Newmar Factory Service Part Two

We scheduled this March appointment back in November to ensure we’d get all remaining work performed before our 1 year warranty ends in April. We requested the same technicians we had last time, Nevin and Gene, who we figured couldn’t be equaled in attention to detail and communication with the customer. They weren’t available, so we had Todd and Duane instead. We went into the process with these new technicians with an open mind, and were quickly rewarded with equally excellent service. Last time I said Nevin and Gene are rockstars, and now I will add Todd and Duane to that list. In fact, from talking with other Newmar Owners, I think every employee in building 42 is a rockstar.

Sunset at Camp Newmar

We arrived in Nappanee Sunday afternoon and were pleasantly surprised to find the full hookup campground (Camp Newmar) was not full! Unlike last time, we’d now have access to water and sewer. We stayed in site #11, which was very easy to pull into hooked up. Fairly early Monday morning, around 6:30 AM, Todd and a driver arrived to transport our unit over to building 42. I think we made their day when we volunteered to deliver the RV ourselves every morning and return it back every afternoon, freeing up a good 10-15 minutes twice a day for two people. They promised to spend that extra time working on our unit.

At Camp Newmar

Sites are wide enough for slides

Much like last time we were very impressed with the quantity of work performed each day. It’s a revelation compared to going to a Newmar dealer, where weeks pass with zero progress. Duane knocked off a good 50% of the items on our list in one day, including finding a minor hydraulic leak that necessitated replacing a faulty solenoid. Day two found Gary performing the Freightliner chassis maintenance, which took him the entire day to do right. He found two minor coolant leaks and tightened some hose clamps. And unlike Transwest, he didn’t falsely charge us for 6 extra quarts of motor oil hoping we wouldn’t know the oil capacity of our engine.

While Duane was installing the new Wifiranger exterior router/antenna on the roof, he noticed some cracks in the seals around the awnings. He talked with his boss and they authorized replacing all the seals on the roof! This is not a quick job. They had to remove all the seals, which involved disassembling and removing some roof-mounted components, and then adding new sealant. They had 2-3 people working on our roof all day, all covered under warranty. I’d estimate this was a $2000 job if we had to pay. And remember, we didn’t even know about this. A Newmar employee noticed it and could have said nothing. His boss could have opted to not warranty it, perhaps saying it was due to normal wear and tear. But they didn’t. That is how you earn customers for life.

They removed the awnings and top rails to complete the sealing project

Our Essex without the top rails, which were removed to reseal the brackets

I can’t say enough positives about our experiences in building 42. Now that we’ve had two service appointments with two different technicians, I’m confident everyone is receiving this level of service. I do have to point out that building 42 caters to the “highline” models, which are the New Aire, Mountain Aire, London Aire, Essex, and King Aire. I can’t speak about service in building 11, where the Bay Star, Canyon Star, Ventana and Dutch Star go, but I hope it’s similarly excellent.

List of warranty items:

The power cargo tray no longer stops automatically and crashes into the opposite cargo door
There is a slight imperfection in the wood lambrequin around the dining room window
The sliding drawer above the dishwasher no longer slides all the way out
The vinyl T molding on floor of the full wall slide is ripping at the rear corner
The mechanism in the sofa that pulls out into a bed is broken
The full wall slide is not flush at the rear
Dishwasher fills with water between uses

List of maintenance items: