06-22-2021, 06:42 AM
Yes, and No. It depends on the age and condition of the coach, and how handy you are with a wrench. If you are not oriented toward doing some tracking down of air leaks and depend on Newell to do it for you, that could cost you more than a thousand dollars a year. Tires on any large coach should be replaced every 5-7 years, batteries may need replacement on a similar schedule. Using any high quality products, you could be looking at $500-$1,000 per tire (8 tires) and $200-$600 per battery (4 to 8 8D batteries depending on the year model).
I don't doubt that some have deferred maintenance to the point that it did cost $30-$60,000 to bring them up to snuff but short of an engine or transmission failure in an older coach, that should be rare unless they have trashed the interior and needed an interior remodel which can be pricey. If you keep up with routine maintenance, and I include tracking down small air leaks in routine maintenance, there is no reason to have your coach get to the point that it needs that kind of maintenance. If you are talking about a fairly new coach, you are talking about very complex systems on a $2,000,000 vehicle/home and if $10,000 per year in maintenance is a big deal, you are in the wrong market since your depreciation on the vehicle will be many times that amount. If you are talking about a used Newell from the 1900's or early 2000's, and you have someone else do everything, $5-$10,000 a year for maintenance unless you have a major failure such as radiator, engine, transmission should be reasonable. If you do work yourself on the little stuff and find a local company to do oil changes, etc. You can cut those costs in half.
I have had my coach for 16 years and have lost much more on depreciation than I have spent on maintenance. Coaches that are not used are more likely to need more maintenance than coaches that are used regularly where the owner is aware of things that are not working properly and address them.
We have a number of handy Gurus on this site that could likely trade their coach in today and not have to spend a penny on it but I have seen coaches for sale that needed $10,000's of work to get them ready to go. When I bought my coach, I had to replace all the tires and batteries, although the prior owner paid for them. Those tires were 12 years old although they did have decent tread there was no question they were rotted and unsafe.
I have been very pleased with my older Newell and do not consider the maintenance costs I have incurred to be unreasonable. That is the reason that having maintenance records is important.
I don't doubt that some have deferred maintenance to the point that it did cost $30-$60,000 to bring them up to snuff but short of an engine or transmission failure in an older coach, that should be rare unless they have trashed the interior and needed an interior remodel which can be pricey. If you keep up with routine maintenance, and I include tracking down small air leaks in routine maintenance, there is no reason to have your coach get to the point that it needs that kind of maintenance. If you are talking about a fairly new coach, you are talking about very complex systems on a $2,000,000 vehicle/home and if $10,000 per year in maintenance is a big deal, you are in the wrong market since your depreciation on the vehicle will be many times that amount. If you are talking about a used Newell from the 1900's or early 2000's, and you have someone else do everything, $5-$10,000 a year for maintenance unless you have a major failure such as radiator, engine, transmission should be reasonable. If you do work yourself on the little stuff and find a local company to do oil changes, etc. You can cut those costs in half.
I have had my coach for 16 years and have lost much more on depreciation than I have spent on maintenance. Coaches that are not used are more likely to need more maintenance than coaches that are used regularly where the owner is aware of things that are not working properly and address them.
We have a number of handy Gurus on this site that could likely trade their coach in today and not have to spend a penny on it but I have seen coaches for sale that needed $10,000's of work to get them ready to go. When I bought my coach, I had to replace all the tires and batteries, although the prior owner paid for them. Those tires were 12 years old although they did have decent tread there was no question they were rotted and unsafe.
I have been very pleased with my older Newell and do not consider the maintenance costs I have incurred to be unreasonable. That is the reason that having maintenance records is important.