[Chester Stone]

Pairodice, welcome to the group and this is an added benefit from owning a Newell, plus the fact that the factory is so very helpful. I would like to comment on your idea to buy Toyo tires. I had new Toyo tires on my Country Coach several years ago and both blew at about 15,000 miles. One at 65 MPH on I-10 which could have been very serious. Both were thread separation issues and Toyo would not honor my warranty because I did not save the razor sharp steel remains. Research this forum and I think you may fine the air bag numbers for your coach. Just yesterday I purchased six new bags for my coach. They are hard to find except that Newell has a large inventory, but at higher prices. I purchased two each from Six States Distributors, Michigan Truck Spring and Newell for the tags.

[pairodice]

In the first coach (red) I could really hear and feel the Jake, on this coach I could not really feel or hear it. I will have them check it out to make sure it works. I will have them check out the brakes also since the Jake is not working. I need to figure out what the ProDriver will tell me about the engine - I will definitely get a VMSpc (had one in my 2000 Foretravel) asap. Does this have DDEC and which model please?

[qcj]

Adrian, I'm glad you decided on the Newell.  It was great to have met you and your wife.  My Jake brakes are fairly quiet also and does not have a lot of impact when I turn it on.  The transmission indicator goes to 5 and as I slow down I can feel it more.  A lot of the forum members have had their Jake brakes programmed to turn on at 4 on their transmission.  This might have been done on the red coach.  I have learned to live with mine the way it is.  The 98 you decided on it a much better coach than the red one by far.  The Newell factory is not much out of your way home to Iowa.  You might take the coach by and visit with them.  They are a great bunch of people.  You can give them your coach # and they can tell you a lot about your coach and so can Michael Day.  He is our Newell historian. Welcome to the crowd.

[Fulltiming]

It is true that if the coach doesn't downshift far enough that the Jake brake will not do much or make much noise. You need rpm's to get the benefit of the Jake.

[pairodice]

I must have misspoke, we are still working on a deal, I have not bought it yet. Hopefully Tuesday we will find out about the loan but may be the end of the week since credit unions are not the fastest...

[folivier]

You can have the transmission programmed to select just about any gear you want when you turn on the jake. My 98 would select 2nd gear. That made the jake very effective and really nice in the mountains.

[encantotom]

i had mine programmed to shift to 4th. and then i will manually downshift more if i need to.

tom

[rheavn]

"Anyone know the part numbers for the air bags on this beast or cost for the bags (not labor)?"

If you look here you should find the part numbers for the air springs on your coach.

http://newellgurus.com/showthread.php?tid=549

Many trucking web sites sell the tag & drive axle air springs. Price varies by where you buy them, but they will be in the $165 range each. My last inquiry about the front air springs showed that Newell had them for the cheapest price--around $250 each.

As for Toyo tires----After a left front tread separation and a quick visit to the beautiful Arizona desert, I would not recommend Toyo truck tires! Saving a few bucks resulted in a $52,000 repair bill.

I found having the jake programmed to 5th gear was useless for me. I had it reprogrammed to 4th gear. Very inexpensive to have it done.

[qcj]

Who did it for you Steve?  Is a DD or transmission thing? Mine is set a 5th gear. When I was in CO. in July I did my own down shifting.

[rheavn]

Chappell,
It is a DD thing. Newell reprogrammed mine, but some one said they no longer will. Any DD shop can do it. They just fed into the port by the steering column.