Diesel pusher chassis
Diesel pusher motorhomes are hardy autos, however they’re not indestructible. Right here’s an inventory of seven doubtlessly damaging diesel pusher errors that house owners ought to keep away from.
• Fueling from each side on the identical time. Most diesel pushers (DPs) have gas ports on each side. Truck gas stations typically have a grasp pump on one facet with a slave pump on the opposite. This accommodates the filling of separate saddle tanks situated on all sides. They aren’t for filling a single tank of a twin ported car. Doing so will result in a critical gas spill whereas pumping.
• Making use of exhausting utility of the service brakes whereas the park brake is engaged. Excessive air strain mixed with the highly effective spring brakes situated within the tandem air chambers on the drive axle can injury the mechanical rods and linkages that management the brake motion. Thankfully, all trendy air brake autos have an anti-compounding valve designed particularly for this problem. It reduces air pressures being utilized throughout such occasions. No matter this function, it is not uncommon apply to tread flippantly as to not rely solely on such security gadgets.
• Pumping or dragging the service brakes whereas slowing or checking pace. Pumping the air brakes can trigger the exhaustion of quantity of compressed air in extra of what the compressor can produce. Dragging the brakes could cause speedy overheating of the brake system. These actions can cut back the effectivity of the braking system and presumably result in complete failure. Air brakes must be utilized briskly as wanted and launched.
• Shifting the car previous to it totally airing up. Most DP’s have to be at their freeway trip peak so as to have satisfactory wheel clearance between the entrance tires and the fenders. Moreover, driveline common joints might be pressured by the acute angle that exists when the air suspension is totally down.
• Shutting down a scorching engine or whereas above idle pace. Diesel engines have to be allowed to chill down briefly previous to shutdown. That is primarily wanted for a turbocharged engine. It requires solely about 3 minutes and in lots of circumstances has practically elapsed whereas pulling off the highway. Additionally solely shutdown whereas on low idle to keep away from doable turbo injury.
• Checking the fluid degree of an Allison transmission utilizing the dipstick of an digital fluid degree geared up set-up. For items with this function, the producer recommends the usage of the digital technique as it’s way more correct. The miserable of the up-and-down arrows concurrently on the shift pad shows this function in that case enabled.
• Storing a DP with a tank filled with 20 p.c bio-diesel mix (B-20) gas for a period of over 90 days. Engine maker Cummins recommends not storing autos with excessive bio-diesel blends (B-20) for over 90 days as gas system part points might happen.
Properly, that’s a few of the DP proprietor’s “no-nos.”
Peter Mercer – Being Good To Your Diesel Pusher