First Hand Owner Comparison Newell and Prevost - Printable Version
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First Hand Owner Comparison Newell and Prevost - Richard - 08-17-2025
This could be lengthy, cause I am wordy. I am commenting on a 99 Newell with two slides that I owned for 10 years and a 2007 Marathon with two slides that I have owned for almost a year.
Synopsis. There is no clear winner. The Prevost drives far better. The Newell has far more usable and practical living space. The Marathon electrical work is superior but proprietary. The mid door entry floor plan of the Newell was superior in terms of living space and passenger comfort.
Now, the long winded version. My only purpose in pointing out my observations is that no RV is perfect and each owner has unique use requirements and personal preferences. My intent to is provide hands on perspective to help you if you are considering either one. It would be a better comparison between an 07 Newell and an 07 Marathon, but alas my time and funding did not permit this. Also, my perspective is one of self maintenance.
Starting with ‘why did you change after 20 years of Newell ownership’. Again, this is MY perspective, and the opinion of one person. As I contemplated the future, I could see that one of two things would take me off the travel road that I enjoy so much. The first was that I would become uncomfortable with driving a beast this size, or it would become too tiring to travel across the country. The second was that I would no longer be able to physically maintain a high end RV. To the first issue of driving, I drove a bunch of rigs, around 10 mid 2000 Newells, a couple of Super C’s, and a six Prevost based conversions. As far as the pure driving experience it was not a close comparison, the Prevost conversions were hands down winners. On the second note, I live less than an hour from both a Prevost Service center and a Marathon service center. That’s a little different than traveling to Miami, OK from where I live six months of the year. I wanted the option of throwing plastic at a problem instead of yours truly having to deal with the issue. That is the top line reasoning I used.
In contemplating selling our beloved Mickey (Newell 512) and starting over with another rig, there were a number of must haves. The first was roof air. Basement air is great, I had reengineered the AC units to the point where they were effective and reliable, but with roof air, any RV shop in the country will pop a new one on the roof. Not such an easy task to find someone to work on SCS, Cruiseair, or RVAC units. The second requirement was to stay with the Detroit S60 engine and Allison transmission. If you are in the Prevost market, monitor the FB Prevost group for the folks seeking Cruiseair technical help.
Rhonda had two requirements. Stacked washer and dryer, and two couches.
Now that the prologue is finished. Here are some specific details.
As commented earlier, the living space, storage space, and layout with the 1 1/2 bath two slide Newell is as good as it gets. The space in the rear bath and bedroom is really appreciated. The toilet in this Marathon and most Prevost conversions is cramped. If you are looking at Prevosts, I suggest you sit on the throne for a practice run.
I enjoy the larger windows in the Prevost, but an 07 Newell will have larger windows also. Both Prevost and Newell have issues with those windows breaking the seal and fogging over time. I guess I am going to learn how to fix them.
We have been in some hot and humid conditions this summer. Two AC units keep you comfy, three will have you under a blanket, and all four running will turn your lips blue.
One big difference I have noted is that due to the location of the forward roof air and the super large glass up front is that you WILL run the dash air while driving. It’s nice that the inverters will run two of the roof airs off the engine, but the air flow does NOT cool the cockpit. More about this in minute.
The Prevost does not get the fuel mileage that the Newell did. Granted, I got a exceptional 8.3 mpg with the Newell, and the best so far is 6.0 with the 14L EGR engine. There are a number of confounding factors. One the Prevost is geared lowered. I turn about 100 more RPM at 65 than I did the Newell. The second factor is the dash air as commented earlier. The dash air automatically activates the engine fan on low speed. In the 99 Newell the condenser fan was electrically activated and separate from the huge engine fan. The third factor is the 50DN alternator is powering two 4k inverters driving two roof air units. The fan and the inverter take HP. In my Newell mileage I did not factor in the fuel the generator used to run the SCS units while driving. Bottom line, I don’t know if the mileage difference is as great as I think it is. This winter I will run the overhead on the engine and install a lower restriction exhaust. That was worth about 1 mpg on the Newell.
The Newell is setup for living and easy access to the support systems like batteries, inverters, Aquahot, and plumbing. The Prevost is setup for easy maintenance. Changing shocks, air bags, suspension parts is quick in comparison. After all the bus chassis is designed to stay on the road, downtime on commercial bus means the operator is losing money.
Spare parts and documentation for the Prevost side is insanely good. On line electrical, mechanical, and pneumatic diagrams by serial number of the bus. It’s the same with parts, I can order by serial number of the bus either by phone or on line. Two days to my door.
All though the slide outs are smaller and not flat floor, I prefer the Prevost slide mechanism over the HWH for one simple feature. If the slide faults, the system flashes a code telling you what is wrong.
What problems have I dealt with? I had to replace a circulation pump on the Webasto heating system. I replace all the tie rods and drag links. I ran over the power cord which created all kinds of madness to access the cord reel in the center of the coach, and to repair the trap door which releases the cord and sewer hose. I had a noisey bearing in one of the electrical toe heaters.
And there are still air systems to chase leaks. Sigh……..
And for the final commentary. There is NO forum for Prevosts like the gurus. Most of the Prevost owners do not have dirty fingernails. I find that most of the Prevost coaches are used as toys that come out of the shed every once in a while. Not all of course, but look at the older Prevosts in general you see for sale. It is highly unusual to see a Prevost coach with over 150k miles.
If this one went up in smoke, what would I buy next time? Not trying to be politically correct, but that would depend upon the coach. Neither is perfect, both have really strong selling points.
After I posted, I realized that I had left out a very important consideration for me. The Prevost came equipped with an iPad/Crestron system which is not working well. Lucky for me there are discrete controls for every function. All the high end stuff has this gimmickry today. For the life of me I do not understand why I need the ability to lie in bed and configure the DVD to play sound through the outdoor speakers. The switching boxes and cabling to enable the connections between every TV, the satellite system, the AV system, and the Crestron is substantial. Here is the rub, streaming, Starlink, and wireless has made all that mess obsolete. I am going backwards towards simplicity. Firestick on the TV’s, one HDMI ARC cable to a capable AV receiver in the rear allows me to ignore the Crestron control. And I can change the channel with the remote. Yeah I know I sound like a retrogrouch, but I can’t imagine throwing 10 to 20K to bring that system up to date.
And one more big change I made to the coach. I removed the outdoor entertainment center which occupied half a bay, and replaced with a nice rollaway tool chest.
RE: First Hand Owner Comparison Newell and Prevost - hypoxia - 08-17-2025
What a great review! I'll have more to say and ask about in a day or so when settled down. Age and ability are on the horizon.
RE: First Hand Owner Comparison Newell and Prevost - RobSC - 08-18-2025
Excellent write-up and review.
I'm jealous of you having Prevost chassis info available online. How is Marathon about sharing information on your particular build?
RE: First Hand Owner Comparison Newell and Prevost - Richard - 08-18-2025
Marathon is willing to help, but does not release the specific info like schematics.
RE: First Hand Owner Comparison Newell and Prevost - [email protected] - 08-18-2025
Appreciate your write up Richard, I was curios about your thoughts with the different coaches. I can say the best driving coach I have driven would have to be my 86 MCI 102A3 with over a million miles on the chassis (ex greyhound). I felt like I could wheel that coach around like it was a Camry. I have driven 1 Prevost but it was an 89 and it had bad king pins so it drove worse than my Wanderlodge and the Newell. I am really not surprised that Prevost's drive better than an earlier Newell. They have many more miles of coach use in their favor, with feedback coming from operators and drivers. I would be curious to see the comparison of same age coaches like you said Richard. Maybe one of these guys with a newer coach will let you take it for a spin for a comparison one day. I would assume there are some differences in how they drive when they went to the ZF suspensions.
Great write up and keep us posted on your further exploits.
RE: First Hand Owner Comparison Newell and Prevost - Ernie - 08-18-2025
Great write up. And thank you for helping me last year with my HWH issue.
RE: First Hand Owner Comparison Newell and Prevost - Richard - 08-18-2025
Jeff, I included my experience with about 5 mid 2000 Newells with ZF in my conclusions.
I hate to admit this, but I have videos of me driving most of the coaches, so I could replay them and observe my hand movement. I first started doing that to see if changes I made to my own coach made any difference or it was in my head. I found the technique to be helpful as I looked at other coaches over the years. Yeah, I know OCD.
RE: First Hand Owner Comparison Newell and Prevost - [email protected] - 08-18-2025
(08-18-2025, 05:25 PM)Richard Wrote: Jeff, I included my experience with about 5 mid 2000 Newells with ZF in my conclusions.
I hate to admit this, but I have videos of me driving most of the coaches, so I could replay them and observe my hand movement. I first started doing that to see if changes I made to my own coach made any difference or it was in my head. I found the technique to be helpful as I looked at other coaches over the years. Yeah, I know OCD.
I missed that somehow. I like that approach of video as a sanity test. I am sure that sometimes I am my own worst enemy when it comes to over correcting going down the road.
RE: First Hand Owner Comparison Newell and Prevost - HoosierDaddy - 08-18-2025
Great post ,Richard. I was looking forward to your thoughts about this comparison. Thank you!
RE: First Hand Owner Comparison Newell and Prevost - Jack Houpe - 08-19-2025
We crossed over to the dark side over 1 year ago and as you know I'm not afraid to tear into something and most certainly to make it better, the first thing was retrofit the 3 cruisair units which were working to a mini split system like the we did on the Newell and that made a world of difference for comfort in being cool or warm and also noise. As far as driving goes I agree with Richard driving a Prevost is like driving a Ferrari even an old one like mine with a straight front axle, I've driven both straight front axle and IFS prevost and really can't tell much of a difference. Yes the information on the bus is hands down the winner, not only do I have manuals with part numbers and diagrams but also a vast part system. I called prevost in Canada to order a ride height valve and it was at my door 2 days later from Dallas TX for $155 and free shipping. We have an older bus 1996 and everything is manual like windows and doors and NO SIDES which is great for us which means I have more time to enjoy where I am at rather than working on something, there is a price you will pay for automated systems and extra room, we have to roll up and stow our electric cord and don't even have a electric air compressor on board the only thing pneumatic is the sliding floor, air horns and door lock for traveling. There is a FRACTION of the space that we had in the Newell and it is shorter in length by 5 foot, lower in height 11'6" and MUCH lighter by 23000 lbs which makes me happy as far as driving and overall anxiety, same motor and trans as the Newell so no difference there.
We have made life long friends here on the Guru site and I have learnt so much from source's of intelligence and documentation here that is priceless. I don't like anything on facebook as there are not enough people that get there hands dirty and too many armchair quarterbacks.