Please Help With Our Trip Planning

[2dogs]

Russ, enjoy your trip glacier is great this time of year lots of bridge construction on 90 last 2 years have a safe trip Brian and Lana

[RussWhite]

Hi Friends,

We are checking off the places on our list and making memories to last a lifetime. We have arrived at Bryce Canyon National Park and we don't see how anything can get more beautiful than this! Just want to thank everyone for the helpful comments and suggestions. We are trying so hard to make all the right decisions and not get outselves into any trouble and not ding the Newell along the way. Still there are challenges..... We were almost to Bryce after a 600 mile day when we encountered a sign advising of tunnels ahead with a height of exactly what I had measured the Newell to be. We dived into a pulloff and began looking at our trucker's atlas and low clearances. Nothing seemed to add up as we waited for a tour bus or an eighteen wheeler to pass. None did. We called on our Newell buddies who had been this way and placed calls to the park where we were planning to stay. Finally, on the second person we talked to at Ruby's RV resort said, "No Problem!" Stay toward the center which is much taller than the sign says - 18 wheelers go through there all the time. When we approached the arch it was clearly going to be okay and we breezed right through. We only lost some time and sweat off a couple pounds, but better safe than sorry.

Cynthia is keeping up with our adventures by writing a blog - her first. We would sure appricate it if any of you had the time to check it out and all comments are much appreciated. We are off to Zion tomorrow, and then to Moab for lots more Utah national parks.


Russ and Cynthia

[folivier]

Glad yall are enjoying the trip. Have fun.

[Bikestuff]

Russ,

Glad to hear you guys are having fun! I recently got stuck in a similar situation. I was just east of Miami, Ok headed to the factory from Baxter Springs. I have tried to measure my coach, and have not gotten an accurate height...so I always assume that I am 13' 6". The sign at the low bridge at Baxter says Warning: 13' 8" low clearance. Hmmm. I know (from experience) that the road height can vary a little....so what if I happen to be riding high? I sat there and looked at the bridge for over 10 minutes. It sure looked low.

So...what did I do? I asked Baxter and he said go for it! I did not. I went back around the long way. Sigh.

This last trip, the Newell guys were taking my coach for a test ride...and they sailed under the same bridge with no trouble. I had visions of clearing the top of my coach.

Anyway..just wanted to say hi and say that I am jealous of all the places you guys have gone on your trip.

Cheers,
bill

[encantotom]

Bill, i have to chuckle at your silly post. today after i left steve's, i was got past miami, ok so we detoured in to pick a few things up. my daughter routed us the back way through baxter springs. so this morning i saw the sign that said low clearance, 13'8". we laughed about it and thought for a minute about lowering, but we slowed down and went under. as we did, my daughter said, "no loud crunching noises" and off we went. btw, i picked up the stainless trim piece that goes over the headlights and center of the genny cover. we cruise about 400 miles today and are stopped in elk city ok at a very spartan rv park. however, it was cheap and it has great internet and cable. we will try to do another 500 miles tomorrow and stay in grants nm and then hit home on wed. over 4000 miles and it has been fantastic for the 5 of us.

[tuga]

I will mention this just for information purposes: our HWH leveling system has a feature that allows you to lower the entire coach about 4". This is handy when you have to enter a garage or carport that might be a little lower than normal at the entrance. If you press the 4 arrows down button and wait a few mintues the majic will happen. You can only drive straight (do not turn the front wheels because they will rub on the fender wells).

It can get you out of a jamb but please be careful and don't take any chances. It's not worth it to damage the top of your Newell - go around or back up and turn around. Better to be safe than sorry!

[RussWhite]

Hi Tuga,

It's been a while since I checked out just how the interlocks work on my HWH, but I don't think it is just as simple as pressing the down buttons. This is from my memory and I will check it out again when the opportunity arise.
If you are in gear, pressing the raise/lower buttons will be ignored by HWH. To get manual control you must put the coach in neutral and then press the AIR button once. That will put it in manual mode and then you may dump air as you suggest. But, once the air is dumped if you go back into gear to move the coach, manaul mode will be automatically exited and the coach will go into travel mode. Just as soon as that happens, the level control valves will start putting air back in the bags. The exception to this is when you use the dedicated RAISE or DUMP button. If you use the DUMP instead of the four down arrows I think you can move the coach at low speed without it going into TRAVEL mode.

I'll edit this post, or repost, if I learn differently. A lot of caution needs to be used here. I think I can lower my coach until there is interference between the body and the tire. Maybe it should not be that way, but I believe it is. In an emergency, I suppose it would be better to rub the tires than rub the roof however :-)

We visited Zion today in the Jeep. There is a long ( 1.1 mile tunnel ) in the park that is marked 13' 1" in the center. Coaches over 13' and over 50,000 lbs are prohibited. We talked up a coach driver last night at the RV wash. He was driving a Van Hool and had been through the tunnel. The big difference between him and us, his clean roof top. If I didn't have the exhaust stack, exhaust fans, TV antenna, etc. I would probably gain 10 inches or so. We got quite a kick when we actually saw him at a vista point in Zion loading up all his passengers and heading for the tunnel. The only way I want to go through that tunnel is in the Jeep! Off to Moab tomorrow.

[encantotom]

i have a feature that i dont think everyone has. it is a leveling over-ride switch on the center console. if i flip it on, i can operate the hwh system anytime the switch is on. including when the engine is running and is in gear. the newell tech explained it to me when i was there a few weeks ago. i am thinking that just having darlene ride on the roof with her cell phone would be the best bet....

[afrench45]

Russ,
If you use the leveling override switch, you can drive the coach with the hwh any way you like. If overrides the travel mode feature when the coach is in gear basically.

[encantotom]

i dont think everyone has that switch. i know steve bear does not have it.
i dont think russ has it either.

[Chester B. Stone, Jr.]

I need to confirm that I can raise the coach to cross a bridge in California in a month. I do not have the override switch either. I will need to raise the coach for clearance as well as make sharp turns to cross the bridge. Any directions on how to accomplish this?

[RussWhite]

Chester,

Yes, I do this fairly often and this is how it works.....

Stop the coach. Put Allison in neutral. Press the RAISE button ( it has four upward pointing arrows on the button ). It should start blinking - no need to hold it when it is blinking. To speed up the process put the coach in fast idle. Sit there and wait - be patient - it may take as much as four or five minutes. Just watch your system air pressure and when it reaches cut off - about 115 psi or so, you are up as high as you can go. If you don't want to be that high, you could stop sooner. Now go back to normal idle and you can put the coach in gear and slowly move. Just as soon as you are over needing the extra heigh, press the TRAVEL or STOP buttons on the HWH panel and you will return to travel mode. Don't increase speed too quickly as it takes some time for the coach to lower to noraml traveling level. I think it will automatically go out of the RAISE mode if you exceed some minimum speed, but I always put it back in travel mode just as soon as I can. I don't think being raised is a good thing for the drive shaft angle, so just keep that in mind.

If I missed anything or you have any questions, just let me know. Russ

[Chester B. Stone, Jr.]

Russ, thanks a bunch.