After a disastrous first attempt at downsizing the RV, we’re taking a second dip in the downsizing pool, and hopefully won’t sink this time. Once we made the decision to stop full-timing and buy a sticks-and-bricks house, we took that as an opportunity to look for a new, smaller coach that would better fit (physically fit, that is) in the kind of locations we like to visit. With our Essex being 45’ long and 13’4” high, we mainly stay at traditional RV parks that are used to accommodating big rigs. The few times we veered off the beaten path and stayed at state or county parks, it was a challenge. First off, sometimes we have to lie while making the reservation about our length as 45’ rigs were not even allowed. Then we had to shoehorn the beast into a site not designed for such. That is why in eighteen months of full-timing we only stayed in one state park and one county park.
We love our Essex but often hit low hanging branches or have difficulty fitting in public campgrounds (such as state, federal parks).
But that’s the thing, we want to stay predominantly in state, county and national parks, not in commercial RV parks. I wrote an article almost 2 years ago comparing two shorter coaches, the Newmar New Aire and the Tiffin Allegro Breeze, not knowing we’d be seriously considering one in the future. Choosing the New Aire was an easy decision. It’s the only coach that offers the amenities we want (all electric, heated floors, serious cargo carrying capacity, etc.) in a sub 35’ length. Why under 35’? At many state and national park campgrounds, most of which were developed many years ago, the majority of sites are designed for RV’s under 35’. As soon as you exceed that “magic” number you greatly reduce the number of potential sites, making reservations significantly more difficult.
We barely fit in this state park campsite due to our 45′ length
The New Aire is a 33’ coach (and only 12’3” in height to boot) that looks and functions for all purposes like an Essex on the inside. Going from an Essex to a New Aire is not much of a step down. Well, at least until you start driving. The New Aire drives very well in terms of ride comfort, stability and braking. It only falls short in one area: power. There is no substitute for the 14.9 liter engine making 1950 lb-ft of torque in our Essex (which weighs 47,000 pounds dry). The New Aire (weighing 32,000 pounds dry) is underpowered with a 6.7 liter engine making 800 lb-ft of torque. That works out to 24 pounds of weight for each lb-ft of torque to haul in the Essex vs. 40 pounds of weight for each lb-ft in the New Aire. For comparison, our 2015 Dutch Star works out to 31 pounds of weight for each lb-ft.
I immediately noticed this power deficit in our test drive. But getting into a smaller coach requires sacrifices, and this one is mine. How will I fare not having a monster engine? Only time will tell. The dealer mentioned there may be a modification a Cummins dealer can do to increase the torque to 900 lb-ft, but I question this as he then added, “well, you may also need additional transmission and engine cooling capacity”.
The New Aire is offered in three floor plans, of which we’ve walked through two. We chose the 3341 plan for two main reasons: 1) four smaller slides (two per side) are more flexible when staying in really tight spaces vs. one large slide (and two smaller) on the other plans. With our Tiffin Phaeton, which had four small slides, more than once we positioned the coach such that a tree was in between the two smaller slides, something you can’t do with a full wall slide; and 2) the other floor plans have the kitchen directly across from the toilet, which is awkward to say the least. The 3341 has a well demarcated kitchen/bathroom wall, providing much needed space when cooking should “the need arise” for the other person.
