Money pit

[rodz]

Originally Posted by kgchampagne

Everything I own is a money pit. S&B just got a new furnace and a/c, needs paint in the next couple of years, again. Boat just got new batteries, new radios and needs lower unit service, MH just got a new slack adjuster, new dish and the list goes on and on. If I lived in a tent and ate grubs I guess I wouldn't have to deal with all of this. I'll take these issues any day, and I won't give up on RVing until I am tired of RVing, and same for the boat. If you hate the jacks, change them....it still cheaper than the alternatives.

Hardly a good comparison. The things you mentioned were repairable. It's not a mater of hating the jacks. They aren't repairable. Atwood should be offering some kind of replacement control board. The board was discontinued years ago. It wasn't reliable.

[rodz]

Originally Posted by Brian W

Why? Newmar didn't make the parts that failed and are no longer available. While I certainly understand the OP's frustration, I would suspect the parts Newmar used 9 years ago were also used by numerous other manufacturers.

I don't own a Newmar, but they have a great reputation in the industry of building quality coaches with great customer support.

Newmar's reputation for quality isn't what you think. Way to many horror stories.

[okcnewbie]

Originally Posted by Hgrace56

Not supporting a 100k plus vehicle after 9 years is enough of a ref flag for me to stick with other coaches.

It sounds like you've made up your mind already but;

Did you read the OP? The factory is repairing the slide. Newmar can't get a part that isn't available anymore.

[DGBPokes]

Originally Posted by rodz

Did you get the HWH?

No, Looked into it. HWH was a major installation $10-$12 K. The Newmar story was: the system cost for the Atwood was over $5K, for all the components. Because it was a major failure, they had negotiated the system cost down to $2.6K.

[BPoland]

So lets put this another way. You buy a used house that was built by Acme Homes. When the home was built, Acme installed Kenmore Elite Appliances, including a range, oven, refrigerator, dishwasher, microwave oven, washer and dryer. They aren't top of the line appliances but pretty standard stuff. Now lets fast forward. The house is 8 years old. The dishwasher craps out. Guess what, Sears is out of business and the parts aren't available (wait for it, it will happen). Now you want to blame Acme Homes because an appliance that they did not build but only installed in your home has failed and parts aren't available. Your are blaming the wrong company. I know in your mind it has to be somebody's fault, but it isn't Newmar.

Now the slide issue is Newmar's. They built it, they own it, as well as any defects in structure or house construction to include wiring, plumbing lines and connections.

It sounds like you are having some very expensive issues with your coach. I would not be happy either. I hope you get things fixed up and can start enjoying your coach again.

[Superslif]

We try to get out as much as the OP might have. The amount and costlier repairs a motorhome "might" bring, was one reason we would not get into that class of RV. Even on my last RV 2013 (trailer) I ordered it without "keyless entry, electric awning, electric jacks and electric tongue jack only because just more things to break. I would rather be RVing than repairing.

With that said we are looking for that next RV (Arctic Fox, ORV, Highland Ridge) where most of the fancy stuff are standard equipment. Even on our trip to Alaska last summer (110 days) the only 2 things that required fixing were: had a shorted brake wire by the rear trailer brake caused by wire rubbing axle (15 minute fix) and had a RV window get broken out in a construction zone. Cost me a total of $150 to replace.

Between my 05' and my 13' RV trailers the only real other expanse was $350 for a slide issue. Still had the normal maintenance and cleaning expanses.

Even with all the cost to keep any RV on the road, would you trade that for the alternative of vacationing to a hotel room....Would you trade a water front site in a national or state park to a hotel room? That campfire relaxing with your favorite beverage from your own frig? The freedom to move about and take your home with you.

[jsmmonaco]

maybe this is a bad way to look at things, but when we bought our 2007 monaco, i planned on $1000 per month in fixes and improvements...........the first year we had it, probably it that mark, second year, not so much..........rv-ing is a lifestyle that costs money......as someone pointed out, your sticks and bricks home also costs you money, but a broken item in a home may not cause you to be stuck in some far away place.............when the day comes, and i am sure it will, that the repairs, replacements, etc. start getting out of hand, i will weigh the pros and cons of rv life, and either continue to repair and replace, purchase another used coach (refuse to spend hundreds of thousands on new coach), or sell what we have sitting the driveway for whatever we can get out of it, and move on.............when we bought it, i basically took the position that i spent the initial investment, and should consider that money gone..........so if i sell the thing for $15,000 grand someday, the money lost was the price we paid for having the fun of the rv life.............kind of like going to an amusement park, you pay to get in, and when it comes to the end of the day, all you have is the memories of things you enjoyed..........not to mention, in 30 or so years (i am 58), no one is really gonna care about all the sets of tires i bought............

[Cranemec]

Sell it and buy an older high end like a Newell.

I hear that all the time on here. Guess what, my dad just spent $25,000 repairing his older, high end, 2006 Newell. He made one month long trip during February and he just spent another $5,000 grand on it.
Everything breaks, things get out dated. Things need repaired. I see it everyday with our cranes. Motor homes, much like cranes are niche vehicles. We are lucky manufacturers support them as long as they do.

[biggcrisp]

Originally Posted by kgchampagne

Everything I own is a money pit. If I lived in a tent and ate grubs I guess I wouldn't have to deal with all of this. I'll take these issues any day, and I won't give up on RVing until I am tired of RVing, and same for the boat. If you hate the jacks, change them....it still cheaper than the alternatives.

I just spit coffee out my nose.

So true...and funny.


@OP, could you just build your own switch boards?

You would have manual control over each jack -- up and down. Just trying to think outside of the box.

[Brian W]

Originally Posted by rodz

Newmar's reputation for quality isn't what you think. Way to many horror stories.

Name me a brand that doesn't have horror stories. I can find them for every brand out there including the multi-million dollar Prevost conversions.

[wayno347]

Originally Posted by kgchampagne

Everything I own is a money pit. S&B just got a new furnace and a/c, needs paint in the next couple of years, again. Boat just got new batteries, new radios and needs lower unit service, MH just got a new slack adjuster, new dish and the list goes on and on. If I lived in a tent and ate grubs I guess I wouldn't have to deal with all of this. I'll take these issues any day, and I won't give up on RVing until I am tired of RVing, and same for the boat. If you hate the jacks, change them....it still cheaper than the alternatives.

You'll quickly forget the RV and boat issues when your body starts needing repairs to your heart, kidneys, and bad knees. Hope your health is in better shape than the RV......Best always.

[G Schulz]

Have you checked online to see if anyone can rebuild the old board? If not I'm sure a manual system could be rigged up somehow.

[Superslif]

I subscribe to a bunch of YouTube channels related to full time RVing. Of many who have gone out and bought new 5ers with the automated leveling jacks. Half of which have failed under warranty. Either circuit boards or pumps. So even "new" RV's are not 100% trouble-free.

[rodz]

I'm not singling out Newmar even though I've had a lot of problems with them. I expect things to fail. My complaint is that parts should be available to make necessary repairs when needed. I found a used control board for $1,400.00. At this point I don't trust the Atwood system to get me on the road and not leave me stranded somewhere. It's proven to be a problematic unreliable system. For now I disabled the jacks and we'll go without jacks until I can come up with a better system.