Now I'm Newellized!

[Bryon Raymond]

Hello everyone! My name is Bryon and I've only been a Newell owner for a couple of weeks but it's really growing on me! I live in Missouri and bought the coach ( '89' - 40'er ) in Michigan. I had three break-downs on the way home, one due to road trash hitting & breaking the tranny filter w/ loss of all oil. The other two were lack of service ( clogged fuel filters, broken air bag/
tag axle ). But, the last 300 miles were smooth sailing and enjoyable. That Newell is fun to drive! Prior to deciding on a Newell I spent quite a few hours in this forum. So all of you basically talked me into buying my classic. Thank
you. I was going through the records and was surprised to learn Mr. Blade was the first owner of my coach. Thought that was kinda neat.
Happy holidays to every one and best wishes for a drop in fuel price!
Capt. Bry

[zcasa]

Welcome Captain Bry:

We will all have a lot of fun learning about our coaches. Many of us find this site very useful, particularly since our coaches have a few years of experience and, at times, need some tender loving care.

Curious to know, when you encountered your challenges on the way home did you find a diesel shop or how did you get the service that you needed?

[Bryon Raymond]

Hello zcasa. In reply to your question, when the airbag went I was at a U-Haul shop getting a car hauler. The guy that owned the place also repaired heavy trucks and found the problem right away. He was a great guy and very honest and had me on the road in about an hour. I'm going to post his name and location in the forum. Prior to buying the coach, I purchased emerg. road service thru Good Sam Club, because due to the way I was buying it, I didn't want to rely on the sellers word that all was tip top. As it turned out all was not tip top. One phone call to Good Sam and I was towed to a shop for the trans. repair( no charge for towing up to 1000 miles). When the fuel filters shut down, another call to Good Sam and a service truck arrived in 45 min ,
changed filters and I was again on my way. I paid for the filters and labor only. I think, had it been any other make of motor-home I would have put it back on the market upon arriving home. There's just something about a Newell! Have a great holiday season!! Capt Bry

[fulltiming]

Bryon, welcome aboard. Hopefully you are getting to the bottom of the problems and it will be much clearer sailing (or driving) as soon as you have had a chance to go get caught up with the 'routine maintenance'. I would definitely take a look at those remaining air bags. Losing an air bag is no fun at all. I had Newell check my air bags as a part of my annual maintenance just a couple of months ago.

Bit of bad luck on taking out the tranny filter. I had to maneuver around a truck tire carcass this afternoon in New Mexico at 68 mph that might have caused a similar problem had I had to drive over it.

You likely have junk in your fuel tank that is plugging your fuel filters. I would a) carry some spare filters and a plastic container of diesel to refill them if you have to change them yourself, b) drain the junk out of the bottom of the tanks (there should be a drain petcock on each tank), and c) dump some algaecide in the tank which will likely plug up even more filters until it clears.

[Bryon Raymond]

Hi Michael, thanks for your input. Actually the airbag itself didn't fail, the mounting hardware did. One of the bolts came apart and half of it stayed inside the bag. The bag looked healthy, as did the rest according to the service tech. He said he'd never seen one come apart like that. I looked at the fuel filters when I bought the coach and knew they hadn't been changed in a long while. I don't know why I didn't have them changed when work was being done on the air bag? Stress i guess?