A stop at Tiffinville… Our coach is a Tiffin and I decided to stop at their service facility a mile from the factory in Red Bay. I wanted to get a few things fixed I didn’t feel qualified to do myself and to have the windshield replaced. I had been hearing it was extremely difficult to get a spot there and that arriving early on a Saturday gave you the best chance of being able to camp there. The campground holds about 100 large diesel pushers and was an old airstrip in town prior to them building a very large service center with about 50 service bays.
Saturday was the day. We drove up and the sign said they had sites! (We were there a week, no other days did they have that written on the board again. ) We got a lot of paperwork to fill in and bring back to the office prior to 5pm that evening. You basically fill everything out and then prioritize what you want fixed. I had never seen that many Class A coaches in one spot before.
Sunday was the day for Hurricane Nate’s remnants to hit us. It was a non- starter. It barely rained and there were maybe 10 mph wind gusts. Kathy was really worried for nothing that we were going to be in the hurricane or tornadoes!
It was still raining a bit at 6:50 am on Monday morning when I heard a lot of rumbling and got up, looked out front only to see about 50 coaches making their way to the service bay doors as they were being opened in the fading darkness. I was told later that day, it’s called the Elephant Walk.
We had a leisurely breakfast when all of a sudden there was a loud banging on the coach, wham, wham, wham!! Turns out every morning someone from the service center inspects any new coaches that have arrived. That is what they were doing to ours. They were hammering a screw driver into the wet bay and slide floors to determine if there was any rot. (They used wood it appears) And to check the roof rails for cracking. Turns out ours had a bad wet bay floor. (That’s under the tanks in the basement) So glad they found that before it rotted out on the freeway!!
The following day we were in Mussel Shoals overnight to get that flooring replaced early the next day. They finished it in less than 4 hours and we were off to Red Bay again to find out when we could get the 3-hour express bay appointment . (aka The Three Hour Tour). That is where the priority list comes into play. Late that day, we received a call to be at Bay 7 at 7 am.
Wednesday morning we got to participate in the Elephant Walk as we headed to Bay 7. I had a complete list, but two of the top priorities were to have the front door adjusted so it wouldn’t pop open when it was cold, and to adjust the driver side front slide.
After about two hours, the techs were finished. It was then that I found out they were out of windshields for my coach. That was one of the issues I wanted repaired while we were there. (A rock cracked our windshield outside of Salt Lake City back in June.)
We brought the coach back to our spot and Kathy noticed the slide they adjusted was sticking out an inch or so in the front. I walked back to the bay and let the tech who worked on it know there was a problem. A couple hours later he came by and adjusted the stop bolt. We thought all was good with the world. Later that day it was still cold in Red Bay and my front door popped open again as I tried to close it. I again walked back to the bay to let the other tech that fixed it know. He came by a couple hours later and fixed it.
Thursday morning it popped open again. I asked the scheduler if I could have someone else look at it. Nope. Had to go back to the same guys. (Wanda is the service scheduler and it seems her favorite word is NO) As I was leaving her office, I overheard someone doing tech support on the phone in a cube around the corner. I decided to ask him about it. He told me how to fix it. I did it, and so far, a week later, the issue hasn’t come back.
Friday morning we drove over to the Tiffin Factory to take the tour of them building the RVs. What a tour that was. Unbelievable access to everything on the factory floor. I couldn’t believe it. There were coaches everywhere in various states of the build process from the chassis being driven in without even a floor to them to being ready to drive to the paint shop.
Not long after we got back from the factory, around 11 am Friday morning, I got the call that the glass was in and could I bring the coach to Bay 46 at noon. I said yes, of course. About twenty minutes before I had to be there, I closed up the coach to be ready to drive and the slide that they adjusted would only come in on one side. OMG. I coaxed it in and drove to the glass bay, then went back to the guys that worked on it, and they said they wouldn’t have time as there was a coach in their bay for the rest of the day. They told me to talk to Wanda as I didn’t want to stay over the weekend again. Wanda said NO, I had to use them again to fix it. (three strikes anyone?)
I wandered over to the tech support guy that had helped me the day before, asked him if there was anyone I could appeal that to. He suggested Pete. I found Pete, told him my plight. He said to give him a bit and he would see what he could do. About 20 minutes later another tech showed up in the glass bay and looked at the issue and said a drive bolt had snapped. He left to find a place to fix it.
About an hour later he called the glass manager and asked me to bring it into bay 9. I have never seen a crew work so well together. They pulled it all apart, changed out the drive shaft and put in a new bolt. Then they adjusted the slide to within a sixteenth of an inch. Now it works better than it ever has for me.
Thanks to Pete and his guys on the A team!!
We were on our way to New Orleans in the morning, thank god. It was fun to talk with all the people that have Tiffin RVs, but a week on the tarmack was plenty!!!