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Old 01-19-2019, 10:36 AM   #1
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Seneca questions

Hi there, I am new here. Been creeping in the back ground and studying about the Seneca. We are looking to switch from a diesel pusher to a Super C. Couple of questions. What year did the Seneca get air brakes? I have read several different years. What year did they switch to the 3000 series Allison trans? For those of you that have a air ride/ hydralic brakes or had that setup and now have a newer unit with air brakes do you wish you had air brakes?
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Old 01-19-2019, 10:53 AM   #2
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Try the Jayco web site

If you go to the Jayco web site and search for archives they have sales brochures and manuals for many, many years back. They are a wealth of information as long as you're not looking for the UVW, GCVW or the CCC, which of course is what I was looking for. I can tell you that you don't need to look back further than 2008 because that was still on the Chevy Kodiak (C5500) chassis and has hydraulic brakes and the Allison 1,000 transmission. Happy hunting.
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Old 01-19-2019, 11:34 AM   #3
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air brakes 2016
allison 3000 transmission 2018.5
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Old 01-19-2019, 12:41 PM   #4
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I should have mentioned that we are looking 2012 and newer.. Also meant to ask about engine brake, do all of the Freightliner chassis coaches have engine brakes? Looking at Senecas online for sale I have seen several 2014 and 2015 with a big yellow airbrake button on the dash, but then I have read that they didn't have air brakes untill 2016.
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Old 01-19-2019, 12:47 PM   #5
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Originally Posted by jtad View Post
Hi there, I am new here. Been creeping in the back ground and studying about the Seneca. We are looking to switch from a diesel pusher to a Super C. Couple of questions. What year did the Seneca get air brakes? I have read several different years. What year did they switch to the 3000 series Allison trans? For those of you that have a air ride/ hydralic brakes or had that setup and now have a newer unit with air brakes do you wish you had air brakes?
We have a 2015 FK model. It has:
Hydraulic Service Brakes
Air Parking Brakes
Air suspension. Rear Axle only..

I've spent 40 years in IT for a large Retail / logistics - Transportation company, so have seen most everything and been in almost every cab in production (except the Volvo's).

I have to assume that the DP you are moving away from already has Air-Brakes, you already know the pre-trip for Air Systems, Air brakes along with Slack Adjustment. That for some is intimidating (who don't have a CDL), especially when the DW shares some seat time. But for you, you should already have this critical knowledge.

Our Seneca has a 33,000# GCWR with the Hydraulic brake setup, We tow a 10,000# trailer the majority of the time and run over the scale right at maximum legal weight. Our trailer has Surge Brakes on both axles, our stopping capabilities are much better than anything I can remember driving. including some class-8 rigs.
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Old 01-19-2019, 01:09 PM   #6
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For those of you that have a air ride/ hydralic brakes or had that setup and now have a newer unit with air brakes do you wish you had air brakes?
The 2012 Freightliner-based Senecas had rear leaf springs, the rear air suspension known as "Airliner" came to the Senecas in the 2013 examples. The 2012 thru the 2015 models have hydraulically-boosted all-wheel hydraulic disc brakes with ABS. I have been very satisfied with my juice brakes, never felt they were deficient in any respect. While I have not upgraded to a newer Seneca with air brakes I did drive air brake-equipped fire trucks for over 30 years, so I do have a basis for comparison.

The Senecas with hydraulic brakes have an air-activated driveline parking brake that is controlled from the yellow dash valve. Air brake-equipped Senecas have traditional "spring brakes" on the rear axle that are the parking brake. The spring brakes are also controlled by the yellow dash valve.

With the air brakes it will be important for owners to ensure their automatic slack adjusters remain functional in order to keep the brakes adjusted and working properly. Although most RV owners will never accumulate the kind of miles commercial trucks do, frozen slack adjusters are not unheard of especially if driven in conditions where the roads are salted. Another concern I have regarding the 2016-2018 Seneca air brakes is Jayco's decision to not install air dryers (dehydrators), especially if one spends any time in humid climates. The Senecas built on the S2RV chassis do have a factory-installed air dryer.
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Old 01-19-2019, 01:16 PM   #7
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I should have mentioned that we are looking 2012 and newer.. Also meant to ask about engine brake, do all of the Freightliner chassis coaches have engine brakes?
The newer Senecas do all have an exhaust brake, it controls the turbocharger vanes increasing backpressure to accomplish engine braking. Works fairly well. They are not Jake (Jacobs) brakes which work differently, but many drivers use the terms interchangeably.

The Seneca exhaust brake does have a dash switch which can disable the exhaust brake.
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Old 01-19-2019, 01:19 PM   #8
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The 2005-2010 Seneca chassis "first generation" was built by Chevrolet and did not include air brakes but it was equipped with the Allison 1000 transmission.

For more information join the Seneca first generation Social Group here;

https://www.jaycoowners.com/forums/g...on+owners.html

P.S. The "first generation" was equipped with the Duramax diesel engine and an exhaust brake.
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Old 01-19-2019, 01:35 PM   #9
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Thanks for the replies.. I do have a pretty good background with air brakes. I was an over the road truck driver and drove tour buses. And have been a firefighter for the past 15 years. The more I looking into the these Frieghterliner chassis I learn a ton.. I have no idea they made a juice brake setup with air brake parking brake.. What about engine brakes? Slopoke I have read several of your post about the power of these 6.7's I got real hung up on buying a Dynamax or Jayco Embark for the 8.3, that's what I have now and just cant wrap my head around that 6.7 gets up and down grades like my 8.3.. I really don't know why I'm so hung up on it, I'm really not in a big hurry... Just a guy thing I guess, never enough power..lol We pull our Jeep Wrangler and have a Cruiselift motorcycle lift that with carry a HD StreetGlide on.
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Old 01-19-2019, 01:58 PM   #10
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Thanks for the replies.. I do have a pretty good background with air brakes. I was an over the road truck driver and drove tour buses. And have been a firefighter for the past 15 years. The more I looking into the these Frieghterliner chassis I learn a ton.. I have no idea they made a juice brake setup with air brake parking brake.. What about engine brakes? Slopoke I have read several of your post about the power of these 6.7's I got real hung up on buying a Dynamax or Jayco Embark for the 8.3, that's what I have now and just cant wrap my head around that 6.7 gets up and down grades like my 8.3.. I really don't know why I'm so hung up on it, I'm really not in a big hurry... Just a guy thing I guess, never enough power..lol We pull our Jeep Wrangler and have a Cruiselift motorcycle lift that with carry a HD StreetGlide on.
While I could always wish for more power, I am satisfied with the performance of my Seneca. On the steeper grades the cars pass me, but I usually pass the loaded semi trucks. And that is with my full 80 gallon water tank and towing my 5,000 lb Explorer. Being able to maintain momentum helps a lot. End up obstructed on a grade and you usually can't get back to the speed limit until you crest the hill.

I formerly owned two Ford Class C units, one with a 460 V-8 and the last with the 6.8L V-10. They both ran well, but my Seneca pulls better than they did and gets better fuel mileage.
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Old 01-19-2019, 02:36 PM   #11
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RobbbyR sums it up... Our experience is the same.

We get a LOT of mountain pass travels since we live in the Salt Lake valley, We have run our Seneca (with fully loaded trailer) over all of these passes.
Parleys I-80
Daniels Summit US-40
Huntington Summit UT-31 (summer only)
San Rafael I-70
Soldier Summit US-6
Wolf Creek Pass UT-35 (summer only)
Uinta Pass US-191

Since you have experience in a Class-8, then you know exactly what it is like on 8% and weighing 80,000#. We cant keep up with rigs hauling sail-boat fuel, but everything else we are running with or passing. And even though I am watching the gauge closely, we never ever worry about temperature having the cooling system up front. (look at our scale tickets in the previous post)

We bought ours used with 9k miles. We have had a few things worked on since buying it, but love it!
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Old 01-19-2019, 03:50 PM   #12
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Thanks for all the feedback..
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Old 01-19-2019, 04:52 PM   #13
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One negative in my book with the air system is its inherent complexity and opportunities to fail (leak). Today we picked up our 2016 Seneca after having the parking brake valve replaced as well as a pressure switch/sender in the engine bay that developed a leak. This leak affected our primary circuit and caused a 15 psi leak down below the 100 psi compressor set point every 10 seconds. The compressor was able to keep up with the leak so we were able to drive it in for service. I don’t know if the faulty parking brake valve caused the sender leak. I will add a spare sender to our toolkit.

We do love our air ride seats a lot though. I think that was a 2015/2016 feature only.
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Old 01-19-2019, 05:12 PM   #14
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And even though I am watching the gauge closely, we never ever worry about temperature having the cooling system up front.

But you sure know when the cooling fan locks up
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Old 01-19-2019, 07:36 PM   #15
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We love that Topaz paint... Might have to save a few extra pennies for the 2016..
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Old 01-19-2019, 09:27 PM   #16
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We do love our air ride seats a lot though. I think that was a 2015/2016 feature only.
Our "Late model Year 2015" does not have the Air-ride seats, Ours came with Flex-Steel - 8 way electiric adjustable seats. We don't have any complaints about them when we run for 8 hours in the seat at a time. That is MY limit.


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But you sure know when the cooling fan locks up
Sure do... and it is a very comforting sound when climbing the 10% section on US-191 when it is 100F outside.

Our Seneca has given us a whole new level of confidence when running fully loaded at max GCWR (33k) in really hot weather. Yes, we admit that we fire up the Genny and run both roof-top AC units along with the Freightliner AC as we travel across New Mexico, Arizona and Texas in the summer heat, but knowing that even with the steepest mountain passes, that we don't need to stop anywhere along the route to cool down is "Priceless"
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Old 01-20-2019, 09:47 AM   #17
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Interesting topic and views, we are also considering a Seneca. I wondering if there is any insight on the O/D switch. Wondering which years had them and if the people without the O/D switch wished they did or is it a non issue?

Thanks Bruce
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Old 01-20-2019, 09:53 AM   #18
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Although Jayco leads sales in the Super C segment, shoppers would be well served to check out the Renegade and Dynamax lineups before deciding. It was the Dynamax that first got us interested in these special rigs.
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Old 01-20-2019, 12:12 PM   #19
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From my knowledge of this product, the biggest change that people have complained about was the rear suspension which, as Rob says, was changed in 2013. Additionally, they went up in tire size to the 22.5’s around the same time.

2015 had cabinets in the bathroom instead of the windows (on a TS) and a larger kitchen cabinet on an FK. Not certain when frameless windows came in but the 2015 has them.

2016 the windows are reported to be 30% larger (according to Jayco). They added the very nice under countertop accent lights. They also introduced for that year only the air ride and hested seats. Most on here who have them love them; only thing was they are gray regardless of interior color. According to Jayco this was an expensive upgrade for them and they were very puzzled when reception was low. You saw an induction cook top this model year and mid year saw an upgrade to the gen three Giarard tankless hot water heater. This is the year the mascerator was added. I think this is the year the overdrive lock out was deleted.

2017 saw the gorgeous painted slides to match the body. They returned to the gas range and giarard gen 3 remained. Those painted side walls were amazing!!

2018 was got the Truma (which NEEDS upgrading to comfort if you plan on cold weather camping), added the Garmin nav (mine died!), lost the painted slide walls, and the cabinets are I little different. As others have stated there is the mid year change to the SRV2 chassis.

After MarkS pointed us in the direction of the transmission reprogram I have no problem with power even towing a 6000 lb trailer operating in western PA and mountains of WV/VA.

It took me a long time to pull the trigger too; good luck in your search.
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Old 01-20-2019, 12:59 PM   #20
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The slide walls were also painted to match body graphics on the 2016’s (ours are) along with the 5-stage Topaz paint option.
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