Comfort Drive Accessibility

[Jim]

HeyNewmar

Yesterday, during a six-hour drive from Pensacola to Silver Springs, I spent a good portion of the trip wrestling with strong crosswinds that were pushing my 55,000-lb coach around like a ragdoll. This is exactly the kind of situation Comfort Drive was designed to help with.

On the older models, the system used a simple dial on the dash, easy to reach, easy to adjust, and you could do it without taking your eyes off the road. But on the newer models, the controls are buried in a menu system that forces you to look away at the very moment when your full attention is needed just to keep the coach pointed forward.

I’m not trying to be overly critical, but in a situation where you desperately need this safety system, especially when fighting high winds on elevated highways, why would a coach designer think it was a good idea to hide such an essential control inside a secondary menu?

 

[MemoriesByTheMile]

Because they are focused on reducing the expense of a separate switch/knob. Same silliness that made automakers move toward putting all controls on touch screens, and now they realized their mistake and are moving back to tactile buttons.

Stay safe!

 

[Holdmybeer]

HeyNewmar

Yesterday, during a six-hour drive from Pensacola to Silver Springs, I spent a good portion of the trip wrestling with strong crosswinds that were pushing my 55,000-lb coach around like a ragdoll. This is exactly the kind of situation Comfort Drive was designed to help with.

On the older models, the system used a simple dial on the dash, easy to reach, easy to adjust, and you could do it without taking your eyes off the road. But on the newer models, the controls are buried in a menu system that forces you to look away at the very moment when your full attention is needed just to keep the coach pointed forward.

I’m not trying to be overly critical, but in a situation where you desperately need this safety system, especially when fighting high winds on elevated highways, why would a coach designer think it was a good idea to hide such an essential control inside a secondary menu?

How were your shoulders after that? That's where I always feel it at the end of the day. Years back when I was piloting 1100' tows down the Mississippi during the spring runoff (Southbound) it would be my knees.

 

[Jim]

How were your shoulders after that? That's where I always feel it at the end of the day. Years back when I was piloting 1100' tows down the Mississippi during the spring runoff (Southbound) it would be my knees.

Ha, and yes, that was an issue at the end of the day. I (and my shoulders) were absolutely beat! But as strange as it may seem, the next day I felt as normal as any other day. Normal being the operative word of course. . .

 

[Farm 11:17]

Sounds stupid, but the comfort drive controls on the steering wheel was one of the main factors in choosing the Spartan chassis over Freightliner.

 

[Jim]

HeyNewmar

I own a Newmar Essex and have greatly appreciated the quality and innovation built into the coach. An improvement that I would like to see, and one that I believe would significantly enhance everyday usability, would be to make the control-panel buttons fully user-programmable. Currently, functions such as lighting and shades require multiple individual adjustments. For example, the various lighting elements (overhead, mirror, accent, dresser) allow for impressive customization, but I almost always want the same setting each time I enter a room. Having to scroll, tap, and slide through a half dozen controls to recreate that familiar scene becomes an unnecessary hassle.

Similarly, while the system lets us raise or lower all the day or night shades at once, I rarely want the shade over the entry door to move with the rest. When all the shades come down, I then need to walk to the Silverleaf panel and manually raise the door shade, canceling out much of the convenience the feature was meant to provide.

So while Newmar has hit a strong ball into the outfield, it could easily be turned into a home run by making these buttons user-programmable. This would allow owners to create personalized “scenes” that match their most commonly used lighting and shade combinations, enabling a single tap to produce the exact effect they want, lighting, shades, or both together. Adding a simple “reset to factory defaults” option would keep everything support-friendly while giving owners far more flexibility.

This enhancement would elevate an already exceptional coach by making daily operation smoother, smarter, and more aligned with real-world use. After all, Newmar builds luxury motor coaches, and giving owners the ability to tailor their environment with a single touch only reinforces that standard, turning everyday convenience into a hallmark of true luxury.

Thank you!