2022/2023 Journey 34N

[rprochnow]

And the wait continues for the first production Journey to be delivered.

There were two new articles posted in the last few weeks. One was a Winnebago Insiders article about a couple who appeared to have used the 40P prototype for a road trip (article was very light on details). The other was from autoevolution with an independent review of the new Journey.

We've made several passes at searches for alternative premium coaches to purchase - and keep coming back to the Journey. If Winnebago can ever start delivering them - for the price, they are including a lot of features, with a number of new innovations in the design.

Hoping that the recent release of these two articles might be an indication that the first deliveries will start happening soon...

[rprochnow]

How many people have ordered a Journey - and are still waiting?

And how many people gave up and bought something else instead (and what)?

We're only two months in on our wait - but Journeys aren't released soon, we'll have to decide if we'll line up something else for next year's long trips...

It would help if they could at least give a rough estimate on how much longer it's going to take before they release some production units - days, weeks, months, never...

[Goodscout]

We have had a 40P on order since January 2022. The best guess from our dealer went to a December delivery to a March 2023 delivery to maybe a March/April delivery. The frustration lies with Winnebago. Not the lead time as much as the lack of honest communication on their progress. We can live with a honest information. I assume Winnebago folks keep in touch on these pages. Maybe they will release some information.

[Goodscout]

Agree

[rprochnow]

We were told last week by our dealer's Winnebago rep that our Journey would be built in February.

Until they start delivering production units - it's hard to believe any schedule estimate...

We're back to looking at ordering a New Aire as our Plan B. It's going to cost about $170-180K more than the 34N we've ordered, but at least Newmar is building them...

We'd strongly prefer getting our 34N - but we also don't want to miss out on having a larger motorhome for the longer trips we are planning next year.

Winnebago - if you're listening - can someone at least provide to the dealers an estimate of how much longer it's going to be until production units will be delivered? Is it days, weeks, months - or "we don't know"?

[creativepart]

People, there has been zero indication that anyone from Winnebago pays any attention to the posts here on the forum. That's really short sighted of them but there has been no hint of anyone from the company reading any posts here.

[rprochnow]

Winnebago marketing just sent out another e-mail listing the recent article by the couple who borrowed a new Journey (40P?) for a road trip.

https://emailer.emfluence.com/viewas...E-16930801B27F

Now that they've sent out the same article twice - hopefully that means Journeys will soon be delivered.

Otherwise, the marketing team is only highlighting that Winnebago is approaching two years since the first new Journeys were supposed to be delivered, with no explanation for the long delay and no information to the waiting customers or dealers as to how much longer they could wait for their Journey.

We've started another pass of researching alternative Class A motorhomes to purchase, in case Winnebago continues to delay Journey production and it looks like we won't get one before next summer. It's becoming increasingly tempting to end this uncertainty and buy something else...

[rprochnow]

We ordered a Journey 34N because we are planning multiple long 6-8 week trips next year, and we'd like something larger than our View 24D for those trips.

When we placed the order in August, we were told delivery would be in January - which then moved to February.

In August, we were told by multiple people (dealers and Winnebago) that Journeys were in production and that units should be delivered to dealers "any day now". Two months later - still no production units delivered, and noone is claiming they know when the first production units will be delivered.

And Winnebago continues to be completely silent - not providing an explanation for the the lengthy delay (the first new Journeys were supposed to be delivered early last year) or in providing any estimate as to when they'll actually be building and delivering them.

What could possibly cause Winnebago to delay production and deliveries of new Journeys so long? If they had a supply chain issue, surely they could have lined up alternative suppliers within a few months. Or did they discover a major design flaw in the Journey design? Without any information from Winnebago - no way to tell what's really going on - or how much longer we'll have to wait...

Since others placed orders for delivery early last year - and have had a similar experience of continuing delays and lack of any information from Winnebago, and because we want a larger motorhome for our trips next year, we're placing an order for a "Plan B" coach, just in case Winnebago does not build our Journey early next year.

So we now have two Class A motorhomes on order - a Journey 34N and a New Aire 3543. And we'll see which one gets built first...

The Journey has a lot of innovative features at a relatively attractive price. Though some of the features listed on Winnebago's website and in their brochure are dated - technology that was available in 2020 when the prototypes and announcements were made, but are now obsolete (125 Ah batteries should be replaced by 130 Ah, HD TVs should all be 4K, Winegard Air 360+ should at least be V2.S if not the newer 5G, ...).

The New Aire has more features (adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning, collision mitigation, 640Ah of lithium batteries with two 3000W inverters that can run air conditioning for several hours, BrakeSync to support air brake connection for towing, ...) but at a much higher price.

We haven't given up on the Journey yet - and keep hoping Winnebago will (finally) start building and delivering them. And we'll wait as long as we can before we cancel our Journey order.

Unless Winnebago is very close to delivering Journeys, with the long delay, it may be better for them to just admit they won't be delivering any of the Journeys they announced two years ago - and instead refresh the design and re-introduce the Journey when they are really ready to build and sell them...

[creativepart]

The New Aire is in Newmar's "Luxury Coach Line" along with Mountain Aire and King Aire and London Aire. That's WOW territory.

I see you're trying to keep your Class A around or under 35'. When we bought our Adventurer I was super worried about anything over 34'. Then we fell in love with the 37.6' floor plan and the 1/2 bath option. I was prepared for the size to be a huge problem... but it's really not been. There have been campgrounds with a size limit but they were all 30' and smaller. So, a 34' size wouldn't have made any difference.

I wish I had a direct line to someone at Winnebago to find out some more info for you (and to give them half a dozen suggestions). But that's not something that came with this "job."

[Goodscout]

We traded our Adventurer 30T for the Journey 40P. I also wish Winnebago would communicate some information to us or our dealer. Quite an investment to be left out in the dark on progress.

[rprochnow]

We did look at several 37' floor plans that would provide more space. But the 3543 we're ordering has a sofa bed with sleeping for 4 adults and a dinette that can sit 6. So we're getting an upgrade over our View 24D with more space and some additional features.

Though if WBO builds our Journey in time, we'll probably take it instead...

[Goodscout]

I'm a Director or Board member of our local volunteer fire dept. Tonight we ordered a new tanker truck with a Freightliner chassis. We were told that the lead time would be 2 years.
The tanker company can build everything less the Freightliner in 4 months. They told us not get too excited about delivery for 2 years. They also can adjust their chassis price to us if Freightliner raises their cost. Their salesperson drove 4 hours to present this to us tonight. Not the lead time we want. However nobody has issues because we were given information.

[rprochnow]

If only it were as simple as a delay in getting Freightliners.

The Winnebago website is showing the 36 and 40 floor plans will be available in 2022 - which clearly isn't the case. It doesn't appear they've even built a prototype of the 36 yet.

If it was something as simple as a delay in getting Freightliner chassis - they would surely have a schedule for Freightliner and then update their website to reflect when they'd actually be producing each floor plan (at least the 34 and 40 that have prototypes).

The uncertain delays and lack of communication is especially disappointing because the Journey will be Winnebago's most expensive model - and they are risking alienating those customers who would be willing to spend more to buy a new Journey.

It feels there is something else going on - not a supply chain delay - more like they encountered an unexpected major issue with the prototypes or moving into production - and it's taking them longer than expected to fix it - and they still don't know how much longer it's going to take.

And the wait continues...

[rprochnow]

We're almost two years since Winnebago announced the "2021 Journey" and showed the first 34N prototype - and when they believed they would be delivering the first new Journeys within a few months.

Clearly something unexpected happened - and Winnebago still hasn't delivered a Journey.

At this point, they've waited so long to bring out the new Journey, they should refresh the design and bring out the newer technologies that weren't available in 2020.

Including 4 125Ah lithium batteries doesn't make much sense. With all of the other innovations and space for 6 Group 31 AGM batteries, they should be able to put in two 630Ah batteries, add a second 3000W inverter - and provide enough power to run one of the air conditioners for several hours (or at least overnight) - similar to what Newmar is now doing with the New Aires.

Winegard is introducing a new 5G version of their Winegard Air 360+ - which is what Winnebago should be using, saving customers from having to upgrade both the external antennas and the interior router.

They should do what the other manufacturers are doing and include more of the new Freightliner features - such as adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning and collision detection.

The Journey has some nice innovations - but that design is now two years old.

Or... Maybe the continuing delay could be partly due to refreshing the design...

If Winnebago is really going to produce Journeys soon - they should provide some update - especially for those customers who have orders placed.

If they aren't, they should admit they're delaying the release and pull it from the website - instead of claiming the 36 and 40 models are shipping in 2022...

[Goodscout]

We agree with your entire letter. We ordered a 40P in January and traded in our RV. We have been without all year. Our latest delivery notice is March/April 2023. We are going to the Tampa RV show in January and looking for a backup unit if Winnebago can't deliver. I looked up Winnebago on the Tampa Vendor site and they don't list the Journey as a model they are showing. I hope it was a mistake. We can live and accept accurate information from Winnebago. But, they are mum on the whole product. Spending a considerable amount of money with P Poor information. Disappointment from Winnebago.

[rprochnow]

We've had a great experience with our View - in the product design and features - and the great service and support we've had from Lichtsinn.

We're ordering a New Aire as our "Plan B". It's more expensive - but it also comes with some extremely useful features that we wouldn't be able to get on a Journey.

We should have the production date for our New Aire this week - we're hoping for delivery in March.

We're continuing to check each day to see if there's any news from Winnebago (or any of the dealers) on the new Journeys.

But now that we have a "Plan B" ordered, unless we see progress in the next few weeks, the New Aire could become our "Plan A".

For those of us with Journey orders, even if we had to sign an NDA, Winnebago should tell us what is really going on - and when we're likely to see our Journeys - especially considering these coaches are listing for over $400K...

[rprochnow]

We found a 2023 New Aire 3543 in the configuration we want and plan to purchase it this week.

So unless a miracle happens and in the next few days Winnebago shows considerably progress on bringing Journeys to the market, they'll lose us as a customer (at least we'll be buying from another company in the Winnebago family).

The new Journey has some nice features, even though some of the components are now two years old and need a refresh. But if they can't build any or at least explain to dealers and customers (with orders) what's going on - we didn't want to be in the position of other customers and continue waiting ... and waiting ... and waiting...

[Goodscout]

We cancelled our Journey 40P and received our full deposit back from the Dealer. We went without a rig all of the 2022 season because we traded ours in January for the Journey. We really liked the 40P and are going to the Tampa RV show to chat with Winnebago Reps. The factory or the Dealer were not supplying us with any updates. Currently looking at the Tiffin Phaeton and the Fleetwood LXE. Did anybody get a Journey or an accurate ship date?

[rprochnow]

Before we completed the purchase of our New Aire last week, I touched base with Newmar's Customer Care team, and they indicated they didn't have any updates on Journey production. While customers with orders are understandably frustrated about the long delay - without any information, dealers are being impacted even more, because this is impacting those customers willing to purchase Winnebago's most expensive motorhomes.

We were planning to order a custom New Aire - with delivery likely in May - and got lucky. A customer of NIRVC in Dallas ordered a custom New Aire and cancelled their order after the dealer received the coach. And after it had been posted for only a few days, we discovered it was very close to what we were planning to order - and were able to complete the purchase within a few days, instead of waiting 6 months.

We looked at the Phaetons before narrowing our search down to New Aire. Features we liked in the New Aire: side mounted radiator, two 3000W inverters (ability to run one air conditioner off batteries), 640Ah of lithium batteries standard (plus easy drop-in of a 3rd 320Ah battery), adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning, collision mitigation, Mobileye, and vented windows (New Aire comes standard with non-vented windows).

And because we're focusing on using the coach just for the two of us, the 35' size works fine for us - with theater seats.

But the New Aire did cost about $165K more than what we would have paid for a Journey 34N.

One disappointment we discovered about Newmar (and the other manufacturers)... Winnebago has a fantastic website for owner resources, providing 3D diagrams of the coach, makiing it easy to trace plumbing and wiring or select parts. Evidently the other manufacturers don't have this. With Newmar, the diagrams they provide are incomplete and not very detailed, and their parts catalog is just a listing of the parts, without enough information to figure out which part you would need to order. So, if we do need to order a part, looks like we'll be getting someone at NIRVC or Newmar to look up the part for us, instead of doing it ourselves online.

[Goodscout]

Has anybody received deliver of the New Winnebago Journey?