01-31-2021, 12:03 PM
Elaine and I purchased our 1982 Newell Classic coach from Fred Hornbacher, the 2nd owner, on March 1, 2008 with the intent of eventually living and traveling full time in her. At the time of purchase our coach had 103,500 miles on her Detroit Diesel 6v92TA. We now have close to 175,000 miles on the odometer, almost 13 years later.
On February 1, 2011 that full time dream became reality. We leased out our home in Ontario, CA for a year, and became camp hosts at Rancho Jurupa Regional Park near Riverside, CA with a one year commitment, before we began to travel full time. Neither of us had yet retired, but by October of that year we both had done so. On February 1, 2012 we began our full time travels, and leased our home out for another year. Our first task was to have a 300 watt solar system installed on our coach courtesy A.M. Solar out of Springfield, OR. They have mobile technicians, and one of them, Mike Sylvester, did the installation at the Escapee Park in Aguanga, CA (near Temecula) where he and his wife wintered each year.
From there we headed to Mesa, AZ to visit Newell owners, and very good friends, Tom and Darlene. We had intended to spend just a few days there, but ended up staying 11 days fixing our air system, the brake, turn and running lights in our 26' American trailer, and installing a new to us Dometic Classic refrigerator courtesy Tom and Darlene....here is a picture of our rig + trailer in front of their home.
From Mesa, AZ we headed south into Texas to visit friends, including Elaine's sister, Phyllis, who lives near Tyler, TX. Just as we arrived there at Phyllis' home our gear driven water pump main seal failed gushing gallons of coolant onto the ground. With Tom's help we found an exact replacement on eBay, had it shipped from California to Tyler, and had it installed in 8 days....I did the removal and installation.
From there we headed further south to Austin, TX to courtesy park at the home of Michael and Georgia Day near Lake Travis. They were the first Newell owners we met back in 2008. We also visited with in-laws Glenn and Laureen Parker, on Elaine's side of the family (Laureen is her sister). Glenn and Laureen bought a 1984 Newell 9 years later and traveled with us this past summer.
We covered some 12,000+ miles in 2012 crossing the country 3 times over that time span. We have slowed down considerably since then averaging fewer than 5,000 miles per year since then. We continue to be amazed at how well our 1982 Newell Classic has held up to full time living over those 10 years, and how well she handles all types of weather from below freezing for months at a time, to a very wet climate here on Coastal Oregon where we are currently finishing up another camp host job.
This 12 months has seen us replacing all of our major appliances.....the Dometic fridge, the Splendide washer/dryer, the water heater (converted to tankless), two TV's, our Dometic toilet, and basement Norcold pull out fridge. The water heater, washer/dryer, and Norcold were over 38 years old when they failed. The fridge was around 14-15 years old, and the toilet was 11 years old.
Over those ten years we have served as camp hosts 8 times. We have worked the sugar beet harvest in Montana, the INDY 500, worked as cashiers at general stores twice (Yellowstone and Grand Canyon), worked Peak Season at Amazon 3 times, and spent a lot of time boondocking in Utah, Arizona and the California desert. We have visited, in our Newell, all lower 48 states. We have flown to Hawaii, and had planned to spend last summer in Alaska traveling in our Newell when the pandemic struck.
Since that initial solar installation of two 150 watt panels we returned to A.M. Solar in 2015 to have two more 160 watt panels installed to give us a total of 620 watts now, which is just about perfect. We may add one more panel, but that decision of for another day.
I could literally write thousands of words about our travels.....in fact I have done just that. I began blogging daily about our full time lifestyle back in October of 2012. That blog can be found at whatsnewell.blogspot.com if you are interested in how our life on the road has evolved over that time. There are many ways to fulltime, and our choices on how that looks are just that.....our choices.....they work for us, but may not work for you. How you do it is totally up to you....there is no right, or wrong. Hope you will check us out.
Many thanks to Michael and Georgia Day, Tom and Darlene McCloud, Richard and Rhonda Entriken, and the many other current and former Newell owners who have befriended us (David and Denise Zonker, Dean Stoops, Pam Regenall, Forest and Cindy Olivier, Tuga Gaidry, Matt and Connie Russo). Our life would not be complete without you in it.
Whenever you log into Newell Gurus I am sure you have noticed the masthead pictures of four Newells of various vintages. Our Newell is the one on the far right. Going from left to right you will see the 1982 Newell Classic owned by Steve Ward (Prarieschooner)....our coaches are 1 serial number apart, and were both delivered to brothers (last name Law) in March of 1982....we call them the sister coaches.
On February 1, 2011 that full time dream became reality. We leased out our home in Ontario, CA for a year, and became camp hosts at Rancho Jurupa Regional Park near Riverside, CA with a one year commitment, before we began to travel full time. Neither of us had yet retired, but by October of that year we both had done so. On February 1, 2012 we began our full time travels, and leased our home out for another year. Our first task was to have a 300 watt solar system installed on our coach courtesy A.M. Solar out of Springfield, OR. They have mobile technicians, and one of them, Mike Sylvester, did the installation at the Escapee Park in Aguanga, CA (near Temecula) where he and his wife wintered each year.
From there we headed to Mesa, AZ to visit Newell owners, and very good friends, Tom and Darlene. We had intended to spend just a few days there, but ended up staying 11 days fixing our air system, the brake, turn and running lights in our 26' American trailer, and installing a new to us Dometic Classic refrigerator courtesy Tom and Darlene....here is a picture of our rig + trailer in front of their home.
From Mesa, AZ we headed south into Texas to visit friends, including Elaine's sister, Phyllis, who lives near Tyler, TX. Just as we arrived there at Phyllis' home our gear driven water pump main seal failed gushing gallons of coolant onto the ground. With Tom's help we found an exact replacement on eBay, had it shipped from California to Tyler, and had it installed in 8 days....I did the removal and installation.
From there we headed further south to Austin, TX to courtesy park at the home of Michael and Georgia Day near Lake Travis. They were the first Newell owners we met back in 2008. We also visited with in-laws Glenn and Laureen Parker, on Elaine's side of the family (Laureen is her sister). Glenn and Laureen bought a 1984 Newell 9 years later and traveled with us this past summer.
We covered some 12,000+ miles in 2012 crossing the country 3 times over that time span. We have slowed down considerably since then averaging fewer than 5,000 miles per year since then. We continue to be amazed at how well our 1982 Newell Classic has held up to full time living over those 10 years, and how well she handles all types of weather from below freezing for months at a time, to a very wet climate here on Coastal Oregon where we are currently finishing up another camp host job.
This 12 months has seen us replacing all of our major appliances.....the Dometic fridge, the Splendide washer/dryer, the water heater (converted to tankless), two TV's, our Dometic toilet, and basement Norcold pull out fridge. The water heater, washer/dryer, and Norcold were over 38 years old when they failed. The fridge was around 14-15 years old, and the toilet was 11 years old.
Over those ten years we have served as camp hosts 8 times. We have worked the sugar beet harvest in Montana, the INDY 500, worked as cashiers at general stores twice (Yellowstone and Grand Canyon), worked Peak Season at Amazon 3 times, and spent a lot of time boondocking in Utah, Arizona and the California desert. We have visited, in our Newell, all lower 48 states. We have flown to Hawaii, and had planned to spend last summer in Alaska traveling in our Newell when the pandemic struck.
Since that initial solar installation of two 150 watt panels we returned to A.M. Solar in 2015 to have two more 160 watt panels installed to give us a total of 620 watts now, which is just about perfect. We may add one more panel, but that decision of for another day.
I could literally write thousands of words about our travels.....in fact I have done just that. I began blogging daily about our full time lifestyle back in October of 2012. That blog can be found at whatsnewell.blogspot.com if you are interested in how our life on the road has evolved over that time. There are many ways to fulltime, and our choices on how that looks are just that.....our choices.....they work for us, but may not work for you. How you do it is totally up to you....there is no right, or wrong. Hope you will check us out.
Many thanks to Michael and Georgia Day, Tom and Darlene McCloud, Richard and Rhonda Entriken, and the many other current and former Newell owners who have befriended us (David and Denise Zonker, Dean Stoops, Pam Regenall, Forest and Cindy Olivier, Tuga Gaidry, Matt and Connie Russo). Our life would not be complete without you in it.
Whenever you log into Newell Gurus I am sure you have noticed the masthead pictures of four Newells of various vintages. Our Newell is the one on the far right. Going from left to right you will see the 1982 Newell Classic owned by Steve Ward (Prarieschooner)....our coaches are 1 serial number apart, and were both delivered to brothers (last name Law) in March of 1982....we call them the sister coaches.
Clarke and Elaine Hockwald
1982 Newell Classic, 36', 6V92 TA
2001 VW Beetle Turbo
Cannondale Tandem
Cannondale Bad Boy
Haibike SDURO MTB
http://whatsnewell.blogspot.com
