jleamont

Bill, not sure what your factory gauges look like but Autometer will customize a similar product to get a close match. I got almost identical but missed the white needles.

Mine is just before the turbo but not at it. If I could photo it I will. I'm concerned the manifold will crack over time. There's not much meat there. I pulled the turbo out while the oil lines were connected blocked off the exhaust intake and started the engine to blow out and shavings. I blocked it with duct tape facing backwards to catch everything. Strange manifold on the ISL two pieces. Hopefully someone aftermarket will make one soon. It wasn't a bad job to do if you like hanging over the engine working. I have to run the wires up front and it's done, not a simple task on a DP.

Speck, here are some links; http://www.irv2.com/forums/f103/2008-newmar-grand-star-3750-a-159221.html http://west-coast-chardonay.blogspot.com/2009/04/2008-newmar-grandstar-beware.html I'm sure you will get negative feedback with most RV's now a days. Do yourself a favor and Google search it, read up from current owners of them and what they think about them. There seems to be a flood of low mileage used ones on the market which is suspicious to me. From what I read they were built on A freightliner chassis with a Cummins ISB engine which is a good start, what I do not know is how well it was all put together.

Thanks Carl! I replaced all of the fuel lines in July 2014, now to finish up this job some of them will be discarded (capped off and tied out of the way) while the main one that runs from the engine bay to the fuel tank will be just added to so it can reach the new pump on the curb side. I'm sure there is some junk in the tank, now I will be able to see it in the filter upfront since it is a clear bowl. With the gauge on the dash I can also monitor the filter condition electronically, as the pressure drops time to manually look at the one up front, if its not full the one in the back is the culprit and needs to be changed.

Wildebill308 is right on, your exhaust gas temp will rise very fast if "lugging" the engine. My last truck had an Exhaust temp gauge, I observed the temp climb so rapidly that if you weren't paying attention to the gauge you saw it move so fast out of the corner of your eye and it caught your attention. I found that lugging the diesel engine would create more heat than downshifting the transmission. Once the rpms were up you could see the gauge begin to drop. My last truck was also an automatic, just like my coach it also didn't down shift on its own so I had to manually drop it back so as not to over temp the pistons. My old truck was modified for more HP and torque, my coach is not, that's not to say you couldn't do damage to a stock engine, I prefer to down shift it, fuel is cheap compared to pistons and turbochargers. I drive it like exactly like Wayne mentioned above, works for me. In process now of installing exhaust temp gauge just to make sure I do not do something dumb.

Update; pump and filter mounted, first bay behind curb side steer tire. I fabricated a bracket system kind of like a tree to hang all of it on. I located all of this on the right side (curb side) just in case I needed to access it along side of the road, I will not be out in traffic this way. Brett; I took your advice and made a few phone calls, the response I got was kind of scary. I was told an inline check valve is already supposed to be within 6 feet of the fuel tank from the factory, however mine is 38' from the tank on the inlet side of the primary filter. My primary filter is also supposed to be close to the fuel tank, YUP, its not! Someone didn't follow the engine manufactures guide when the coach was built. The check valve from the factory is a 2 PSI crack pressure, I ordered an inline 2 psi crack pressure check valve that will thread directly onto the fitting at the fuel tank, this hurdle is solved. Mystery wire update; that went to a red light on the dash that wasn't connected, the other end was one of the wires that was bare and hanging near the existing fuel pump on the engine, looks like someone started to wire in a low fuel pressure warning lamp circuit and gave up (photo of the terrible wire installation in the gallery tab, I cleaned all of that up and placed it into a loom). I recycled the light and its now a Water in Fuel light for the primary filter, so I now have two water in fuel lights, busy night last night. Oh, I also added an second sewer hose storage tube in that bay, what you cant see is both are tilted downward and there is a hole in the floor directly below where any remaining water in either hose will drain out of the coach, not into my storage bay. So what's left you are thinking; Mount the fuel pressure gauge manifold with sending unit after the secondary filter housing in the engine bay. Pull fuel pressure gauge wires to the dash gauge, gauge installed, wiring harness in electrical bay in front of steer tire. Connect all of the hoses I had pre made. Remount the chassis air supply air chuck to the filter tree. Gauge installation

Brett, question; the original design of the fuel system incorporated a check valve on the inlet of the primary filter so fuel would not empty back to tank. Do you think I should incorporate one on inlet of the primary filter again?

I will say this, with the depreciation side of it and problems you will have either way I wouldn't purchase new if it were me. To each his own, some like to be the first to sit on a seat and I get that. I would insist on a warranty history report depending on how new it was of a unit. That would be my second area of inspection after the basics, just goes back to me not trusting the person or person's that made those repairs previously. Unless I hit the lottery tomorrow and order a custom coach nothing new in my future, I just don't see any benefit unless I cannot locate what I want, which is possible when that time comes, most likely I would just sit back and wait like the last purchase since I wasn't in a hurry and time was on my side.

this video is great....

Very nice! post some interior photos when you can.

I will take pictures later and email them to you. It looks like they all head back to the engine or to the rear electrical bay, they just pass through the propane/fuel tank bay and are all twisted up in there. I did find some wires back in the engine bay 2 years ago that went no where, I taped them up and zip tied them out of harms way. Could be the other end of these. shouldn't be hard to figure out where they go on the back end, the front that's a different story.

Herman, is there a relay somewhere that could be disconnected? They watched DVD movies while in route in the old coach, cant do it on this one.

I don't know much about propane, seemed odd to me also. I know CNG has oil suspended in it which has to be drained, not sure about propane. I'm just glad to be rid of all of that, now I can drive through tunnels. The tank did have a drain on the bottom, again no idea why I thought that was odd also.

It has an auto search satellite dome on the roof, King Dome brand its painted the color of the coach. I do not use it, cable plug in or antenna and I'm good. Funny the box inside is marked that it will auto seek while driving, but the TV shuts off when you start the engine . Glad that wasn't a selling point.

Wow, I have two trays, the upper is chassis and the lower is house, both on slides and the door has a clip on the side wall to hold it open. I was pleasantly surprised to see that my batteries come all the way out, I find it odd that most do not have slide trays, I cant imagine trying to connect them or placing them into a hole as heavy as they are. Oh yea, my old propane tank...had almost 10 gallons of oil in it, guy just called me. I'm guessing it was the "L" in LPG... My regulator I pulled last night, it and the line were also dripping oil all the way into the trash can

My reason for AGM, I often forget about the batteries during the season. The real concern...when its parked for the winter my battery door is against the side wall of my garage, I cant get to them to check water levels while its plugged in and parked. I don't want to start it up in the cold just to pull it 45' to check batteries and back it into the spot and shut it down, not good for the engine, so the lesser of the two evils is roll the dice on the batteries, if they don't go empty over the winter great, if they do....not much I can do.

I have (4) 6 volt batteries in ours for the house. The chassis has two 31 group truck batteries with screw top terminals, they are fine.

I am in the same boat, I really just need the slides, I can take it from there, I figured if I got the tray also so be it, I will just alter it for what I need. I looked into ordering a new one but they do not make one in the width I need, and I do not want to buy a new one only to cut it up. Must be Blake headed that way. I have to figure out what all of the hacked up wires are in that bay tonight, some one ran three wires around the propane tank and not its gone they are hanging below the floor level, one looks like a phone wire the other two are two conductor with wads of electrical tape on them. I've got to follow them back and front to see where they go. They are actually wrapped around the floor frame....some people should be required to take a test before they are allowed to purchase tools.

Bill, we have to meet up one day and hang out, I like your thinking.

Agreed, at least he has a solid foundation and power plant. Nothing wrong with old school technology. That's back when Diesels were dependable and simple.

Herman, thank you. I called Vision one they had a tray, wrong width but I can cut it down, the price was $390 plus $110 for shipping. Seemed high for a used tray. Still looking.... Carl, no idea why the posts are double, I was getting error messages today also but the posts still are posting. So far tonight it's ok.