Our first stop is the Newmar Service Center! Needed some maintenance items done and a couple of repairs. All in all, the USS Dutch Star is working flawlessly!

The New Facility!

Newmar built a brand new service facility in Nappanee and it is top notch! They also have this new campground right across the street.

So here is the routine:

• Wake up at 5:30 AM
• Get the rig ready for the technician
  • Pull in slides
  • Start the engine
  • Pull up the jacks
  • Unhook (electric, water, sewer)
  • 6:00 AM Meet technician and he drives the rig into the service center
• Get breakfast!
• Come back or go visit friends/family
• Meet the technician around 1:00 PM to see what has been done or if there are any issues.
• Technician drives rig back to site at 2:00 PM
• Ready the rig to live in.
• Settle in for the night.

We stayed for the week however only needed four days of service. There were some areas of the rig we wanted serviced because after 3 years, these items have never been looked at:

• Inspect and service slide outs (3) – rollers and seals. Found out the factory put in the wrong control board on the kitchen slide. They put in the correct one at no charge.
• Replace driver window night shade – they replaced the entire shade block (night & day) at no charge since it was still under warranty from the recall we had performed last year. Outstanding!
• Service Air Conditioners (3) – no issues, standard maintenance
• Inspect Roof Sealants – everything looked good, just needed some touch ups.
• Inspected all outside lights – no issues.
• Replaced headlight wiring harness – this was a recall.
• Oasis – perform the annual maintenance.
• Oasis – insisted they also change out the Oasis fluid. It was a good thing, we used it for 2100 hours and the fluid was in bad shape. After performing this service, they said it was needed badly and good call!
• Adjusted Nova awnings.
• Fixed seals in half bath toilet to hopefully get rid of sewer smell when moving the rig.

What is really cool is they give you a badge that allows you to walk through the service bay and speak to the technician at any time. I really appreciated this and walked through the facility several times.

In addition there were other rigs there for service and we met some great people. We shared contact information and will definitely keep in touch!

This was a great experience and we may do this every year. With all of the items we had them perform it only cost $2,800. I thought this was reasonable considering all of the work they performed. I felt like we drove away with a fully serviced rig!

Next stop – Shipshewana!