2008 - Newmar Grandstar - Beware!!

When we found this motorhome.. I thought.. this is it! this is the one! The layout was unusual, different and new.. I loved it! I couldn't wait till we could bring it home... Being from a family that is on their 3rd Newmar motorhome, I thought finally, we have evolved into a quality coach. So we counted our pennies and made the offer on a 2008 - Newmar Grandstar 3750. It had a new layout, FRED chassis... girly on the inside for me.. diesel power and diamond coat on the outside for him.. what more could I want?? right?? Well.. I guess the only thing would be.. for a coach to work for one trip. Just one.. with no problems...Is that too much to ask? That was not to be in the cards.

When they were giving us the walk thru on the Saturday morning we picked the coach up, the 'check engine' light came on during inspection. Their RV tech assured us, this wasn't an issue.. just turn the engine off and on, it's probably not warm.. well we get 2 blocks from the dealership and the coach dies.. it won't restart.. nothing.. dead in the water... We call our salesman Tyler.. He asks immediately.. where are you, I'll be right there.. 45 minutes later, we get it started.. head back to the dealership and Tyler is still outside, yapping to a bunch of the other Guaranty salesman, without any concern at all for us. Now I failed to mention that we are 400 miles from home.. we had to travel this far to find this new model... he says, well it's a cummins issue, nothing they could do, drive home, if you encounter problems, call cummins on Monday morning.. bye, nice seeing you.. thanks for your money.

We limp it home and when we get it to cummins, we find out that Newmar has incorrectly re-routed the wiring harness over the turbo and has melted the ignition wires. At first cummins didn't know who to charge, but covered it as 'infant care' and away we go.

Ok all is well.. we are off for an adventure! Excited... we head away for our first weekend.. we can't get the automatic leveling jacks up.. the board is scrambled.. lights flashing, things beeping.. we grab the manual trying to figure out what to do.. nothing.. we have done everything we are supposed to... finally we manually retract the jacks.. and un-hook the panel.. but oh well, there are bugs in a lot of new things.. not to worry... so lets just sit back and enjoy, it's under warranty!

The weekend proceeds.. we are not going to let the jacks get us down.. we are in this dream! We are set... ok.. not for long.. the coach batteries die after an hour.. ok lets think.. yes we did everything right, we had it plugged in for a week to charge them.. ok what's wrong. So we think, ok it has to be the power inverter.. it will only run the tv for an hour.. that doesn't seem right, but it's ok.. we have the generator... we go to turn it on.. it won't start with the dash generator switch.. hmmm... so we try it outside.. here we notice that our brand new motorhome has 115 hours on the generator.. hmmmm.. how can that be??? oh well, we aren't going to let this get us down, but now flags are going off in our minds... We finally get the generator started, get enough power to retract the 3 slides.. and away we go home.. but it's ok, we will make a list and then take it to the dealership for the warranty issues to be dealt with. It's new, it's bound to have bugs pop up, but they will fix them and all will be well!

We make the appointment for the next long weekend since we have 400 miles each way to go for the repairs... in the mean time, using it at our full time RV site, we find...hmm.. we can get the automatic awning out... but it won't retract again.. ok this is starting to get frustrating.. When we tried it at the lot.. the awning didn't work.. so they put a new motor in it, prior to us picking it up.. we tried it at the dealership and it went out and in.. why won't it go back in now. After about an hour.. we get it in.. another thing on the list..to add to be repaired under warranty...

We take the motorhome back to Guaranty for the repairs and I have noticed a big clunk when the big driver side slide goes out. Now this slide has my kitchen in it, and the magic sofa bed in the living area in it. I am assured by the service techs that the noise is just the teflon roller, that is normal, but it just doesn't sound right to me.. but he knows more than me.. right??

Well they check the jacks... The new transmission is smarter than the jacks they installed. The jacks look for an emergency brake, but on this coach, the emergency brake is on the transmission, so when we go to retract the jacks, which need power for the panel to work, if we put the key to auxilary.. the jacks look for an external emergency brake cable that does not exist, so it alarms the jacks and scrambles the panel.. so OK not to self.. do not use auxilary position on your ignition.. turn it to on only.. so you can't check your fuel level, but ok, we can try and remember that..

Now they check the coach batteries.. one is bad.. they don't know why, it's a new coach, but ok, we will replace both, since they are in a series, they can't replace one, they have to replace both. We have to get them from Newmar.. should be here in 7-10 days.. Ok we have to be back to work, 400 miles away, the next day.. so they steal batteries out of another coach to put in ours..

Now they check the awning... ok not good.. it goes out, it comes in.. works perfect.. now they have already changed the motor on it, but we say it doesn't work so they do a few tests and say, it was because the battery was low.. you are good to go.. and away we go home...

We get home and the next time we use it, I am driving it alone to California.. all is working good.. I'm set! We are taking this new coach to camp in the infield at the NASCAR race in California! I can't wait... I get to Redding CA... and I am ahead of schedule so I figure I'll camp at the Rolling Hills Casino RV park. It's sunny and warm.. a real treat after Vancouver rain... cooking ribs, awning out.. ok time to pack up.. the awning won't go in. I'm alone.. it will not go in.. I try again... nothing.. you can hear it click for a split second.. then nothing.. I get out the manual... ok you can retract it manually but it needs a ladder and 2 people.. I'm alone.. no ladder, there is no way I can reach the 12.5' height needed to try and retract that... and it can not be done by one person.. Ok call Newmar.. it's after hours.. no emergency contact.. call the dometic awning manufacturer.. again.. it's after hours.. call home.. in tears.. what do I do?? After 4 hours I finally get the awning limped in. I could get it to move about an inch every 10-15 minutes.

On the way home.. I make another appointment at Guaranty's service and stop. They get me in.. work on the awning for 7 hours.. they can't find a problem.. stay overnight, we'll look at it again tomorrow. 8 hours the next day and they still can't find a problem other than it was low voltage.. how it could be low voltage, as I was plugged into AC for 2 days, but that is their conclusion... The slide now is really making a grinding noise.. I find bearrings on the floor, I show these to their service tech and he says, oh that's not slide.. that is a drawer glide.. the slide roller does not have bearrings.. so he takes out the drawers, finds the glides are all fine.. so this must have happened at the manufacturing plant.. they installed a faulty glide... and replaced it but didn't get all the bearrings... and I am skeptical but I have to take his word for it. I also tell them, while we were away, the rear ac/heat pump has quit blowing cold air... it's blowing hot air.. it's 113° in Fontana, why isn't this blowing cool air? they find it has hole in the compressor unit, but they don't stock the ac unit, it has to be ordered in, it will be in in 10-14 days.. so now another trip to the service department and they aren't getting any closer...

I get home.. we go to use the awning.. now we find out, if we don't put it all the way out, it will retract, however if we don't catch it in time to stop it.. it sticks.. Now I refuse to deal with this.. it is a new coach.. I spent $187,000 on it! I am not going to just 'live with issues'

We make another appointment... take it back down there... and after working on the awning for another 5 hours... they find it is a bad ground.. so they put a new ground wire on it... and say that's it...

We make an appointment to take it down there to get the new ac unit put on... another long weekend and we can't get the jacks up again.. they have to be manually retracted in the cold and pouring rain. This time the board is not scrambled, they just don't work.. we get it down there and the boots need replacing... they say it should have an updated brain, but Newmar and the jack manufacturer won't cover it, so I wait for the parts this time 5 days, that I have to be away, paying for a campground out of my pocket.. missing work. I also find more and more bearrings on the kitchen floor, and they are now scratching my wood flooring.. a different service tech looks and see's the roller is bad under the slide.. but luckily they have a roller in stock.. so they can fix this at the same time.. the bump in the road is while they put the AC unit on the roof... they put a hole in the roof.. talk about a laurel and hardy comedy act, unfortunately it's me the joke is being played upon.

We go away at Christmas to Las Vegas.. the coldest winter of the year.. and the furnace dies.. We are using space heaters as the heat pumps on the roof don't work either.

We get home this time, and we don't want to put more faith into Guaranty.. why should I.. they put a hole in my roof!! So I try the local dealership.. They say even thought they are a Newmar Dealership, they don't have time to look after 'transient motorhomes' so because we didn't buy it from them.. they have no interest in looking at it. We tell this to Newmar.. and they say they will work with us on it, and they get Traveland to look at it.. remember, Newmar is going to work with us on this.. we drop it off at 9:00 in the morning and call at 1:00 and they say, we are just waiting to hear back from Newmar.. we call later and they said Newmar didn't return their call, they are closed now..but call in the morning.. we call and they say, Newmar has walked away from this... come pick your motorhome up.. we found 3 bad fuses.. it was a power surge.. oh and it was 5 hours labour and that is $630.00 - will this be cash or credit?

Now I find it is very strange that this 'power surge' happened when we were dry camped.. I also find it very strange that with all the electrical problems we have had in the past, that no one looked further into the fuse problem, and I also find it very strange, that after 630.00 and 3 fuses later.. we still have no furnace...

We take the coach yet again, back to Guaranty in OR.. in 10 minutes they have the furnace working.. it was the relay on the circuit board, I now have heat!!! but the front AC/heat pump.. still doesn't work.. and they look at it, and after taking the cover off.. we find that there was a hole in that compressor as well.. so why did Traveland in Langley BC not find this?? And why did Newmar 'walk away' from this.. when there was obviously more problems than just 3 fuses.. and how with bad grounds.. incorrect wiring harness re-routing problems.. bad batteries.. how do they say it's my responsiblity! Also we have to wait another 10 days for the new AC unit to be shipped! and then make an appointment for installation!

I get the coach home after the last AC unit was replaced, 3 weeks ago.. and CLUNK! as I put the slide out.. the roller gave out YET AGAIN! So we call Newmar immediately.. it's now out of warranty.. and they say, don't worry, since you've had this problem before, we will work with you.. We make the appointment with Guaranty, who has now closed one service department, and make plans to take it down there for Thursday, April 9, 2009. We call on the Monday just to make sure the part is in and they say, well we can't order the part until we diagnose the problem and make sure it's really the roller for the slide. Well we have berrings everywhere again, this is not the first time we've had this problem, so we take pictures, email them to Newmar and they air freight the part to Guaranty for installation, but we have to pay for that, and the entire time saying 'they will work with us on this' The working with us, ended up as discrepancy on Thursday afternoon as who would pay for the installation of the part, when Newmar was to be 'working with us' on this issue.. they alotted .3 hour of labor.. not 3 hours.. .3 hours or 18 minutes.. it takes longer than that to jack the slide up before they can start removing screws to get to the slide area...

So much for the coach of my dreams!! I would have been better with an tent, at least I would know what I was in for, and I'd have money for a hotel when it was cold or rainy!

After conversation with Newmar corp this morning.. they want the coach taken back down to Guaranty RV in Oregon, for the awning to be repaired.. they say they want the coach for 2-3 days.. (this doesn't take into consideration any parts it may need) They will work with us they say.. will working with us end up costing me another fortune as they cough up .3 hours labor??