[Richard]

Denie and Lisa,

You have gotten some excellent insight from the responders. If I may build on their comments and yours.

Your contractor background will serve you well. The happiest Newell owners are ones who take responsibility to understand the complex and intertwined systems and to repair and maintain them. The unhappiest owners are ones who do not understand the inner workings, and depend upon paying a tech 150 an hour to learn how to repair the coach. Keep in mind, that the experience level in the field between a Seneca on a F450 platform and a Newell on a custom chassis will be night and day.

Others have said this, so I will use different words. Any Newell is closer to the space shuttle than it is to a Honda. The systems will be more complex than the ones on your Seneca. Consequently, they will require more TLC to function properly. Let me illustrate with a short example. To fill the fresh water tank on your Seneca, you simply attached a hose to the fresh water fill or opened a valve if hooked to city water. On a Newell of the era you seek, there is an auto fill system that fills the tank with a push of the button. There are two electrically actuated valves and a sensor system needed to make that happen. If those valves get a piece of grit in them, they can malfunction.

You would be wise to budget 10k per year in maintaining the coach, possibly much more than that in the first year depending upon the condition of the coach you purchase. The Newells are very sophisticated creatures and require upkeep if you use them. The original build quality is fantastic, but you will be looking at a rig that is ten years out of the factory. The systems WILL require ongoing maintenance. The more of the maintenance that you handle the happier you and your pocketbook will be.

This forum will do it’s best to help any owner, and there is a broad experience base present. Learn to use the search engine, it is your friend. The mothership in Miami is your friend. I suggest you visit the factory.

I have owned a Newell for 15 yrs and have done all my own work. I find it to be a great hobby for keeping me mentally and physically engaged. Most of the friends I have in my retirement chapter of life, I have met through this forum. Their friendship has little to do with a piece of iron with a Newell logo on it. There is genuinely good people who hang out here.

I work on the coach in the winter, so that we can use it six months in the summer. We recently returned from the summer’s trip to Alaska. I had one problem, my throttle position sensor failed. Although we did not travel with a caravan ( no one can stand to spend that much time with me), we did run across the same people over and over for the trip up the Alcan Hwy, and into Alaska. I saw one new London Aire with a crippling electrical issue on a high end solar/lithium install, I saw one brand new Entegra with a leaking radiator, and I saw one new Tiffin with slides that would not deploy. The moral of that story was don’t take a new coach to Alaska ! At least until you have time to debug it.

You are going to get biased answers here. After all you are asking people who already made the decision to purchase older coaches over new and shiny. There are some individuals in the RV world that need the factory warranty for their own reasons, and there are some that are comfortable with the “warranty by me” program. That’s why Brad asked you about your background. In fifteen years, I have observed that the satisfaction of the owner is HIGHLY dependent upon what they are willing to take on. The technically proficient OR the ones willing to learn hang around a long time. Those that are not tend to get in and get out of the Newell ownership quickly.

Sorry for the dissertation, and sorry for the rather frank and opinionated commentary. I hope it helps you make an informed decision.