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Is this Newell a good choice?

1995 Newell 450 | Bob Hurley RV

I have owned a 35' MCI bus conversion and a 40' TMC bus conversion.

Now I am thinking about getting a Newell, which advertised on the back cover of Bus Conversion Magazine for years, putting the Newell name in my head.

I have two young children, a wife and a Border Collie dog. I want to show my family the country and when the time comes, homeschool the kids during our travels.

I like this particular Newell because it has two sofa beds up front for our children to sleep in.

I also like that it has zero slides because I understand slides are expensive to maintain.

This ad leaves out a lot, but I presume it has a Series 60 engine. I would only consider a 4-stroke engine.

The paint on this coach looks a bit old, but it's presentable as is.

Why does the roof height change on these older Newell's? What's going on up there?

I ask because I'd like to put several thousand watts of solar panels up there and add a mini-split in a bay so I can cool the unit from solar alone. I have read Newell's have exceptional insulation, but I don't know if that applies only to newer models.

I see newer and nicer Newells at MOT in Texas, but they all have multiple slides, and none sleep a couple of kids plus the parents.

May I please hear your thoughts?

Trip lengths would be in the one week to three-month range, but not full time, as I have a home base in California.

I have only a Class C license.

Any thoughts on how to get the non-commercial class B license that California requires to drive this 45' coach?

My best answer so far is to pay $2,500 to a local commercial bus driving school to get a Commercial Class B with Passenger Endorsement. They provide the bus and trainer and let me take the DMV test using their bus. This will take about 10 days at 1-2 hours per day they say since I have experience driving bus conversions already.

Once I get the Commerical Class B with Passenger Endorsement license, they say to take it to the DMV and downgrade it to a non-commercial Class B license. They said the Commercial version also allows me to drive a 45' housecar, but presumably it's cheaper to keep a non-commercial license?

I don't mind paying $2,500, but it is a lot of money when there likely won't be much difference for me compared to driving a 40' coach.

The coach above is 1,500 miles away, so I need the proper license to drive it home. Maybe there isn't enough time to even go through driver school before someone buys this coach, but there is always another one around the corner.

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area if that helps answer the question.

Thank you!

Kevin

I've read the threads and post from Tom and Richard on this subject and this is a have to fix before next trip. I had a tremendous amount of play in my steering wheel so bad I had to pull over every 100 miles or so to put bio freeze on my neck and lay down for a few minutes to calm my nerves. Yesterday evening I removed the column and found its not the first time its been out one of the 4 column mounting bolts was snapped off in the column and I could reach down and move the shaft by hand so the bearings are shot, I  put it in the vise you could see the was slop coming from the top and bottom. I called a place in NY and 2-3 weeks out and not one on the shelf to swap out, so I ordered a 28" keyed tilt generic GM column that I will have to tig weld some nuts on to for mounting and either change out the U joint to a DD type fitting or tig weld the spline onto the end of it.  it. I called Morgan at Newell and he said he didn't think they had any rebuilds in stock and still waiting on his reply. 

One question for the gurus on this, how did you remove that intermediate shaft from the steering box? Do you have to remove the gauges? Seems to long to pull straight up, I'd like to check that rubber dampener.

Hoping this will help ya'll when the need arises to understand exactly how the Newell's House batteries are connected to the coach. And, while the newer coaches have a slightly different inverter breaker layout, the general principles are the same.

In our case, we have a 2015. So for the teenagers out there, you've got 2 breakers for the inverters, which supply 110/220v. Below them, notice the red rotary disconnect switch; this is a MASTER DISCONNECT for the Negative (Ground) which will also kill the inverters.  This is very important to understand any time you need to shut one or the other systems down. Remember that this is completely independent from the Chassis batteries & disconnect.

Also, another key point is Newell has made safety choice of having that 12-volt switch DISCONNECT THE GROUND (NEGATIVE). There is as much controversy on that topic as there is Chevy vs. Ford or Bud vs. Coors! However, from a firefighting and emergency response POV I can understand and support the reasoning. We ALWAYS attempt to disconnect the ground/negative from the chassis FIRST. This removes the chances for arcing/shorts from incidental contact with the postive side.

Since there are no pre-existing diagrams to illustrate what goes on behind that shiney panel, I made my own to share. Hope this helps you!

   
   

Anyone have any history or knowledge of how the AGM LIFELINE 6V batteries will work in an 06 newell as opposed to agm lifeline 12v.  Thank you in advance!  Mike

Auto Glass Boss will be showing up here next week to remove, disassemble, clean and re-assemble every window in the coach.  They have 3 full days scheduled with several guys to do the grunt work and the owner doing the glass repair.  Should be interesting.  I heard there are two other Newell's in the Phoenix area scheduled after mine.

Hello, I've got an 85 Newell, with original 8V92 in it, and my alternator appears to be dead. Anyone here change one out? It's on back of engine and local Detroit Diesel guy's have never seen this setup. Specifically wondering how it comes off.

Hello, My name is Dan, my wife Mary and I own an older Newell it's an 85 model. VIN ends in 1004 so I'm guessing it was early that year. Any way we've owned it for 10 years and are planning on using her more now. Trip to AZ for winter month's is about to start next week!

After leveling and turning the leveling system off., the left rear Saggs down after about a week on my 94 Newell   Is The ride height control or the lever six pack leaking?

Coach # 722 is For Sale.  Ad can bee seen on RV Trader. $249,500. 

Thank You

Hi, my name is Jeff and I am looking to buy an older Newell and I have found a 92 Coach No#288 for sale and trying to determine the value. Checking the coach number through Newell it was last serviced in 2015, at which time it had 179,000 miles on it. However, now it has a new odometer which reads 14,000. Can anyone give me an approximate value, the coach looks in really great condition other than the generator won't start, cranks over but won't start.

Thank you,

Jeff