New Newmar Owner Questions

Dave1956 · 10-11-2010, 09:48 AM

Greetings:

Took a 100 mile trip yesterday to begin becoming familiar with our new to us 2003 3352 DP Kountry Star. All went well but I have a few operation questions.

I could not find a water drain for the cummins engine fuel filter. Is that under the bed maybe?

While reading my manuals, I noticed that the Allison Transmission has different configurations that are possible. Do all of the Freightliner/Cummins operate this way? Do I need to take this to a specialist to help me with these configuations?

I noticed that the coach liked 65 better than 60. While driving at 60 the transmission wanted to downshift. While driving at 65 it seems to stay in gear better better. We were driving state highways, flat, with a slight head/crosswind.

Thanks in advance for your advise/comments.

Dave

Spikester · 10-11-2010, 10:54 AM

Depending on what filters you have there may not be a water drain. Both of your fuel filters should be on the frame rail and visible from the underside of your coach. I would get the filter numbers, then go on line to look at them to see if they have a water drain valve. If you have a "water in fuel" warning lamp, when it lites is the only time you should have to drain the water from the collection device on the filter.

Assuming you have an Allison transmission, it should be configured for optimum operation for your coach already. If you want to reconfig the gear that transmission changes to during braking believe Engine service center can to that, of course for a fee. Not sure whether a Cummins or Freightliner service center can do a major re-configure, but would bet that an Alllison service center can. A couple of things that you can control is the mode the transmission (standard or economy) is operating in. This is done with the mode button. By pressing the mode button (on) it shifts the transmision to the economy mode, this changes shift points so the transmission does not down shift until it sense a wide open throttle and the engines is operating at Max torque. It is recommended, again for optimum performance, that the transmission be operated in the economy mode, even for hill climbing. The other thing is using the up/down arrows to control the highest gear the transmission will attain, regardless of the mode it is in. Useful during hill climbing or descending, keeps the transmission from shifting back and forth between 2 gears, also you can force a downshift, as long as the engine doesn't exceed max RPM, if you need to increase engine speed to control coolant/transmission temperatures.

While running at 60 were you in the "economy mode", if not give it a try, it may stop the tranny from hunting.

Engine and Allison transmission package is a pretty smart set-up, but takes some getting use to.

Spike

Dave1956 · 10-11-2010, 12:08 PM

Thanks, I will follow your advise and study the filters on line and then hunt them out. I have not tried pushing the mode button yet. I will look into that tomorrow, right now it does not say anything it is just dark! the D, R, and N light up and the 6 comes on when I put it into Drive mode. It feels very smooth.

bigskymt · 10-11-2010, 02:30 PM

Depressing the "mode" button will light an LED in the upper right corner of that button. The economy mode will cause less downshifting as it will shift later. Re-starting the engine will default the trans out of economy and require re-setting the mode button.