[Ernie]

Irv 2- that’s all you need to say.

[hypoxia]

Irv 2- that’s all you need to say.

I attempted to get iRV2 to have Newell in the Owners Forum along with Foretravel and all of the others.  They declined, saying they think it belongs in the Bus Conversion forum.  They are aware it is not a conversion.

Thank you Grant for bringing the discussion back to center.

[CaptainGizmo]

First of all, I'm not going to get into any kind of forum-war, because I've taken a pact with myself to stay with the communities who are civil, appreciative, and genuinely care about each other. I'll leave it at that.

So, I don't visit iRV2.com...and plenty others have left for nicer pastures, including a very smart guy, "NEAL", who was tired of that old platform and the heavy-handed Mods on there.

Neal went on to develop a very popular, fresh forum called RVFORUMS.com and I was among the first to migrate over and I started a sub-forum for NEWELL OWNERS. However, it has VERY little traffic.

Quite frankly, in terms of activity and expertise, you'll not find any better than HERE. In terms of the newest coach owners, they exist on the NEWELL VIP GROUP on Facebook. But, Facebook plain SUCKS for any technical threading, since it's just a conversation forum and the GEMS of information get buried instantly by people sharing pictures of their travels, new coach, dogs, kids, etc.

So...back to your SUPPORT for an older coach question. Again, no idea HOW old you mean, but I can tell you that in the multiple times I've been to Newell since 2020, I've seen ALL eras represented there. And, ya know what? When it comes to servicing, their money is the EXACT same color as the owner of a new $3M coach!

I hope this gets you all the navigation for service and support info you need.

[encantotom]

Hi all,

I am Tom McCloud, I started, own and operate newellgurus. when i started it with the help of my wife darlene and my son scott it was meant to be a safe, family oriented and technically focused place to help each other. darlene came up with friends helping friends. i have made hundreds of friends from this forum. many are like family. the moderators and i tolerate zero bashing of any kind. if it happens i just close it down and delete the account. hardly ever happens. as for the factory support goes.....i was at newell a few weeks ago. and had a nice long chat with grant. they are still super supportive of all the vintage of coaches. i am also the one who asked him to join this thread. i have had a great relationship with karl over the years and he has also been very supportive and now grant is as well.

the reality is this......we as owners of newells become the lifeblood of helping each other. the folks that built newells and knew them inside and out for the 80s 90s 2000's etc have aged out and retired or passed just like the rest of us. so newell will do all that they can to help us within their ability.

i have had a 90, 99 and an 02. loved them all. did almost all my own work on them. but when i had to call newell for advice, they always returned the call and helped me as best they could.

i started this forum in 2012 when an older forum become no fun anymore for various reasons. i started this for me and few buddies and never expected it to have over 4000 members. i cannot tell you how many stories i have of people being stranded, or even worse, injured and the guru gang reaching out to help.

i have funded this myself and never asked for a dime and never will nor will i accept anything. my son scott, who is a officer in the usaf is the one who keeps the servers going and we use freeware that is not the newest and best but it works. we have tried to keep this simple and as easy to use as possible.

i frequently get offers from forum/website consolidators to buy newellgurus. i always say no. they want to commercialize it and put advertising on it. i have no need to do that.

so i thank those who have helped me with newellgurus all these years. my moderators and admins and especially my wife darlene and son scott.

any of you are always welcome to visit us with or without your coach in wittmann.

i am done babbling...

tom

[CaptainGizmo]

i am done babbling...

BABBLE ON, Tom!

THANK YOU AND SCOTT for all you’ve done and continue to do!

[Trainer]

And to think, Tom will even help a Poortravel owner.

Bless you Sir for ALL you do

[markkitch]

I am a relatively new Newell owner. This forum is great. I like to do my own work when I can. I have spoken to Newell on the phone, had my coach in their shop (last month) both were fantastic experiences. Newell is top notch. We are happy and love our coach. That is all.

[[email protected]]

I have not had much interaction with Newell, so cannot say to much about it. I do all my own work and from what I have done over the years I can source most all the parts etc that I need to do the work. I need to start working on a relationship with Newell as I think that I would like to support owners with another quality place to have work done in the future.

I can tell you that I am sure that Newell is by far better than any other manufacturer out there especially the commercial made RV's. The fact is that the support of Newell and the support from Newell Gurus is invaluable because no matter what you have the shops that are out there are all having the same issue. The trained people and knowledge is leaving the industry at a fast pace, training and replacement of those with knowledge is not keeping pace with those who are leaving. This is a problem nationwide so you are going to have issues with finding good help across the country, so having support via Newell and Newell Gurus is invaluable. 
We have done the same thing over on Wanderlodge Owners Group as well. Wanderlodges no longer have factory support from Bluebird so that Wanderlodge group and a few specialty shops are all we have, the forum group there fills a large void. 


Thanks to those who make this forum possible! 

Its a great forum and has helped me and I am sure countless others. I do my best to help contribute any knowledge that I have to help others as a way of keeping this forum alive.

[retailguy]

This has been a very confusing thread for me.  When I started it, I thought it was a relatively straightforward question and in hindsight that was apparently not the case.

I'm new here, and as a result have been pondering and thinking of the "right" way to respond to everyone's comments.  I've come to realize there is no "right" way, or better stated if there is a right way, I'm too dumb to understand it.  With that in mind, I'm just going to be honest.

After the first several replies, I did not feel welcome here at all.  It was a very strange place where I felt like I was "gossiping" or worse "tattling" on someone who was just stating an opinion.  At the end of this thread, I felt and thought 180 degrees different, and that is this is a good group of guys with a lot of knowledge to share, and that the 1 year plus of reading, studying and research I did led me to right brand.  When I started this, I was 90% certain that Foretravel was in my future, now?  I'm 90% certain that it is Newell in my future.

Tom, thank you for maintaining and starting this forum.  Thank you also for reaching out to Grant, and to Grant for taking the time to post.  I don't think there can be any doubt as to Newell's commitment to the brand and to the owners when its CEO is that straightforward in what he says.  I am convinced that they (Newell) will do everything they can do to get me back on the road.  You cannot ask more than that from anyone, and the stated fact that they'll help, is all I really needed.  And much more than most RV (or car/truck/van/boat/plane) owners get.

There was also a nugget of wisdom in his post that kind of clarified the comments I received on the other forum.  Gave them a sense of legitimacy too in a strange way.  He used two phrases -  "best as they can" and "vast majority of their needs".  To me, this is expected, after all wisdom and knowledge is not only written down but it is carried around in employees heads.  Those employees leave, retire, and eventually pass away.  So, there is and always will be knowledge drain.  That can, and I'm sure does put context around the comments I received elsewhere.  Undoubtedly, some folks get turned away and get frustrated.  But the stated willingness to 'try and help" was enough for me.

This is my first coach purchase.  It is a big step, but I'll be 60 this year.  I know what I want and what meets my needs, and to the best of my ability will eventually find what I want.

To those of you who helped me - THANK YOU.  Sincerely.  

Finally, there was a comment made by one, and echoed by others about "not getting involved in forum wars".  I'm not sure those goals were attained here.  Here's what I'll say - perhaps all the criticisms levied at that other forum are 100% true.  It's certainly not what I have experienced "over there", but I'm not the authority on anything.  Those folks genuinely answered my questions, made me feel welcome, and shared their experience both good and bad.  I focused on the bad because it did not match anything I'd read anywhere.  I brought it here not to spread gossip, but rather, I figured most of you had first hand experience to put the color behind it.  Some of you did, and again, Thank you.  It clarified things for me.

I'll still be around mostly reading in the background.  When I buy a coach, I'm sure I will have many questions.  Hopefully some of you will help me when that time comes.  Maybe someday, I'll even be able to pay it forward.

[[email protected]]

A couple of things to note, believe me, you will not find a much better group than the one here! Their willingness to help will match your willingness to work with them to solve your problem. I have seen it and I participate whenever I can. I suggest you participate as much as you can and feel comfortable with. Its sometimes difficult with forums because written words do not always convey fully what someone is saying or someone may understand something as meaning something else. You just have to ride through those issues, as they say, the juice is definitely worth the occasional squeeze!

I think the mention of the other forum was not meant as a dig to anyone, its just the other forums are not as well moderated or curated, meaning anyone can join and claim they are a Newell expert and give you advice. What is that advice worth? Maybe some of them are the real deal, maybe they are not, you do not really know unless you vet them. 

The moderators here and members basically vet the information of what is said and done, so you know that when you are getting information here that its at least as accurate as it can be. The only other source would be Newell themselves and they have admitted that they do have some limitations. 

I will tell you that when I asked for information for my coach from Newell, the only thing they said they had was the blueprint layout drawing. They sent those to me, I was really hoping for some wiring diagrams etc like I have with my Wanderlodge. So not sure if they are keeping those for themselves or if they actually do not have them, again not accusing them of anything, its well within their rights to keep documents private if they wish. 

Anyways those are my musings for whatever its worth. Hope you stick it out and come to one of our No Rallies and meet these fine folks in person!