Table of Contents
A Change of Plans
Before we get to our New Newmar Bay Sport 3014 let’s go back to the why. My family wanted to go to a local RV show at the beginning of February so we went just to hang out with family but with no intentions or looking for a new unit. After looking at a couple motorhomes, Anna said she thought that would be better for travel instead of riding in the 2021 F350 Dually we use to tow. She always gets tired of being cramped up so we stop at least once every couple of hours to at least stretch our legs which adds to our travel time.
We started looking at C class motorhomes with the Ford E450 chassis but then started looking at those built on the Mercedes Sprinter chassis. We loved what we saw, full body paint, shorter sizes, tons of safety features and navigation, fuel economy, and best of all the ride quality. We thought we had our minds made up so I was working a deal on a new Thor Tiburon until I found out about OCCC. The Tiburon only had an OCCC of 850lbs.
What is OCCC?
What is OCCC? It stands for Occupant Cargo Carrying Capacity. It is the weight capacity you can have in the motorhome which is the GVWR (gross vehicle weight rating) minus the UVW (unloaded vehicle weight). The OCCC is everything you put in the RV, yourself, passengers, clothing, gear, etc. As much as I loved this RV, we couldn’t make this work.
We even looked at units from Winnebago whom typically have better OCCC but couldn’t find one much better than 1100 lbs. which would not work for the way we camp. We have also been wanting to dry boondocking and I have started buying the components to setup full solar on the camper. All of this adds weight and wouldn’t be possible on the Mercedes chassis.
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Class C Ford Chassis
Back on the hunt I went. I was still trying to find a class C on a Ford E450 chassis that would give us better carrying capacity as well as stay in the 25 foot range so it may be possible to travel without towing another vehicle with us. I looked at a couple units from Jayco and Four Winds that I thought would work which on the interior had more than enough space to stay and cabinets for storage.
In the end it was really price that got us. The Mercedes versions were coming in around $150k with full body paint but the Jayco here locally was running $135k. I started to look at a 3rd option being a Class A. I knew we could get into one for the same price range and they were nice but one day I did a search for some of the luxury brands to see if they made Class A units on a gas chassis.
Now we are talking!
A quick search of the internet and I learned that Winnebago, Tiffon, and Newmar had gas coaches built on the Ford F53 chassis which seems to be the standard for all Class A motorhomes today. These are beautiful coaches and provide more interior space than most Class C’s as well as more outside storage.
A quick search of RV Trader and I started to find slightly used and new units near the $150k range. I ended up finding a new 2023 Newmar Bay Star Sport 3014 within driving range at the right price that was being clearance out for the new model year. I asked the wife one last time which she preferred, the Class C versus the Newmar RV and she jumped at the Newmar RV.
Newmar Bay Sport 3014
I filled out the forms online and submitted our trade information on our 2023 Rockwood 2622RK. I was contacted the next day from Kaylee at the dealership whom is very young but seemed very knowledgeable in what she was selling. She even had done a video on our specific Newmar Bay Sport 3014 so she sent me a link.
We settled on a trade in price for our rig and I gave them a deposit of $5k to hold the coach. I scheduled a meeting with them at 1:00 on Friday to drive the coach and give it a once over before signing any paperwork. We had a six hour drive to pickup the coach so we went with the later appointment.
Pickup Day
I had planned on being on the road no later than 6:00 am which would be a struggle with Anna but to my surprise she was coming out of the shower when I woke up at 4:30 to let me know that “she beat me”. The fifth wheel was hooked up the night before and we managed to leave at 5:30. Our trip would have taken us through Chicago so I took a different route that added another 30 minutes but kept us away from any traffic jams we may encounter.
We got to the dealer at 12:30 and was greeted by someone at the front desk. They let Kaylee know we were there and told us she would be over soon and we could look around. They have a large indoor showroom and as I walked around a row of campers I could see our unit inside being detailed.
We really didn’t want to have black for an exterior color due to heat but the unit is sharp. They had another in the same floor plan that had lighter exterior colors but we were not a fan of the cabinet colors in that unit. As we walked in you could definitely tell a difference in the way it was built compared to the other Class A units we had looked at. In a few minutes Kaylee arrived to show us around the new coach.
Anna did a walk through to inspect the interior while I was doing the orientation starting on the exterior. On the outside I pointed out both the full wall slide and the bedroom slide had some alignment issues. I also found the exterior TV mount was not level and needed adjustment.
Upon entering inside the coach Anna had found a screw missing from an AC vent cover, one of the drawers in the bathroom was not locking, and a piece of wall board over the full wall slide was coming out slightly at a seam. All the defects were marked with blue tape to be taken care of before we left.
Newmar Bay Star Sport 3014 Test Drive
They wanted us to do the paperwork and Anna reminded them that we had not driven the coach yet so they moved it from the showroom to out front. Upon entering I found that the power drivers seat would not operate we found out later to be a wire that had disconnected. I was able to smash myself behind the wheel and we began the test drive.
Prior to this my only experience was test driving the Thor Tiburon on the Mercedes chassis and a Winnebago Class A. We headed out on the outer road and the drove well. As we turned from the outer road onto the highway, I felt a sudden loss of power and a warning displayed on the dash, “Power Reduced, Brake Applied”. It did this several times so we took the coach back to the dealer so they could look at this issue as well as the others we had pointed out earlier.
After a short time waiting they let us know that the issues we had pointed out were resolved. They also believed that because I couldn’t move the seat back, I may have been pushing the brake pedal as I was accelerating causing the error. I wear a size 15 wide shoe so I felt this was a logical explanation so I proceeded in to go finalized paperwork with Steve.
Proud New Newmar Bay Star Sport 3014 Owners
Anna started moving our gear from our fifth wheel to the new coach and I was done and joined her at 4:30. She was trying to load the new coach with the slides in so I decided to open up the slides to make it easier but nothing happened. I tried several things but could not make it work and within a few minutes Steve came walking up to check on us. He went through everything a couple of times and said the service crew would be in at 7:30 and could look at it which was great as we were going to spend the night nearby and head out in the morning.
We arrived the next morning and found that they were unable to get in our coach so I gave them our keys and they took it into service. After about 1 1/2 hours they came to get me and show me what they had found. There is a plug that goes to the slide motor that was not fully clipped and when they pushed it they heard it click and everything was operational again.
With everything complete we headed for home. We will write a review with more details on the coach soon and a couple other issues we have encountered so far. Thanks for stopping by!