Considering Newmar with Cat Diesel - heat?

The only thing that will over heat is the inside of your motor home. Hope your air conditioner works good

Your co-worker is misinformed. Look at all the trucks,buses, as well as RV's that are on the roads in west Texas.

Thank you for the responses so far. I asked this person for more details of this overheating claim. It goes like this:
The diesel engine is in the rear, the radiator is in the rear. His theory is that when or if there was ever an OIL LEAK, the oil leak while driving gets on the radiator, clogs the radiator not allowing it to cool. Even after the oil leak is repaired, the radiator remains clogged until it is removed and cleaned. Hmmmm............

Indeed, cleaning the front of the CAC (Charge Air Cooler) every year is important to air flow/engine temperature.

Some Simple Green EXTREME and a garden nose/nozzle and 30 minutes is all you need. Yes, if it has not been done in many years, it may require removal of the radiator and CAC to get them clean.

And if climbing long grades in over 100 degree temperatures, it may require using a little common sense in choosing a gear to keep engine RPM up to higher end of range and throttle a little less than WOT.

But, probably several million miles in those conditions by members here with DP's. Don't ignore the warning, but don't let it scare you off either.

That's true of all rear radiator diesel pushers. On a CAT, the "slobber tube" (crankcase vent) dumps out under the engine and gets sucked into the charge air cooler and radiator. The fix is to build a slobber extension.



Some coaches have tried to solve this issue by putting the radiator on the side. In order to do this, they set up a maintenance prone hydraulic drive for the fan. Also, all piping is longer increasing the chances of a rock getting kicked up and causing a leak.

If you have a rear rad, yearly degreasing and cleaning is a must.

kmb1966 wrote:
a co-worker tells me that I should be aware that "DIESELS LIKE TO OVERHEAT IN THE HOT SUMMER IF DRIVING IN WEST TEXAS HEAT 110 DEGREE WEATHER".

Gosh, I guess your co-worker has never seen the literally millions of diesel powered vehicles traveling constantly throughout the extreme heat of the west.

Blow hards who have no basis, facts, or statistics to support whatever they say should be ignored. Your co-worker sounds like an opinionated know-it-all who is full of bull ****!

kmb1966 wrote:
Thank you for the responses so far. I asked this person for more details of this overheating claim. It goes like this:
The diesel engine is in the rear, the radiator is in the rear. His theory is that when or if there was ever an OIL LEAK, the oil leak while driving gets on the radiator, clogs the radiator not allowing it to cool. Even after the oil leak is repaired, the radiator remains clogged until it is removed and cleaned. Hmmmm............

That is like saying, "all vehicles get flat tires in the Texas heat." Then when asked to explain, he says, "Tires wear out and eventually wear to the point a hole develops and the tire goes flat."

Your co-worker is an idiot. Not doing a yearly maintenance item can eventually cause overheating as the radiator gradually looses its cooling efficiency. Cleaning the radiator yearly avoids the issue.

No need for name calling. He may be saying he has let his slobber tube dirty up the CAC and rad and he has witnessed overheating in high temps.

I thought side rads were created to open access to ac and air compressors, fan belts, etc.

kmb1966 wrote:
Thank you for the responses so far. I asked this person for more details of this overheating claim. It goes like this:
The diesel engine is in the rear, the radiator is in the rear. His theory is that when or if there was ever an OIL LEAK, the oil leak while driving gets on the radiator, clogs the radiator not allowing it to cool. Even after the oil leak is repaired, the radiator remains clogged until it is removed and cleaned. Hmmmm............

Well...considering the Dutch Star has a side radiator he's already wrong in his theory.

With that said, of course if something gets plugged up it may over heat. My farm tractor was running a bit warm this Spring, a simple air hose to the radiator and it was back to good.

On the other hand we had a '03 Kountry Star DP with the Cat diesel. The Kountry Star had a rear radiator at the time. In 6 years not once did I clean the radiator and not once did it even remotely run warmer than normal.

I won't call your co-worker anything other than severely mis-informed.

Enjoy your new MH.

kmb1966 wrote:
I am considering a 2003 Newmar Dutchstar with a Cat Diesel that has become available in my area. This unit has 33,000 miles on it, 2,000 hours on the Onan. This unit belongs to a neighbor friend of mine, and I have been around this unit for about 10 years now, camping together. I have spent the last several weeks going over this unit, checking it all out anyway, and then suddenly a co-worker tells me that I should be aware that "DIESELS LIKE TO OVERHEAT IN THE HOT SUMMER IF DRIVING IN WEST TEXAS HEAT 110 DEGREE WEATHER".
I have never heard of this at all. My gas unit has never overheated but the Onan gas generator did once.
My question is, IS THERE ANY TRUTH TO THIS ? I mostly drive in the summertime because my wife is a school teacher and we mostly get to go on vacation in the summer when it is very hot. We like to travel west (which puts us crossing Texas).

Ok,
You stated you've been around this RV and been camping together for a period of 10 years, correct? If so, did you actually travel together? If so, did you see or hear the owner EVER complain about ANY overheating conditions in that 10 year period? If you've never heard of seen him complain on any heating issues, then logically, it's not gonna heat when you purchase it. Now, of course things wear out, get stuck and all that so, the "Potential" for overheating is there. But, the probability should be way down.

I'm also assuming that you more than likely, being a somewhat close friend of this neighbor, know the service and maintenance history of this coach. And if that's the case, they you already know this coaches operating circumstances, correct?

You kinda need to sit down with this co-worker and do a bit of explaining on the fact that NOT ALL DIESELS are the same, operate the same, have the same issues and troubles, and more. There's a whole ton of CAT owners on here and other RV forums that are completely happy with their CAT engines. All you need to do is ask.
Scott