Quality Class A makers

Sorry to read about your bad luck with the Newmar coach you had Rodz. My friend had lots of problems with his DutchStar. He was so embarrassed with his coach he did not even want anybody to visit inside his coach. I really felt bad for him being that these coaches cost so much money. That is why I laugh when I read these posts by the same fellows telling everybody that their coach is the best and so on etc etc. I know you can get a bad coach from any company. They are mechanical and they do break. Newmar does make some beautiful coaches, but some are a piece of trash.

As far as quality of materials and some do not understand this. There are different levels of coach lines. You have entry level which will cost considerably less, so you are not going to have the amenities of the flag ship coach line which would have the luxury items. So naturally it will cost you much more.

Chassis not much difference on diesel pushers. They will out last your life span if you take care of them.

Bruce Brown wrote:
Rodz,
I always hate hearing stuff like this. We all spend way too much $$$ for ANY of them not to preform as they should.

Was your more construction related, components (A/C, Fridge, Water pump, etc) or chassis?

Just wondering.

First time out the jacks wouldn't retract. Needed the heat one night as temp got into the low 50's. Dry camped and went to bed at 10 pm. Woke up at 2:30 with no heat. The batteries were down to 9 volts. Won't last 3 hrs with nothing on but the furnace. Noticed a breeze and wind noise from a side window, the frame was installed wrong and the glass overlapped the frame and didn't sit in the weather strip channel. A storage door came open while driving, it was so far out of adjustment that I couldn't get it to close. I had to actually bend the latch because there wasn't enough adjustment. It was in the shop for 2 months for electrical gremlins. The first time I emptied the rear black tank, I removed the cap and the whole tank unloaded on everything including me. The gate valve was glued in the partially open position. I turned the water valve to fill the tank and the handle fell off. Headed out for a trip and about 30 miles into it, a guy flagged me to pull over. The right tail lamp assembly fell out and was swinging around on the harness and beat the rear body panel real good. Tore up the paint and damaged the stainless trim. The electrical gremlins continued. After a night dry camping (no furnace this time) the batteries were dead in the morning and I couldn't put the slides in. I kept messing with it until I got the generator started to get things charged up enough to retract the slides. We stopped at a restaurant and when we came out the batteries were very low and barely got the steps in. Stopped for gas, this time everything was dead and I couldn't get the generator started or get the steps in. I was so fed up with it that I drove home with the steps over half way out not caring at that point if I tore them off or not. When I got home I plugged it into shore power and one of the batteries blew up. Took the whole side out it. I won't even get into all the little things that went wrong. We had it set up to drop it off in the fall and leave it until it was fixed. By this time we hated it so bad we just wanted it gone. I will say the new Ford chassis is very good on ride and handling even in strong cross winds and it pulls the hills better than any of my previous DP's, 300 hp Cummins, 350 hp Cat and 350 hp Cummins and we really liked the floor plan with the bath and a half. It's all about poor workmanship. None of those things should have happened and wouldn't if there was a quality control program in place with better educated management.

Effy wrote:


One thing is certain, you ask for folks on here to tell you the best quality brand - 99% of the time the advice will be what they own.

LOL ain't that the truth :B Same happens over in the tow vehicle section. As far as campers, most components are from outside vendors which many share the same components right down to the frame, engines and transmissions. A faucet leaks, good grief fix it be on your way. So you got a unit made on Friday or Monday :W

Bottom line. Any motorhome can have problems. However, when a manufacturer keeps building motorhomes with the same problems and no fix, that's serious. Tiffin has done that.

We had excellent workmanship on our Newmar...absolutely no complaints. That's why we bought one. We talked to many satisfied owners in campgrounds before purchasing it.

One thing about Newmar...all levels are built on the same production line so they all receive the same workmanship. Not all components are the same but the worker care is the same. Even with this, there can be problems. Builds are not perfect and components/chassis, etc. do fail. It's not always the manufacturer's fault. Many outside companies supply various parts.

Rodz,
I always hate hearing stuff like this. We all spend way too much $$$ for ANY of them not to preform as they should.

Was your more construction related, components (A/C, Fridge, Water pump, etc) or chassis?

Just wondering.

Cloud Dancer wrote:
I could tell you many design deficiencies and poor-quality construction items on MY particular model. I strongly suspect that Newmar has learned a great deal since 2003 (when they built mine).

Apparently not the case. My 2015 Canyon Star was a disaster.

As I have mentioned before that my friend and I bought coaches pretty close together. I bought the Scenic Cruiser by Gulf Stream and he bought a 2002 Newmar DutchStar. He had lots of problems with his. The cabinets kept falling off the walls. Had some leaks all the time. The house part was poorly constructed. The chassis was OK, no problem, but the house part was a nightmare. So they got rid of it an bought another coach. This time he went with an American coach and he loves it.

So that is why I always caution people on the market for an RV that they can get a bad coach with any brand. And at the same time you can get a good coach on companies who have had bad customer service like Gulf Stream used to be with some owners. I never had problems with them, but some did.

My coach now has 61K miles and knock on wood I really can not complain about this Gulf Stream coach. I did have a leak on my exhaust manifold, but that is the chassis part. The house part has been great. Solid walnut cabinets put together by Amish workers at the Napannee plant. And no lamination.

Finally....we agree!

Ron

Because I'm the only one who has done the maintenance and repairs on my Newmar Dutch Star, I could tell you many design deficiencies and poor-quality construction items on MY particular model. I special ordered it, and picked it up at the factory. I have spent many hours fixing many things on MY motorhome.
Previously, I had a Winnebago Vectra, a Tiffin Allegro, and 3 others. I could also tell you about those.
I strongly suspect that Newmar has learned a great deal since 2003 (when they built mine). Also, I'm glad they got rid of their 3 year bumper-to-bumper warranty, because it sure didn't work for me.
I don't recommend any of them, because I have no first hand knowledge on the ones that are now available. I only know which one I would buy next.

lanerd wrote:
Basically, most coaches are pretty much built alike with similar appliances, engines/trans, appointments.

Well...yes and no.

I certainly agree the major components are the same, they all pretty much use the same suppliers, but the construction methods vary a bunch.

Most builders use a laminate type construction, a few use hung wall construction.

With hung wall the structure is built into the framing, then the sidewalls are attached. With laminate construction the glue used in the laminate process is what holds the structure together. When the glue goes bad, as it often does, delamination starts.

A few years ago I found this picture of a DP structure on one builders web site (I don't remember which one) as they were touting their laminate construction. Does this look like much "structure" to you? They're relying on glue, fiberglass, and wall paneling to hold this thing together.



Now take a look at this hung wall design. Notice the studs on 16" centers and the headers. (This one happens to be an Entegra I believe)



We've owned both types, I've worked on both (my TT is a real basic hung wall design, time consuming but easy to fix). I won't be owning another laminated unit of any kind. I've seen way too many go bad.