2020 Dutch Star 4326 - new build

[fsudelt]

So just like another member on here (kpecks) we are putting together a new build for a 2020 Dutch Star 4326 so I thought I'd start a new build thread as we option it out and start working on our specials (pretty much have our dealer picked out at this point). Any thoughts on options and/or specials is much appreciated!

-Freightliner chassis
-Interior & exterior schemes - TBD
-Carmel Glazed Cherry cabinets
-All electric
-Floor heat (love it in our current coach!)
-Central vac
-Dishwasher
-Freezer on pullout slide tray
-Washer & Dryer
-Exterior TV
-360 Cameras
-Prep for ground tripod satellite dish (this was special on our last coach, now part of options)
-Front overhead TV
-Winegard open face as well as in-motion satellite (still debating on in-motion as we only have open face now and kids watch dvr shows on road or ipads)
-Xite Dash radio
-Recessed docking lights
-Transfer switch with surge (would this replace our current Progressive Industries surge protector?)
-Stainless steel trim (don't have now but think I like the look of it, is it hard to keep clean?)
-Large storage tray
-Pass through storage tray
-MCD power window shades
-Hot water line to generator (love this on our current coach!)
-RV sanicon turbo
-Full Girard awnings package
-Kitchen window

Specials:
-Bunk area not built out (having triple bunks instead after build)
-Dinette not built out (having u-shaped dinette from KA after build)
-3 windows (New Aire style) in bunk area
-Solid wood pocket doors
-Overhead cabinets over dinette and sofa to be same depth
-GE advantium microwave
-Vent microwave (is this needed, we don't have now so not sure?)
-Low profile splash guard
-Move bedroom dvd player/sat hookup to upper wardrobe D/S upper shelf and add drawer
-Ext colors (anyone willing to post their special ext colors I'd love to see what others have done, definitely don't want white or light color on rear bottom as it shows dirt really easy)
-Mix and match interiors from different product lines
-King Aire floors
-Omit front license plate
-Undermount sink in 1/2 bath
-Add wiring from 1/2 bath to wetbay
-Run HDMI from ext tv to rear bedroom
-For bunk wardrobe: delete clothes rod, in bottom half add 4 faced pullout drawers and in top half add 3x adjustable shelves that run full depth of wardrobe
-Extend floor heat to driver/passenger area (anyone have luck with this special?)
-Black dash (is this now a standard option and not special?)
-King Aire water pump (we have this on our DS4310 due to 2 showers but like the pressure, is this needed or is standard water pump on DS sufficient?)
-Delete windows by head of master bed on each side

Thanks again for any input and excited to build out another Newmar coach!

-Brian

[Flatlander1]

Congrats, nice list & build!!
Where will you get the after build work completed for the triple bunks? I will be curious how Newmar reacts to that request and the related items!?!

[fsudelt]

Originally Posted by Flatlander1

Congrats, nice list & build!!
Where will you get the after build work completed for the triple bunks? I will be curious how Newmar reacts to that request and the related items!?!

There's a local carpenter shop in Nappanee that will do the work after coach is ready to be shipped to the dealer. My dealer will then arrange for coach to be driven from factory to local shop to get work done, and then on to dealershiop for delivery. Another member on here (kpecks) is looking at doing the same thing. Newmar has no issue doing this as there's another member on here who does this every year when he orders a new Dutch Star (think something like 4 or 5 years in a row now).

[Mapnerd]

Congrats & a couple of thoughts/comments:

Central vac

As we try to find a convenient place to keep our dyson stick vac, we’re starting to wish we’d gotten this.

Recessed docking lights

I didn’t do my research here and assumed the coach came with docking lights because a coach without them would be pretty stupid. Well, you know what they say about assumptions...Recessed docking lights basically means docking lights. I thought it was just an option to have the recessed into the body and that if I didn’t get this option, I’d just have docking lights that weren’t flush with the body, like the security light. Guess what? I don’t have ANY docking lights and I’m kinda pissed at Newmar about it, but more pissed at myself for not researching it. Now I have to find some aftermarket solution. I’m hoping I can tap into the security lights somehow...

MCD Power Shades

Wife and I were talking about this option (which we didn’t get) the other day. I guess we don’t understand how it works, like can you lower individual shades or is it an all or nothing solution? If its all or nothing, that’d be a hard pass for me. We also figured it’s just another thing to break.

Hot Water line to generator area

If you plan to also use this for a pressure washer, get a GFCI Outlet installed there too as a special. We got this option but didn’t get the special for the outlet and now I’m not even sure what to do with it.

Kitchen Window

Keep in mind that will take away a lot of your kitchen backsplash. We didn’t want to always be cleaning kitchen windows from cooking oil splatter or something.

Specials:
Vent microwave (is this needed, we don't have now so not sure?)

Erm, yeah I would say so. My wife has been cooking up a storm and some of the stuff she’s whipped up, I was sitting outside and could smell it coming out of the vent. She hasn’t cooked anything particularly pungent yet but I couldn’t imagine the entire coach smelling like roasted chicken for a day. It does make noise though because apparently the fix hasn’t made it to production yet. At FPU, I had my tech get up there any add some sound deadening tape to it, which did quiet it down but I can still hear it from time to time. I think I’m going to climb up there, remove the flap and coat it in plastidip and see if that helps. It’s a very metallic flapping noise, like a sheet of tin metal bouncing. Newmar just needs to find a way to deaden that sound or lock the vent for travel.

GE advantium microwave

Why do so many folks want this particular microwave? What’s wrong with the standard whirlpool one?

Undermount sink in 1/2 bath

Easily one of our favorite specials. Consider deleting the cabinet that sits on the counter above the sink to the right of the toilet when facing it. Makes the small 1.2 bath room feel an awful lot bigger.

Add wiring from 1/2 bath to wetbay

If you’re doing this for the automatic dump valves mod, your wet bay is going to be on the other side of the coach (half bath is on passenger side, wet bay is on driver’s side) so running those wires to the 1/2 bath won’t allow you to monitor the dump process. Another option might be the dinette, but you might accidentally trip it there. If I were doing it, I’d add them at the Driver’s chair because you can monitor it from your side view mirror.

For bunk wardrobe: delete clothes rod, in bottom half add 4 faced pullout drawers and in top half add 3x adjustable shelves that run full depth of wardrobe

If you’re a handy woodworker, consider doing this yourself and just tell them to leave the bunk wardrobes blank. The more I look at it, the more I feel I could have done just as good or a better job. Shelves are flimsy, drawers are shallow (same depth as those in the pantry). Alternatively, consider asking your carpenter who is going to do your triple bunks. You could also just be more specific with how you word the special when requesting it, giving them sizes and dimensions of drawers. I can send you better pictures if you like.

Delete windows by head of master bed on each side

We actually like these windows. they create a nice cross breeze for us at night, giving us fresh air while we sleep. I can also see if anyone is standing at my driver’s door from there

[fsudelt]

I appreciate all the insight and thoughts you put into this. I replied below to each that you mentioned. Thanks again!

Originally Posted by Mapnerd

Congrats & a couple of thoughts/comments:

Central vac

As we try to find a convenient place to keep our dyson stick vac, we’re starting to wish we’d gotten this.

Yes we have the central vac in our current DS and we use it all the time, we store it above the fridge and it's out of the way but still convenient to get out anytime.

Recessed docking lights

I didn’t do my research here and assumed the coach came with docking lights because a coach without them would be pretty stupid. Well, you know what they say about assumptions...Recessed docking lights basically means docking lights. I thought it was just an option to have the recessed into the body and that if I didn’t get this option, I’d just have docking lights that weren’t flush with the body, like the security light. Guess what? I don’t have ANY docking lights and I’m kinda pissed at Newmar about it, but more pissed at myself for not researching it. Now I have to find some aftermarket solution. I’m hoping I can tap into the security lights somehow...

MCD Power Shades

Wife and I were talking about this option (which we didn’t get) the other day. I guess we don’t understand how it works, like can you lower individual shades or is it an all or nothing solution? If its all or nothing, that’d be a hard pass for me. We also figured it’s just another thing to break.

We again have this on our current coach and love it. You have a remote that sticks on the wall behind the passenger front seat. You can lower all windows at same time, or each individually. You can also re-program if you want to have not all windows but maybe 2 or 3 on one button. Definitely worth the money in my mind!

Hot Water line to generator area

If you plan to also use this for a pressure washer, get a GFCI Outlet installed there too as a special. We got this option but didn’t get the special for the outlet and now I’m not even sure what to do with it.

We currently have the hot water line and do not use a pressure washer but instead hook up a portable CR spotless system from a hose I store on the hot water line water spigot. I use this after every day that we drive to keep the front cap and 1st 10 feet on each side clean from any bugs or road grime. I store the smaller version (1 tank) CR spotless system in one of the basement bays on the driver's side.

Kitchen Window

Keep in mind that will take away a lot of your kitchen backsplash. We didn’t want to always be cleaning kitchen windows from cooking oil splatter or something.

Specials:
Vent microwave (is this needed, we don't have now so not sure?)

Erm, yeah I would say so. My wife has been cooking up a storm and some of the stuff she’s whipped up, I was sitting outside and could smell it coming out of the vent. She hasn’t cooked anything particularly pungent yet but I couldn’t imagine the entire coach smelling like roasted chicken for a day. It does make noise though because apparently the fix hasn’t made it to production yet. At FPU, I had my tech get up there any add some sound deadening tape to it, which did quiet it down but I can still hear it from time to time. I think I’m going to climb up there, remove the flap and coat it in plastidip and see if that helps. It’s a very metallic flapping noise, like a sheet of tin metal bouncing. Newmar just needs to find a way to deaden that sound or lock the vent for travel.

Thanks, yes I think this will be a nice addition as right now when cooking we'll use the fantastic fan but it does not do a great job in keep the cooking smells out depending what you are making. Hopefully they can find a fix for the noise going down the road by the time ours is built.

GE advantium microwave

Why do so many folks want this particular microwave? What’s wrong with the standard whirlpool one?

Good question, and we are not set on this for sure as we currently have "stock" microwave our 17 Dutch Star came with and have had zero issues with it. I put this in as it seems almost every build has this as a special that you see people post. Maybe somebody else can chime in on this....

Undermount sink in 1/2 bath

Easily one of our favorite specials. Consider deleting the cabinet that sits on the counter above the sink to the right of the toilet when facing it. Makes the small 1.2 bath room feel an awful lot bigger.

Yes we got this idea from your special and plan on copying it exactly. Love how yours turned out!

Add wiring from 1/2 bath to wetbay

If you’re doing this for the automatic dump valves mod, your wet bay is going to be on the other side of the coach (half bath is on passenger side, wet bay is on driver’s side) so running those wires to the 1/2 bath won’t allow you to monitor the dump process. Another option might be the dinette, but you might accidentally trip it there. If I were doing it, I’d add them at the Driver’s chair because you can monitor it from your side view mirror.

Not sure if we are definitely going to do this. No plans on auto dump now but thought would be nice to have wires there if we change our minds in the future. Also I wouldn't mind putting in a Bluetooth tank monitor system like we have in our current coach as it's nice to be able to look at levels from anywhere around coach on my phone.

For bunk wardrobe: delete clothes rod, in bottom half add 4 faced pullout drawers and in top half add 3x adjustable shelves that run full depth of wardrobe

If you’re a handy woodworker, consider doing this yourself and just tell them to leave the bunk wardrobes blank. The more I look at it, the more I feel I could have done just as good or a better job. Shelves are flimsy, drawers are shallow (same depth as those in the pantry). Alternatively, consider asking your carpenter who is going to do your triple bunks. You could also just be more specific with how you word the special when requesting it, giving them sizes and dimensions of drawers. I can send you better pictures if you like.

Delete windows by head of master bed on each side

We actually like these windows. they create a nice cross breeze for us at night, giving us fresh air while we sleep. I can also see if anyone is standing at my driver’s door from there

It's funny because we have never even opened the night/day shades on either of those windows since we got our coach new 3 years ago! I like sleeping in as close to all darkness as possible so deleting windows takes away the little light that comes in as sun rises.

[Mapnerd]

Also, with the bunk wardrobes, I had to explicitly ask for that special to be done in both wardrobes. For some reason, they thought I only wanted it done in one of them.

[fsudelt]

Originally Posted by Mapnerd

Also, with the bunk wardrobes, I had to explicitly ask for that special to be done in both wardrobes. For some reason, they thought I only wanted it done in one of them.

Thanks, yea your special wrote up was great! As you can see I took a few of them. I know you noted it could be a project (bunk wardrobe) but I think I’d prefer them to do it.

[SpartyTom]

Check the location of the light switch in the bunk area. On our 2019 the switch is on the outside wall which you really can’t reach.

[fsudelt]

Forgot to add also going to get additional A/C venting added to bunk area

[fsudelt]

Originally Posted by SpartyTom

Check the location of the light switch in the bunk area. On our 2019 the switch is on the outside wall which you really can’t reach.

You referencing overhead lights for “hallway” or individual bunks as we are not having any of that built out. I know on our current 4310 the “hallway” light switch is next to bathroom on opposite wall which we have no problem with.

[SpartyTom]

I was speaking of the lights in the bunk area itself. I wasn’t sure if the lights would be installed even though you weren’t finishing the bunks

Also we subbed the 1/2 slide out tray for the pass through tray. The frame rails limit the height of cargo you can store on the driver’s side and still pull the tray out

[Mapnerd]

Originally Posted by SpartyTom

Check the location of the light switch in the bunk area. On our 2019 the switch is on the outside wall which you really can’t reach.

That’s a good call. Some of my light switch panels are in really silly places. I would add a special to explicitly relocate them to more convenient (and logical) places if I were doing it again.

[deaton]

We are also building a new DS. Ours is a 4081 and it is due to start in January and we will be doing factory PU in February. I know, poor planning.

I’ve attached our specials list. We started with 28 and ended with 18. Some were rejected by Newmar and on others, we changed our mind due to costs.

In total, the 18 we went with came to about $12k and our dealer did break out the pricing to help on our analysis.

We tried to dump the vessel sink in favor of an undermount but Newmar turned that down. They said the redesign of the cabinet on the 4081 floor plan makes it too small to use the undermount.



As for options, we pretty well loaded it up. I noticed the OP didn’t list adaptive cruise and I’m wondering why.

We omitted slide-out trays and plan to do them aftermarket to get just what we want. Half-trays in the full bay.

We had a firm trade-in offer on our 17-4018, but we decided to list it on RV Trader and it sold in 11 days. We are delivering it tomorrow. No coach for three months [emoji26]. But we did a lot better than the trade [emoji16].

[fsudelt]

Originally Posted by deaton

We are also building a new DS. Ours is a 4081 and it is due to start in January and we will be doing factory PU in February. I know, poor planning.

I’ve attached our specials list. We started with 28 and ended with 18. Some were rejected by Newmar and on others, we changed our mind due to costs.

In total, the 18 we went with came to about $12k and our dealer did break out the pricing to help on our analysis.

We tried to dump the vessel sink in favor of an undermount but Newmar turned that down. They said the redesign of the cabinet on the 4081 floor plan makes it too small to use the undermount.

Attachment 266680

As for options, we pretty well loaded it up. I noticed the OP didn’t list adaptive cruise and I’m wondering why.

We omitted slide-out trays and plan to do them aftermarket to get just what we want. Half-trays in the full bay.

We had a firm trade-in offer on our 17-4018, but we decided to list it on RV Trader and it sold in 11 days. We are delivering it tomorrow. No coach for three months [emoji26]. But we did a lot better than the trade [emoji16].

Thanks! Yea we listed our 17 DS4310 a few days ago on RV trader, so hoping to sell it privately as you mentioned trade ins are killer! We didn’t do adaptive cruise as my thinking is we usually are not going as fast as most traffic (cruise at 65-70) so what’s the point of adding it if you are not keeping pace with traffic? Maybe I’m missing something??