[Jesse]

Took the rig out to the Hoodu mountains and developed a nasty air leak under the cockpit, figured it was the ride hight valve - still produced just enough air pressure to get back home. Drove the coach up a make shift ramp and discovered a small pin point hole on the bottom of the drive side air accumulator tank. I manually empty the air tanks about 4xs a year to drain the water which I figured is fine since it's not humid up here in Alaska. I guess I was wrong! I did a quick handyman fix of using a self taper screw with a rubber gasket and gasket sealer into the hole of the tank after cleaning it well. I did the same fix on a hot water tank on a Country Coach numerous years back with good results. Going to let the sealer cure a day before testing. Question for you all - how in the heck do you replace these tanks if needed? They are fully encased in a steel frame of the suspension. On my old country coach they were easy to get off with just 2 straps each. Thanks everyone and happy camping!

Jesse and Sara White
Wasilla Alaska
2001 Newell Coach

[Richard]

Ouch, you can’t get those tanks out without cutting them up OR cutting a section of the frame. Newell’s solution has been to mount a remote tank in one of the bays.

[Jesse]

Ha ha, that's my backup plan if I can't find a solution to seal the hole. Seems like a very poor design to have them encased in the frame...very strange. Thanks for the confirmation on a path forward, Richard. Even if I get a good seal on this tank I am going to start researching a replacment tank since if 1 hole developed another is sure to happen in the worst location.

Jesse and Sara White
Wasilla Alaska
2001 Newell Coach

[cwl1979]

Call Craig Taylor Equipment. They can get steel or aluminum ones since they one Peterbilt in Anchorage. When i was driving commercially they replaced plenty on my truck. The haul road tears tanks up pretty quick.

[Jesse]

Thanks Carl, the peterbuilt folks are pretty nice over in Anchorage. Spoke with them on more then a couple occasions and came close to
asking them to do some front end work on my rig. So far my jerry rigged screw with a rubber gasket fix is holding pressure perfectly but I do belive a new tank is the right fix since I'd hate to be on the Alcan or rural Alaska and blow a bigger hole!

We still need to meet up soon and have an Alaska Newell rally.

Jesse and Sara White
Wasilla Alaska
2001 Newell Coach

[cwl1979]

I'm down in Ninilchik currently. Staying at a friend's place while I sell my house. But I'll let you know when we head back up that way. There's one other Newell in Anchorage over off king street across from Costco. I think it's an 88-89. I've only seen it move once last year.

[Jack Houpe]

Not sure what Newell was thinking when they put those tanks up there I've been on my back more than once working on them in different coaches and some have more access than others. One coach the drain valve was so tight against the frame you could not remove it.

Jesse if you have time post some pictures of what you finally do to it, I'm a curious George.

[Richard]

As I played under the front end over the years, I would look at those tanks and think about what I would do if one of them started to leak. I knew it was always a possibility because I had done something similar to the screw in the hole trick on a Newell back in 2015.

I thought about scab welding a patch on the entire bottom of the tank. After all if it’s rusted through in one place, the remainder of the bottom of the tank is likely compromised. To do that right was probably beyond my welding skills, and would require hydro testing of the tank in place to do it right.

Then this idea hit me. use the plasma to cut out the existing tank. Then use two smaller tanks that would snake between the opening in the frame. Interconnect them with about a 1’ hose, so that you would end up with about the same volume.

I just didn’t have the space in one of the forward bays for mounting a remote tank.