04-18-2021, 08:55 AM
Hi Ed and Cathy,
Congrats on the Newell Purchase. Should be great fun specifying all of the items and attributes of the coach.
I have a number of considerations for you to think about as I have been living full time in my 2008 coach (1223) for about 3 1/2 years.
Having purchased my coach used, not everything in it would I consider in a new purchase but many things have proven to be nice features that I would do again. Here is a rambling list of my thoughts on this subject and I should also mention that much of my preference is based on how I use the coach and where I take it which is into some very back woods areas but almost never onto unimproved roads.
Ergonomics:
I don't know how much space you can design into the drivers area but its important to have enough to extend your legs to a comfortable angle. I never had knee pains until I started driving my Newell. Turns out the restricted distance between the seat and the pedals caused my legs to hang fairly straight aggravating some arthritis I never knew I had, another 2 or 3 inches to bring my legs out at a greater angle would be very useful. It would require the drivers side slide to be shortened or moved rearward that additional distance.
I would recommend you specify the hardness of foam in all of your furniture to that which you find most comfortable. My dinette had both harder foam and higher backs built as I'm a tall guy that uses the space to work in for long periods. I also changed the bed mattress to a harder foam which helped greatly with my back.
If you get a sofa spend allot of time going over the general feel and support. Nows the time to be picky. The fold out air mattress sleeper couches that Newell uses are actually pretty comfortable to sleep on. Make sure the ergonomics of your seating is just as you like it
Storage:
This is an area that Newells can have problems with. Newell Interiors tend to have very open areas with almost no overhead storage. This gives a great look to the interior but you should figure out how much storage you need as an absolute minimum and work from that point backwards. Walking through the coaches that are for sale at the factory will allow you to compare what choices yield the most usable space. It can be very surprising just how much or little storage a coach might have. You can also ask to look into the newer private coaches in for repair and refurbishment. Lots of cool and not so cool stuff to see.
Choosing the 1/2 bath option will greatly reduce the storage available in the Galley and usually forces the W/D into the rear bath making that space more confined. Also, the mid entry option will further reduce total usable area as almost all of the space it requires reduces total galley/living room area. The front entry option is contained within the floor area forward of the front passenger side slide which is the same utilization of interior space for the passenger seat as the mid entry so that is a big penalty for the mid entry.
Careful storage bay utilization is very important as you will have way more stuff to cram into that space than you think. Also, I would forget about trying to place a second refrigerator into the storage bay without some engineering effort. The high temperatures in the summer will kill most systems pretty quickly. I had a Norcold 12 VDC compressor system placed into my front compartment and running it in the summer in the Southwest is just not possible although Montana summers were, kind of. Winter is probably doable but you must keep the bay heating down to a tolerable level. It easily can go into the 90's if the heaters are not set right. I just moved the Norcold into the living area behind the passenger seat and make use of it for drinks and overflow from the Sub-Zero.
Make sure you build into the storage bay list things like tools, spares, cleaning supplies, sewage line extensions, lawn furniture and think long and hard about maybe putting a spare 365 tire somewhere in the storage bay or in the toad or trailer if possible. You can fill the inside of the tire with lots of other items, it will be a bit annoying to move around but if you travel into distant low population areas, having a 365 spare to put onto the rim could save you weeks waiting on a distant delivery. I surveyed the areas I like to go and the 315 are generally available, 365's forgedaboutit.
Ventilation:
There are 2 ventilation features I think are important. The first, is windows that open allowing the free flow of outside air through the coach when the weather allows, and the second is the controlled ventilation of air in the coach when the weather or environment requires it.
This is an area I see as having been neglected in many coaches including my own. My coach has only two windows in the entire coach which open. The first is the drivers little powered window and the second is the emergency exit window behind the headboard in the bedroom. That window has an opening panel in addition to the emergency exit feature but is very difficult to reach and so never gets used. The 2 exhaust fans, one over the W/D in the galley area and one in the shower ceiling both are exhaust only and so tend to struggle to find a source of fresh air. My thought would be to have the fan over the W/D be able to reverse flow as an intake fan and run the fresh air through an in-line HEPA filter. This would slightly pressurize the interior and keep unfiltered infiltration down to a minimum. Having spent most summers in the Northwest where forest fires are always blazing this would be a very useful feature. Also note the new Fantastic Fans do run in reverse. Building the coach from the ground up would allow for a very nice ventilation and filtration system.
Automation and unnecessary toys:
This is a difficult one to work through, especially with a techie coach like Newell. If you're a clean freak and keeping the coach absolutely sparking is your idea of heaven then by all means the built in pressure washer and deionized water system has your name on it. If you prefer someone else do the cleaning and you're mostly at resorts where cleaning your own coach is not allowed then doing without the system will free up some space for something else. Also, some automation is baked into how Newell builds coaches so your pretty much stuck with it, however, anywhere you can choose a simpler operating system the better. Nothing sucks like a control system that has decided to not play nice, having been stuck in the bathroom with an air door that won't operate, I can tell you a door knob looks pretty good.
Air line construction:
See if you can pay some extra amount and have all of the air lines assembled with compression fittings. The push-to-fit system presently used will eventually start leaking and require constant attention. Will be worth whatever the cost.
BBQ:
Yes, yes, yes. This is something I enjoy very much. Lots of variations in whats available. Mine is a simple 2 burner electric gaggenau and works very well. My BBQ unit includes a small fridge and a TV built into the end of of the unit. Both of those items I don't think I would have specified but a large extendable work area would be great.
Electric outlets, USB:
Place outlets in areas that are easy to reach and avoid those areas like under the dinette table or hidden under the desk. Have plug distribution boxes built into the top surfaces of tables desks and work surfaces for both 120 VAC and USB
Entertainment:
Design your entire system now. Have the TV's placed on mounts that allow for easy access to the ports on the back and can be upgraded as needed. Have the WiFi and cellular system and boosters built so upgrading in the future is easy and routings are accessible.
Toad or trailer:
Lots of Newell owners utilize large trailers to carry all of the excess equipment, vehicles and items that just won't fit into the coach proper. This seems to be an effective way to make use of the coach allowing for a living environment thats just as they like it while still having all of the stuff that they require. I utilize a large diesel pick-up to carry excess items along with making runs for fuel and water when necessary, but I have lately been thinking of switching to a large 20'+ trailer.
Awnings:
I don't think you can have too much shade. The individual external window shades are very useful but I would still specify all around Girard type awnings front to back and both sides. Also have the tops of the slides painted white if you wind up with a dark paint scheme.
Interior lighting:
Avoid any blue LED lighting. Its proving to cause retina damage when used long term. I like to use warm interior lighting (2700 degrees) this is available in LED's but must be specified. Use cooler lighting only for specific areas. If you spend allot of time reading from books with small type then you may also want to specify Quartz Halogen lamps for your favorite reading areas.
Water:
Have an R.O. water purification system built into a dispenser at the kitchen sink. Make sure it has a booster pump to bring the pressure up to at least 90 psi. This will give you the ability to have a Total dissolved solids count less than 20 PPM. The canister filters most people use are not good enough for much of the water you will find across the country. Last year in Casa Grande, AZ the TDS count was 750 out of the tap. Very heavy agricultural area with god knows what else in the water.
Bathroom shower:
I have seen a great shower design on an older 2007? Newell. It had the shower moved to the back end of the bathroom with the toilet placed forward. The shower area was extended into the closet area doubling the interior volume of the shower and making a seat area that looked very useful. It also had a steam/sauna unit built in. Now thats something I would happily trade storage space for.
Flooring:
I have a combination of carpeting and marble flooring tiles. While I don't generally like carpeting, the Oleofin carpet has been very tough and easy to clean giving a warmer and much quieter environment. I would love to get rid of the tile as it suffers from breakage especially around seams it is also very heavy. My preference is for products like the processed Bamboo and other high density wood products. Ceramic and stone I don't think is a good fit for an RV where flexing and vibration is a constant.
Weight control:
Do what you can to reduce excess weight. You will be amazed at how close to GVWR you will get. Nothing helps with handling and milage more than less weight. Counters, flooring, core materials in doors, etc. all can be lightened with little negative effect to the quality of the experience.
Have fun.
Mike
Congrats on the Newell Purchase. Should be great fun specifying all of the items and attributes of the coach.
I have a number of considerations for you to think about as I have been living full time in my 2008 coach (1223) for about 3 1/2 years.
Having purchased my coach used, not everything in it would I consider in a new purchase but many things have proven to be nice features that I would do again. Here is a rambling list of my thoughts on this subject and I should also mention that much of my preference is based on how I use the coach and where I take it which is into some very back woods areas but almost never onto unimproved roads.
Ergonomics:
I don't know how much space you can design into the drivers area but its important to have enough to extend your legs to a comfortable angle. I never had knee pains until I started driving my Newell. Turns out the restricted distance between the seat and the pedals caused my legs to hang fairly straight aggravating some arthritis I never knew I had, another 2 or 3 inches to bring my legs out at a greater angle would be very useful. It would require the drivers side slide to be shortened or moved rearward that additional distance.
I would recommend you specify the hardness of foam in all of your furniture to that which you find most comfortable. My dinette had both harder foam and higher backs built as I'm a tall guy that uses the space to work in for long periods. I also changed the bed mattress to a harder foam which helped greatly with my back.
If you get a sofa spend allot of time going over the general feel and support. Nows the time to be picky. The fold out air mattress sleeper couches that Newell uses are actually pretty comfortable to sleep on. Make sure the ergonomics of your seating is just as you like it
Storage:
This is an area that Newells can have problems with. Newell Interiors tend to have very open areas with almost no overhead storage. This gives a great look to the interior but you should figure out how much storage you need as an absolute minimum and work from that point backwards. Walking through the coaches that are for sale at the factory will allow you to compare what choices yield the most usable space. It can be very surprising just how much or little storage a coach might have. You can also ask to look into the newer private coaches in for repair and refurbishment. Lots of cool and not so cool stuff to see.
Choosing the 1/2 bath option will greatly reduce the storage available in the Galley and usually forces the W/D into the rear bath making that space more confined. Also, the mid entry option will further reduce total usable area as almost all of the space it requires reduces total galley/living room area. The front entry option is contained within the floor area forward of the front passenger side slide which is the same utilization of interior space for the passenger seat as the mid entry so that is a big penalty for the mid entry.
Careful storage bay utilization is very important as you will have way more stuff to cram into that space than you think. Also, I would forget about trying to place a second refrigerator into the storage bay without some engineering effort. The high temperatures in the summer will kill most systems pretty quickly. I had a Norcold 12 VDC compressor system placed into my front compartment and running it in the summer in the Southwest is just not possible although Montana summers were, kind of. Winter is probably doable but you must keep the bay heating down to a tolerable level. It easily can go into the 90's if the heaters are not set right. I just moved the Norcold into the living area behind the passenger seat and make use of it for drinks and overflow from the Sub-Zero.
Make sure you build into the storage bay list things like tools, spares, cleaning supplies, sewage line extensions, lawn furniture and think long and hard about maybe putting a spare 365 tire somewhere in the storage bay or in the toad or trailer if possible. You can fill the inside of the tire with lots of other items, it will be a bit annoying to move around but if you travel into distant low population areas, having a 365 spare to put onto the rim could save you weeks waiting on a distant delivery. I surveyed the areas I like to go and the 315 are generally available, 365's forgedaboutit.
Ventilation:
There are 2 ventilation features I think are important. The first, is windows that open allowing the free flow of outside air through the coach when the weather allows, and the second is the controlled ventilation of air in the coach when the weather or environment requires it.
This is an area I see as having been neglected in many coaches including my own. My coach has only two windows in the entire coach which open. The first is the drivers little powered window and the second is the emergency exit window behind the headboard in the bedroom. That window has an opening panel in addition to the emergency exit feature but is very difficult to reach and so never gets used. The 2 exhaust fans, one over the W/D in the galley area and one in the shower ceiling both are exhaust only and so tend to struggle to find a source of fresh air. My thought would be to have the fan over the W/D be able to reverse flow as an intake fan and run the fresh air through an in-line HEPA filter. This would slightly pressurize the interior and keep unfiltered infiltration down to a minimum. Having spent most summers in the Northwest where forest fires are always blazing this would be a very useful feature. Also note the new Fantastic Fans do run in reverse. Building the coach from the ground up would allow for a very nice ventilation and filtration system.
Automation and unnecessary toys:
This is a difficult one to work through, especially with a techie coach like Newell. If you're a clean freak and keeping the coach absolutely sparking is your idea of heaven then by all means the built in pressure washer and deionized water system has your name on it. If you prefer someone else do the cleaning and you're mostly at resorts where cleaning your own coach is not allowed then doing without the system will free up some space for something else. Also, some automation is baked into how Newell builds coaches so your pretty much stuck with it, however, anywhere you can choose a simpler operating system the better. Nothing sucks like a control system that has decided to not play nice, having been stuck in the bathroom with an air door that won't operate, I can tell you a door knob looks pretty good.
Air line construction:
See if you can pay some extra amount and have all of the air lines assembled with compression fittings. The push-to-fit system presently used will eventually start leaking and require constant attention. Will be worth whatever the cost.
BBQ:
Yes, yes, yes. This is something I enjoy very much. Lots of variations in whats available. Mine is a simple 2 burner electric gaggenau and works very well. My BBQ unit includes a small fridge and a TV built into the end of of the unit. Both of those items I don't think I would have specified but a large extendable work area would be great.
Electric outlets, USB:
Place outlets in areas that are easy to reach and avoid those areas like under the dinette table or hidden under the desk. Have plug distribution boxes built into the top surfaces of tables desks and work surfaces for both 120 VAC and USB
Entertainment:
Design your entire system now. Have the TV's placed on mounts that allow for easy access to the ports on the back and can be upgraded as needed. Have the WiFi and cellular system and boosters built so upgrading in the future is easy and routings are accessible.
Toad or trailer:
Lots of Newell owners utilize large trailers to carry all of the excess equipment, vehicles and items that just won't fit into the coach proper. This seems to be an effective way to make use of the coach allowing for a living environment thats just as they like it while still having all of the stuff that they require. I utilize a large diesel pick-up to carry excess items along with making runs for fuel and water when necessary, but I have lately been thinking of switching to a large 20'+ trailer.
Awnings:
I don't think you can have too much shade. The individual external window shades are very useful but I would still specify all around Girard type awnings front to back and both sides. Also have the tops of the slides painted white if you wind up with a dark paint scheme.
Interior lighting:
Avoid any blue LED lighting. Its proving to cause retina damage when used long term. I like to use warm interior lighting (2700 degrees) this is available in LED's but must be specified. Use cooler lighting only for specific areas. If you spend allot of time reading from books with small type then you may also want to specify Quartz Halogen lamps for your favorite reading areas.
Water:
Have an R.O. water purification system built into a dispenser at the kitchen sink. Make sure it has a booster pump to bring the pressure up to at least 90 psi. This will give you the ability to have a Total dissolved solids count less than 20 PPM. The canister filters most people use are not good enough for much of the water you will find across the country. Last year in Casa Grande, AZ the TDS count was 750 out of the tap. Very heavy agricultural area with god knows what else in the water.
Bathroom shower:
I have seen a great shower design on an older 2007? Newell. It had the shower moved to the back end of the bathroom with the toilet placed forward. The shower area was extended into the closet area doubling the interior volume of the shower and making a seat area that looked very useful. It also had a steam/sauna unit built in. Now thats something I would happily trade storage space for.
Flooring:
I have a combination of carpeting and marble flooring tiles. While I don't generally like carpeting, the Oleofin carpet has been very tough and easy to clean giving a warmer and much quieter environment. I would love to get rid of the tile as it suffers from breakage especially around seams it is also very heavy. My preference is for products like the processed Bamboo and other high density wood products. Ceramic and stone I don't think is a good fit for an RV where flexing and vibration is a constant.
Weight control:
Do what you can to reduce excess weight. You will be amazed at how close to GVWR you will get. Nothing helps with handling and milage more than less weight. Counters, flooring, core materials in doors, etc. all can be lightened with little negative effect to the quality of the experience.
Have fun.
Mike
2008 Newell #1223 4 slide, Cat C15 with ZF 12 spd, 2004 Chevy Silverado 4x4 Duramax 6.6
