RVIA Trade Show Part 2 of 3: New Motorhomes

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This is the 2nd video in our 3 part series covering the RVIA Trade Show in Louisville, KY. Here in Part 2, we show you the latest RV models, trends, styling and features as we tour 3 quality motorhome manufacturers – Tiffin, Entegra and Newmar – all of which have typically been know for building Class A motorhomes. We were surprised and impressed by a few and really like some of the latest options – like the 33′ Newmar New Aire, Entegra prototypes for Class A Gas and 37′ Insignia entry level diesel pusher, plus three Class C models. If you missed Part 1 in this series, you can jump over and check it out here.

If you are ready to dive into Part 2, then read on and click the video below to watch, as that’s where we go into much more detail.

Class A and Class C Motorhomes

These 3 manufacturers have typically only built Class A motorhomes, so it was interesting to see they are also following the trend to go smaller – with Tiffin and Entegra offering Class Cs as well now, and Newmar introducing their first 33′ luxury diesel. We take a look at what really stood out to us as being new and exciting.

Tiffin Motorhomes

As Tiffin owners and fans, we were excited to see new innovations from the brand. While Tiffin has a solid reputation for building a quality coach and offering great service, to be completely honest, we didn’t see anything particularly innovative or exciting from Tiffin at this show.

The Tiffin family has expanded beyond Class A motorhomes in 2017, with a Class C motorhome called the Wayfarer that we’d already seen back in March at the FMCA rally in Arizona. The new 32′ Tiffin Breeze (baby diesel) now offers a king size bed option and there were a handful of small updates to other products, but nothing truly groundbreaking – at least from what we could see. We did ask one of their sales representatives to give us an overview of the latest trends Tiffin, and he said that was about it. So nothing bad, but nothing riveting to share with you either.

We did a quick walkthrough of their popular Allegro Open Road 36LA gas coach in the video, as it’s a similar level coach to our 2012 Allegro Open Road 35QBA and realized that, as much as we like the coach and floorplan, it’s just not designed with the needs of vertically-challenged people in mind! This makes an upgrade to a 36LA a complete dealbreaker for us, so we quickly moved on.

The Tiffin family did release their second line of luxury fifth-wheels under the Van Leigh brand (named after Bob Tiffin’s son Van and grandson Leigh). Their new Beacon fifth wheel is shown below and we cover this some more in Part 3.

While we received some criticism in the YouTube video comments for not covering Tiffin more fully or glowingly, so we want to reiterate that the magnitude of this show was beyond comprehension, and with so many other truly exciting innovations to explore elsewhere, we simply chose to spend our time on those. Our lack of focus on Tiffin at this show should not be interpreted as dissatisfaction with the brand.

We do plan to do some more walkthroughs of other Tiffin coaches in the future, when we aren’t so crunched for time, as we were at the RVIA Trade Show.

Entegra Coach

Entegra brought many surprises to the show, with a dramatic expansion to their brand offering. Traditionally Entegra has only manufactured 40-45 foot long luxury diesel motorhomes. Their section at this show only had one of their big diesels on display – their top of the line Cornerstone – and the rest of their space was filled with almost entirely new offerings. Entegra worked with Spartan to create a brand new coach built on a Spartan chassis under 40 feet long. The new Insignia is the entry-level diesel coach offered by Entegra line and is just 37 feet in length, which will appeal to those in the market for a sub 40 foot coach. 

Being a prototype unit, the 37′ Insignia we saw was not the finished version of course, but it’s still entering into an entirely new space for the brand. We liked what we saw, with the usual, very nicely appointed Entegra fit and finish and shared our feedback with their reps, who advised they were also making changes to open up more basement storage than we saw in the prototype. 

Entegra has also come out with three different Class C motorhomes to appeal to the small luxury Class C buyer – and perhaps the biggest surprise of all to us – was a gas-powered luxury Class A motorhome. We knew about the Class C’s and had heard rumors of the 37’ diesel being at the show, but the gas-powered class A was a completely unexpected. Entegra is clearly making a big effort to appeal to a much broader audience with a focus on delivering a smoother, quieter ride quality, that Entegra is known for with their diesel pusher motorhomes.

One of the biggest surprises from Entegra was their new gas-powered Class A called the Emblem

Entegra also released three new Class C models – a huge expansion to their product line

Continuing the product line expansion, Entegra introduced a new smaller size luxury diesel coach, the Insignia built on a new 37′ Spartan chassis

Overall, we still really like the Entegra products and that they really seem to be listening and responding to the market and their customers with these new offerings. We especially look forward to seeing the new 37′ Insignia when it hits the market, hopefully in spring 2018.

Newmar Corporation

Newmar had a number of new product innovations on display at the RVIA Trade Show. They are celebrating their 50th anniversary, and made a splash with a number of new offerings. The most exciting to us was their new, smaller diesel coach called the New Aire. It is a smaller sized class A diesel motorhome offering the luxury touches synonymous with their larger coaches. At only 33 feet long, we were amazed at their excellent use of space, and the high end feel.

For the last year or two, Newmar has also had full flush tile floors (Mor-Floor) in their slides, but there were a couple of new floorplans that showcased the feature more dramatically, now also with heated tile in the slide. A third major innovation was that Newmar has an exclusive on the new Flexsteel couch that converts into a bunk bed with two twin beds. Their Canyon Star gas powered class A motorhome also had a great back porch right off the master bedroom, which was a pretty nifty design that we can see being extremely popular across the board, when it’s more widely available.

Newmar New Aire interior

Newmar New Aire interior 

Newmar New Aire Exterior

Newmar Canyon Star 3924 with rear patio off the main bedroom

We felt Newmar really set out to make an impact at the RVIA Trade Show to celebrate their 50 years of manufacturing motorhomes and they achieved that. They are typically the most expensive of the three brands featured here, as they do allow for customization on many of their coaches.

In summary, all of these brands build very good products that we feel are worthy of consideration for anyone shopping around for a quality motorhome.

Want To See More? Check Out Part 1 and Part 3

This is a three-part series covering the RVIA Trade Show, so be sure to check them all out!

See Part 1 – where we show you Winnebago’s Horizon (RV of the Year), the Revel, Roadtrek, LeisureTravel, REV Group’s Super C Renegade and more.

See Part 3 – where we look at 3 great fifth wheels, the incredible Furrion custom RV and our favorite RV innovations

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