Community Forums

JMH · 07-24-2016, 09:20 PM

Ok, if you have been following our adventures you know that we have an intermittent slide function, our generator is in op, and our dash air discharges condensation everywhere except the condensation drain tube, and we get an intermittent Low Battery! warning at startup.

OK I think we can now say we have gremlins. Leaving the DW sisters house in Washington State. Notice that the steering feels heavy. Adjust the custom drive knob and, nothing. Notice that the side running lights are on. Dash selector for lights are off. Another motorist drives by honking, pointing to some thing and drives off. We are spooked now. Pull off to side of road and check lights, toad and coach. Yep the coach lights are on and setting lights on and off at the switch does nothing. Turn steering wheel and it does not return to center. Shut down engine and ponder my fate. Restart engine and everything starts working right. Drive the next 200 miles to our camp ground and everything works ok.

I think we have to have some really strange ground fault some where. Contacting Newmar. Will let you all know what we find out.

Still loving the coach, but boy are we living a "Newbee adventure" with this coach. Took delivery 13 June. Just clearing 5800 miles. Yep a real shake down cruise

Mark and Louene Hetrick
Newbee the last VTDP 3725

Dutch Star Don · 07-25-2016, 04:21 AM

"JMH".....Just a couple of things to be aware of. If your coach has the Smart Wheel steering wheel and you turn your windshield wipers on for any reason, they turn your lights on and they wont turn off until you shut the coach down and restart. Turn the headlight knob will have no affect. It's a safety feature. I mention this because you say you're in Washington state where it's still raining occasionally this time of year.

Have you noticed if your intermittent low battery warning has occurred on cold mornings? If so, your engine has an internal grid heater to heat up the fuel upon startup at certain temperatures. Being a heater, it draws a lot of power and will often make it look like your batteries are low for a few seconds, until the heater shuts down.

Have you tried to start the generator from the start button on the generator nose?

The above may have nothing to do with your issues, but I thought I would throw them out there.

JMH · 07-25-2016, 09:51 AM

Dutch Star Dan, thanks alot. I was not aware of the windshield wipers turning on the lights. Yes I had used them shortly before noticing the lights were on.

On the battery I think it might be the heater kicking on. I would think the electrical system would be able to take the load without the warning. I'll have it checked out when the coach goes into Cummins next week.

On the generator. Cummins troubleshot with our local RV repair shop over the phone and decided the problem was with a major circuit onboard the genset. They want it taken to a cummins dealer for replacement just in case they are wrong. Said the component was a $2000 part

Going to Bakersfield to get it taken care of. Will have 6000+ miles on Newbee then so will do the first service on her also.

Still wondering what happened with the custom drive. Our dash AC unit dumps all the condensation water all over the generator compartment. Maybe something got wet. I'll monitor it. Maybe it was just a one off event.

Mark and Louene Hetrick
Newbee the last VTDP 3725

Dutch Star Don · 07-25-2016, 10:49 AM

When you look under your hood, there is a drain hose for the dash A/C that runs down the left side (passenger side) of the generator. If I recall, I think I rerouted mine and tie wrapped it to the frame. You may be missing your hose. If you are, let me know and I'll take a photo where it's suppose to be attached.

I really dislike the Smart Wheel feature that turns the lights on and leaves them on. You can't even run your window washer without turning all the lights on. I like the safety feature in the rain (what it's designed for), but dislike that you can't somehow turn them off.

Just a couple of other notes on the Smart Wheel. It has an intermittent wiper position. When you turn on one of the lower wiper buttons, it will swipe once and stop. The second time you push the same button, it sets your intermittent delay time. So if you push it once, and wait 10 seconds or until your windshield is wet again, then push the button again, you'll have a 10 second delay between wipes.

Lastly, your Smart Wheel has a high idle if that was not shown to you. With the coach in neutral and the parking brake on, turn the cruise control on and push the "Set" button. This will raise your idle for faster warm up/air up when you're breaking camp. Make sure you wait at least a couple of minutes during cold start up before going to high idle to allow your oil pressure to build.

Switt · 07-25-2016, 11:19 AM

Was at Freightliner in Gaffney in March said low voltage light on startup is normal because of heater spike in voltage light does not stay on very long.

JMH · 07-25-2016, 11:31 AM

Dutch Star Dan. I do have the hose connected. It goes straight down and does not have any kinks in it. The condensation leaks out the sides of the compressor unit where it attaches to the "firewall". Really odd. Can't see what's going on without disassembly. Since it is under warrenty will let Newmar deal with it. With my luck I would do something to void the warrenty.

Switt, thanks.

lanerd · 07-25-2016, 11:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JMH

Another motorist drives by honking, pointing to some thing and drives off. We are spooked now. Pull off to side of road and check lights, toad and coach. Yep the coach lights are on and setting lights on and off at the switch does nothing.

I'm confused

. Why would someone want to warn you that your lights are on? That makes no sense as many rv'ers (me included) drive with my lights on all the time. Very common!

Ron

beenthere · 07-25-2016, 03:14 PM

i have a 1997 london aire and it has this feature like above.

"Lastly, your Smart Wheel has a high idle if that was not shown to you. With the coach in neutral and the parking brake on, turn the cruise control on and push the "Set" button. This will raise your idle for faster warm up/air up when you're breaking camp. Make sure you wait at least a couple of minutes during cold start up before going to high idle to allow your oil pressure to build."

JMH · 07-25-2016, 05:35 PM

Lanerd, not sure what he was doing. We were in Washington state with California plates on. Maybe he just didn't like foreigners

I think he waved with all digits but my eyesight ain't what it used to be. Never did find anything.

On our slide issue, got a call from Newmar today. The controller manufacturer thinks the controller isn't allowing the level of torque needed for a drop down slideout like ours. Newmar is shipping me a new one. Said if this doen't work they will send a user adjustable one. The adjustable one must be atleast $5 more. No accounting for how a company makes warrenty decisions, some are penny wise and pound foolish

I think Switt has been down this road without results so am not reassured this is the correction.

More adventures to follow. As a side note, if you don't need air conditioning an all electric Newmar will run on 15amps and work everything else just fine. Even the Microwave at breakfast ( runs off inverter ).

We did it for 10 days.