Side Wall Change on our Newmar Mountain Aire
Our 2005 Newmar Mountain Aire 4304 had to have the side walls changed, the reason “checking”. “Checking” is starts a small mark in paint and a bump in fiberglass, it does not seem to be effected by heat, but does show up better in darker colors. This issue is not just common to Newmar; most RV manufactures have this issue. All of our compartment doors were replaced as well.
Newmar gave us a time table of 3 to 6 weeks and that was about right. They were doing 4 side wall changes while we were there in July/August 2008. The side wall change is done by the same crew that does the repairs in the same building. Great news about side wall change is we were able to change the color of our coach and none of the walls have seams in them.
Every day I rode the motorcycle over to Nappanee to the Newmar factory to check on the progress of the work, most days the techs had questions for me, I took pictures, ask questions, watched, and of course got in the way.
Last year we had a window replaced because it leaked; it was nice to be able to see for myself that there was no water damage inside the wall.
I stayed at the Best Western in Goshen, old but it is in a town of some size, every room has microwave, refrigerator and they allowed Caddy to stay with me. Cheryl of course flew home to California to see the grandbabies.
When our coach came from the paint shop the first time, I learned they are now spraying foam in bottom of the rear cap to make it stronger and prevent rocks from cracking it from the inside out, as they get kicked up. If your rear cap is not foamed go to Home Depot and get exterior foam and spray the underside of your rear cap.
The day the tech’s start putting exterior hardware back on coach, a cleaning person will cleaned the inside of the coach, she did a pretty good job.
First time I started looking at paint, I gave up when I climbed on roof and up on the top of the front cap, there were several hand prints into the paint. The next morning met with paint foreman and explained to him how did disappointed I was with the paint and informed him that I gave up inspecting the paint. I informed him, what I expected, and he said he would personally go over the entire coach and get it fixed, and of course how sorry he was.
Second time the coach came out of paint, I wanted to cry, very little was done to improve the paint on the coach, so we met with Ron Weaver Service Manager at Newmar, and he scheduled and meeting the next morning with service writer and paint foreman. I explained once again my disappointment and ask why the areas I had marked with blue tape and we had talked about were not fixed, the Newmar paint foreman’s response was this is a big coach and I do not have time to go over it and this is the best Newmar can do. The best they can do, hand and finger prints in paint, dust and sand, rub marks in paint, and runs! I was also informed that most customers would be happy with this paint job. This topped with the other customers at Camp Newmar, telling me the paint on my coach looks fine to them. Two of them I pointed out they had bad fiberglass on their coach and they replied of that is okay.
Why do people think they can tell you what is acceptable about your own coach? Why do RV owners pay so much money for their RV’s, and then let the manufactures get away with half ass work?
Third time was a charm, we met with Matt Utely VP at Newmar, he was late to our appointment, he walked in and we did not have to say anything, he said I am so sorry, you should have never seen your coach in that condition. Matt told us give me a couple of days with the coach back in paint and it will be perfect. The paint shop keep the coach 3 days, when it came out or paint and back to us on the third day, everyone at Camp Newmar said why does my paint not look like that, to include a 2008 Essex owner parked next to us.
How much does it cost to do the right thing, and isn’t it cheaper to do it right the first time?
Below are some things to look at or think about having done if you are going to have a side wall change done to your coach:
Check all your compartment doors now, and if any have loose hinges or the aluminum skin on doors is coming apart (this is put on with double sided tape) or loose in the middle of door, get them to replace those doors.
You may change the color of the coach if you so desire.
Now is a great time to change anything on the outside of your coach you desire, add lights, remove lights, move them, external WIFI antenna and cable, extra water pump switch, external 110 or 12 volt outlet, whatever. With the walls removed running wire is easy and so much cheaper!
Check dryer vent to see that if it needs to be moved a bit so it came straight out from dryer with no bend at all in vent hose, dry time will be reduced greatly!
Make sure they can get to all of the windows, as they all come out for the change. They did a good job of covering everything up, but damn everything gets dusty. Wish we would have put our down bed cover in a space bag, bag your electronics, no bag everything!
If you have ever had any known leaks, make sure you check for damage, easy to spot places that have been wet the white insulation turns brown/black.
When coach comes out of paint ask to inspect the coach before the techs start putting the exterior hardware back on it.
When the coach is returned to you check everything, all switches, window treatments (a few of ours were loose) all seams that they caulked or sealed, exterior hardware, and of course paint to include roof top. Make sure they have checked it for leaks, remember all but two seams on the coach have been removed (the seams on roof for front and rear cap not removed). Check for missing screws, hardware, windows and screws around slide outs (we had 4 slide out screws missing). Slide out gaskets should all be new. We had a window latch that was broken, they did not catch it, but we did.
Make sure you get a new set of touch up paint and the new paint codes, even if you do not change color.
Do not be rushed, take your time and check everything.
|