cause the girls in the coach like it cold.

No issues at all with the engine or tires. Sliver leaf says I averaged 7.7 mpg. Of course that does not take into account gennie and aqua hot. Real live tank to tank fill ups showed an overall 7.2 mpg. I drive about 66 on average. My engine temp ran from 194 to 205, and my tranny ran steady at 216.