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Design your coaches for four seasons (aka SNOW)

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Neal

Staff member
RVF Administrator
Joined
Jul 27, 2019
Messages
11,445
Location
Midlothian, VA
RV Year
2017
RV Make
Newmar
RV Model
Ventana 4037
RV Length
40' 10"
Chassis
Freightliner XCR
Engine
Cummins 400 HP
TOW/TOAD
2017 Chevy Colorado
Fulltimer
No
Newmar, your coaches are not year round friendly. Where you are you know there is snow and snow and Newmar coaches do not work for many reasons. For this I hope you will improve your design so that your wonderfully insulated and heated coaches can go anywhere.
  1. Slide toppers do not work with snow. They don't roll up when a slide retracts, they fold up, they ice up, they are an epic disaster. Threads come out, they tear. You need to rethink this or even do away with slide toppers altogether.
  2. RV's in the north use heated fresh water lines. They have a blue hose contraption that plugs in and connects between the coach and city water connection, which is heated. My suggestion is to offer a separate inlet for a fresh line connection to fill the fresh tank that could be used with a heated water line separate from the city water reel. This could also offer a manual fill opportunity for those boondocking that bring in jugs of water as currently you need a pump setup to get water from other sources from jugs, bladders, etc. to the fresh tank. For heated water lines offer an outlet to power the heated line from the coach side as the campground may be using up the power connection to heat their city water piping.
Newmars are great but all climate usage seems to be short sighted.
 
I too have struggled with #1 thru the years. I’m tired of taking my rig to the north for ski season as the slide toppers are so much hassle, and if I have to always pull in my slides during snowfall what’s the point? Are heated slide toppers an answer? Or would the run off freeze elsewhere causing more damage?

I think this is a business opportunity for third parties, as I don’t think Newmar can put this cost into all rigs, I’m sure a small % of us want to use our rigs in the snow.
 
If they can heat the floors, they can run a couple of wires back and forth through the slide topper fabric to keep them from freezing. It doesn’t seem too hard.
Getting rid of slide toppers altogether sounds like a step backwards to me, though I am certain if you didn’t want to be bother with them you could easily remove them or if ordering a new coach, tell Newmar to keep em.

for the heated host, I bought a small 12’ one when we were headed to MD for Christmas. Hooked it up to the water and ran it right up into the wetbay through the hose grommet and connected it to my fresh water hose still on the reel. No problem at all.

i agree with @VTPete though, this seems an area for a 3rd party solutions.

All JMHO
 
...3rd party solutions...majority of our Newmar coach is 3rd party even front and rear end caps. Too much of it is 3rd party. That's for Newmar to figure out and incorporate into the package.
 
With that logic, your car is also mostly 3rd party solutions. Obviously I meant aftermarket solutions.

It just seems to me that it’s already a four season coach, except for those slide toppers. I don’t think the majority of RV owners go to cold locations in their units, and in the fall without those slide toppers, you’d have the opposite complaint when you had to clean off the top before bringing it in.

if I were going somewhere cold, I might look at how hard it would be to take them off. Then put them back on when I return.

just an opinion.
 
I was surprised how many RV’s I saw in CG’s up NW including Newmars with skirts around the bottom. The other issue is how much snow will break/collapse your slide toppers?
 
Allowing cold wind to move underneath will never help keep you warm, no matter how well you’re insulated. Same is true of a house on stilts, except they have the advantage of not being mobile so they can have 11 inches of insulation in the floor.

as to slide toppers breaking from snow, yeah it’s going to be a risk, especially if it’s wet, heavy snow. If you’re in that environment, you gotta get out there and clear it off daily. If it’s really coming down too fast, keep the slides in, or remove the toppers before you go.
 
I was surprised how many RV’s I saw in CG’s up NW including Newmars with skirts around the bottom. The other issue is how much snow will break/collapse your slide toppers?
Don't have to worry about snow on the toppers as far as break/collapse. There are usually several wraps of material around the spring loaded roller. When the topper gets weight, it unwraps from the roller. Don't ask how I know. Now the wind is another story. Was in New Mexico and encountered 70 mph wind that billowed up the topper and pulled the roller bracket partially out of the FWS.
 
Newmar, your coaches are not year round friendly. Where you are you know there is snow and snow and Newmar coaches do not work for many reasons. For this I hope you will improve your design so that your wonderfully insulated and heated coaches can go anywhere.
  1. Slide toppers do not work with snow. They don't roll up when a slide retracts, they fold up, they ice up, they are an epic disaster. Threads come out, they tear. You need to rethink this or even do away with slide toppers altogether.
  2. RV's in the north use heated fresh water lines. They have a blue hose contraption that plugs in and connects between the coach and city water connection, which is heated. My suggestion is to offer a separate inlet for a fresh line connection to fill the fresh tank that could be used with a heated water line separate from the city water reel. This could also offer a manual fill opportunity for those boondocking that bring in jugs of water as currently you need a pump setup to get water from other sources from jugs, bladders, etc. to the fresh tank. For heated water lines offer an outlet to power the heated line from the coach side as the campground may be using up the power connection to heat their city water piping.
Newmars are great but all climate usage seems to be short sighted.
While I mostly agree with your observations, I think that the number of customers that camp in freezing temps is a relatively low percentage of customers. Most of us that will brave the cold just understand the short comings of RV design and deal with it. Either you sweep the slide toppers in the morning, retract the slides to avoid accumulations, or go to warmer climate.
Being from the finance side of the Corporate world, trying to sell Sr. Management on a winterized topper system is a No Go (it would never make the agenda). The cost of design, engineering and logistical support far out weigh any potential profit on such a system. The cost would be high as you would have to charge the few RVs optioned with it. Due to the low fraction of RVs ever optioned with such a system, the option would be excessively expensive.
 
So you need a 40ft waterbed heating pad to lay on top of the topper? It could be made 3rd party.
 

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