Newmar Dutch Star Broken Televator

The Televator. It will break. I don’t know when. But it will break. Most anything that moves within our coach is bound to break sooner or later. I’ve had the following motors go south on the coach so far: satellite dish, Oasis hot water pumps (all three of them), bed power lift, front step cover, and the power seat incliner. The motors either stop working completely or they malfunction. Each time they fail, I am struck by the cheap components that Newmar uses in their coaches and the poor wiring practices.

I get it though. Newmar sources their components from other suppliers. But just a wee bit better focus on using higher quality components would make the ownership experience so much better for their customers.

As owners, we are left pretty much on our own to troubleshoot and resolve the myriad of issues that creep up when operating these vehicles. Thank heavens for the RV community. Whenever I have run into a problem I can generally count on some help from fellow RVers.

Our coach has a nifty feature in that one of the TV panels is mounted on a motorized lift. When you want to watch TV you head over to an inconveniently mounted rocker switch, press up a certain way, and the set may elevate into the viewing position. Whenever I get up to find that little rocker switch, I always wonder whether the set will lift.

Whenever the Televator does decide to fail, it is good to know that there are a number of options to replace the motorized lift. Like this one from Amazon:

It even includes a remote control feature — something that our current motorized lift overlooked. In the 2016 models, the rocker switch for the TV lift was installed in a location that was easy for the manufacturer to implement but inconvenient for the customer. That location was changed in subsequent model years likely due to customer feedback.

The process to replace the motorized TV lift?

Well, not for the timid. In our case it would require a significant amount of disassembly.

Here is what it looks like right now:

First step would be to remove the TV set from the broken motorized lift. That in itself is a bit of a challenge. The recommended approach is to remove the rear retaining screws from the outside of the coach. Assuming, of course, that the Televator is in the up position and that you can get the window screens removed and that you can open the windows. Oh, and that you have a ladder handy.

Our set has a shelf mounted on the top which can be easily removed. Likely the only part of the process that is easy.

If the Televator is stuck in the down position, your life will be a bit more complicated and you might start thinking about a replacement set. Chances are high that you could damage the panel trying to get it removed from the broken TV lift.

The sofa bed in front of the Televator would then need to be detached from the side of the coach. From what I gather, that involves opening the sofa bed, reaching into the rear cavity, and removing the retaining screws. Pull the sofa bed out and you are ready to get at the assembly.

Having worked in the constrained space of a motorcoach many times, I can imagine that it won’t be easy to get into that cavity to disconnect the existing wiring and remove the existing motorized lift. And it is likely just as challenging to get the new motorized lift into position and wire it up.

Other people have accomplished the task and they have told me that it took the better part of a day.

I’ve posted this here to remind myself that when the time comes, I can replace the motorized TV lift. If I can replace a satellite dish on the roof of the coach, I can definitely do this as well.