[Fulltiming]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1997-Used-Newell...Vs_Campers

http://www.usedrvs4sale.co/detail/us/uCV...-174585-K3

Lots of inconsistencies with this one.  It is listed as a 40'.  There was only one 1997 shorter than 45' and that was #447 which is 43'6".  

The VIN that is listed is for an IC Corporation School Bus/City Transit Bus.  

They list a 317" wheelbase.  A 45'8" has a wheelbase of 319" center of front wheel to center of drive axle.

It has a rear lounge rather than a bedroom and the ad indicates that it does NOT have a shower.

Hydraulic levelers.

[encantotom]

for sure it has hydraulic jacks....

the rear lounge is a raised floor slide.

mine was a rear lounge and it has a flat floor. kinda awkward to step up to the couch.

no shower will make it very hard to sell.

tom

[folivier]

But it does have a wood floor in the front. So it is possible with the HWH flat floors.
And you gotta love those red plaid sofas....

[Fulltiming]

OK, I got a response from the seller. This is #456 and it is 45' 0".

[Richard]

Very interesting comment on the wood floors. Rhonda and I are in the midst of a cosmetic upgrade. I would like to do wood floors, or commericial vinyl wood planking. The bedroom is already done in the vinyl wood flooring. It looks a lot better than it sounds, and it has held up VERY well. There is another HWH slide couch on RVT with wood flooring. I remember the comment that Newell says no mas on the wood and HWH slides. I haven't gotten around to dropping the slide floor to see what the deal may be with wood flooring. If any of you have any insight on the flooring and the HWH setup let me know.

[Chester Stone]

I am also very interested in the vinal simulated wood flooring. I discussed with with the Newell supervisor of flooring and he told me that they did one with the HWH slides and because of low clearance when where the center slides into, they had to slant the floor to accomplish it and would not do another one. If anyone figures out how to do it, count me in.

[Richard]

Chester,

Can you elaborate on slant the floor? That could mean they slanted the flooring in the flat floor tray, or they had to slant the tray.

[Ozarkguy]

They added the VIN #1N9450X88V1011456
If someone was a bit crafty and wanted a 45' er, this one would be a good un, Shower and bedroom shouldn't be a big leap. think somewhere below buy-it-now price tho...

[Chester Stone]

Richard, frankly I cannot remember all he told me, but I think they had to make major modification of the tray that the floor slides into. They said the clearance without modification was so tight that the carpet fibers were exercised when the floor moves, but not enough room for even simulated wood. Soon I am going to check mine to see how much clearance there is.

[Richard]

I couldn't stand it, so I moved all the stuff out of the way and played with the slide and floor mechanism. I see that they are channels at each end that guide the floor slide. I can also see that about every 18 inches or so, there are nylon guides that slide with the floor to help guide it under the permanent floor. I had about a 1/8 clearance between the carpet and any of the contact points. I do not detect that the carpet is touching anything. I put masking tape at different places on the carpet to see if there was a rub. There was not.

I don't know if my carpet is original or not. I kind of doubt it is given it's good condition for a 99 coach. The point being that the replacement carpet may be thinner than the original. I suspect that the thickness of any replacement flooring will be the key to it fitting into the sliding floor and not scuffing. I did not see what I expected to see. What I expected was rollers or guides that would cause the sliding floor to dive under the permanent floor. They are not there in my coach. The sliding floor does slide in two c channel tracks at each end.

The vinyl planking that was used in the bedroom is slightly thinner than the granite. I know that because I can see the difference at the transition. I am going to get few pieces of the vinyl and fit it into the slide tray to see what happens. It will be a while before I am home to try it, but stay tuned.

Carpet is hard to maintain in most of the places we camp or stay. Hard surface floors make more sense. I could put down marble/granite/ceramic since I now have the 365s on the front, but that would take away some of the safety margin I just gained.

After posting and thinking about what I saw and the slant comment, there may be a third possibility. Newell could have thinned the wood planking for the slide floor, and consequently thinned the adjacent planking for the coach floor to match in height. But the floor thickness would have to increase slightly to match up with the thickness of the granite floor if that were left in the coach. A combination of planing the planks and adhesive thickness could have worked giving a floor that imperceptibly slanted from the granite to the slide.