Community Forums

OC-RV · 01-09-2007, 03:39 PM

I joined your forum in Oct. and have been reading the sorry tales of customer problems with Spartan and Newmar. Regardless of the cost of the coach some are going to be worse than problematic. It is truly sad that the manufacturers are trying to convince us that we should expect these problems. Some would call this lurking - I feel that I have been trying to understand our predicament. I have a 2005 Newmar KS #3910 Spartan with 22,000 miles on it. The U-joint and driveshaft have been replaced 3 times now. Yes its been greased. The last replacement was by Spartan in Charlotte, MI. Spartan thinks that they installed the assembly backwards originally thereby causing the subsequent failures. Have had air bags replaced and Spartan wiring problems causing low air alarms to ring. Also had the plastic dip stick tube melt - too close to the manifold, installed by Spartan. Newmars' position has always been that it is not their problem - It would be covered under Spartans warranty. How is it that Spartan is so highly thought of? The Essex owners have had continuing, unresolved problems also. Would you buy another Newmar Spartan unit? I doubt that I would. I can accept and would expect some problems, not these numerous unresolved problems. Thanks John

OC-RV · 01-09-2007, 03:39 PM

I joined your forum in Oct. and have been reading the sorry tales of customer problems with Spartan and Newmar. Regardless of the cost of the coach some are going to be worse than problematic. It is truly sad that the manufacturers are trying to convince us that we should expect these problems. Some would call this lurking - I feel that I have been trying to understand our predicament. I have a 2005 Newmar KS #3910 Spartan with 22,000 miles on it. The U-joint and driveshaft have been replaced 3 times now. Yes its been greased. The last replacement was by Spartan in Charlotte, MI. Spartan thinks that they installed the assembly backwards originally thereby causing the subsequent failures. Have had air bags replaced and Spartan wiring problems causing low air alarms to ring. Also had the plastic dip stick tube melt - too close to the manifold, installed by Spartan. Newmars' position has always been that it is not their problem - It would be covered under Spartans warranty. How is it that Spartan is so highly thought of? The Essex owners have had continuing, unresolved problems also. Would you buy another Newmar Spartan unit? I doubt that I would. I can accept and would expect some problems, not these numerous unresolved problems. Thanks John

Jestme13 · 01-09-2007, 03:54 PM

Oh Man, are you gonna get it now.

GaryKD · 01-09-2007, 04:56 PM

I'll join John on his band wagon. My coach is the same as his. While I have never been stranded, the only two appliances that have not broken are the microwave and the TV. All other appliances have broken once and several have broken twice. Per previous posts, I have spent about $7500 of my own money to get the chassis driveable. Both door and main awnings have been replaced. Replacement of all slide toppers are next on the list.

What may be different about my series of problems and those of the Essex threads is mine are simple basic parts that have been placed in these appliances for many years. And yet there seems to be a trend of sloppy manufacturing by both the vendors and Newmar itself. I estimate almost all my warranty repairs could have been avoided if the vendors and Newmar used industry standard quality control practices. I can not verify this with the vendors, but when taking the Newmar tour and speaking with a Newmar executive I was able to confirm Newmar has home grown (or groan depending on if your the customer) quality control procedures. In my years in manufacturing, I have never seen a home grown program produce lasting qaulity improvement.