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The tag (tail) that wagged the dog.
#1

Our coach has driven miserably since the day we purchased it, I've flown airplanes for many years and would say it's like flying in foul weather the entire time you're driving it. This is our first motor coach and our first Newell never have driven anything other than a class b van so it was a new experience which I was not happy with. Thank God for this forum and the people with knowledge who have helped us along the way, we have now a coach which is drivable and I would like to explain what happened to make it this way.

Being somewhat mechanical I realized that it had something to do with the suspension but everything underneath the front had been replaced including steering box tie rod ends and sway bar bushings on the sway bar. We had worked very hard for several months trying to get this thing ready to go on a road trip for the winter from Northwest Arkansas to Florida and we accomplished that after discussing this with Richard I had mentioned that my tag axle had a negative camber which in the car world is great on the track but in the coach world it is a miserable condition I know now. After many failed attempts due to my illness while on vacation Richard and I met, he immediately stuck his head between the drive and tag axle and said your bushings are shot. I of course crawled under and looked at the same thing and sure enough it's very visible when they are, it's a good idea for anybody who has this vintage coach and a tag axle to make sure to check and see if the bushing and the axles are symmetrical. What I mean to say is look at the bushings and the bolts that hold them in place if you have one that is closer to the top on one side and one that is closer to the bottom on the other they are shot. Make sure that the bolts in the washers and the housing are the same distance all the way around mine one side was higher and the other side was lower meaning that the rubber had deteriorated as the tag axle is independent on each side and carries a great amount of weight. What would happen is that as you're driving down the road and you had uneven road conditions or a truck were to pass you the tag axle would waller around in its bushings causing the front end to turn thus the tail that wags the dog. Driving this thing was unimaginable and only part one of this story due to the bushings, part two will come along in a minute. After his suggestion and of course I was honored by meeting Steve and Bill at different occasions with all their input I ordered all new bushings for tag axle and drive axle plus a new panhard bar, made an appointment with a company in Orlando called Josam and got on the list to have the bushings and the panhard bar replaced. I had an earlier times before leaving Arkansas inspected the panhard bar and it looked like it had been replaced which I was correct but whomever replaced it failed to see the simplest thing which was the tag axle bushings. The second part of this is when Richard crawled underneath the front of the coach and said your pitman arm is half the size of a normal coach of this vintage. I have never driven a bus or anything like this in my past so I have no experience in knowing what is good or what is bad I did know that this thing turned terribly when it hit the locks on either left or right side and it gave me great anxiety to stop at a stoplight and turn to the left or right, well the pitman arm on my coach is half size because the steering box had been replaced by the prior owner and I had no idea was not the original type steering box I do not have an adjustment to take up the slack and the pitman arm is half size so if you can relate this to your steering as you're driving down the road I had to turn my steering wheel twice as far as a normal person would because the pitman arm was half the size and I do not have the turning radius as a normal newell coach. While at Josam's I encountered a beeping noise from the dash which I had never heard before, went inside and ask the chief service manager Barry to come out and check the coach which he did then we proceeded to drive out of the yard and back in but he had to stop prior to making the corner back up to make the corner coming back in the entrance because he ran out of steering wheel it had stopped then he had to back up and go at it again after that I said did you check the pitman arm because it is half the size is the other and he said well that's the problem! So on my return to Arkansas it's on my list to either replace the entire box with the original box or find a pitman arm of the same length as the original that came with the coach.

I know this is lengthy and probably some of you won't understand my translation from thought to paper but I highly recommend anybody with this vintage of coach to check the tag axle bushings, it will make your life much easier and they are NOT inexpensive. The bushings themselves can be had for less than $30 there are four of them on the tag axle to have them changed out what's a tad less than $2,500 which included a 3 point alignment which is tag axle drive axle and front end alignment. Today driving from Orlando in
traffic and back to Cedar Key for a day or two was Joy!

Thank you Steve for solving the beeping noise! They had left the tag axle switch in the up position, one more thing to learn about a Newell.

1999 45' with tag axle, #504 "Magnolia"
Gravette, Arkansas
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#2

Your welcome Jack, sorry I didn't think of it sooner.  Once off the phone, I went through my standard troubleshooting chart....#1 is what was touched last...knowing that you had your bushings on the tag axle replaced the light bulb went off in my head.  As a side note on our coach the tag switch is always centered and held in the up or down position all the while the beeper is going till you release the switch......not sure of the rationale for that set up.

Steve & Doris Denton
45' Newell #525, Bath & Half
2014 Honda CRV Toad
Summerfield, FL
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#3

Morning, you saved me from a nervous breakdown, I was in Orlando traffic with my gps sending me in crazy places and that beeping going off in front of me. THANKS for that call! So my switch is not momentary it will stay in the up, center or the down position, it really should be momentary. I now have to ask if its in the up position is it applying more air to the air bag? How do you know where the correct amount to have in those air bags?

1999 45' with tag axle, #504 "Magnolia"
Gravette, Arkansas
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#4

Jack you're certainly not the first person who has been bit by that darn tag switch.

Forest & Cindy Olivier
1987 log cabin
2011 Roadtrek C210P
PO 1999 Foretravel 36'
1998 Newell 45' #486 

1993 Newell 39' #337 
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#5

Jack,
So funny! I had left on a trip, early on when I bought my coach and had a constant beeping....

Long story short, a semi-panic call to Tom, who then called Richard...we figured out it was the diff lock was on!

Be seeing you,

Rick Miller
#423
1996, 45'+, Non-slide, Series 60, ABS, 1.5 Bath, Reverse Floorplan


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#6

Rick our dash is hard to read not that my eyes are bad it's faded above the switches, I sure hope there's not one it says ejection seat.

I guess the guys at the shop use that switch to check something after replacing the tag axle bushings and forgot to put it back in the center.

1999 45' with tag axle, #504 "Magnolia"
Gravette, Arkansas
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#7

I can’t remember what I just had for breakfast, so I made this label that resides on the overhead console along with the label of my coach height.  Sorry about the pic quality. 

   

When the switch is in the center position, the tag bag receives the same pressure as the drive air bags; they are pneumatically tied together. Earlier coaches had a second sixpack in the rear which allowed you to adjust the pressure in the tag bags separate from the drive bags. 

So how do the switch do what it do? The key is two three way electric solenoid valves in the line between the drive bag air tank and the tag bag air tank. Keep in mind this setup is mirrored for right and left sides of the coach. 

One of the three way valves is plumbed so that in NC the pathway is open from the drive bags to the tag bags, the alternate port is plumbed into the air supply. So that when the switch activates this valve, and the valve goes to OPEN, the pathway to the drive bags is now closed and the supply pressure starts to increase the pressure in the tag bag.

The second three way valve is also plumbed so that in the NC position, the pathway is open from the drive bags to the tag bags. When the switch is activated to switch the valve, the open port is to atmosphere, so that the pathway to the drive bags is now closed, and the air in the tag bags exhausts to atmosphere. 

One caveat is that if the switch is left in position to let air out of the tag bags, the normal system pressure of 125 is NOT enough to support the weight of the coach on the drive bags. Left this way, the coach will eventually sit on the drive tires. This is not theory, I custom grooved some tires in such a manner.

Richard and Rhonda Entrekin
99 Newell, 512
Maverick Hybrid Toad
Inverness, FL (when we're home Cool )
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#8

The lable is an excellent idea I will copy.

So if your driving down the road and switch the tag axle to the dump position it could cut your tires? Not a good switch to mess with. Glad to know when it's in center position it's same as drive axle air bags.

Thanks for that explanation!

1999 45' with tag axle, #504 "Magnolia"
Gravette, Arkansas
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#9

We had just bought our 1998 #486 from MOT and were on our way to visit friends then off on our grand adventure. I stopped at a rest area, shut down the coach and we had lunch. I started the coach and did a walk around when I noticed the rear had dropped. Oh no! all sorts of thoughts went through my head, blown airbags? massive air leak? I called MOT in a panic and the service guy said to make sure the tag switch was in the middle position.
Still don't know how I managed to bump the switch.

Forest & Cindy Olivier
1987 log cabin
2011 Roadtrek C210P
PO 1999 Foretravel 36'
1998 Newell 45' #486 

1993 Newell 39' #337 
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#10

Forest that switch sort of worries me now, I understand that it's useful if you need to apply more weight to the drivers or you need to take more load off of them but hitting the down position in the back carving grooves in the tires is what would worry me. I've only got 2,000 miles under my belt. I mounted the silver leaf where the old back up camera was located, might relocate it.


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1999 45' with tag axle, #504 "Magnolia"
Gravette, Arkansas
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