Transmission has no park position, being told this normal?

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scottb5

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Joined
May 26, 2007
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14
Yep, I'm a newbie. I'm have been told by a seller that this 1989 Mallard 31 ft. with a 454 does not have a position on the transmission lever for park.
What the heck? He claims that this is normal. I am under the opinion that there is something wrong with the transmission.
Can anyone please verify this for me?
Thanks,
ScottB5
 
While some transmissions such as the Allison 6 speed in our Eagle on a Spartan chassis does not have a park position I would be very much suprised if the 89 Mallard didn't have one.  Since you mentioned it has a 454 I suspect it is on a Chevy or GM chassis.  In any case I would not take the salemans word I would recommend getting the VIN number and contacting the chassis manufacturer.  If you determine the salesman is lying I would walk away since you never know what other lies he is telling you.
 
While there is a Park position on the steering column it doesn't actually lock the gears in Park on the transmission. What it does is activate a break that is around the driveshaft. You can tell this is happening because a BRAKE light will show up on the dash display. To the best of my knowledge all Chev P30 chassis with 454 and 4sp auto transmissions have this.

Woody
 
Ron,

I think only the Chev P30 had it. BTW, I mispelled "brake" too.  :)

Woody
 
Ron & Woody,
Thanks for replying. I am still mystified by this situation. The shift lever has no indicator like a car with P, R, N, D , L etc. I don't recall a brake light on the dashboard/instrument panel. I was so overwhelmed with trying to check everything out, not miss something and the sheer size of the beast, I guess that I had sensory over-load.
It had an industrial looking parking brake that you operate by hand with a knurled knob for taking up slack. It looked just like the kind on aircraft tugs. They were usually powered by Detroit diesels, had automatic transmissions and no actual park detent on the shifter. Seemed kind of normal to me at the time.
It is most definitely a Chevy P 30 chassis, a 1989 Mallard by Fleetwood 31 ft.  I posted questions in the newcomer forum yesterday as I was having a hard time locating a like unit for sale for comparison. NADA did have a tab for it. I got lots of good replies that were helpful.
Last night I sat up in bed thinking maybe that tranny had some serious issues as this is a consumer unit, not an aircraft tow motor and not a diesel. 

I really like the unit, it is a private seller and everything he has told me so far has been accurate and verifiable. I am only out $100 if I back out now. Sure beats the price of a transmission replacement.
Scott
 
I had a 95 P30 with a 3 speed plus overdrive transmission that had a transmission park detent. I believe it was about a 16000 pound chassis.

There were chassis with the autopark feature and no detent but I think they were a higher weight limit chassis - maybe 18000 pound?
 
That "Auto park" system, ,,, Is one of the two RV systems that gave Robin Williams so much "Fun" in the movie RV.  The other being the black tank and we won't talk about that.

Seems when he turned the rig around in front of his house (Rig was longer than street was wide so he backed over a few things) he damaged the auto-park linkage (Trust me, he did not, but then he rented the rig from a company where... I suspect it was damaged long before Robin walked onto the lot)

In any case... It did not work
 
It is true the transmission in the P30 doesn't have a Park position. Most P30's have a Park selector on the shifter, but it actuates a drive shaft brake as Woody describes. I guess in the entry level models they didn't even have that and you just manually set the parking brake. Frankly, given the frequent problems reported with the AutoPark brake system, setting the parking brake manually is probably a good thing.
 
RV Roamer said:
It is true the transmission in the P30 doesn't have a Park position. Most P30's have a Park selector on the shifter, but it actuates a drive shaft brake as Woody describes. I guess in the entry level models they didn't even have that and you just manually set the parking brake. Frankly, given the frequent problems reported with the AutoPark brake system, setting the parking brake manually is probably a good thing.
Click to expand...

My 96 P30 did have the park pawl in the transmission and did not have the autopark feature. As I said above I think the higher GVWR rigs may have had the autopark.
 
Hi,
  our 94 Allegro Bay (GM P30) appears to have this also.  It does have a 'P' on the gear selector but I had noticed that when you are in 'P' the parking brake light always comes on ( I actually thought we had a bad sensor on the parking brake :-[ ).

  What exactly does this mean for me as a user (I have to admit I don't even really know what it means for the tranny to be in park except that that's where I put it when I stop)?  Is there any special precautions we should take?  Should we always use the parking brake when we park (I do use 'wheel wedges' when I stop in RV parks out of habit)?  How is this different then with a tranny that has an actual 'park' (Is it a physical thing where with a real 'park' theres actually a gear/blocker/something in the transmission that prevents it from turning while ours depends on the brake)?

Let us know.  Thanks,
Mike
 
I think the brake around the driveshaft is much more dependable and therefore safer than a Park position which locks a gear in the transmission. When you get service on the coach make sure to ask them to check the brake and adjust if needed.
You should still chock your wheels though. I learned the importance of wheel chocking a couple of years ago. I was boondocking on a fairly steep hill and had to put several 2x12's under my rear levelers to get the coach anywhere near level. My rear levelers bend forward when they retract and any rearward movement of the coach will cause them to retract. I didn't have the coach wheels chocked and you guessed it, they retracted which didn't do any damage but scared the bejesus out of me. Ever since then I chock the wheels, even on level ground.

Woody
 
Woody said:
I think the brake around the driveshaft is much more dependable and therefore safer than a Park position which locks a gear in the transmission. When you get service on the coach make sure to ask them to check the brake and adjust if needed.
Woody
Click to expand...

The motor homes that do have the parking pawl also have the parking brake on the driveshaft, but it is operated manually rather than automatically.
 
The one around the driveshaft is electrically applied, one way or another.  We had one getting ready for a customer.  Had been working fine, test drive, PDI, cleanup etc.  The porter took it to dump the tanks, slight incline, gets out, and away it rolled, across a road and into a ditch! 

Customer still wanted it, we got it fixed, little body work and definitely the drive shaft brake!

 
That AUTO PARK system was one of the things that made the movie RV so good.  His broke too.

I've read of lots of folks having issues with the Auto-park system  I like my good old pedal though I'm not all that pleased with the location of either the pedal or the release depending on the vehicle.  In my car it's the pedal, in the motor home it's the release
 
Update: I bought the unit. There is no P on the auto selector. It shows R N D 2 1. The parking brake is a big drum brake the grabs the drive shaft. It is a strictly manual system. Thanks for all replies.
 
scottb5 said:
Update: I bought the unit. There is no P on the auto selector. It shows R N D 2 1. The parking brake is a big drum brake the grabs the drive shaft. It is a strictly manual system. Thanks for all replies.
Click to expand...

Congratulations on your RV.  I'm sure you will enjoy it.
 
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