New to This Forum and Looking for DP to Go Full-Timing.

[L&JSteinmetz]

Hello,

After 32 years of active service (prior Navy; retired Coast Guard in 2008) I am close to winding down my Coast Guard civilian career and hope to retire for good in 2018. Our current plan is to sell our house early (late 2015/early 2016) and to purchase the coach we intend to go full-timing in and live in it until I retire. We have been members of Escapees since 2004 and had always thought that we would buy a Volvo and a fifth wheel (we always wanted a new Teton but, with them out of business, have become very interested in New Horizons and Continentals).

Over the past year something has changed (can't really put our fingers on it) and we have become more interested in a diesel pusher than in a fiver. We have looked at several 2014 Newmar & Entegra coaches and like them. Through the weeks and months of research we have slowly come around to the idea of buying a very nice used DP rather than new so that we can get more bang for our buck and to enter full-timing with something that is not going to be losing 10's of thousands of dollars in depreciation our first few years out.

For the past 5-6 months I have been exploring and researching as much as I can on Country Coaches and Foretravels. Today I met a Foretravel owner that said if he were looking at a DP in the year range we are (probably 2002-2008 give or take) he would take a closer look at a Newell rather than a Foretravel. Sooo, now my focus moves to finding out as much as I can about Newells in that year range (read price range).

We will not be purchasing anything until probably Fall of 2015 so I have time to compare and contrast the different brands we are considering. Guess I need to settle in and start reading what appears to be a ton of information on this forum. One thing in particular I will be trying to find is a thread or blog somewhere that lists features/specs for different model years of Newells so that I can find out when different features were introduced, when engine sizes changed (I am looking for 600+ HP), etc.

I look forward to the next chapter in my luxury coach research.

Regards,

Larry and Jan Steinmetz
Friendswood, TX