[cm1009]

Would it be wiser to purchase a 2012-2015 Newell Coach, or a newer 2022 Foretravel? I’m not familiar with maintenance issues that can arise with an older (2012-15) Newell.  Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks!

[Richard]

There is an entire section on this forum discussing things to consider when buying a used Newell. It’s not a short read, but it may be a good investment of time before you spend a dime on any motorhome.

To help you the most, we need to know a little about you such as previous experience with motorhomes, airplanes, or boats. Would you say you had a mechanical or electrical background?

How do you plan to use the coach? Lots of destinations, or stay a while in different places?

High end motorhomes are closer to the space shuttle than they are to a Honda. They require lots of attention and maintenance. The fancier the systems, the more love they require.

[hypoxia]

There is a huge difference, IMHO, the earlier Foretravel had their own chassis, 20KW generator, 4 A/C units, etc., while the newer ones have none of that.  Those were factors in our decision.

[pairodice]

Aren’t the new Foretravel frames made by Spartan or similar? Foretravel no longer makes their own frame/chassis? We had 3 FTs and loved them all but I would not trade our Newell for one at all - we had fiberglass delam problems with each one, even the 4-year old one… Love our Newell

[Doug Musick]

I looked for two years before buying our Newell.  We were considering Newell, Liberty, Marathon, and Foretravel (I limited my search to companies still in business),  I toured the Newell and Foretravel factories.  I made a few trips to look at coaches for sale (TX, MI, OK, KS, UT, IA).  Looking was a lot of fun.  We chose a Newell and have been happy with it.  They all had there pros and cons.  One thing that really stood out to me was the size of and view out of the Newell windows.  The Prevost conversions were good too.  I'm tall, and the smaller, lower set windows on all the other brands we looked at including Foretravel, Newmar, Tiffon and Integra severely limited my views, and also had much less headroom.  I know, I know my window fetish is purely an aesthetic thing,, but I never knew I had it until I stepped into a Newell.  Of course at night with the lights on and curtains open that means the neighbors get a better show too!