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New to This Group

Yahoo Message Number: 96934
Hello,

I just joined this group and wanted to introduce myself.

After 32 years of active service (prior Navy; retired Coast Guard) 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 rig 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 coaches and really like them. We haven't seen an Entegra yet but like what we see/read online (although they do not have a floor plan that really works for us). 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 could 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. This led us to Country Coach about 3-4 months ago which has now taken over the #1 spot on our DP list (and that is sight unseen and relying solely on pictures and the accounts of owners who love their CC rigs).

We most likely will not seriously begin our search for our Country Coach until next mid-2015 so we have plenty of time to research and gather any information available. Part of that research will be to glean as much information as we can from the people on this group. Thank you in advance for what I am sure will be a very educational time for my wife and me.

Larry and Jan Steinmetz
Friendswood, TX

Re: New to This Group

Reply #1 –
Yahoo Message Number: 96935
Larry & Jan,

welcome to the group. We full time in our 2004 Allure 33' (yes, 33' ). Been 5 years and still loving it.
We have over 110,000 miles on "Big Blue" We are now in Montana. Home base Florida.
I'm sure that there is a CC out there with your names on it.
Happy Hunting!

Please keep us posted.
Lonny & Diane Livingston
'04 Allure #31065

Re: New to This Group

Reply #2 –
Yahoo Message Number: 96937
We too are new to the group. We just purchased an 05 Intrigue 330. We love the coach but have had nothing but problems so far. Mostly due to lack of maintenance. Although we got a very good price on the coach we have put about 18K into it just to get it up to snuff. It only has around 20,000 miles. Currently we are experiencing some sort of electrical problem.
My advice is - ask for all the service records before purchasing. If the coach has not had proper maintenance be prepared to put a lot of dollars into it. We live in Oregon so took our coach directly to the manufacturer. There are a lot of issues due to the manufacture cheapening up on the construction in this time period. The radiator being one of these!

Mike & Sherri
Jefferson, OR

From: Country-Coach-Owners@yahoogroups.com To: Country-Coach-Owners@yahoogroups.com Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 09:02:58 -0500 Subject: [Country-Coach-Owners] New to This Group

Hello,

I just joined this group and wanted to introduce myself.
After 32 years of active service (prior Navy; retired Coast Guard) 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 rig 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 coaches and really like them. We haven't seen an Entegra yet but like what we see/read online (although they do not have a floor plan that really works for us). 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 could 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. This led us to Country Coach about 3-4 months ago which has now taken over the #1 spot on our DP list (and that is sight unseen and relying solely on pictures and the accounts of owners who love their CC rigs).
We most likely will not seriously begin our search for our Country Coach until next mid-2015 so we have plenty of time to research and gather any information available. Part of that research will be to glean as much information as we can from the people on this group. Thank you in advance for what I am sure will be a very educational time for my wife and me.

Larry and Jan Steinmetz
Friendswood, TX

Re: New to This Group

Reply #3 –
Yahoo Message Number: 96938
Thank you for the welcome. It's great to hear that your CC purchase has so successfully worked out for you in your full-timing lifestyle. We are getting very anxious to move our research beyond just staring at beautiful pictures online and start setting foot in some coaches. I'm sure that at some point the right coach will come along given enough time and perseverance.

Regards,
Larry

Re: New to This Group

Reply #4 –
Yahoo Message Number: 96939
Larry, welcome to the group. We also decided not to purchase new when we upgraded to our current rig. We looked at a number of used high end coaches including Newmar Essex, American Eagles and Traditions, and some Monaco's. We saw nothing we liked more than the Allure we now have. As noted in another response, any coach can have problems if it is not properly maintained. So your primary job is to look for one that has service records and has obviously been taken care of. Our criteria when looking for a coach was: 1. Only one prior owner; 2. Must have service records; 3. If buying from dealer, dealer willing to put us in touch with prior owner. We got our coach from a dealer and he did give us the prior owner's contact info (after speaking to that person). It worked for us.
There are plenty of nice, gently used, well-maintained CC's out there. If you can, I suggest you look in Oregon. There are a bunch of used CC's there. Premier RV in Junction City is a place to start.
Good luck in your search and thank you for your service to our country.

Gary

'07 Allure 470 #31578

Re: New to This Group

Reply #5 –
Yahoo Message Number: 96948
Thanks for the comments Gary. Junction City is near my old stomping grounds when in the Coast Guard and stationed at different times in Oregon (Brookings, Newport and Portland). I haven't been back since 2005 but still have a lot of friends/family there so I now have one more reason to plan a trip there!

Larry