[Richard]

It has occurred to me that my experience may not be the norm, and that my views on Newell ownership may not represent the norm. Engineer's motto "In God we trust, everybody else bring data". My data may be quite different from the norm, and I may be proffering advice to others that is not accurate. Afterall, I tend to discourage more than I encourage. 

To that end, I am going to run a couple of very simple polls. I would like for poll participants to have at least one year of ownership under their belt before contributing. 



I don't want to color the responses with my answers just yet.

[Richard]

I will let this run for a couple of weeks. A number of you have already and graciously responded. I will publish the outcomes at the end of the two weeks since you have to participate to see the results and I asked new owners not to contribute.

Feel free to use this thread to comment if the questions spur additional questions or you feel the need to elaborate. My purpose is to help folks who are contemplating the purchase of a used Newell enter into the process with eyes wide open.

[kyleb]

I was planning on converting a mid '50s greyhound bus & had the bus & lots of the parts to go towards the conversion when I found out about the "classic" Newels. I liked the way the mechanicals were laid out - I especially like the extra legroom while driving. 

After working on the old busses, the Newell definitely has easier access.
Compared to the Airstream trailer of the same vintage - the Airstream build quality & durability is good, but is amazing for the Newell.

The system redundancy is nice when "issues" arise 

Regarding the cost of ownership --- "If you are gonna eat like an elephant, you best be prepared to poop like one too" 

[DK on the road]

Richard, further information to be analyzed would be the age of the Coach or or mileage in relation to there vote.

I suggest that, because my wife really only remembers the early years of our new coach we bought in 97'. With our memory recall getting shorter, she thinks I spend too much time and money on this coach. I very rarely had problems in the early years of my Holiday Rambler, but issues really arose after 100k miles and the later years. I'll bet many of your voters have 100K miles and have coaches over 10 years old.

She doesn't want to go back to the lesser quality, lack of redundancy, and smoothness of ride.

[Richard]

Dave,

Those are good points. Right now, I was just seeking a sanity check, and something tangible to provide for prospective owners.

[Richard]

Thank you to those who have taken the time to respond.
As of this morning 30 owners have responded. That is a far better response than I would have predicted. Hopefully this data will help prospective Newell owners enter our Newell world with the right expectations.

[MrE]

When we bought our first motorhome, it was for my wife to live in when she was sent to a job site. She did construction accounting for Morrison Knudson Construction out of Boise Idaho. Before motorhomes, she spent close to a year in Bonners Ferry Idaho on a railroad tunnel project, and Bonners Ferry didn't have a selection of rental properties, so she rented a room from a gal that was really low budget. The heater went out of the house, so they used the oven until that broke. Needless to say, I didn't want that experience to repeat. Her next job assignment was in Missoula Montana for the North Reserve St Project. We bought a cute Pace Arrow gas motorhome that had the Banks power pack on the gas motor. It was adequate, but the queen bed was up against the wall and hard to make, and she had to use the park's laundry facilities. We replaced it with a Fleetwood Bounder that had a queen bed and a built-in washer/dryer. It was fine parked, but really a rough-riding POS on the road, and a 40' sail in the wind. We took her sister's family to Yellowstone during the summer, and the nieces and nephews were being bounced off the bed while trying to watch DVDs in the bedroom.

I felt more research was in order. I found an article on the Internet about motorhome construction, touting semi-monocoque and monocoque construction. By that time I decided to move to a diesel pusher. I looked at some late model Fleetwood pushers and rode in the back during the demo rides. There were squeaks and rattles that would never be corrected because of the frame rail construction. We found a 1973 Newell for sale, and because it had a semi-monocoque construction I decided to give it a test. Riding in the back on the bed, there were no squeaks or rattles. Needless to say, I was quite impressed with the ride!

We bought it, knowing there would be modifications needed. It came with split-bench seats out of an old Lincoln that we replaced with truck air-ride seats on swivels. Replaced the steering column with one that had tilt and telescoping abilities. Other than that, it had already been fixed up really nicely. If we hadn't moved to Seattle for corporate jobs we'd still have it.

   

[BusNit]

Being a relatively new owner and not wanting to cloud the poll because of it, I will say publicly here that in my limited time of ownership that my '93 is a little more than I expected.

[77newell]

I had owned a few coaches when I bought the 77 Newell. It had sat for a few years due injuries inflicted during a bull attack on his farm. I had no idea what I was getting into. I spent the equivalent of a full work year getting it to the point reliability while also using it in those early years. Then we moved up to the 93 coach Forest on this site had owned. Better coach but more than enough stuff to keep me busy even when I had enough to do. Then my wife succumbed to cancer and a little over a year later the current woman entered my life. She wasn’t comfortable with the fuel consumption even though she loved the coach. So we traded down to a 2015 Sprinter conversion that I promptly gutted and rebuilt to better meet our needs. She loves it and the 22mpg. There are few repairs and mods to make so after decades of Newell work I’m bored, I really don’t know what to do with myself. There is nothing quite like contorting around the coach leaving a trail of blood to achieve satisfaction.