What is the True Ride of A Newell Coach With a Tag Axle?

[JetHot]

So I have heard that Tag axles give a better ride. Is there a down side to them apart from another set of tires to buy?

Thanks for any comments on this

[jack14r]

Most coaches with tag axles have them because of the weight on the rear would be too great for the tandem axle alone,in most cases the rear weighs more than 20,000 and the tag axle is necessary to carry the weight.The tag is not there for the ride.

[Thomas Lago]

In the early 2000's when I was looking for a motorhome, I was told by many to stay away from motor homes with tag wheels. I was told that they were prone to get stuck in soft ground. The drive wheel would dig a hole and the other set of wheels would hold it up so that the drive wheel could not get any traction.

I have not heard or read any posts about this for many years. I did see at the Florida RV Super Show that on a very expensive motorhome called a Newell Coach had one set of wheels that could be lifted. That was impressive

Since I have no personal experience or first hand knowledge on this subject, I am only mentioning it so you can do more research on it.

[Chad]

Tag axles were added because the one axel couldn't carry the load; which in my impression means the chassis is overloaded (my opinion) I personaly would not buy a motorhome with a tag axel. Maybe a Newell or bus is a different story then excuse my ingnorance.

[86loco]

You will find that a tag axle will give you a much better ride when running heavy. How often are you going to be in a situation where you would get stuck? I have been RVing since 1968 and near fulltime since I retired in '98. I have been stuck once in several hundred thousand miles of travel. That was in a RV park where major reconstruction was going on and I swung too wide in a turn and got off the hard surface onto newly dumped sand.

[RussWhite]

I know of no Newells capable of lifting the tag wheels off the ground to shorten the turning radius as I have seen many Prevosts and tour buses do.

[Neweller]

Now when I was down talking to the guys at the Newell factory they were mentioning on the later newells with the steerable tags, that some of the owners will run with

the tag raised for a better ride and then lower it down to go through any scales at check points or ? So, these newer Newells I assume have a raise-able tag and I never

thought about asking what the difference would be of the tag raised vs. using the steerable tag. I'm lost on this somewhat until I hear further. The steerable tag was

designed to shorten the turning, so I would guess it would be the same as raising it, but with it down would allow the coach to be heavier and make a shorter turn.

[Chester B. Stone, Jr.]

My tag does not raise, but I can lower the air pressure in the tag bags, thereby putting more weight on the drive tires.

[fulltiming]

Don't think I have seen anything that indicates that the steerable tags can be raised and if they could, I can't imagine raising a steerable tag. That would SEVERELY overload the rear axle. The 2013 Newells have a rear axle rated at 28,600 pounds and a tag axle rated at 16,000 pounds. Back in 2003 when the axles had a somewhat lower weight rating (25,500 and 12,000 respectfully) and were NOT steerable, FMCA Magazine tested a Newell that had a wet weight on the rear of 36,060 or only 1,440 pounds under the weight rating for the two axles. Transferring over 10,000 pounds off the tag onto the rear axle would not be a pretty picture. (reference:Newell Coach's Mansion On Wheels (http://www.fmcmagazine.com/back-issues/2002/december/5877-newell-coachs-mansion-on-wheels)).

[Neweller]

I am lost on this one for sure.:behindsofa: I need to call down to the factory and speak with the horse I heard what I heard and find out what I heard.rollinglolBecause I'm a good couple of years off from owning a Newell with a steerable tag :moneymouth:to really be able to offer squat from experience on the steerable tags or until I get additional Newell education. So, as someone likes to tell me that; he said, she said isn't worth an ounce of squat!:banghead: Now that I think about it, maybe what they were saying

was using the bags to lower or raise the tag? Correct me if I'm wrong.

Ok, onto the next one.

Michael, thanks for that info.

[Neweller]

Maybe someone can decipher whats being said here (http://blog.rv.net/2008/11/not-all-tags-are-built-the-same/) in this November 2008 article I just ran across by Peter Mercer (http://blog.rv.net/2008/11/not-all-tags-are-built-the-same/).

It appears along the lines kind of what I was trying to communicate in my earlier post. It is still not 100% clear to me on any of the posts thus far.

[fulltiming]

Ken, in your referenced article, he talks about 3 types of tag axles: steerable, liftable, and unloaded. As you know, Newell used the unloaded tag until the ZF steerable came along. Prevost has used the liftable tag on many coaches, not sure if they produced any steerable tags. MCI has produced coaches with steerable coaches (passive beginning in 1992 active hydraulic beginning in 1998) and the Blue Bird Wanderlodge LXI came with a steerable tag. I am not sure that the article implies that steerable tags can be lifted. The article does indicate that most liftable or unloadable tags automatically deactivate at speeds above 8 mph. My tag unload switch is completely manual and does not deactivate at speed although I haven't driven over 8-10 mph with the tag axle unloaded.

[OLD TOWN]

I have never drove a tag axle coach can you tell me how does having one effect the driving ability compared to without. It just seems intimidating and then to figure out other aspects of its use?



Geoff

[fulltiming]

A tag axle typically improves directional stability of the coach. It seems to take a little more effort to turn away from a straight line than a coach without the tag. There is really little 'getting use to it'. If you try to back into a really tight space, it is best to dump the air (with an unloadable tag) or raise the tag is it is a liftable tag to take the stress off the tag and not skid its tires sideways on the pavement. I suspect there are folks here that have never dumped the air in their tag axle to maneuver. It takes much more time to get used to driving a longer coach than to a tag axle. There are few downsides to a tag axle on a well built, well designed coach. (I have seen some tags added to poorly designed motorhomes that were more of a band-aid than an integral part of the design.)

[JetHot]

A lot of info here to chew on. Thanks everyone for all this info. I'm not sure about how well it is understood since I know nothing about a tag axle?