Community Forums

Eheld786 · 05-24-2012, 10:29 AM

Ones anyone know why Newmar is going with Freightliner chassis instead of Spartan?

Cruzer · 05-24-2012, 10:33 AM

Freightliner has big pockets and can deal down low on price. Fleetwood also went that way to save a few bucks. As for me, I'll stick with Spartan. I've had both.

FlyingDiver · 05-24-2012, 10:36 AM

This would probably have been better placed in the Newmar forum. There are a number of threads on the topic from a year or more ago when it was first announced.

I think it was purely economics. Freightliner was willing to give Newmar a significantly better deal on (more or less) equivalent chassis than Spartan was. In part, I think this was because Spartan has a lot of business in the Fire Truck and military vehicle lines and they weren't going to be hurting for the loss on the RV side. Note that Spartan still provides the K2 and K3 chassis used in the Essex and King Aire lines.

joe

Spikester · 05-24-2012, 10:55 AM

The original switch to Freightliner Chassis was due to the availability of chassis with pre DEF (2010) emissions controls. Freightliner could provide Newmar with more pre 2010 emission control drive trains than Spartan could so Newmar chose to switch to Freightliner Chassis for all but their High Line Products. This provided them with a better price point on 2010 and later products lines. Also Freightliner agreed to address the problems Newmar had with Freightliner provided chassis that drove Newmar away from using them. Newmar High Line products still are built on Spartan Chassis.

Spike