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Newell Gurus
Life Limit on Rubber Components - Printable Version

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Life Limit on Rubber Components - Latitude 28 - 12-11-2018

Hello All,
We are in the market for a Newell in the 2000 plus or minus a few years.  We had looked at the Wanderlodge and Prevost in the same year range.  Seems like the bags and various rubber components had a life cycle of around 15 to 18 years....after that you're on borrowed time.

My question for all you Newell Gurrus concerns the rubber components, sans the tires.  What kind of typical life cycle are you all seeing in the following list of items? Those are what I can think of off the top of my head, I am sure there are others and if there is something else that would need to be addressed as a reliability improvement feel free to chime in.

Thanks
Steve

RE: Life Limit on Rubber Componets - Richard - 12-11-2018

You avg lifetime for slide seals and airbags would fit what I observed on my coach. Other stuff seems to be holding pretty well.

RE: Life Limit on Rubber Componets - rheavn - 12-11-2018

"What kind of typical life cycle are you all seeing in the following list of items?"

My coach is 20 years old.  I have replaced air springs, brake chambers, radiator hoses and the engine belt.  None were replaced due to poor condition or failure, but replaced as preventative maintenance.  I have repaired a heater hose that failed due to chafing.  

I have never heard of any one replacing window seals or slide seals due to age & mine are original.  

I do inspect hosing annually as part of my preventative maintenance procedure.

RE: Life Limit on Rubber Componets - Latitude 28 - 12-11-2018

Thanks for the reply Richard & Steve....good to know.  On my first car I changed wearing components to be proactive in my scheduled maintenance.  End result, the thing that broke on the road was totally unexpected and I had a trunk full of serviceable parts when I sold the car. 

Life lesson for me involved serious PM maintenance schedule and not letting deferred maintenance go.

RE: Life Limit on Rubber Components - Nebster - 12-19-2018

I just re-sealed six windows at 10 years. All but one of them were skinny vertical windows, so I think something was up with the factory that week when they made that particular size.

Newell does not recommend slide seals or air bags to be replaced preventatively. Mine are still all original.

The other stuff you listed is a drop in the bucket, relatively speaking (except brake chambers, which I don't know a thing about and hope I never have to).

I've noticed a lot of other rubber-y things aging out on my coach: gaskets, trim pieces, slide wipers. Some of those can be very time-consuming and/or expensive to replace.

Think of it like a game. It's more "fun" that way!

RE: Life Limit on Rubber Components - pairodice - 12-19-2018

Your age ranges are about right but you left out tires which should be changed at about 7 years (YMMV and opinions abound). We have replaced the engine belts which we finally figured out was the alternator was just a little off and was eating belts like they were mac-n-cheese! The original owner replaced the salon slide but it was because he rolled it due to not keeping it clean (more than likely). We have not had to replace any hoses really although the coach is currently getting several engine hoses changed as they were brittle but this is just for maintenance.