New Member

[CampingCaptain]

Hi All. I'm a new member here. I have been a long time member over at the NuWa Owners Forum and in fact am a Moderator on one of the boards. My DW and I have planned to buy a NuWa Champagne fifth wheel to go full time in once we can sell our home but now it appears it will never happen since NuWa is permanently shutting down production. For this reason, we are now starting the search all over again and are looking for our new favorite brand and floorplan. We are currently looking at Newmar Torrey Pines and Kountry Aire as possibilities. I'm sure I'll have plenty of questions to ask as I go along and hope you'll have the patience to answer the ones you can. Thanks in advance.
Bryan Richardson

[CampingCaptain]

Hi All. I'm a new member here. I have been a long time member over at the NuWa Owners Forum and in fact am a Moderator on one of the boards. My DW and I have planned to buy a NuWa Champagne fifth wheel to go full time in once we can sell our home but now it appears it will never happen since NuWa is permanently shutting down production. For this reason, we are now starting the search all over again and are looking for our new favorite brand and floorplan. We are currently looking at Newmar Torrey Pines and Kountry Aire as possibilities. I'm sure I'll have plenty of questions to ask as I go along and hope you'll have the patience to answer the ones you can. Thanks in advance.
Bryan Richardson

["007"]

Welcome CampingCaptain to the Newmar forum and irv2.
Here is a LINK for the 2009 5th wheels you maybe interested in. We have some 5th wheelers in the forum they are a quite group enjoying their 5th wheels but I'm sure they will help you out.
Enjoy the forums and we await your questions.
Many thanks for your Marines service.

[Shaun and Amy]

Hey there CampingCaptain. Welcome to the site.

My wife and I have a 2008 Kountry Aire. Before that we had a 2000 Mountain Aire. We love our new Kountry Aire. We might have ended up with a Torey Pine, but at the time they didn't offer it with dual wheels nor full body paint, so we didn't go any further with it. If you have any questions please ask away. Maybe if your lucky I might know the answer.

Good Luck in your search,
Shaun and Amy

[Dennis M]

Welcome Bryan and Lee! We did a lot of research over several years and no matter what we looked at we always came back to Newmar.

We have had our "slightly used" Mountain Aire for two years and could not be happier. It has proven to be everything we expected in the way of quality, durability and all around comfort.

Several fiver owners on the forum, so ask away!

[CampingCaptain]

Thanks all for the warm welcome. So far, we like the Torrey Pines 37LKSB and the Kountry Aire 37RLCS. We'll know better once we are able to see a few models at a dealer in order to get a feel for the fit and finish, etc. How do you all find the tandem wheel setup to be? Any problems? Thanks in advance.

Bryan

[Shaun and Amy]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">How do you all find the tandem wheel setup to be? Any problems? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hi Bryan and Lee,

This is our second Newmar with the Tandem dual wheels. I personally wouldn't own one without it now. We have had two fiver's with just double axles prior to the Newmar's and found a huge difference. The tandem dual wheels make the whole coach much more stable going down the road. Between that and the Mor-Ryde there's hardly any bouncing going on and the side to side sway is uliminated as well. I would HIGHLY recommend it and sacrafice other items if I had to to get them.

Shaun

[CampingCaptain]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Shaun and Amy:

This is our second Newmar with the Tandem dual wheels. I personally wouldn't own one without it now. We have had two fiver's with just double axles prior to the Newmar's and found a huge difference. The tandem dual wheels make the whole coach much more stable going down the road. Between that and the Mor-Ryde there's hardly any bouncing going on and the side to side sway is uliminated as well. I would HIGHLY recommend it and sacrafice other items if I had to to get them.

Shaun </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Shaun,
Thanks for the insight. One of our previous "favorites" was Mobile Suites. They build a beautiful, well insulated trailer. However, they also build it on a single wheeled, two axle chassis. I know from our research that they have had a lot of problems with blowouts due to too much weight on those four tires.

Do you find that you need to change anything when backing in to a tight site? Is there anything to pay attention to with tire scrubbing issues with the tandem wheels? Thanks again.

Bryan

[Shaun and Amy]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Do you find that you need to change anything when backing in to a tight site? Is there anything to pay attention to with tire scrubbing issues with the tandem wheels? Thanks again. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I see a lot of Mobile Suites and Teton's out there on 4 or 6 tires, so with respect to weight I agree that 8 tires would be much better. With our Kountry aire, we're right on the line with the weight and it carries it great.

With taking tight corners or backing in, I haven't ever had an issue. The one thing I did notice, is that when you are making a tight turn, the tires don't seem to roll over as much as the would on a double axle trailer. Although, I do try to avoid that situation when I can. Just so it does save some wear. On our 2000 Mountain Aire we had about 55,000 miles on it and I could have gotten one more season out of them if I really wanted to. If we had kept it though I would have changed them.

Hope this helps,
Shaun

[CampingCaptain]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Shaun and Amy:

With taking tight corners or backing in, I haven't ever had an issue. The one thing I did notice, is that when you are making a tight turn, the tires don't seem to roll over as much as the would on a double axle trailer. Although, I do try to avoid that situation when I can. Just so it does save some wear. On our 2000 Mountain Aire we had about 55,000 miles on it and I could have gotten one more season out of them if I really wanted to. If we had kept it though I would have changed them.

Hope this helps,
Shaun </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Shaun,
That does help, thank you. Interesting that there seems to be less rollover with the tandem wheels. Guess it must be a more stable platform.

Bryan

[MT flyfisher]

Hello, Bryan, and welcome.

We have good friends that own a NuWa, and they fulltimed in it for a year. Not only are they nice units, but they also have a fine service reputation. My understnding is that while they have just stopped production, this may not be a permanent thing, and their parts and service center is still open for business.

My wife and I also have a 2008 Kountry Aire, which we (like Shaun and Amy) purchased from Wilkins RV in upstate NY. We have the KSCS model, and spend about 4-5 months each summer and fall in it. Although Newmar does not call their 5th wheels full time units, I'm not sure they are not capable of doing so, and are certainly well built. While we have had a number of issues with ours, we selected Newmar over all other 5th wheels available in the marketplace (without regard to price) and at this point I would not hestitate to buy another when we are again in the market for a new one, nor hesitate to recommend Newmar to any prospective buyer.

John

[CampingCaptain]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by MT flyfisher:
Hello, Bryan, and welcome.

We have good friends that own a NuWa, and they fulltimed in it for a year. Not only are they nice units, but they also have a fine service reputation. My understnding is that while they have just stopped production, this may not be a permanent thing, and their parts and service center is still open for business.

My wife and I also have a 2008 Kountry Aire, which we (like Shaun and Amy) purchased from Wilkins RV in upstate NY. We have the KSCS model, and spend about 4-5 months each summer and fall in it. Although Newmar does not call their 5th wheels full time units, I'm not sure they are not capable of doing so, and are certainly well built. While we have had a number of issues with ours, we selected Newmar over all other 5th wheels available in the marketplace (without regard to price) and at this point I would not hestitate to buy another when we are again in the market for a new one, nor hesitate to recommend Newmar to any prospective buyer.

John </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

John,
Thanks for the reply and especially the welcome. At this time, NuWa's CEO (and owner) Mike Mitchell has stated that he is permanently shutting down production of new trailers. A very sad day for a long time builder of quality fifth wheels, especially for all of the employees. He has said that if he could find a new partner that it is possible that that could turn around but it is not likely.

I'm glad to hear that you are satisfied enough with your Newmar product that you would be willing to buy another. That always says a lot. You did mention that you have had a "number of issues." If you don't mind me asking, what were they and how did the company respond to you. Thanks in advance.

Bryan

[MT flyfisher]

Bryan -

The 2 larger issues we had, and there were/are still several lesser significant ones (more or less typical RV issues), were that one of the slide outs was insufficiently sealed, and a second slide out had incorrect slide rollers installed on it. These were both there from when the 5th wheel was manufactured. Rollers intended for use over ceramic tile were installed over carpet, which both abraided the carpet, and left grease stains on it. When it rained, water came into the trailer, and as a result all of the carpet in the living area needed to be replaced before we purchased and took delivery of the trailer.

Unfortunately, the dealer did not diagnose the causes for the ruined carpet, and although Newmar promptly authorized the dealer to replace it under warranty (and we paid an incremental $1,000 to have a better grade of carpet installed verses the standard one), we literally no sooner got off dealer's lot when it again began raining, and when we set up in a campground for the first night on the road the same problems still existed.

Fortunately, we were travelling right past Nappannee, IN on our way to MT. Even though we did not have an appointment for service, Newmar put a team of service guys to work on our trailer the morning we arrived, they identified these problems and fixed them -- first class all the way!!

John

["007"]

When your slide is out check the rubber slideout seal on box surface and make sure there is no fold in rubber seal. If there is water will get behind seal and go behind seal to floor below. Use awning loop end rod to flip out fold.

LEAKS