07-27-2026, 05:13 PM
The DEF HEAD "EMULATOR" is quite old, actually, and a fellow Newell friend has been making them for fellow Newell owners for years. In fact, Newell had a handful of them at one time as well. I think they were $500-$600 delivered.
There's some interesting background and experiences I've had.
The effort to commercially produce these came under HEAVY FIRE from EPA and..worse...CARB, who made the EPA look like they were playing Tiddly-Winks. It was enough to discourage my buddy any further desire to sell them to the general public. HOWEVER, it is now perfectly legal to have/sell them.
A while back, in the midst of me trying to help out another "community", I got the equivalent of a gang-beating when I mentioned that my friend was making them for us. It got ugly to the point where one guy "claimed" to be the creator of the code and that it was uploaded solely for the purpose of letting people make their own box for less than $150.
There's no IP claim out there, so who knows. But, once they trounced on how ludicrously stupid the rich Newell people are to pay $500-$600 for one...I tapped out and stopped "helping" any longer.
But, being a very accomplished electrical engineer, my friend did the analysis of what/why and kinda felt the older coaches weren't as vulnerable to a DEF head failure as are the newer ones; especially post-Covid. I kinda agree since I fell victim to a failure in our 2019 Dutch Star.
None the less, yes, you can make them for parts and programming for maybe $150 but you've gotta be sure it's the right connector interface for your rig; and, most likely it'll be the CUMMINS ISX/X15.
There's some interesting background and experiences I've had.
The effort to commercially produce these came under HEAVY FIRE from EPA and..worse...CARB, who made the EPA look like they were playing Tiddly-Winks. It was enough to discourage my buddy any further desire to sell them to the general public. HOWEVER, it is now perfectly legal to have/sell them.
A while back, in the midst of me trying to help out another "community", I got the equivalent of a gang-beating when I mentioned that my friend was making them for us. It got ugly to the point where one guy "claimed" to be the creator of the code and that it was uploaded solely for the purpose of letting people make their own box for less than $150.
There's no IP claim out there, so who knows. But, once they trounced on how ludicrously stupid the rich Newell people are to pay $500-$600 for one...I tapped out and stopped "helping" any longer.
But, being a very accomplished electrical engineer, my friend did the analysis of what/why and kinda felt the older coaches weren't as vulnerable to a DEF head failure as are the newer ones; especially post-Covid. I kinda agree since I fell victim to a failure in our 2019 Dutch Star.
None the less, yes, you can make them for parts and programming for maybe $150 but you've gotta be sure it's the right connector interface for your rig; and, most likely it'll be the CUMMINS ISX/X15.
Steve & Janice Vance
2015 Newell #1524
Glendora, CA