Getting My Newell Home

[prestadude]

I picked up my new-to-me Newell (2000, 45', one slide) this Thursday in Phoenix. This is my first motorhome.


I also picked up my son from the dorms at Arizona State University, loaded up his stuff, and then headed up to Sacramento.

We spent the first night at a KOA in Blythe, California. The next morning, I couldn't get the coach to go into gear. Punching D, all I got was a flashing 6. Fortunately, the coach had the original manuals (one 1" binder with Newell prepared text plus three 2" binders containg manuals for all the equipment that is in the Newell). The Allison manual stated that the problem was due to an interlock violation (something was not right with the coach, so I could not go). A quick call to Newell (one of the reasons I purchased a Newell is the fact that they are still in business and have a reputation of offering excellent tech support to owners of used coaches). Turns out that a sensor in the slideout is probably not reading properly. I checked that the slideout was fully retracted and that the locking pins were in place (yes) and then flipped the override toggle switch in the left front compartment. Off we went.

We took a short side trip through Joshua Tree National Park. Stopped at the ranger station in Cottonwood to purchase a day pass. The parking lot was not made for 45' rigs. At the very tight parking lot exit, the left tag went off the pavement and I must of hit something pointy because about seven miles into the park I had a flat. I learned that it is difficult to even detect that a tire is going flat (at least for a tag). No noise, no driving effect. I caught a faint odor of hot rubber, thought to myself I wonder what that is, looked out the driver side mirror and saw chunks of rubber flying off the tag axle. There was not a good place to stop so I ended up half in the road, half off with my flashers on. Beautiful places are in the middle of no where so our cells phones didn't work. I flagged down a passing motorist who promised to stop at the park headquarters and let the rangers know.

My son and I fired up the generator, turned on the air and started watching a movie (Hot Fuzz, really funny British humor). About 45 minutes later, the ranger knocks on the door offers to relay my request for service to Coach-Net (he radios park dischatch, dispatch calls Coach-Net). About 2 hours ater that the tire repair truck shows up. My heart dropped. The truck was a small pickup with a small compressor mounted in the back. The truck was driven by a mechanic who was at least 60 year and was accompanied by a small white poodle. I was expecting an enormous vehicle bristling with equipment. My concerns were unfounded. This fellow knew his stuff and with only hand tools, a few bottle jacks and a big impact wrench, he showed me how it is done. I won't go into all the details, but I was fascinated when he got the new tire on the rim and I thought, "how is he going to seat that bead without a much larger compressed air source?" He pulled out a bucket of tire mounting compound, a thick, paste like soap. He slapped in a thick bead of this material to seal the gap between the tire and the rim, hooked up his little compressor and I watched in amazement as the tire slowly inflated, displacing the tire mounting compound until the bead seated. I gave the guy a $40 tip just as much for the lesson in tire repair as for helping me out. FYI, the rear tires were 5 years old, the fronts 4 years old. I was planning on replacing all this summer. Maybe I should have acted sooner!

The remainder of the trip was uneventful (sort of) although I do have a few issues and would appreciate advice from forum members.

1. Oil stain on right tag rim - once back to Sacramento, I noticed what appears to be evidence of oil seepage from the hub.



There used to be a nice chrome cover over the hub, but that is now somewhere between Joshua Tree and Sacramento. The hub appears to have a sufficient amount of oil (the level is even with the full line).



I assume that this condition is abnormal and I should take this in for repair ASAP. True?

2. At our last fuel stop, I heard a hissing sound after shutting down the coach. I traced it to a compressed air tank in the right front compartment.



The hose that is venting air is the black vertical one, coming off the bottom of the oil/water separator. It looks like there is some sort of solenoid actuated valve on the O/W separator bowl and the valve is not closing. When the engine is running , I hear a 12 volt compressor running constantly. My plan is to temporarilly plug the end of the vent hose with a compression fitting to keep the compressor from constantly running, and then have the mechanic fix the solenoid along with the tag bearing. Sound like a plan or is the little solenoid valve servicable and something that I can fix? Or maybe the problem with with the signal to the valve, not the valve itself.

Thanks for the help.