New 2021 37L owner, 2 questions

[jeffgladd]

First time poster, long time reader of this board. Traded in our 2008 Winnebago for the new 37L Seneca to upgrade every aspect of RV life we could imagine! While it is still at the dealer to install vented W/D and Truma Comfort Plus on demand water heater, I'm trying to get as many aspects covered before driving off the lot. After following you guys for awhile, I have two main quesitons:

1. Do I need to have them look at the DEF lines closely? I have read there were some issues in the past and wonder if that has been resolved in recent models. What do I need to investigate on the DEF to be proactive?

2. I have seen a number of threads about rear airbags as it relates to air brakes (I think) and the leveling system. Is the standard setup going to be just fine for me most likely or is there a "must upgrade" option I should consider?

Thanks for your expertise and passion gang, excited to officially join the club this spring and spend weekends in the Seneca!

[Robbbyr]

Originally Posted by jeffgladd

First time poster, long time reader of this board. Traded in our 2008 Winnebago for the new 37L Seneca to upgrade every aspect of RV life we could imagine! While it is still at the dealer to install vented W/D and Truma Comfort Plus on demand water heater, I'm trying to get as many aspects covered before driving off the lot. After following you guys for awhile, I have two main quesitons:

1. Do I need to have them look at the DEF lines closely? I have read there were some issues in the past and wonder if that has been resolved in recent models. What do I need to investigate on the DEF to be proactive?

2. I have seen a number of threads about rear airbags as it relates to air brakes (I think) and the leveling system. Is the standard setup going to be just fine for me most likely or is there a "must upgrade" option I should consider?

Thanks for your expertise and passion gang, excited to officially join the club this spring and spend weekends in the Seneca!

I have a 2014 on the M2 chassis, the DEF issue seems to be on the newer S2RV chassis built 2018.5 - 2019. Not sure what actual year chassis your unit would have or whether yours might be affected. Others with newer units might have a better idea about that.

The rear suspensions are the same on the M2 and S2RV models except yours has a rear sway bar. The "upgrade" a number of us has done is to install air dump valves on the lines to the air springs. That lowers the rear end for leveling and can help keep the front end from lifting the tires off the ground. The type of brakes doesn't factor in here, the air dump valves work on either the newer air brake-equipped units or the earlier hydraulic disc brakes like I have.

[Rustynuts]

Rob beat me to it and covered it but I will add, with the history of the S2 chassis related to DEF, I personally would check the coolant lines to make sure they are correct. Have seen a report or two of 2020 units having them wrong when Freightliner says it’s a very small percentage of early chassis. Having them checked would be a Freightliner item, not Jayco and if nothing is wrong, they might charge you to check them, depends on the dealer.

[SloPoke]

Originally Posted by jeffgladd

First time poster, long time reader of this board. Traded in our 2008 Winnebago for the new 37L Seneca to upgrade every aspect of RV life we could imagine! While it is still at the dealer to install vented W/D and Truma Comfort Plus on demand water heater, I'm trying to get as many aspects covered before driving off the lot. After following you guys for awhile, I have two main quesitons:

1. Do I need to have them look at the DEF lines closely? I have read there were some issues in the past and wonder if that has been resolved in recent models. What do I need to investigate on the DEF to be proactive?

2. I have seen a number of threads about rear airbags as it relates to air brakes (I think) and the leveling system. Is the standard setup going to be just fine for me most likely or is there a "must upgrade" option I should consider?

Thanks for your expertise and passion gang, excited to officially join the club this spring and spend weekends in the Seneca!

Welcome to the Seneca family... As I read your post, you have the new model / floorplan with the huge slide on one side. Congrats with your new rig... lots to learn, but since you have been following the JOF, you have learned a lot from those who contribute regularly like Rusty and Robbbbbbbbby and a lot of others.

Originally Posted by Robbbyr

The rear suspensions are the same on the M2 and S2RV models except yours has a rear sway bar. The "upgrade" a number of us has done is to install air dump valves on the lines to the air springs. That lowers the rear end for leveling and can help keep the front end from lifting the tires off the ground. The type of brakes doesn't factor in here, the air dump valves work on either the newer air brake-equipped units or the earlier hydraulic disc brakes like I have.

For your model, with the forward door, I suspect that you will be looking at this soon... for us with the entry door next to the rear wheels, we don't have the same impact as our steps are not up in the air so often.

Originally Posted by Rustynuts

Rob beat me to it and covered it but I will add, with the history of the S2 chassis related to DEF, I personally would check the coolant lines to make sure they are correct. Have seen a report or two of 2020 units having them wrong when Freightliner says it’s a very small percentage of early chassis. Having them checked would be a Freightliner item, not Jayco and if nothing is wrong, they might charge you to check them, depends on the dealer.

Since we have the M2 chassis... we never were impacted, but there were a lot of units built with the problem, and it seems to be more prevalent in the hot summer months and very cold winter months.

Sometimes having the peace-of-mind knowing that it is not a problem lurking at the next corner and causing a problem when you hit hot temperatures.. it is worth checking in advance.

[speed300]

I've got a 2021 37L. I've put 5k miles on it and no issues with drive train, nor have I heard of any DEF related issues on 21's. I believe they have it sorted.

For leveling, you'll find that auto level function doesn't drain the rear airbags so you'll somewhat regularly end up with your front wheels higher than you want them. On level sites this is not an issue, but about half the time I end up raising the rear to get some air out of the bags, then dropping the rear until it's as low as it can be while still having the stabilizers down and then leveling the rest of the coach. It's not as convenient, but it's not hard either. I use the Equalizer app on my phone.

[jeffgladd]

Thanks for all of the help! Clearest answers to my questions I could have hoped for!

So @speed300 you can just hear more air release when you raise the back end and then you are able to manually bring things down lower a bit? I guess if that happens often it could justify putting the release valves in some write about.

Thanks again!

[speed300]

Originally Posted by jeffgladd

Thanks for all of the help! Clearest answers to my questions I could have hoped for!

So @speed300 you can just hear more air release when you raise the back end and then you are able to manually bring things down lower a bit? I guess if that happens often it could justify putting the release valves in some write about.

Thanks again!

Yeah, raise the rear and you’ll hear it dump and then you can drop the rear lower than when you began leveling it which will let you level the whole coach but at a lower altitude if that makes sense.

[EA37TS]

Originally Posted by jeffgladd

Thanks for all of the help! Clearest answers to my questions I could have hoped for!

So @speed300 you can just hear more air release when you raise the back end and then you are able to manually bring things down lower a bit? I guess if that happens often it could justify putting the release valves in some write about.

Thanks again!

What I do on my 2020 37TS is to manually raise the rear only for a few minutes to dump some air and then lower the rear. I will do this twice and then run the auto level. Takes a few extra minutes for setting up but no big deal. In fact I can do this through the app while I am connecting electric, water and sewer.

Adding the dump valves is about midway down on my modifications list.