Resolved Broken down in Breckenridge....

[Richpatty]

Same here....Have only seen the High Exhaust Temp light once...but I only have 23K miles on ours...

 

[stang37]

I only seen 1 regen light in 42,000 miles. It happened after a lengthy stretch of road averaging about 40 mph. I was pulling into a parking area and just happened to see the light. I normally run around 1700 to 1800 rpms and I use 5th gear a lot.

 

[Neal]

One item to add to this discussion that has been discussed in the past is traveling and what tank levels for fresh, black, gray. This situation I got in I was in a case where I may have to be living in my coach for a period of time if towed to a Cummins service location and having a dog complicates living conditions, i.e. finding a dog friendly hotel, boarding the dog, vaccinations up to date, etc. I was lucky that I emptied black and gray prior to departing, while I usually do, I don't "always" do this. That would buy me time. Fresh (water) was stopped by autofill at around 67% if I recall, autofill can vary from 65-90% full, not sure why the variance, but it does. As I was traveling in the Rockies I didn't want a fresh tank full at 100% and taking on water via garden hose about anywhere is an option so it's not as critical. I also carry a 30 gallon water storage bladder, although I've yet to use or need it but it's a nice addition for boondocking and can be placed in the back of my toad (chevy colorado) bed. I have a water transfer drill pump as well to transfer water from bladder to coach. These store compact under my bed storage.

So keep in mind with your black/gray tank management that things may not go as planned and you could be living in your coach without the ability to dump tanks, etc. for a period of time.

 

[Buly]

I always try to have empty waste tanks and 100% full water tank before departing.
As it happened to Neal, you never know if you are going to get stuck for a day or two. Also trying to keep the fuel tank above 50% full for the same reason.
I Attended the Freightliner camp, and the lecturer recommended to travel with full fresh water tank for a better ride?

 

[Neal]

On the topic of fuel tank, the TOAD fuel tank level is something I pay attention to prior to departing to the next destination. I'm not sure if I mentioned that above in this thread. As we read @NWIP had an incident in the middle of nowhere on his Alaska journey. While it wasn't discussed I learned a lesson from that in making sure my TOAD has enough gas to get me to a populated area. From that incident I now pay attention to fuel levels in my TOAD prior to departure. In the case of this story I filled up prior to departure as I was heading deeper in the Rockies. So pay attention to your fuel levels not only in the coach but also in your escape vehicle - the TOAD.

 

[sheridany]

One thing I would caution about is how much the water tanks adds weight your coach. You do not want to be over the weight limit, particularly on your steer axle. Just be aware of it if you have not done a four-corner weigh.

 

[Buly]

I did weigh the coach ( 4 corners). 22.5 tons. Full water tank 1/2 a ton. A Flee on elephant’s butt

 

[Fish]

One thing I would caution about is how much the water tanks adds weight your coach. You do not want to be over the weight limit, particularly on your steer axle. Just be aware of it if you have not done a four-corner weigh.

I've never even thought of that before and both my water tank and fuel tank are up front. 100 gallons water full and 130 gallons of diesel full when I leave. I just took for granted it was engineered to handle it.

 

[jagpot]

Yes, my coach does regens automatically, how often I can not say I never kept notes on it but if I'm on a 3 month trip moving around every week I bet I see 3 or 4 regens. It might be less if I run in 5 gear. Spartan recommends that to get the temp up when running down the highway at 65MPH. In 6 gear I'm at about 1,700 RPM and 5 gear about 1,900+. I did get the Nexlink tool so I will try that and see if the code goes away.

Did the nexlink work for you? Code gone? How do you know when your coach is doing a regen? Newmar did one last year as part of maintenance for us.

 

[Neal]

I was talking to @turbopilot yesterday and mentioned this incident and he had the same thing in a prior RV and the same topic came up, he mentioned high altitude. As I mentioned @ARD had hers after Angel Fire (8000+ altitude) and it happened traveling in high altitude ops from Angel Fire to Santa Fe to ABQ. The issue happened to me at high altitude. @turbopilot mentioned the Cummins may not be optimized for high altitude ops and more for sea level and that they may be running very rich and gunking up the DPF filter at high altitude which is the same thing I asked my tech that serviced mine when broken down.

If the trend is occurrences at high altitude it may make me lean towards more forced regenning when traveling at higher elevation and less worry about it at sea level. Hopefully @Rich W. can continue to work with Diesel Laptops and get us better info on soot level so at least we can plug in and monitor the soot level and know when it's time to do a regen if the system is not managing itself.

 

[ARD]

As I mentioned @ARD had hers after Angel Fire (8000+ altitude) and it happened traveling in high altitude ops from Angel Fire to Santa Fe to ABQ.

I know you are trying to make connections here with high altitude, but the problem in my case my coach was doing a regen when I had to come to a stop and then it tried to continue the regen, but after I had the stop, I started throwing codes. It tried to continue regen when I got up to speed and then I stopped to park at the CG in Santa Fe. The last thing you want to do is go from hot and turn the coach off. I ended up with soot getting stuck in the intake valve. If you do decide to do forced regen, you want to let the coach idle for about 10 mins so the temperature can come down before turning it off. If you shut it down while hot, you will probably throw codes.

I’ve spoken with techs at both Cummins and Spartan and they do not advise doing forced regens as part of a maintenance program. What you are essentially doing is aging your DPF and engine. You are forcing more diesel to your exhaust system for why? In fact Spartan took the ability of owners from doing forced regens away because you don’t need to do it and are likely to screw things up. The fire trucks still have ability to do them and even a fire truck driver admitted they caused more problems than necessary.

So that’s my two cents. I’m in the camp of letting your coach do its job and it will regen when necessary. To have a tool on hand for just in case is always nice and initially I was going to purchase one; however, I’ve had an issue once in 5 years so I think I’ll pass for now.

 

[Neal]

There was discussion in this thread or somewhere else with @sheridany offering his not so great experience getting money out of Coach-net and I just received a check for $160 from them for my $310 service call for this incident. I just called Coach-net and asked why not the full $310 - they don't reimburse parts or labor. My invoice was $150 for the service call, $150 for labor, $10 for mileage so I got the service call fee + mileage. Still better than nothing.

 

[FloridaSon]

I Attended the Freightliner camp, and the lecturer recommended to travel with full fresh water tank for a better ride?

I found that very true on my 3412. The sweet spot is 80% water, empty blk & gry tanks and start off full fuel of course. Better ride and more stable in wind/passing. When I get down to half a tank of fuel I can tell the handling is starting to change. And towing a 4400 lb jeep.

 

[Neal]

Full fresh makes sense to avoid all that water weight sloshing. And your fresh tank's width is the width of the coach vs. along the path of travel. Never thought of that. So the adverse affect will be side to side.

 

[Notsotalltexan]

Great topic for all diesel pusher owners. I found this and bought one today from Diesel Laptops.

Diesel Laptops Handheld Heavy-Duty Scan Tool with Regen​

by Diesel Laptops