dad2aprincess wrote:
We just bought a new 2015 Holiday Rambler Ambassador diesel. I'm not familiar with diesel engines or air suspension / air brakes and am getting different input from different people. Here are a few questions:
1.) How long should you let it idle to 'air up' before pulling away? I let it run 10 or 15 minutes before the first trip; it seemed like an awfully rough ride for the first half hour or so, like it was riding on the chassis.
2.) Should you 'dump' the air when you park for the night? There is a manual / auto switch and the salesman said to leave it in auto. I don't see any other place to dump air.
3.) Do the air brakes affect the ride height in any way? When trying to park inside my subdivision at night (doing a lot of pulling forward and backing up), it seemed to lose a lot of air, which lowered the chassis and caused it to drag.
Thanks in advance for your input!
dad2aprincess,
Well Sir, I will not presume to offer you advice on a coach I know nothing about. But, I will say that, letting a diesel run for as long as you did for your first trip, is:
1, wasting fuel
2. not needed, according to all the newer diesel operation specs and procedures.
Todays engines, diesels in particular, do not require the long "warmup" time for efficient running as they sort of did, in yesteryear.
Now, some will agree and some won't but, absolutely nothing damaging will happen to your engine if you started it up and, let it run 'till the air pressure reached max, on both gauges, usually around 1 minute or so then, take off. Now, unless you're camped next to and on ramp for which you'd need to use to head off in the direction you're headed, cruising through the camp ground, town or city or, country roads as slower speeds will also assist in warming up the engine but, at least you're moving and not sitting still.
Dennis gave you advice on "fast idle" operation using the cruise control. Well, that works on most vehicles only on mine, it's not the "set" button that rises the rpms. It's the "Resume/accell button that raises it. You can turn the Cruise on and then hit the "set" button just to activate the system, as you would if you were driving. But, it's the "resume/Accel button that actually does the rising of the engine rpms, just like it would if you wanted to speed up with the cruise, while driving. No biggie, it's just the way mine works.
Now, again, I have no idea how the intracasies of the suspension and leveling system works on your coach but, in ours, an '04 Itasca Horizon 36GD with the C-7 330HP CAT, the brakes have nothing to do with the suspension with the exception of the parking brake.
For example, on ours, you can be driving and hitting the brakes all you want and, it will NOT lower the rig. You will simply lower the air pressure to the point that the low air warning buzzer will activate, usually around 65 psi.
Now, what the parking brake has to do with the suspension is, you cannot dump the air, either in the Automatic Leveling Operation or, the manual one, without setting the parking brake. Conversely, if you are parked and, leveled, (of course all the air is out of the bags and, the jacks are down) and then start the engine, then release the parking brake, the HWH computerized leveling system will then begin automatically to start retracting the jacks and, airing up the bags.
So, on yours, what you really need to do, since the air head sales people did not provide you with adequate knowledge and training on the operation of your particular system is, find the books and manuals, and, see EXACTLY HOW YOUR PARTICULAR RIG operates and what's used for leveling, including procedure's. Good luck.
Scott
