Phantom suite slide covers

[renewell]

After much ridicule from friends with "regular" coaches, I investigated the possibilities of adding slide covers to my triple slide 2001. My coach was factory equipped with Zip Dee window awnings, rarely deployed because the reflective low E glass does not allow much sunlight / heat to infiltrate. The problem I was experiencing was "puddling" on the driver side bedroom slide, to the extent that putting the room in after any rain would allow water into the coach, soaking the carpet etc. The solution was to put up my ladder and "squeegee" the water from the bedroom slides before putting them in. Well, our friends had a field day with "why don't you buy a real coach" kind of stuff.
After much research I found the Carefree "Ascent" fit the bill perfectly. We were able to order them in matching color fabric and they replaced my window awnings, leaving the old rail in place, and installing a new rail to accommodate the new install. The end result looks like they were made for it. No more cleaning off the rooms before pulling them in. I can send pictures if anyone is interested. Happy Happy Happy. :thumbup:

[rellick]

Welcome Renewell! That is funny , I can see the humor in that for sure. Obviously your coach must be extremely nice! Im sure others would agee , post some pics we would love to see them.

[Neweller]

Very interesting for sure. Always nice to know of an upgrade or enhancement to improve these wonderful beast of beauty. Love to see pictures for sure.

[renewell]

Keith;
I am still learning my way around this site. I managed to upload some pictures to my profile. Do you know how to upload to a post?
Thanks, Ray

[renewell]

Ken;
I would like to post some pictures to the gallery. Do you know how to do that?
Thanks, Ray

[rellick]

Ray, if you click on go advanced on the bottom right corner it will give you another option at the bottom that says manage attachments. Click on that and it will open a window that will let you upload pics. There may be another way but thats how I do it. Hope this helps.
Keith

[renewell]

Thanks Keith. I'll give it a try. I don't have any pictures yet of the new slide covers. I need to pull it our of the garage to get them, but I sent some others of our coach. Let me know if they come through.

[ccjohnson]

Very nice looking coach!!

[renewell]

Thanks Clint. We have had to work out a few bugs but well worth it. We love the coach and the way it is put together. We visited Camp Newell a few months back and took the tour while ole 596 was being updated. Very impressive workmanship. I have had occasion to visit Plant 44, where American Coach is built, on many occasions and there is no comparison between Newell and an "assembly line" coach.

[Land yacht]

What upgrades did you have Newell do? I love the interior being partial to the dark wood.

[renewell]

I had what Newell calls a PDI (pre delivery inspection) which is what they do to a coach before the sell it and guaranty it for 2 years. The list is pretty extensive, being about 2 pages long, and they provide this service for $ 1,500.00. As they discover things, they ask if you would like to perform the service or replace the part in question. (at an extra cost of course) This coach had not been serviced at the plant for many years so they changed out all the air suspension valves and did a complete service on the chassis. Inside they found that the backlighting of the panel had been disconnected (I didn't know they lit) and the aqua hot gauge was replaced. I also opted to install a new stereo system with sirius radio. ( I had already updated the 42" TV) The biggest update was the addition of the new wider front wheels with the 365 Michelin tires. No more lean on ramps. Handling was vastly improved. In all, they had 6 - 8 people on my coach for 2 1/2 days. Very professional service.

[Land yacht]

PDI - in the yachting world a professional survey is always expected before closing the deal as it is required for insurance and financing. It does not appear to be the norm in buying a coach. I am curious, did you have this done as part of the purchase agreement with the seller? I wonder how many sellers would be agreeable, due to having to travel to Newell. I have thought about offering to pay the travel cost and PDI. At least you would know the deficiencies and could cancel the deal or renegotiate if something costly appeared. Thoughts?

[ccjohnson]

We had a 3rd party inspect our coach before purchase. Cost at the time was about $500.00. Found a couple of bad batteries & repaired disposal. They did an oil & filter change after we decided to go ahead with the purchase. We had a fairly good idea of what wasn't working & a ball park of what we were going to have to spend to get coach up to where we wanted it. One thing that wasn't found (or it happened when we drove off) were leaking seals on DD blower. That was a 5K fix when we got home. I would definitely recommend having a thorough inspection done before purchase.