my Newmar

[RustyNewmar]

Deleted

[soren]

You have nothing more, or less than a chassis that has been operated in conditions where it was exposed to "brine", which is the anti-icing liquid used by many states in the northern part of the country. Brine is extraordinarily corrosive, and can do this damage in one exposure. The "damage" is cosmetic, prevalent on most newer vehicles exposed to brine treated roads, and is something that many, many RVs experience and pay no attention to. If you want to address the issue, research "Fluid Film". It is made specifically to treat and prevent chassis rust on vehicles. There are customer reports, with pics. on their site, of older vehicles, like Jeep Wranglers, that are operated all winter in northern salt and brine obsessed states. Most of these older untreated vehicles are rot heaps, but using fluid film regularly can keep them looking new underneath.

Good luck, and relax. The coach builder has nothing to so with this, and in our litigation happy country, destroying vehicles with brine, and billions of pounds of salt, is secondary to avoiding lawsuits by texting twits in SUVS. These twits don't do personal responsibility and believe that every road should be clear and provide safe traction 24/7/365, no matter how bad the weather is. Naturally, when they crash, it's somebody else's fault. So the toxic waste (brine and salt) spreading starts well before the weather even hits.

The question of safety and damage to the components underneath would leave any truck mechanic in the north laughing. On a scale of 1-100, with 100 being "sorry, but your frame rotted in half, and the rig is a total loss", you aren't even hitting a one yet. Wire brush whatever bothers you, soak the whole thing in fluid film, and see if you need to reapply the stuff, a year or two from now.

[mdanielson55]

I hope you don't leave it that way. run it up on ramps or bag it up as high as you can. then get you a 2 gallon sprayer and fill it with baby oil yep baby oil smells good on you and will stop the rusting process. if to thick thin adding alcohol I used it for years and no rust

[smlranger]

As noted the coach was likely delivered to dealer during winter months and got road salt/chemicals on the undercarriage. Dealer should have had the undercarriage pressure washed. Confusing that the dealer took photos (they must have noticed this during their inspection. If so, why didn't they deal with it?).

It doesn't look too bad in the pics but perhaps it is worse now that you have had the coach for some time. Not sure what you expect Newmar to do. I would be all over the dealer for obviously knowing about it and see if they would foot the bill to have it treated.

Once treated with a rust converter, I would spray the underbelly with Fluid Film.

[Mote]

Sorry about all that rust on a new and very expensive coach. I'm sure I would concerned if that was my coach. I would make some phone calls to both Newmar and FCCC (chassis mfg?). Since most of the rust is on the chassis FCCC may be able to answer if it's safe to drive and what could be done to sand/paint what's there already to prevent any more.
Emails are nice for traceability and history of the conversations but I've found that I sometimes get a better response if I make a phone call.

Good luck

[larry_cad]

Your new coach was built in Elkhart In. but you don't say where you took delivery.

To me this is significant because the coach would have to be driven from the factory to the delivery point. Also of significance is the time of year. Many states use salt, or brine water to remove ice and snow from highways. While auto manufacturers go to great lengths to minimize the damage to cars from salt exposure, RV manufacturers do nothing, probably because RVs are typically driven in the summer more often than the winter.

From the photos, it looks to me like typical corrosion from salt water being splashed up on the chassis while being driven on highways treated with brine water. Having lived on Ohio all my life, I am very familiar with this problem. If there is a chance your new coach was driven during winter months, this is the problem.

Someone above recommended Rust converter

I am not familiar with this product, but plan to order it and try it. Living in Ohio, and being familiar with this type of rust damage on my own RV, I am going to try it to see if it works. You may want to consider this also.

In all too typical fashion, an RV manufacturer and to a greater extent, the dealer refuses to provide any relief for the problem and you are on your own for the solution.

Good luck.

[RustyNewmar]

The dealer took pictures prior to delivery but DID NOT disclose this to us. Had we known we never would have taken delivery.

[s_N_s]

WOW! That's unbelievable. One question I have. Why would you take delivery of something like that if the dealer disclosed it's condition?
Personally, I would have walked away. Ours is an 04 and not to be funny but after being under it to change the oil about a month ago, the only rust I saw was a little on the two front Bilstien shocks. Sorry for your situation and only hope you can get it resolved. Can't really comment on safety to drive as I'm no engineer in that department. Good Luck.

[Tom_Barb]

RustyNewmar wrote:
Dear fellow RV'ers, here is a link to the pictures from underneath our brand new Mountain Air. Please note most of these shots were taken by the dealer prior to us taking delivery !

https://imgur.com/a/7InJw

After being invited, we traveled to Georgia to attend the open house at National Indoor RV Center. We meet our future sales person Angie Morrell and were treated to a wonderful time wile viewing many motor coaches. We left Georgia with every confidence in our new dealer.

A short time later we traveled to Texas to view and fall in love with a 2017 Newmar Mountain Aire. We agreed to the sale the last week of 2016 with delivery in late April 2017. After owning, servicing and repairing our four prior Newmar units we felt no need to slither under our new 2017.

We found rust early summer 2017. After confirming rust with Newmar, Newmar blamed the dealer. We contacted NIRVC, intending to explain the factory finger pointing. Much to our surprise,NIRVC quickly informed us of, and e-mailed us dozens of pictures of what would have been deal ending rust !!

Our last E-mail contact with Newmar was on January 2nd 2018, sent directly to Mr Miller- President and Mr. Parks- CEO. The only question contained in this E-mail was "The great saddening deal of rust in the suspension and steering components brings questions of safety, can this coach be driven on public roads at freeway speeds ?". To this date, there has never been an e-mail response.

It is our hope, in making this public, no other RV customers will have to endure this great deal of frustration and stress.

Thank you, Paul & Kim.

Am I to gather that your dealer knew about this corrosion prior to selling you the coach? then sold it to you with out informing you.

What am I missing ?

[Tom_Barb]

RustyNewmar wrote:
Dear fellow RV'ers, here is a link to the pictures from underneath our brand new Mountain Air. Please note most of these shots were taken by the dealer prior to us taking delivery !

https://imgur.com/a/7InJw

Thank you, Paul & Kim.

I do not know how much Newmar has to do with how a coach is treated or used after sale. Your pictures show mostly chassis parts that are rusted. It looks like the rust is mostly surface rust, and not a safety issue.
If this were my problem, I would spray the whole chassis with THIS Then keep an eye on it. see more rust, spray it again.

This stuff works well applied with a small garden pump up sprayer.

[sehunter]

Should see them with this.


Clicky

[MitchF150]

I'm sure that rig cost about double of what I paid for my house, so I feel for ya.. No reply to your email either... Just another kick in the nuts...

Even my 15 year old Fleetwood does not have that kind of rust on it (in fact, it has no rust under it), and I live in WA state and we get a little wet at times...

Good luck with it and hope you can get the company to work with ya.. If I was prez of that company, I'd be embarrassed putting out that kind of product..

Mitch

[MountainAir05]

Looks like it had been setting at the beach during a storm, or a lot of driving on salted roads. This is a 2017 right.

[timmac]

{ The great saddening deal of rust in the suspension and steering components brings questions of safety }

Your pics did not load so cant see your issues, also you said rust in these areas sounds like the chassis maker is at fault, what chassis does it have..