Quote from: Gary Hatt - Publisher BCM on July 05, 2026, 04:56:04 PMHas anyone installed a Storm Scope in their bus? It seems like a great addition to help determine if you are driving into a storm ahead, so you can maybe pull over and wait for it to pass.
Quote from: windtrader on July 03, 2026, 10:34:53 AMjt - add name to signature.
look for my thread on recent(this year) deep reearch into swapping the MC8 for a Series 60 coach including numerous conversations with nuts that have owned both OTR and factory built RV
Here are a few highlights:
1) Newell is arguably at the top of non OTR RV from a currently viable manufacturer.
2) Newell is NOT a bus so it does not have the same level of driving experience.
3) Bus chassis conversions offer the best ride and comfort.
4) Newell tech support is wonderful. It is a small company committed to producing excellent quality and servicing owners, even those generations removed from the original sale. My personal experience still leaves be a bit befuddled how willing they offer assistance to decades old coaches.
5) Newell does not generally include full engineering docs nor will they supply them for older coaches today. One caution is their specific knowledge abut a coach is a combination of what written docs they have on file and more likely collective wisdom and expertise about the coaches built over time. Cliff mentioned each is designed and built to order; however, the large amount of design and components group into ranges that equate to coach number and timeframe. When you start looking at a lot of them, there is a distinct layout pattern that emerges. Full bath in back, toilet on the left wall, shower on left. Some other style is having the shower and sink between bedroom and forward cabin. Kitchen is often found on starboard side midship, irrespective if mid or front entry.
6) Slides are great but they're designed evolved over time. A common maintenance item is the slide seals and most return to factory for that service. For that manner, quite of them are in the midwest and it is quite common owners bring their coaches to the factory for service and reconnecting with old friends; it is like a family for sure.
7) It is a very unique and tight community. It is the only RV that folks reference by chassis number and often have knowledge and experience with the owners. If serious about searching, I would strongly advise only looking at those with pedigree of ownership and speak to the owner(s) directly and the folks on newell gurus. There are a couple members here too.
.Series 60 were used a lot in the production range I was searching 2000-2007. I think Cat was sometimes installed but later it became more common.
9) Prices can vary a lot, condition matters a LOT, some are in showroom condition, kept in conditioned air indoor facilities while others have clearly marginally maintained. Mileage counts too but generally for a 20 year coach, 125k is an average number.
10) These are 45' coaches, so that size has major impacts on where and how you experience traveling with it. At 40' we have plenty of indoor space and being able to get into local cheap fuel stations works with a bit of planning and caution, taking it off the asphalt on dirt roads into public lands to boondocks is generally navigable, at 45' the clearance is simply too low. At 45' it should never see dirt.
10) Last and most important insight that finally buried the hatchet is the fact these things have a LOT of systems and that means more maintenance and time and money spent keeping it going. At this point in life, I am on a mission to lessens the hassles in life. And that sentiment was expressed by other Newell owners that sold them, moving toward less complicated rides. Once the barrage of posts about stuff needing fixing, that was it. My current ride was converted with such well thought out design and foresight as to ease of maintenance and service, it is perfect. The sole reason initiating the search was Series 60 as I really wanted to get off the 2 stroke platform.