And the winner is....the 2016 Newmar Dutch Star 4369!

We have looked at a lot of RVs over the years, and had done a lot of research online and by talking to people.  Knowing what we wanted (as I have said previously), we were better able to focus on several manufacturers.  But things really began to click when we walked through several of Newmar's 2015 models.

Newmar, like other manufacturers, has a line of RVs that begins with smaller ones that are inexpensive to their top-of-the-line King Aire that retails for almost a million dollars.  In our case, we had already decided that we wanted a diesel pusher, so our options within the Newmar line were limited (by price range) to the Ventana or Dutch Star.  Those are the ones we were looking at when we knew that we had found what we wanted.

At first, we were really excited about the Dutch Star 4018.  What a beautiful coach!  It is a 450HP diesel pusher with a tag axle and a very well designed floor plan.  The quality that Newmar is known for was apparent in the 4018's we walked through.  I loved it that the TV was opposite the  seating.  In the diagram to the right, you'll see a couch on the right side.  "OHC" (overhead cabinets) is labeled over the couch.  In several of the ones we saw, the 48" TV popped up on a "televator" behind the couch and two recliners replaced the fireplace and single recliner you see here.  That is one of the things we really liked about Newmar - there were a lot of optional ways to customize a coach to make it your own.

The 2015 Dutch Star 4018 is 40' long and has a lot of the basic features that we wanted, like instant hot water and an all-electric option (no LP gas for a stove, instead you can get an induction cooktop).  While we had been debating a lot of the bath and a half models we saw, the 4018 convinced us how nice it would be to have that half bath.  After seeing the 4018, we were sure that this was the coach for us....

But then we walked through a 2015 Dutch Star 4369.  At first glance (even from the outside), it was identical to the 4018.  However, when we got past the bedroom at the back of the coach, we saw the most incredible bathroom we had ever seen in a motorhome.  It was very spacious, with a large shower, huge wardrobe, double-sink vanity with two medicine cabinets, all kinds of room around the toilet, and a cabinet for a washer and dryer.  The bathroom, like the rest of the coach, had a lot of floor space.  Much more than the 4018.

Not only did it have a great rear bath, but the pantry was twice the size.  Because it is three feet longer, you can also get a third air conditioning unit.  And the fuel tank in the 4369 is 50% larger than the one in the 4018.

Because of the extra weight in the 4369, it can only carry about 5500 pounds of people and their stuff.  The 4018 can carry over 8000 pounds.  But we figure that we'll be fine.

So we changed our mind and decided on the Dutch Star 4369.  The only thing was that we knew we wanted to do a custom order and we had to wait for about a year or so.  This meant that our 4369 would be the 2016 model, and we had no idea what changes they would be making.

So we waited.  And when the 2016 Dutch Star 4369 information was published by Newmar and began to appear on dealer web sites, we were thrilled to find out that it had some new features that were well worth the wait.

Newmar's short walkthrough of the 2016 Dutch Star 4369

Next up:  The features and specs for the coach we have chosen, the 2016 Dutch Star 4369.

Choosing a Manufacturer

Knowing what we were looking for helped us to focus when we went out looking at RVs.  We not only knew what we liked individually but we quickly learned what kind of things the other person liked or disliked.  There were many times when we took two steps into a motorhome and just turned around and walked out.  We instantly knew that we wouldn't like it and didn't want to waste another minute of time walking through it.

We also learned to stick to our price range.  After you've looked at a bunch of them, you'll begin to settle on all of the things that you like that are within your budget.  After looking a while, no one looking for a new $150,000 motorhome is going to be happy with one that costs $50,000.  And it's a waste of time for them to look at ones (except for decorating ideas) that cost $300,000.  By looking only at the type of motorhomes we wanted and staying in our price range, we were able to narrow it down to several manufacturers.

The manufacturers on our original short list were Fleetwood, Tiffin, Winnebago and Newmar.  I had liked some Newmars we saw at a show many years ago, but had dismissed them as a possibility because we had heard that the company was having financial issues (at the time) and we wondered if they would stay in business.

We really liked the Fleetwood Discovery 40E.  It seemed to meet all of our requirements and was a beautiful coach.  I was impressed by their owner's groups and the fact that Fleetwood was such a large manufacturer.

The Winnebago Tour was impressive, both for its floorplan and the fact that it was built by a company with such a long history in the manufacture of RVs.  The Tour is a definite step up from a lot of their models and it had a lot of the features we really wanted.

A few of the Tiffin models and floorplans came very close to what we wanted.  I was, and still am, quite surprised by the large number of Tiffin owners to absolutely love their coaches and the company that built them.  That in itself is worth a lot, and it caused us to pause and consider giving up some of the things we wanted in the coach just to get that manufacturer.

In the middle of our search, we discovered Entegra. I had been looking for coaches (in the $150-$400K range) that were well-built and which, in the eyes of many, exceptionally well constructed.  Entegra popped up as being essentially equal to Newmar in this category.  The thickness of their walls and the overall quality was amazing.

So, in the end, we had it down to three manufacturers:  Tiffin, Entegra and Newmar.  Tiffin for pure customer satisfaction and Entegra & Newmar for build quality.

Would it be possible to get both?  It was not possible to get the same build quality in a Tiffin as in the other two, but which of the other two had the best customer satisfaction?

The answer was Newmar.  When we started querying blogs, forums and anything else we could find, their customer satisfaction was immense.

We first fell in love with some of Newmar's floor plans.  We liked them so much I was afraid to do the deep dive to find out about the company, customer satisfaction, and the quality of their product.  But wow!  Was I pleasantly surprised!  A strong company, tremendous following, and - quite literally - unsurpassed construction quality.  The more I did the research, the more I liked Newmar.  Just about everything I could find on Facebook, the Internet, Youtube, review sites, irv2.com, and by talking to people was positive.  And they have a very active community of users that hold regional and national rallies and provides support to Newmar owners.

Despite our liking the Discovery floorplan, Tiffin's reports of owner satisfaction, and Entegra's equally-amazing build quality, we went with Newmar.  Newmar was the whole package.  And, as a bonus, they allow customers to do a lot of customization of coaches when you order them.  We had our eye on a couple of different models.  Now it was time to choose.

The Chassis and External Features

The Chassis

For most motorhome manufacturers, the chassis is built by a separate company.  The two biggest RV chassis builders are Spartan and Freightliner.  The has been a lot of talk over the years in various Internet forums and Facebook about which is better, but they always end up the same:  they are both quality companies with great reputations.

A "house" part of a motorhome is built on top of a chassis.  The chassis contains the long rails and beams that support the motorhome, the engine, tires, batteries, hydraulics, brakes, and fuel tanks.

The motorhome manufacturer takes a chassis and builds a lot of framing on top of it that becomes the "basement" storage areas of the RV.  Then they build up the framing for the walls and roof, add wiring, and so on.

Most of us aren't real picky about what kind of chassis we get because we don't know anything about them.  I was interested to hear that our chassis had a 150-gallon fuel tank, some feature that allowed it to turn a tighter circle, a 450 horsepower engine (I had heard that you should get at least a 350 for better mountain climbing), and a tag axle.  As far as axles go, the front axle does the steering, the middle axle has dual tires on each side and is called the drive axle (because that's the one that the engine powers) and the back one, if present, is the tag axle.  The tag axle is there to support additional weight and is often added to RV's that are longer than 40 feet.

The motorhome we selected uses a Freightliner chassis.  When we were at the 2015 Tampa RV show, Freightliner had a tent with a chassis on display.  We went over to look at it and I was amazed at its size.  Standing at one end of it looking all the way down the rail...wow.  The tires were huge and the tanks looked small (a 150 gas tank really doesn't look that big).  As wee asked questions about the one we were looking at, the Freightliner rep asked us what motorhome we were getting.  When we told him, he smiled and said that the chassis we were leaning against was the exact same one used to build our RV.  We wanted to learn more, and they didn't let us down.  Not only did they answer all of our questions, but we were told about "Camp Freightliner".  It's a two-day workshop in South Carolina where you go to learn all about your chassis.  You learn about tires, maintaining correct tire pressure, batteries, engine basics, and a lot more.  My wife said she wanted to go before I even had a chance to tell her I wanted to go.  We'll probably go sometime next year.  Learn about Camp Freightliner

External Features

Outside of the RV, we wanted a lot of storage.  Every experienced RVer out there (especially the full-timers) will tell you how important it is to have a lot of storage.  I've been surprised more than once to see someone do their laundry at the camp laundromat even though they had washer/dryer hookups in their RV. Why?  They wanted the space for storage.  Storage is important, and the more the merrier.

There are other outside features that we wanted besides storage.  Having some of these seemed to be a necessity, while others were just on our wish list:

• A nice awning that automatically retracts
• Ample lighting, especially for backing up into a parking space (these are often called docking lights)
• LED lighting under the awning (more common now that LED lighting costs have dropped)
• Easy-to-lock storage compartments.  Some RVs allow electronic locking so that you can lock everything at once.
• Extra outlets in compartments on the passenger side.  When you're sitting under the awning, you may need power for tools or to charge your devices.
• An outside TV
• Power reels to help reel the power cord and water hose back into the RV after they have been used
• Side cameras.  Most RVs now come with a backup camera, but side cameras allow you to see the sides before you change lanes or turn.
• Awnings over the driver-side windows.  I saw a video where a guy measured the temparature of a window before and after an awning was put over it.  It was about a 15 degree difference.
• A generator that's powerful enough to run all of the RV's air conditioning units.
• Instant hot water instead of a hot water tank.  With these devices, you'll never run out of hot water.

There are a lot of things to consider when it comes to the outside of the RV.  We looked a lot and found most of what we wanted.

Up next:  Choosing a Manufacturer

The Floorplan

Coming up with a floorplan we liked involved a lot of discussion.  There are so many options that two people could talk about it for a year before coming to an agreement.  Compromises must be made, and priorities set by each person.

The best way to decide what you want is to get out there and look at a bunch of RVs, see what you like, talk about it and then make your decision.  Yea, I know that's just common sense.  But I think a lot of people just sit and look at floor plans and think they know what they want without even walking through some real RVs.

In our first discussions, some things quickly became priorities.  A king size bed was one of them.  We have always had one and can't imagine getting anything smaller.  It had to have a nice dinette, lots of TVs, and a comfortable bathroom with a reasonably-sized shower.  We have loved having houses that had open floor plans, so it was important to us that the RV didn't have hallways and narrow walking spaces.  Having rented and walked through a lot of RVs, we knew how size-limited they were.  But knowing our priorities meant that we could look at them with a more critical eye, and begin to focus on other things besides our basic requirements.

One of the key things in selecting a floor plan is how many people will be living in the RV and how many sleeping spaces you'll need.  If you're going to get a motorhome and you have three children, you'll probably want to get a "bunkhouse" model that has bunk beds.  If there are just one or two of you, there might be more interest in things like a basement refrigerator, a space to play cards with visitors, or a place that you can use for an office or craft area.

As we looked at more and more motorhomes, we begin to see things that we liked and added them to our wish list for that "perfect" RV.  Examples of things like this include a recliners, a bath and a half, day/night window shades, and a washer/dryer.

We knew what kind of floor plan we liked and models from several manufacturers met almost all of our criteria.  But that's just the inside.   Next up:  the chassis and external features.

New or used?

After deciding to get a Class A diesel pusher, the next decision was whether to buy new or used.  Buying a used DP has the potential to save a lot of money, but how much it saves you depends on how old it is.

Obviously, a 2000 DP is a whole lot cheaper than a 2013 DP.  Things to consider if you buy something too old:

• Some parks won't allow older RVs.  I've often heard that these parks only accept RVs that are less than 10 years old.  Granted, it's a very small number of parks overall, but it still happens.
• Older RVs may have technology that needs to be upgraded.  I see posts every day about people who are exchanging older TVs for newer LED TVs. This also applies to hot water heating systems, air conditioning, power inverters, and a lot of other systems.
• Maintenance costs are higher.  

In our case, we decided that we wanted something that was no more than about 4 years old.  This was after we looked at a lot of the features available on RVs and the technology that they used.  We realized that we would save anywhere from 15-25 percent off of a model that was a year or two old.  This was off of the price that we would probably pay for a new one.  So while there is the typical depreciation that happens as soon as you drive it off the lot, diesel pushers hold their value pretty well. As I was writing this, I just looked on the Internet and found the 2014 model of the coach that we have decided we want for about $50,000 less than we can buy a new 2016.  Given that the 2016 offers many new features and has a full warranty, it doesn't seem like that much of a difference when you consider that the 2016 will "lose" about $15-$20K when you drive it off the lot.  So, in our case, a new 2016 will be only about $30K more than one that is two years older and doesn't have some of the customizations we want.  

We also have a philosophy that a lot of people may not share.  We believe that our experiences traveling around the country in our own motorhome are worth something.  Everything has its price, and the money we'll lose through depreciation by purchasing a new motorhome will be the price we pay for the great times we're going to have.  Rationalization, maybe, but that's how we see it.

And so, our decision was made.  We're going to get a new 2016 diesel pusher.

Gas vs. Diesel

Knowing we were going to get a Class A, the next question was whether or not we should get a gas or a diesel engine.  Diesel engines have a better resale value, more power and torque (good for the mountains) and great braking systems.  Motorhomes that have a diesel engines usually have them in the rear, hence the term "diesel pusher".  Since the engine is at the very back of the coach, the ride up front is much quieter.  Gas engines have a typical "life expectancy" of 300,000+ miles or so, but diesel engines  are around a million miles.  A used diesel engine that has 40,000 miles on it is often considered to be a "baby" by a lot of diesel engine enthusiasts. I'm not a mechanic, but the things I've read from knowledgeable people comparing gas and diesel made me understand why so many RVers want diesel pushers.

I know we'll be traveling a lot in the mountains. I want to feel confident that we'll be able to climb steeper grades at something more than 25-35 miles per hour and I want to know that we'll have good exhaust brakes (exhaust brakes use the engine to slow down the coach).   As I mentioned earlier, I don't want to wish I had gotten a diesel pusher when we were winding our way through the mountains.  So we may as well get one up front.

Of course, diesel pushers ain't cheap. They cost quite a bit more, but I hope that we'll recoup some of it with the improved resale value down the road.

What type of RV should we get?

We knew what we wanted to do in a RV, where we wanted to go, and had a good idea of our price range.  The next thing was to make decisions about which RV we wanted.  This was a long process and involved a lot of reading, visits to dealers, trips to RV shows, lurking in Facebook groups, and talking to experienced RVers.  I had been going to the large Tampa RV Supershow for about six years running and was well aware of the many options there were.

For those of you who aren't so familiar, RV's come in various classes.  While this isn't a comprehensive list, it covers the types that most people buy:

• Class B.   These look like large vans.  The insides typically have the basics:  a bed, sink, toilet/shower combination, and a TV.
• Class C.  These look like very large vans but have a bed over the cab.  They usually have all of the amenities and can sleep quite a few people.
• Super C.  Really big Class C's with large (often diesel) engines.  They may be a bit fancier inside because they can usually carry more weight.
• Trailers.  You know what these are.  An advantage to a trailer is that they are often light enough to be pulled by many different types of vehicles.  They can be very small (fit one person and barely over six feet in length) to large - over 30 feet.
• Fifth Wheel.  Like trailers, but taller and with a "gooseneck" that extends over the bed of the pickup truck that pulls it.  Most "fivers" have a bedroom in the gooseneck, but it's common to see living rooms there in a lot of the more recent models.
• Class A.  This is a motorhome, self-sufficient in that it has its own motor and doesn't need to be pulled by anything.  Class A's can be made by renovating an old school bus or built from the ground up by one of the many manufacturers.

RVers who plan to spend a lot of time traveling and living in an RV usually end up getting either a fifth wheel or a Class A motorhome.  That's because they have ample storage and can carry a good amount of weight, so you can put things in them like kitchens with fancy countertops, residential-size refrigerators, big TVs and much more.  

Like thousands of others before us, we immediately faced the dilemma "What do we get:  a fifth wheel or a motorhome"?  We thought a lot about it, did our research, made decisions and changed our minds, and finally decided to get a motorhome.

One of our observations was that a lot of people who have spent years travelling in a RV have "upgraded"  more than once.  We met a couple at the 2015 Tampa Supershow who were on their 11th RV.   Almost every long-time "upgrader" we spoke with had ended up with a motorhome.  However, we are keenly aware that their choice has a lot to do with their lifestyles.

Fifth wheels seem bigger and you feel more like you're living in an apartment.  In actuality, they really aren't but a tiny bit larger if you consider only the square footage.  The reason they seem much bigger is height.  Fivers have much smaller basements (storage under the living area) and are lower to the ground.  That means that they can have higher interior ceilings, so you'll see a lot of things like fans and high cabinetry in fifth wheels.  That's what gives you the feeling that you're living in a much larger space.  It's like walking into a home with 8' ceilings and then going into one with 10' ceilings.  The two houses may be the same size, but the one with the 10' ceilings looks larger.

When you get a fifth wheel, you not only get that "apartment" feeling, but you only have to maintain one engine - the one in the truck that pulls it.  When you get where you're going, you leave the fiver there and take the truck around to see the sights.  That's great, but the gas you put in that truck may cost you a lot more than the gas you put in whatever vehicle you tow behind your motorhome.

Motorhomes are self-contained.  Everything is there.  Of course, some of the downsides are that you have two engines to maintain (the motorhome and whatever vehicle you pull behind it), they can be quite a bit more expensive, and they depreciate faster.

A lot of potential owners are so divided that they have difficulty deciding.  I've heard it said more than once that you need to consider the length of your stays in campgrounds or parks.  If you will drive less and stay longer (months, perhaps - in one location), then the fifth wheel may be your best choice.  After all motorhomes have a lot of mechanical systems that need to be exercised.  Consequently, if you plan to travel and stay somewhere for 1 night to a week or two and then travel again, maybe a motorhome is best.

The best thing to do is get out there and look at a lot of them, imagining yourself living in one.  It'll come to you - sooner or later.

In our case, we knew that what we wanted was more like "glamping" than camping, and we wanted things like a big generator and all of the additional storage that you get with a motorhome.

One decision - an important one - was made.  We were going to get a Class A motorhome.