When we bought our first Navion two and a half years ago our small collection of RV friends welcomed us into this new circle of adventure with the admonition, “you’re next one will be even bigger.” Their prediction was true, sort of.
Here we are in our brand new 2015 Navion which is exactly the same size as our previous one, but as our friends predicted, larger both in living space and storage. I’ll deal with that contradiction shortly, but first, before the reviewing begins, here’s a little context.
Background
My wife Terry and I bought our first Navion in late 2012. It was a 2013 model V which was a brand new floorplan featuring a mid-coach bath and twin beds in the back. We never owned a motorhome before, but happily dived into the experience. In two years we travelled over 40,000 miles in the Navion spending about eight of those months living in it. Along the way we developed some great friendships with Winnebago and ultimately I have found myself happily working with the company as the editor of this blog.
Now unlike traditional reviews where a writer gets a coach to drive for a few days or a week and then returns it to the dealer, we wrote a check for OUR Navion. The only difference the second time around is that, given my relationship with Winnebago, we’ve gotten to try out a few ideas that aren’t currently offered. With a little extra cost for us, and some help from the design team and customer service, we added some features that we think would be nice upgrades in the future. If these, or similar upgrades are of interest, have your dealer talk with Winnebago. The company has a special customer service department that can, within certain limitations, provide special order upgrades at additional cost.
A Navion is born. With the chassis frame in place, our Navion starts it’s journey through “Big Bertha” to be assembled.
Before it goes into the factory, the plumbing and wiring harnesses are installed.
The slide is on! Look closely and you’ll see the furnace and hot water heater being installed.
All assembled and ready for paint. In the span of about seven days, 18 people will be involved in the painting process.
Don says goodbye to our well-traveled 2013 Navion V.
Day one. We take delivery at our dealer, Transwest, just north of Denver.
Next stop. Parking the Navion in front of the Container Store for two hours of trying out various storage solutions.
Starting off right. A very thoughtful gift from Transwest including a surprisingly good Merlot labeled “Happy Camper.”
And here we go as we enter the Texas Panhandle. For our first road test, we drove from Denver to Key West and spent 5,200 miles and a month traveling in the Navion. We had it in below freezing weather and in warmer temps that allowed us to test every system.
Changes big and small
In my tech life I’m often asked by friends about when should they consider upgrading their hardware and software. Like tech, with every new year, the changes in motorhomes is usually incremental. The differences in the 2015 models will be very evident to owners of 2011 and older models. Yet even in two years since we bought our 2013 V, Winnebago has made some significant and much appreciated changes to the line.
The Mercedes Chassis
Mercedes updated the Sprinter chassis in 2014 and outside of front grill changes, there’s seems to be very little difference from our 2012 chassis. However, Winnebago is now ordering the chassis configurations with steering wheel controls. As part of the steering wheel package there’s a change in the dashboard with a much nicer LED-like display showing engine messages. You access the message center with a button cluster on the left slide of the wheel. And, for me, there was a lot to like with this new arrangement.
First of all, you don’t need to reset the outside temperature display. Once it’s set. It remains there. Stepping through the dashboard menus you can check oil level (when stopped) and monitor engine temperature. One really nice feature is the estimate of how many miles until empty. This is only a rough gauge, but helpful. And one area where Mercedes went in reverse — in a good way — was to swap the electronic gauge bars with a low tech, but accurate, needle gauge. Old school, but much nicer.
A better digital display on the Mercedes dash, plus an analog (but accurate) fuel gauge.
The right side steering wheel buttons let you control volume and switch modes with the new Xite GPS Infotainment system, but unlike the icons on the steering wheel, those buttons do not allow you to answer or hang up the phone.
The biggest option facing a View/Navion buyer is to go with the I4 or V6 cylinder engine. We opted for the V6. In early December of 2014, Winnebago shipped us a comparably equipped 4 cylinder V floorplan configured like our existing 2013 V. We did a Denver to Vail test drive to compare the power performance of the two engines. You can read about the test or watch the video of the 200 mile test drive which took us up six percent grades and and high as 11,000 feet..
The new I4 is projected to get 18% better mileage. What that means to me isn’t savings at the pump, but being able to wait for looking for fuel when the trip odometer hits 300 miles instead of 250. Nonetheless, as we were passing a semi on a west Texas highway a week ago, I appreciated the little extra top end push the V6 will give you. We’re pulling a Honda Fit as a flat toad and have seen our best mileage at 14.5 MPG and worst at 11.9 MPG. Much of our driving has been at 65 MPH and that seems to yield results at a very consistent 12-13 MPG. In our last Navion our V6 Sprinter performed very similarly, and on stretches of highway where speeds were in the 50-55 range we’d occasionally hit 17 MPG.
And which engine is better? Let me answer it this way: for now, I like the slightly better uphill pulling power of the V6, but if the I4 was the only engine offered, I know I would be fine with it.
There is also one more significant change to the Sprinter and that’s the service interval. This is not a typo: the first service (and subsequent ones) happens at 20,000 miles! Yes, that’s the first time you change oil, too. I re-read the manual twice to make sure on that one.
The Coach
From the outside in let’s take a comprehensive look at our new Navion. Of course, all of these comments apply to the View with the only difference between the Winnebago and Itasca models being slightly different choices of fabrics and exterior colors.
Aluminum wheels. Somewhere near Holbrook, Arizona we left behind a wheel simulator (aka hubcap) a few years ago and, as any View/Navion owner learns, these things have a way of coming off, so wire ties are in order for securing them. And, for those who have lost a simulator or two, you know they’re a couple of hundred dollars to replace. When we bought our first Navion the $1,200 for aluminum wheels seemed like a total fluff. But this time around, not having to mess with or worry about the simulators, seemed like a small, albeit luxurious expenditure.
Full body paint. The other “who needs it?” option was full body paint. Winnebago does a very nice job with their graphics appliqués over the gel coat walls and it’s definitely a big gulp to consider spending over $6,000 for paint. Outside of the more upscale aesthetic of full body paint, there are two other considerations. The first is that paint can be better matched for touchup, buffed up, and doesn’t oxidize over time like gelcoat. The other, is the equivalent of “curb appeal” in selling a home. While you won’t recover your full investment cost in this upgrade, it can make a difference in a better and faster resale or trade-in.
Exterior Storage. If you want to get a good sense of how a View/Navion stacks up against a competitor’s product, one of the best places to look is at the underneath storage compartments and doors. The feel and precision of the gas-strut assisted, box folded aluminum doors says it all.
Entry Door. And while we’re on the subject of gas struts, let’s talk about the new front door. The gas strut holds it open at a 90 degree angle which now eliminates the tendency to swing in the way of the awning when it’s being extended. This also eliminates the metal anchor rod we used to have to use to hold the door fully open. Adding the strut required more structural reinforcement of the door and it feels very substantial. Best yet, many View/Navion owners (including us) fought the issue of a going down the road squeak coming from the door latch. This seems to have been fixed with the new door and we never heard a peep.
A much stronger coach door with a gas strut to hold it open.
Awning. Before we head inside the coach there are two other new features that we really liked. The first is the outside porch light is now an LED and a very bright one at that. The awning, when extended, is also lit with blue cast LEDs (less likely to attract mosquitos) and throws a beautiful envelope of light. One warm evening in Tampa we ate outside with friends under the awning and the ambiance was pretty magical.
Floorplans. The product line has four different floorplans the G (2 slides, mid-bath, queen walk around bed in back), V (1 slide, mid-bath, twin beds in back), M (1 big slide with dinette and sofa sleeper), and the J (1 slide, U-dinette, and corner rear bed).
The J corner bed floorplan is perhaps the most universal floorplan found in most every RV manufacturer’s smaller products. There’s a reason for that. By putting the bed in the corner, you free up very valuable wall space and create a greater sense of openness in the coach and storage under the bed. For 2015 Winnebago stretched the J body style out to the 25.5’ length to achieve parity with the other floorplans and, in so doing, created more space.
Storage. Compared to our V, the new J gave us a lot more storage space than we’d anticipated. Our V was pretty well packed, and when we loaded everything into the J we found a lot more – and I mean a lot more room.
To start with, we picked up another equally large outside storage bay in the driver’s side of the rig. Our V only had one. There is storage underneath all three of the U-dinette’s three seats which allowed us to bring some outside storage items, like paper towels, toilet paper, and vacuum cleaner inside.
We opted for the overhead bunk instead of the skylight profile model (which we had in our V). There are some really nice molded storage crannies under the mattress which was ideal for infrequently used items like our portable CB radio, walkie talkies, and some extra flashlights. When parked, we liked the shelf-like space on the mattress to temporarily set clothes, maps, cameras, etc. We also stored the optional booster cushions for the two cab seats up above.
With the TV cleverly mounted on a swing out bracket in front of an above the galley cabinet, I now had easy access to the TV electronics (we have a Dish satellite receiver and I also added an HDMI switcher and AppleTV). But beyond the electronics gear there was plenty of room for bags of chips, bread, and a toaster.
The cabinet doors on both the galley and vanity run from the floor to the counter and, when opened, reveal a lot more accessible space. It made it much easier to see and access items. This was a huge improvement. The full pull-out drawers in the galley were great, but there was one suggestion I made to Winnebago and that’s to deepen the thin top drawer by just about a half inch so standard silverware trays will clear. As it was, we found a great organizer which I had to slice about a quarter of an inch off with a Dremel tool to get it to fit.
The base of the corner bed lifted up effortlessly with the help of a gas strut. We came to appreciate this feature more and more as it made access to vertically stored wine bottles, electric space heater, and extra towels super easy to get to. The outside access to this same large compartment also allowed me to move the lawn chairs in and out easily and get to all our bike and hiking gear too.
All the overhead cabinets now have positive latching hardware and, being stylish in their Italian design, good hand feel. Both of us really liked the classy look of the high gloss cabinetry which is an optional cost. Yes, yes — we knew that there would be a little extra wiping down for fingerprints and smudges, but that proved to be actually very minimal and we remain happy with our decision.
Moving from one floorplan to another took some figuring out. Right after we picked our Navion up from our dealer (Transwest, north of Denver), we immediately drove to a local mall and parked it right in front of the Container Store. For the next two and a half hours we walked in and out of the store trying various organizers. Everybody packs differently, but no matter what your storage theories are, a trip to a Container Store is highly recommended.
Furniture. The centerpiece, and big deciding factor to switching to the J floorplan, is the beyond spectacular U-shaped dinette. I talked about the great storage under the seats, but the seats themselves are worth mentioning. They are built like residential furniture with springs underneath the padding and Ultraleather’s Primera covering. What this means is, unlike foam blocks, the long term sitting comfort is much better. The Winnebago design engineers also came up with a fantastic fold-out footrest/ottoman solution that is so sturdy you can sit on it without worry when it’s fully extended. Like the best loungers, the footrest tilts slightly forward for maximum comfort.
Super comfortable footrests are so strong you can comfortably sit on them too.
Watching the new Insignia 28” TV with our feet up proved to be an extraordinarily comfortable position. Our enjoyment was enhanced by the placement of the TV speakers right above our heads which created a surprisingly good home theater effect.
A rectangular table swivels and locks on a center post. And boy, did we swivel it throughout the evening as, for dinner we’d lock it down where Terry and I would sit across from each other while dining. Later, when watching TV, reading, or using our laptops with our feet up, we’d turn the table ninety degrees for more sitting width and a great place to set a mug or glass.
A furniture option we chose were the “booster seats” for the driver and passenger seats. For extended stays we rotated the seats in toward the coach and with the boosters, found them to be exceptionally comfortable for reading, watching TV, or conversing.
We never got around to sleep testing either the overhead bunk or the turning the dinette into a bed. However, we did try preparing both beds and found the process easy to do.
Our single biggest concern about the J floorplan was dealing with a corner bed. All the worries were there: hard to make, hard to get into, too narrow, and what if one needs to get up in the middle of the night. Yep, that one made us nervous. Well, the very good news was that, for us, none of these worries came true (big sigh of relief).
The corner bed worked for us, especially with the convenience of a Travasak (no longer manufactured, but similar to the RV Superbag). For more information on bedding click here for a more in-depth story. The shelf above the bed was a great place to place our iPads and phones for charging while we were sleeping. Under-bed storage access with a gas strut lift made lifting the bed very easy.
First of all we solved the bed making with a combination comforter and sheet system that is essentially a fancy sleeping bag. I’m 5’ 11” and it was great not having my feet touch a bulkhead wall like they did in our V because the J bed is 80” long. As I usually got into bed after Terry was asleep (on the shorter inside position), I barely disturbed her as I crawled onto the outside position. At home, we sleep on a queen sized bed and the J is more like a super full sized mattress, but after a month of experience we both concluded that the bed was both comfortable and easy to deal with. Our home mattress is a TempurPedic and while the standard Winnebago mattress isn’t that fancy, the quality of the foam and additional tufting was a noticeable improvement over pure foam slabs.
Electrical power. As we did with our first Navion, we ordered the more expensive Onan diesel generator. With a $4,000 dollar higher cost than the LP version, it’s a point of lively debate among View/Navion owners. I’m afraid I cannot offer any perfect wisdom on which is better. For us, we like the convenience of being able to tank up at any filling station with diesel instead of the less convenient process of finding LP. If you don’t anticipate heavy generator use, the LP version is probably the way to go. A significant majority of View/Navions are sold with LP generators. Having tested both, the sound level and vibration is essentially the same. One surprise to me is that there is a distinct smell from the LP exhaust that can be equally annoying inside the coach if a breeze is blowing in the wrong direction or you’re hemmed in by two semis at a truck stop.
Tucked away behind a cabinet door are the coach controls and the Zamp Solar monitoring panel.
Many View/Navion owners have added solar to their rigs and that was another special option we had Winnebago’s customer service install. They went with a Zamp Solar 150 watt, 30 Amp single panel system. On our first trip, we did very little dry camping (mostly parking lot overnights in transit), so I wasn’t able to get a sense of the speed and efficiency of the charger. What I did observe is that, even in open shade or overcast, that the panel was pushing electrons to the batteries. This is a truly set-it-and-forget-it technology that quietly does it’s job. In a deeper read of Zamp’s information, the company explains that the auxiliary solar charge extends battery life by reducing the deep discharge cycle of the batteries.
Lighting. Of course all RV manufacturers have switched over to energy efficient LED lighting, but Winnebago’s also taken advantage of using LED lighting strips as part of their interior design with indirect accent lighting. This creates a very warm pleasing residential feel in the evenings and the word “classy” certainly seems to be the best descriptor. One change owners of older View/Navion units will notice is there are no labels on the light switches. At first I thought this was an oversight, then it was pointed out to me that we don’t label our lights at home. Good point. We quickly got used to knowing which switch was for what.
Electronics. I will discuss the new Xite Infotainment GPS in-dash option in a separate review. Of course the first question most folks will have is the $1,500 option really worth it. In a word: yes. This is a specially designed product for Winnebago that has enough compelling features, including the Rand McNally RV GPS software, to make it a better choice than other aftermarket solutions. We used it a lot and, once we took the time to really learn it’s many features, really appreciated having it.
The Xite Infotainment GPS system uses Rand McNally’s GPS software which did a great job of getting us to where we wanted to go.
I would personally prefer a better fidelity solution to cab audio, but that’s really a Mercedes issue. Let’s face it, the Sprinter’s a delivery van so good audio fidelity is a lot less important than. . .20,000 miles between oil changes. The audio’s not bad, mind you, but it certainly doesn’t sound like riding in a Mercedes E-class.
Built into the galley cabinet is the Jensen house sound system that controls speakers inside and outside the coach. Winnebago has clearly upgraded the interior speakers and we really enjoyed the audio for both music and television. When we streamed the final episodes of “Game of Thrones” to get caught up to the new season, the sound was really theatrical and, the placement of the speakers over our heads insured that no British accented dialogue was missed.
The Jensen also now allows you to stream bluetooth music which I did from my iPhone and MacBook. It has a regular DVD player built-in (not Blu-ray) which we didn’t test. Now, I’m not a persnickety audiophile, but I can and do appreciate good clean sound. And in that regard the Jensen is a very middling performer. Great? No. Good enough for 95% of owners. Absolutely.
The other Jensen product is the rear bedroom TV. Winnebago uses this product for a couple reasons: it’s compact and it runs off of 12 volts. It’s a unique product that does it’s job, though not impressively. The screen viewing angle is very, very limited, but the good news is that, while watching in bed you’re looking directly at it, so the screen looks fine. The weak spot, and boy is it a weak spot, is that the speakers are tiny and don’t put out much volume. In our last V I added an amplifier and auxiliary speakers. For our new J I found an elegant solution by tucking a JBL portable speaker above the TV mounting bracket. This proved to be a very good sounding and flexible solution.
The main TV in the front of the coach is a nice looking Insignia flat screen with very decent angular viewing. The only drawback is that it’s a 120 volt screen, but that’s not a big issue as it’s plugged into an inverter driven outlet so you can run it off of house batteries if you’re dry camping and don’t want to run your generator.
One of our special changes was to have customer service to run an HDMI cable from the front cabinet, where my satellite box is located, back to the Jensen bedroom TV. In standard installations the high def signal coming from the satellite got turned into a lower def composite signal (less sharp, cropped picture). Having a cable pulled (next to impossible to run after the coach is built) allowed me to not only have hi-def satellite on both screens, but also hi-def video streaming from our Apple TV box.
Galley. To create more living space, the new J floorplan cleverly places the microwave above the closet on the slideout side. We found this to be a very convenient arrangement that helps eliminate traffic congestion during meal preparation. Though galley counter space is limited, the glass cover over the Dometic 2-burner stove definitely helps. We found that keeping one cover on one side of the dual sink also added a little more work surface. In 2014 Winnebago switched from wood sink covers (decorative yet prone to break) to a hard plastic which is a much better product.
It’s a lot more convenient having a separate freezer door with the Norcold.
The hands down winning upgrade in the galley is the switch to a Norcold refrigerator instead of the Dometic. We found the Norcold to be far and away a better product. First of all, it did a much better job of switching between power sources. As we disconnected from campground 120V hookups and traveled down the road, it automatically switched to gas. We really appreciated the separate freezer door unlike the Dometic where you had to open the whole refrigerator door to get to the awkward fold-down freezer compartment door. Finally, the Norcold got colder and held temperature much better than the Dometic which always struggled. We were shocked when a can of pop actually froze on the top shelf of the fridge and found that we could maintain cold temperature at the number 3 (out of 5) setting. This also meant that ice cubes would freeze in a few hours, versus overnight.
Ventilation. We had the Dometic power skylight on our V and were happy to have it in the J. Its something we enjoy and use a lot. Winnebago made a pretty bold choice to remove a vent over the two-burner stovetop. For exhausting cooking smells and vapor they added a fairly quiet fan, mid-coach, that did a pretty effective job. It’s not as good an over the stove vent hood, but we were pleased at how well it worked.
The ceiling AC/Heat unit worked as expected with the added bonus of a little more controllability with air vents also on the unit’s ceiling cover plate.
The standard Suburban gas forced air furnace didn’t offer up any surprises and worked as expected. However, clearly attention was paid to installing it in a way that helped decrease the fan noise — not by a lot, but it definitely was quieter than our previous V.
Another special feature we had installed by Winnebago’s customer service was the new Maxxfan Deluxe made by MaxxAir. This was installed in place of the normal bathroom vent. As we expected, it served as both a bathroom vent and a whole-coach high capacity air exhaust fan. It’s quiet and super controllable. We mounted the IR remote control in the bathroom where you could access it from a, uh, sitting position if you didn’t plan ahead. The fan’s speeds are adjustable and can be easily programmed to open up to exhaust air at a pre-determined temperature. When the fan starts the skylight cover automatically raises and is designed to keep leaves, twigs and insects out when open. This is one impressive product and the good news is for existing View/Navion owners, it installs in the standard vent dimensions so it should be fairly straightforward to add as aftermarket upgrade. Fantastic product.
Windows. So let me borrow the words from the last paragraph: excited, impressive, fantastic and let me add the word awesome to the list. What am I describing? The Seitz acrylic windows that Winnebago offers as an option on the Via/Reyo and was happy try out in our Navion.
With no middle frame dividers and retractable screens, the Seitz acrylic windows offer a wide, bright, panoramic view.
These windows are double glazed acrylics with an integrated screen and blind system. We were keen to try them as we hoped they would offer better insulation when we stay in colder climates. It’s my hope Winnebago will make this option available to future View/Navion owners.
They’re quiet. They don’t rattle. They insulate against cold (drafts) exceptionally well. They cut down on outside evening noise (Walmart parking lot). They offer excellent light and privacy control. And, in a big thunderstorm downpour in the Florida Keys that woke us up at 2 AM, I checked to see if any rain was coming in with our bedroom window tilted open. Nope. Not a drop.
Good ventilation with the built-in screens in place were perfect to protect against rain and bugs in the Florida Keys.
Time will tell how the windows hold up (don’t use ammonia based cleaning products), but their popularity and high volume adoption in Europe bodes well.
The Remis shades not only offer privacy, but help keep the coach cool when parked in the sun.
And I can’t leave the window category without a quick mention of the Remis shades in the front of cabin. We had this option on our V and a must have again on the new J. They operated flawlessly in two years of use on first Navion. There have been reports of hearing a rattle on the side blinds and in our first Navion that was easily fixed with a small drop of silicone sealant on the lower slide rail.
Final thoughts
So what went wrong? Not much. Transwest took care of a couple of pre-delivery items and I was all ready to start in-field adjustments and start keeping a fixit list. Well, the toolbox didn’t have to come out for any coach related items. And the fix list? There was only one — a squeak under the rear floor that’ll require a little extra tightening/anchoring. That’s it. But, from what our dealer tells me, View/Navion products arrive with very few bugs in them.
It really helped having previously owned another Navion. And even though there was only a two year difference in model years, outside of our upgrades and options, there was a strong sense of refinement. This is one highly evolved coach.
With the “all-in” upgrades, including a diesel generator, and post-delivery dealer-installed HWH lifters, our Navion’s price tag places it in much larger Class-A price territory. But this isn’t about buying more square footage. For us it’s about agility, driving performance, comfort and, yes, luxury.
Given our relatively short, but concentrated travel in our first Navion, our switch to the more open J floorplan, with that sensational dinette design, was perfect for us. We felt this gave us more livability and elbow room. However, there are always tradeoffs with compact motorhomes, the good news is that Winnebago offers four floorplans to choose from.
For all the time we’ve spent in friends’ luxurious diesel pusher Class-A’s, we feel that this new rig offers all the benefits and comforts of a large coach, so in that respect our friends were right – we do like the “larger size.” Now, where are we going to put the washer and dryer stack?