[77newell]

I'm thinking we need a "sticky" somewhere prominent regarding coping with the complexity of these coaches and how one comes to grips with it.

For instance, before I owned the 77 coach I owned a 1947 North American Navion airplane fully instrument rated with hydraulic gear and flaps and all sorts of doodads. As I was contemplating buying the Newell I imagined that there is no way it could be more complicated than the Navion. It was. I gradually learned all the systems and spent a lot of time and money getting it up to my obsessive snuff. Then my wife and I decided a newer coach would have some additional features we desired. I thought that going with a Newell made a lot of sense since it would be an evolution of the 77 coach, so we bought the 93 coach. I thought it can't be that much more complicated. It was. I thought of selling it. I didn't, mainly to keep my wife happy (and then she cheated on me by dying). Honestly, I was scared that I would be stuck along the road somewhere and not have a clue (a man's nightmare). I was also intimidated by all the stuff that needed attention when arriving and departing campgrounds. By sticking with it and playing around with it in my driveway I got comfortable enough to actually take trips in it, what a concept. Those trips created additional opportunities to figure things out. I needed a few short leisurely trips to provide myself the lack of urgency so that when I needed to learn something I could without feeling like my wife was going to kill me (another man's nightmare). I'm now don't understand everything, but I am confident that when something new makes itself known I will be able to deal with it. And that is the essential part of me getting past the "this is way too complex, I'm going to sell it" reaction.

If someone were to approach me now and say that their new Newell is freaking them out with its complexity I might ask questions in two categories; what is it that is currently freaking you out, and what was the process that you have successfully used in the past to learn something complex? We've all learned to handle new complex objects in our lives, think going from landline phones to smart phones. How did you handle that? Probably one step at a time with some technical support from a teenager (so you need a source of Newell tech support of some kind - and don't go to a teenager for that as the response will be: "WHA?".) With the smart phone you probably just focused on the current issue and sought solutions for that. Our tendency as guys is to want to understand it all RIGHT NOW. That is an impossible hill to climb. In my first sentence there is a requirement that the new owner is willing to ask for help and assumes that with some help he/she will achieve the needed understanding and all will be well with the world. It is the confidence that anyone can learn to manage a Newell that is critical and that I'm not some fundamentally flawed testosterone infused humanoid completely incapable of learning. It takes a village to raise a Newell owner, you have to stay in the village. It's not for everyone , but it is a great village.

I've probably said 10X what is helpful, but I hope at least some of it will sooth the Newell newbies.