2023 Newmar Bay Star Sport Review – 3 Month

Initial Thoughts

Through the years I have owned an over cab camper, 3 travel trailers, and a fifth wheel but this is our first adventure into a motorized RV. After looking at what was available in a gas class a coach, I narrowed the field down to either a Tiffin or Newmar. Going into this we new this was the entry level coach but seemed to be a class above some of the Thor units we had seen. After researching and looking for deals across the country, we settled on a new 2023 Newmar Bar Star Sport 3014. Click here to read about how we got to a Class A for our first motorhome.

2023 Newmar Bay Star Sport First Issues

During the walk through of our new 2023 Newmar Bay Star Sport 3014 in the beginning of March, 2024, I had noticed that slides didn’t look quite aligned correctly. Our dealer made small adjustments but said they were not comfortable doing any more so not long after pickup I contacted Newmar to schedule an appointment at the Newmar Service Center in Nappanee, Indiana. After contacting Newmar, we were told we should return to the dealer first for correction. Once I told them the dealer would do no more, they scheduled us for a visit in June and asked them to keep them apprised of any other issues we came across during our initial trips so they could all be corrected during our visit.

Update 6/14/2024: The tech at Newmar did a great job getting everything lined back up.

Newmar Service Center

For those of you that know about it, this is what you would call the Newmar difference. During your service visit, they have an onsite campground with full hookups that you stay at. It has an electronic gate to control access and you may come into the campground the day before and staying a day passed your scheduled visit. At about 6am in the morning, the techs will begin heading into the campground to retrieve your coach for service. No need to bring in the slides, retract the levelers, and unhook the power as the tech handles this when they arrive at your site. At this point, you can sight see for the day or if you choose you can stay in their customer lounge areas.

The lounge area has plenty of seating and wifi access. Also there is a kitchen area, bathrooms, and multiple televisions. There are pet rooms with those travelling with one, outdoor seating area, and laundry. You can also swing by the parts department for any repair parts you may need.

You will be given a color coded badge that will give you access to the area of the shop where the work on your coach will be performed. Unlike most repair facilities, you may walk out to see the status of your coach at any time and talk with the repair tech. This was very helpful as I learned a few things about our coach that was not gone over during our walk through at purchase.

Each afternoon before 2:30, the techs will return your coach to your site or one nearby so you may stay in it for the evening.

2023 Newmar Bay Star Sport Usage

We have taken 3 trips since the purchase. Two of those were close to home as more of a shakedown trip and the third being a 2300 mile trip from our home base near St. Louis to Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, and then back along route 66 on our way back home. Right now we have about 3,300 miles logged on the odometer.

2023 Newmar Bay Star Sport Issues

Below is a list of all the issues we have that need resolved to date. One was somewhat serious and needed to be repaired on the road.

1st Trip – 50 mile round trip

• Water Heater – We generally run our water heater on electricity when hooked up to shore power. After turning on and several hours, we noticed no hot water is coming from the unit. Switching the propane, we immediately heard the burner ignite. I tried to troubleshoot and found 12v coming from the switch panel to the circuit board, 12v from the board to the relay, the relay is closing, resistance is good across the heating element, but no 120v ac power coming to the relay. I took apart the breaker panel and found power coming from the breaker to the EMS and the output from the EMS was outputting voltage so there has to be another connection point somewhere in the coach that has a bad connection.
  
  Update 6/14/2024: It was found that the unit was never plugged in at the factory during it’s initial build. There is an outlet on the exterior wall underneath the oven and the cord from the water heater was wrapped over a pipe up out of site.

• Norcold Absorption Refrigerator – During our first trip, we found the refrigerator to be working on electric but did not want to light on propane. There is a shutoff valve on the back where the electric valve is located that normally is in the open position when the slot in the screw is horizontal. I had Anna continue to reset it from inside and eventually got it to light with the slot at 45 degrees. Once turned off though, I had to have her to help and wiggle the valve back and forth until it would light. We find more issues with this unit later on our long trip.
  
  Update 6/14/2024: Norcold sent a repair tech out to evaluate. On the first visit it all seemed normal and they said it was working as expected. The next morning I was able to get the error when switching the unit over to propane so the Newmar tech had the Norcold rep back out. They replaced the burner assembly as well as the main control board and now it seems to be functioning as expected.

• Carefree Awning – As I opened up the awning for the first time, I looked up and it looks like a bad seam on the awning material where it attaches to the coach body. There was also a beep about every 30 seconds which is the wind sensor telling you it has a low battery. I removed and replaced the batteries but now the sensor will not connect (pair) to the system.
  
  Update 6/14/2024: Newmar found a bad seal on the wind sensor that let water into the unit so they replaced with a new unit. They said the material on the awning was just folder over when the awning was retracted so they ironed out the material to get it to lay right again.

• Warning “Brakes Applied – Power Reduced” – It actually did this during the drive home when we picked up the coach. I had read that this may be caused by a sticky brake light switch and it seemed to get better during the first two trips but happened quite a bit on our last long trip. It always seemed to come on when trying to accelerate up the ramp to merge onto a highway or going up a steep mountain pass both very frustrating.
  
  Update 6/14/2024: The issue seems to have gone away on its own for now.

• No OTA TV Channels – The coach came with 3 Samsung televisions all tied to the older style Winegard wing style crank up antenna. This is a powered setup and the switch for it is located just to the side of the passenger seat. We have camped in this same location for years and always get around 30 local channels but could not get a signal on any of the three televisions. We also have good reception at our home and was unable to get a broadcast here either. We are able to use the DVD player in the splitter system and get signals from it on all three televisions.
  
  Update 6/14/2024: It was found that the coax had a break in the wire between the booster and the antenna. They replaced the cable which took almost all day and looked like a lot of work.

2nd Trip – 182 mile round trip

• Advance Trac/Anti-Lock/Hill Start Assist Warnings – On our way to our second destination, we got a dash warning that advance trac was disabled. When these came up our anti-lock warning light illuminated and shortly after we got a warning that hill start assist had been disabled. This continues off and on as we continue to use the coach after this and eventually it started to also disable cruise control.
  
  Update 6/14/2024: Took the coach to Bremen Ford who works with the Newmar on their gas coaches. There is a service bulletin for a reprogram which I thought that was the issue. After driving the coach, the service advisor said I had the worst driving coach he had ever been in and that the ESC system was randomly engaging the brakes on the left and right causing the unit to pull to each side. They said it would be 3 days for parts but I told them I could not wait as I was leaving the next morning and would have it serviced when I got home.
  
  Update 6/21/2024: I took the unit to Victory Lane Ford near our home for service. They are supposed to take a look at it next week.

• Full Wall Slide Seal Gap – It got cool at night and I noticed I could feel air movement when I was near our wardrobe in the bedroom. I stuck the camera up over the slide molding and you can see the inner seal is not doing it’s job with lots of light showing through from outside. I also notice I could feel cold air blowing in from under the slide near the sofa but could locate a gap.
  
  Update 6/14/2024: They could not correct the original seal to close the gap. They installed a D-seal on the outside of the unit to close the gap. After the repair, the seal came loose and caught inside the blade seal. They installed another new one but I can still see some light around it and will ask them to address this when I return in the fall for paint/door work.

• Shower – After using the shower this second trip we have become to notice the floor seems spongy. Looking through a Newmar group on Facebook, this is a known issue and several have had Newmar add additional support in the shower pan area because the flex will cause the drain pipe to leak at the seal eventually. I also notice water has gotten out around the shower frame but luckily not made it’s way to the floor.
  
  Update 6/14/2024: Newmar resealed the shower frame and did add more support under the shower floor per my request.

• Drivers Power Seat – The seat was not functioning when we picked up and the dealer corrected it saying a cable had come unplugged. The seat was found to be out again and there is an inline fuse that was blown under the seat. I inspected the wiring for loose connections that may cause a short but did not find an issue. Two weeks later the fuse was blown again. I see a lot of posts that this may happen by rotating the seat around either the wrong direction or too far. We do not rotate the front seats at this time.
  
  Update 6/14/2024: Newmar did note that there were a large number of unnecessary connections on the seat wiring so they replaced the wiring. Each day the tech tested the seat upon pickup and delivery of the coach. Seems to be resolved now.

3rd Trip – 2300 mile round trip

• Entry Door – the entry door seems to hit at the top of the frame when sun is directly hitting that side of the coach. You cannot push the door closed at this point but it will go if slammed.
  
  Update 6/14/2024: I was informed that the door was manufactured by Challenger which is now owned by Lippert and located right next to the Newmar Service Center. They came to look at the door on the last day of my visit and admitted that they had a bad run of doors and thought they had contained them all but this one exhibited the same conditions as those. I have to reschedule another visit to have the door replaced and for the paint work to be completed which I will do in the fall.

• EQ Leveling Hydraulic Leak – We started getting an alarm as we headed out of Colorado Springs. I told the system to retract all and power it back off but it would give an alarm again within a minute. When we arrived at the park everything seemed normal. The next day we traveled 5 hours to Taos, NM and again started to get alarms. Upon setup I discovered fluid leaking from our passenger front cylinder at a plug. I asked in the Facebook Newmar group and others said they had had this come loose. I was able to turn it about a half a turn and though it was resolved but found a puddle of liquid two days later at another destination.
  
  I contacted EQ about the system to see if it was safe to drive and they said there was a risk of loosing all the fluid at which point the jacks could fall while driving. He said it was likely a pinched o-ring on the plug. I found a repair shop who couldn’t look at it but gave me the o-ring I needed so I could make the repair. Once removed, I could see there was a complete break in the o-ring. No more alarms in the final three days of travel and no further signs of leakage.
  
  Update 6/14/2024: EQ Systems sent a rep out to evaluate and it looks like I fixed the leak when I repaired it on our last trip and they did not see any issues. They did find that air was in the system and bled the air out while they were there. I did not get any alarms going to or coming back from Newmar which is about 7 hours each direction.

• Refrigerator (More Stuff!) – As stated earlier we could not get the unit to operate properly on propane so we decided to run the inverter while driving to run the refrigerator on 120 volts. This was fine as we were on shore power when stopped and the coach alternator kept the house batteries charged while traveling. This was fine until mid trip where we noticed that the refrigerator kept going into the mid 40’s. Please note, we barely had any food in the refrigerator so it wasn’t overloaded and we were barely in it other than milk, creamer, fruit, and a couple packs of small meat we picked up during the trip. On the last night coming home the refrigerator was 56 degrees when we stopped for the night and the freezer was at 10. The next morning I checked and the refrigerator was still in the mid 40’s. I miss my 12 volt compressor unit that we had in our last fifth wheel.
  
  Update 6/14/2024: Norcold sent a repair tech out to evaluate. On the first visit it all seemed normal and they said it was working as expected. The next morning I was able to get the error when switching the unit over to propane so the Newmar tech had the Norcold rep back out. They replaced the burner assembly as well as the main control board and now it seems to be functioning as expected.

• Chassis AC – luckily it was cooler on the trip and I know the AC should circulate air that is about 20 degrees lower than ambient. You could barely tell the difference between when the AC was on versus just running air in from outside. I can hear the compressor cycling and see the condensate dripping when stopped so I know there is some freon and it is cooling. I suspect that the electric valve that is supposed to shutoff water from the heater core is leaking so the AC is fighting air heated from the core. When this happens you will notice the AC get colder at a stop light because there is not as much hot water circulating which then warms up as you get moving on the highway again.
  
  Update 6/14/2024: Newmar said the unit is operating as expected. I am going to run some temperature tests on it as it heats up for summer to see if it is cooling correctly.

• Bedroom Slide Gouge – As I was cleaning the unit before making the trip to Newmar I found two large gouges on the rear wall of the bedroom slide.
  
  Update 6/14/2024: It was found that a bracket in the wall was causing the issue and was repaired. The slide requires two days of paint work so I will have to reschedule in the fall to get the gouges resolved.

Newmar – When You Know The Difference

I know that everyone with a new RV expects to have a couple of issues but so far I feel this is excessive for the amount of money that is spent on purchasing one of these. With that, I feel like i bought into Newmar not just on what it is, but also what I hear about the support after the sale.

I will say that the Newmar Customer Service Center is a welcome change compared to dealing with dealer service areas. They welcome your input and are very transparent as to the work being performed. Even with the issues we have had to date, I would highly recommend a Newmar to anyone in the marked of a class a motorhome. Their phrase “When You Know The Difference” really means something and shows when you join the Newmar family!