Community Forums

B Bob · 03-14-2018, 08:28 PM

We bought our coach used almost ten years ago. When we first got it there were many issues due to the previous owner not taking care of anything but oil changes and filters, and the minimum of other problems. We have not had problems getting our coach serviced. We have been to the Country Coach / Winnebago factory several times for service and also some clear coat work. We have been very happy with the results. We have also used Kevin Waite in Oregon and he has done a more than great job a couple of times. In my opinion when Winnebago bought CC service improved. Information calls that used to cost a bit of money were now no charge. We have ordered quite a few parts from the Country Coach factory and been very happy.

We have broken down a few times on our travels. Both the chassis and house have had issues. We go to the local CAT dealer when we have chassis / motor type problems and have had good results several times. We have had things like an air conditioning hose start leaking and a truck shop in Cleveland fixed us up in about two hours. A switch for the back slide stopped working right and we stopped at HWH in Moscow IA and they fixed it in a couple of hours at a low cost.

We also went to the Grand National Rally at the Winnebago factory in IA summer before last. It is a very impressive operation and seems like they will be around for a long time. At the rally we met a number of Winnebago and CC service people. The Winnebago Grand National rally was the best organized and had the nicest place for the rally of all the big RV rallies we have been to.

One previous poster said that Country Coach may not have all the coach history records like Newmar. I do not think that is true. The founders of Country Coach bought up all the intellectual property and records when they bought the company at the auction. When I call the factory they have all the information on our coach.

I have never owned a Newmar so cannot say if CC is better or the same or less. I do have several friends that own Dutch Stars of various years. My general impression is that the level of quality of components that can vary (All CAT or Cummins motors the same, all Onan gennies the same and so on) is that CC tends to be a bit higher quality and that varies depending on which model you get. If you compare a Country Coach Magna with a Newmar that costs half well the Newmar likely will not be as nice. Other things CC does very well is to organize wiring and clearly mark it. Organize fuzes and clearly mark them. Good paint. Tend to have very good CCC capacity. My coach has ten air bags. Very good insulation. Very very nice cabinets. Our cabinets are of a much higher standard than the ones on any of my friends DS. Cabinets with brass yacht type latches. Basement storage with piano hinges that stay in alignment. Very high quality interiors. Our furniture is all very high grade leather that is thick and does not wear easily. Carpet and floor is very high quality. Our tag lifts when you go into a tight turn when you have that feature turned on. Custom built chassis made and designed for the coach not a truck or fire truck chassis like on most others. (only Foretravel, some high end Monacos, and a few others have actual motorhome chassis). Country Coach uses long chassis compared to the house length. Last time I looked the ratio was better than the Newmars I looked at. Longer chassis compared to house length gives a more stable safer ride.

And finally. When we looked for a coach ten years ago I bought the RV Consumer Groups information and at that time Country Coach and Foretravel were the two top rated DPs. Most Newmars were rated fine but at a lower level. Some people on this forum do not like the RVCG, but their business is to rate RVs and when we looked we found their ratings to be accurate.

Both Newmar and CC are great coaches and you will not be sorry if you bought either.

Racing4Fun · 03-18-2018, 07:49 PM

Thanks so much for the insight and information. We just returned from a long drive out to see this coach (700+ miles away). You are so right about the quality of the interior to the Dutch Star. Now don’t get me wrong my cabinetry in my Dutch Star is really well made compared to the Winnebago we had before it but the Country Coach interior is well built, well laid out and beautiful.
My husband and I both test drove it. I won’t drive our DS anymore. It just never handled great. Way better than our previous motor home but I was still not comfortable driving it. I drove the CC on some narrow roads - wow what a difference. I don’t know how much is the steel frame, Tag, and just general build but man it drove nice.
Now the coach does have some work we will need to do even though the owner was very meticulous. He pointed out everything and we spent 6 hours looking it over. Nothing we haven’t dealt with before and not really major. The biggest thing to me is a few fogged windows but every coach I have looked at has had this issue! We are going to move forward with purchasing it as it meets all of our needs. We just loved it. We are going into this eyes wide open and we’ve owned MHs now for 15 years. This last one for 10 years.
Will take a couple weeks to get all purchase paper work done but if all goes well will pick up in early April.
Thanks again!
Susan

Racing4Fun · 03-18-2018, 07:51 PM

Thanks! Good to hear.

John Jones · 03-18-2018, 08:58 PM

Congrats! Welcome to the CC family and post some pics

Racing4Fun · 03-19-2018, 06:54 PM

Here’s a few pics.

bneukam · 03-19-2018, 07:39 PM

Nice looking. Love the color scheme.
Looks better than most new coaches.
Brett

Racing4Fun · 03-20-2018, 05:26 PM

It does have a bit of bubbling on the aluminum in spots. Good news - owner has the paint and we will be able to repair. Husband and son do similar paint on car restorations.
We will be doing all PM and a few fixes when we finally get her home. But we also have to prep our old coach to sell! Going to be a busy spring if it ever gets here in the northeast!

B Bob · 03-21-2018, 09:36 AM

In the past I have been able to get touch up paint from the factory. They come in little tubes with a brush on the lid.

Racing4Fun · 04-22-2018, 10:26 AM

So just an update on this coach. Not so good.
Found turbo leak after purchase - no sign when we looked at coach. once we got in colder weather it reared it’s head. Still couldn’t get proper diagnosis because no one out hear can scan the engine/transmission as it is OBD1 and not OBD2.
On the way home, which was 700 miles - we hit some snow and got low fuel light, and ECM light - still don’t know what that was because no one can scan it.
Got home and the Hydro Hot quit - PC board blew and we replaced.
From basically the time we got home to now it’s been raining or snowing. Some torrential rain and we don’t have inside storage for it. Wind sensor for awning apparently leaked and separated the ceiling inside the coach. Diagnosed with a remote camera and you can see the ceiling sagging.
We are now considering dumping this thing. Never seen such a poor design of a ceiling (since a Fleetwood we owned) there is no way to reattach it to that cheap Styrene they use. Our diagnosis with the camera - total replacement of roof may be needed or at least the section in question - but I don’t think that can be done because I believe the roof sits on the walls. No one we know of out here in NH that could do this right.
We still have our Newmar so will be moving our stuff back over and considering how we cut this thing loose.
Sad day at our house but that’s where it stands and stand to loose thousands without every using it. Looked nice and checked out on inspection but once it was out in the elements - it started to fall apart.

smlranger · 04-22-2018, 02:51 PM

Sorry you are having issues but I am sure you can work thru them if you want to keep the coach.

CC's have two different diagnostic plugs. I have a set in the engine bay and a second set in the battery bay. If it is a Cummins engine, any Cummins shop should be able to connect their Insight system and check for error and diagnostic codes.

As far as the roof leak that is unfortunate but if the previous owner had it inside all the time and did little, if any, roof inspection or recaulking in 12 years, that could be the issue. The ceiling material is what most every coach manufacturer used/uses.....vinyl with a foam backing glued to the panel above. I had a leak around my shower skylight which caused some of the padded ceiling material to bubble and sag a bit around the skylight. Once I replaced the skylight, I was able to remove some of the damaged ceiling panel, replace it with some plywood and re-attach the padded vinyl with spray automotive adhesive. It came out pretty well.

The roof/ceiling can be repaired. I know of an Allure that was driven under a low overpass ripping off one AC and severely damaging part of the roof. It was repaired by a competent shop to like new.

If you find/fix the source of the leak, you can then find a shop who can repair any interior damage.

Again, not issues you want to have with a new-to-you coach but things that happen and can be fixed.

Racing4Fun · 04-22-2018, 05:19 PM

I’m with you. You’re right and thank you for the advice. My real big concern is finding a competent shop. They’re so lousy where we live. We have a pretty big area of Sag in the ceiling - 3’. I think 1 large section has to come down. We can fix the leak for sure. We’ve been maintaining our other RV roofs for years. It is so lousy that we had to have this 2 inch rain storm right after we came home with it. Didn’t even get a chance to get stuff done.

we really do love this coach how it drives and layout/interior but if the bones are bad

I do think there was some neglect and we are going to have to fix it. I’m just hoping it doesn’t get worse.

Pusherman · 04-23-2018, 06:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by smlranger

Sorry you are having issues but I am sure you can work thru them if you want to keep the coach.

As far as the roof leak that is unfortunate but if the previous owner had it inside all the time and did little, if any, roof inspection or recaulking in 12 years, that could be the issue. The ceiling material is what most every coach manufacturer used/uses.....vinyl with a foam backing glued to the panel above. I had a leak around my shower skylight which caused some of the padded ceiling material to bubble and sag a bit around the skylight. Once I replaced the skylight, I was able to remove some of the damaged ceiling panel, replace it with some plywood and re-attach the padded vinyl with spray automotive adhesive. It came out pretty well.

The roof/ceiling can be repaired. I know of an Allure that was driven under a low overpass ripping off one AC and severely damaging part of the roof. It was repaired by a competent shop to like new.

If you find/fix the source of the leak, you can then find a shop who can repair any interior damage.

Again, not issues you want to have with a new-to-you coach but things that happen and can be fixed.

First, you have a very nice coach. I was the prior owner of the shop that repaired the coach that smlranger referenced above. The ceiling panels are available from CC (now Winnebago), and it was not that big a job to tear down the old panels and put up the new ones (I think we replaced 2 of them). Exact color match! You can't tell we repaired it.

There are a few shops in Indiana which do interior remodels and restorations, some with big names behind them, being in the business for a long time. Not that far to travel.

First is to fix the leaks from the top of the roof. The affected ceiling panel could then be replaced at a future date. Not the end of the world.

Find a good Cummins shop to address the Turbo problem. Call Aqua-Hot for a certified shop to address its issues.

Yep, it's painful buying a used (or new!) coach and getting it to where you want it to be, but you have a coach with great bones. I think it is worth keeping it. P.S. I love the floor plan of your coach, a little shorter than many but with a tag axle!

Triboy · 04-24-2018, 12:23 AM

We have an 07 Allure 430 that we’ve now had for a little over 2 years, shortly after buying the rig we had a few leaks in the roof as a result of a poor satellite installation. We had Premier RV in Junction City do the repair and they did a great job, here’s a few pictures of before and after repair. We were fortunate that the satellite company stepped up and covered the repair. You may want to think about contacting Roger Berke about your Hydro-Hot RV Hydronic Heater Repair - Home just had our Webasto reconditioned by Roger and it’s running 100% better than before, no more smell of diesel and no need to put the snorkel up. I also bit the bullet when we originally bought the rig and had a number of chassis issues addressed which I haven't regretted. And there's no shortage of things to upgrade like a 47" TV, updated AV receiver, Samsung fridge, new house batteries, new inverter. We're on the tail end of a 3000 mile trip to Southern California and the rig has been great. Hang in there you've bought a coach with great bones.

Graeme Arnott
07 Allure 430 #31500

Racing4Fun · 04-24-2018, 07:46 PM

Hi,
Yes we really like the coach size and layout. Agree - 40’ with a tag - you can’t even feel a tractor trailer coming up or going buy. Handles really nice. Our Newmar, a little shorter, you could always feel them and the wind.
We are going to work through it. Talked to Greg at Country Coach yesterday who gave us some referrals closer to us that do this type of work on these type of rigs. All agree - nothing in New England.
We spoke to Luxury Coach in Ohio and RV Services of West Virginia. Will talk more with the owner at Luxury coach in Ohio tomorrow. I also spoke with Kevin Waite and with Premier RV Services today who said Greg was the right guy. Country Coach-Winnebago assured me they have the parts so it’s just a matter of getting it to the right place. Before we make another trek though we are going to get all of the fluids changed etc. on the mechanical end. I don’t need a failure there. It did pass state inspection last week so one hurdle over.