Newmar Ventana

Bruce Brown wrote:

lanerd wrote:
Have you compared the 43 Ventana to the 42 Phaeton? We did and found the Phaeton much more coach for about the same $$.

Ron

You needed to look deeper. :W

One is laminated, and will at some point delaminate, the other isn't and won't.Mine hasn't and I haven't heard of any other Tiffin doing so.

One has Comfort Drive, the other doesn't.Don't need it. My tag axle Phaeton drives easily and straight down the road...wind or no wind. I can easily drive it with one finger. After doing over 35,000 miles with Comfort Drive I wouldn't be without it. Good for you. I'm sure after 36K miles, I will say the same. Driving home last Sunday in monsoon conditions just reaffirmed my feelings on Comfort Drive.

I know a lot of people love their Tiffins, heck I even bought into the hype and recommended on to my parents. I'd never do that again. :B I was working on that thing constantly, even fixing the stuff Red Bay had supposedly fixed when, like so many others, theirs too made the trip back. Friends had an Allegro Bus, same deal. Cracked sidewalls and endless trips to Red Bay. They gave up and sold theirs. I passed another Allegro Bus on the Interstate a few weeks back, another one with a big crack coming at the rear slide opening. Like any other brand, there will be a few that come out of the factory that should have been turned into junk. Just today, there was a post of a person who had nothing but trouble with his MADP.

As to the OPs question on the Ventanna, nice coach. As mentioned above, hung wall construction, Not proven to be ant better than lamination.Comfort Drive, As far as I (and others I have talked to) more of a sales gimmick than any thing else. and Newmar quality. No better and probably no worse than Tiffin quality. Check the recalls....I see more for Newmars than I do for Tiffins. As always, I would suggest walking through your local campground and look at the units that are 10-15 years old. They look good when they're new. Look at the older ones and see which ones stand the test of time.

We camped last weekend with friends with a 2002 Dutch Star that I believe has over 100,000 miles on it now. It looks as good today as the day it left Newmar. If you take good care of your coach, even a 99 Itasca will look good as my friends does.

Yes, I'm biased, Yes, you are.as we've owned (3) new Newmars and they've all been great. That's great. Good to hear.My own personal dealing with other builds haven't been so good.Thats just you.

Obviously, those with a certain brand will laude that brand unless they get a bad one. Even tho we hear a lot of complaints here on this and other rv forums, the biggest percentage of people will not come on here and just post positive ones. I've had several different rv's, all different brand/models and I gotta say I've been lucky in that all of them have been good ones and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them. Our choice of the Phaeton over the Ventana was personal, not necessarily because it was a better coach. I just got more bang for the buck and there hasn't been a day that I've regretted that decision....just as I'm sure that Bruce wouldn't either.

Ron