Sandy's New Kitchen Gadget and Emergency Air Brakes Problem

Sandy has been wanting an Induction Cooktop for quite some time. She spent hours on the Internet processing the different models, went on forms and contacted several company's by phone before making up her mind on the make and model she wanted. She finally decided on the Duxtop Mosel #8300ST and ordered it from Amazon.

When it arrived last week she was so excited to fire it up and try it. It looks like she made an excellent choice as she said she would put this purchase in the top three things she loves in her kitchen. They are the Cusiniart Griddler, Breville Toaster Oven and now the Duxtop Induction Cooktop. I have to agree with her she has prepared some excellent meals using these items. One of the top things is she just about has eliminated using her propane stove top burners and her Convection Oven.

The biggie in my humble opinion is the reduction of heating up the motorhome when cooking and expense of buying propane so often.
The energy produced by Duxtop Induction Cooktop Model# 8300ST cooktop is directly supplied to the cooking vessel by a magnetic field. Self-adjusting burners detect the size of the cookware base and automatically adjust so that very little energy is wasted. Duxtop Induction Cooktop is fast and safe to use, easy to clean. This versatile indoor/ outdoor cooktop is great for entertaining; use it as a stylish, elegant centerpiece on the table, for outdoor parties and in the kitchen as an extra cooking zone.

The other real advantage of these cooktops is that since the cooktop itself does not get very hot, the cooktop can be set on a counter and just plugged right into the wall and taken anywhere. The portability of the Duxtop 1800 is one of the reasons it is so popular – you can take it with you on vacation or to the office and have an easy to use heat source that just requires you to plug it in the wall. In our case this item gives her much more counter space for preparing meals as she's able to keep the stove top cover down.

Last week when starting out on a short trip to exercise the motorhome, we could not get the coach to roll after releasing the emergency air brake. In fact when Sandy pushed in on the yellow knob we didn't hear that normal push of air when releasing the brake. She increased the rpms of the engine and it didn't budge. She looked at me.....me at her and both said "what's wrong".

Being the non-technical guy I  said to my self  I have no idea why the air brakes did not release. I then thought of my friend Mark he would know but the only problem was its 5am in the morning and I didn't dare want to wake him. So, after some more pondering of the mind I told Sandy to put it in reverse and let's see if that doesn't do the trick. At first nothing happened I then told her to rock the coach back and forth by changing the transmission from forward to reverse. Nothing again happened but when she went to reverse the second time the brakes released and we were able to go forward or backwards without any problems.

I went to Google and put in the problem and low and behold there were many sites to go to about this problem. I found one that kinda explained what might be the problem. This was what I found.....

" hello?? Its a diesel pusher with air brake system
Note to OP I have seen this happen a few times when coach is left in same position over a period of time the brake shoes seize(rust) to the drum.Usually just put it in reverse and forward a couple times to rock it and they break free".

The other thing I thought was we had been sitting for about four weeks and during that period we had lots of rain and that could very well be it. Then I thought maybe the slack adjusters needed adjusting or have they been greased. Probably these have nothing to do with the problem but we have had no further problems since as everything seems to working fine. Who knows..... if it happens again we will have an expert look at the brakes.

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.