Final night in Austin

[encantotom]

12 of us went out to dinner for BBQ tonite and most of us are leaving thursday morning.

it has been an absolute ball. getting together to eat and visit and play games at night and work on each others coaches during the day. darlene spent a few hours fixing Tuga's blinds, we jury rigged clarkes Air conditioner and figured out the whizzy radiator misters on daves coach today. i troubleshot the new temp sender problems i was having.

the people that were here are wonderful and it was great to meet everyone and hang out. darlene and i have new great friends and invite all of you to visit us in mesa, az whenever you are in town.

thanks to everyone who was in austin.

tom and darlene

[chockwald]

Hear, Hear Tom......I second everything you said. This mini-rally has way exceeded my expectations, and Elaine and I cherish the new friendships, and look forward so much to spending time in the future with our new Newell friends!!!

[Wally Arntzen]

It's been a wonderful week of fun, repairs, lies and a great close to the week by celebrating Tom McClouds birthday at a barbecue resturant. I won't give Tom's age because he did not give me permission.
Tom and Michael have been busy non stop all week repairing many items on most of the coaches that have been here and I'm sure everyone is greatfull for their unselfish commitment to assisting anyone with any kind of a problem.
The ladies were most helpfull with there great contribution of food and fun and just hung out with the guy's for the entire week.

Let's think about doing it again next year and Colorado sounds like a nice place as some of the people were talking about.

Happy trails and all have a safe trip home or to your next destination.

Wally and Phyllis Arntzen

[fulltiming]

I appreciate the attendance of so many great Newell owners. It has been a pleasure to put faces with names and have the opportunity to share experiences, information and assistance with each of you.

Both the individual differences and similarities between Newell coaches are amazing. Clarke and Elaine get the award for having the oldest coach (1982) at the rally and one of the best cared for as it was stored in an enclosed building for most of it's life. Tuga and Karen and Neil and Barbara had the newest coaches (1999) in attendance.

Pete and Debbie were the newest addition to the Newell family at the rally having purchased their first Newell (a 1996) just over 2 months ago. Thanks for bringing Anthony.

Steve, it was great to see possibly the first Newell with a slide out (1997). Glad you made it safely home after your late night start back to Louisiana.

A special thanks to Richard (1995) for your technical support as well as your great presentation. Sorry Rhonda was not able to attend.

David and Denise, you may have one of the most highly optioned Newells early 2000 series (1992) I have ever seen. You have certainly taken care of it.

Ron, thanks for the assistance. You and Jean's humpy (partially raised roof 1996) is beautiful.

Wally, I really appreciate the DOT air line. You saved Richard and I from having to put in a temporary air line to my driver seat and then replacing it when the truck parts shops opened Monday. You and Phyliss' 1988 is incredibly well maintained.

Tom, you gave so much of your time at the rally to helping others. It is really appreciated. You and Darlene have likely put more hours in updating your coach (1990) of anyone at the rally.

Thanks Tuga for coming up with the idea for this rally and seeing it to fruition.

Neil, I appreciate the help with the edits to the Newell History presentation. As always, you are a storehouse of knowledge.

The food at the pot lucks was excellent.

Hopefully, those who miss this event will be able to attend (or better yet put together) a future mini-Newell rally.

Thanks to Morris for riding up from Kerrville to see us.

Finally, a big thanks to the staff at La Hacienda RV Resort for their assistance and welcome.

Georgia and I had a great time. Thanks to all of you.

[tuga]

Karen & I had a wonderful time meeting and visiting with all of the guys and gals here at the rally. The campground was really nice, the weather was perfect, and it was a pleasure to see the beautiful Texas Hill country.

I want to extend a special thank you to Darlene McCloud for helping me with my window shade. I could have never fixed it without your help. This is what rallies are all about; learning and helping fellow RVers.

Also, a big thank you to Michael Day for his presentation on the Newell History, very informative and entertaining.

We look forward to the next rally!

[larryweikart]

Sounds like you all had a great time, I wish we could have been there with you. Thanks for the nice posts to make us a little jealous. Hopefully we can join you at a future get-together.I have one question "how often do you drain your air tanks?" My rear tank is equipped with a hand line to tne side of the coach. which is easy to pull whenever I fuel up. However, the 2 tanks in front can only be drained by getting under the coach and reaching up to open. I don't get under there very often. The small tank in front of the rear P/S wheel is much easier to get to. Most of the time, there isn't much moisture coming out. What's your experience?

[fulltiming]

If you were a commercial vehicle you would be expected to drain the tanks every day of use. Most private motorcoaches don't get drained very often, some only once a year. As long as you have a good dryer on your engine mounted air compressor and have dryers on your 120 volt auxiliary compressor and, if applicable, on your 12 volt compressor and you drain those regularly, you won't see much water in your wet tank. Your brake tanks should NOT have water in them. If they do, you are not draining them often enough. I would suggest you install (or have installed) the cable activated drains on your front tanks (yes I need to do that also) and run cables to a convenient location so you can make sure that water is not left in the tanks.

Even on an annual basis, I don't get much water in my tanks and of course most of it is in the wet tank.

[ABnormal]

As I am still working, I was unable to attend the Mini-Rally, but did follow it thru this post. I have seen a few pics on the various posts and was wondering if anyone is planning to consolidate them all at a single website? There have got to be a lot more than the few that I have seen posted.

Larry P in KC

[fulltiming]

Over the next few days, I will go through the photos I took and post a link to some of them.

[zcasa]

This mini-rally was more than fun. It allowed all of us to connect on a human basis with fellowship, fun, laughter, sharing of ideas, experiences, helpful suggestions and, yes, much work from the experienced travelers on the coaches and with issues that they have encountered over time. We think that the people made the difference. How thoughtful, nice, generous and friendly they all were. We would very much like to experience this kind of rally in the future. We will keep the Colorado idea alive for next year and start making the rounds in a year or so. In the meantime, we hope to continue our contacts and friendships during that time. We have made it down the road to San Antonio now, and we will visit this area for a few days.

Our gratitude and special thanks to:

Michael and Georgia
Tom and Darlene
Neil and Barbara
Steve
Richard
Pete, Debbie and Anthony
Wally and Phyllis
Clarke and Elaine
Ron
Tuga and the gang

Safe travels

David and Denise

[Richard and Rhonda]

I would have to say that my expectations were high, and that they were exceeded by the get together. Frankly, I'm not much of a rally kind of guy, but the fellowship and camaderie was truly amazing. I would surely be up for another next summer.

I took great joy in working with others to address the invariable issues that arise with keeping a coach up to par.

Thanks to Tuga for kicking this off, and thanks to all for making it a wonderful weekend for me. I hope to see you all soon.

[Richard and Rhonda]

Larry,

The tank in the PS wheelwell is a ping tank just for the toilet and doors. You can't judge if you have water in your tanks by that one.

I drain my tanks about every six months and at best a tablespoon of water is all I have gotten out of the wet tank. I am taking that as a sign that the air dryer cartridge is still good, and we haven't been getting enough rain in Texas.

When you get a chance to scoot under, and PLEASE use jack stands or cribbing anytime you are under the coach, the wet tank is the one at the very front. If it has a lot of water in it, you should certainly think about replacing the dessicant cartridge.

[tuga]

I would have to say that my expectations were high, and that they were exceeded by the get together. Frankly, I'm not much of a rally kind of guy, but the fellowship and camaderie was truly amazing. I would surely be up for another next summer.

I took great joy in working with others to address the invariable issues that arise with keeping a coach up to par.

Thanks to Tuga for kicking this off, and thanks to all for making it a wonderful weekend for me. I hope to see you all soon.

You're welcome Richard, I was glad to meet everyone and it was a pleasure to put a face with the name so to speak.

I read your post about changing the air dryer filter if you have a lot of water. I had my tanks drained at Newell and the tech told me he got about 2 gallons of water out of it but he didn't say anything about changing the filter. I am going to change the filter anyway; seems like the tech should have suggested changing it.

[larryweikart]

If you were a commercial vehicle you would be expected to drain the tanks every day of use. Most private motorcoaches don't get drained very often, some only once a year. As long as you have a good dryer on your engine mounted air compressor and have dryers on your 120 volt auxiliary compressor and, if applicable, on your 12 volt compressor and you drain those regularly, you won't see much water in your wet tank. Your brake tanks should NOT have water in them. If they do, you are not draining them often enough. I would suggest you install (or have installed) the cable activated drains on your front tanks (yes I need to do that also) and run cables to a convenient location so you can make sure that water is not left in the tanks.

Even on an annual basis, I don't get much water in my tanks and of course most of it is in the wet tank.
Thanks for the info Michael. I've drained my front tanks 2-3 times per year and, like you said, I've found very little moisture in them. Installing the auto dumps would sure make it a lot nicer than getting under the Coach, especially because it is rather difficult and messy to open the top tank. It's on my long to do list, which seems to get longer all the time.