THE RED BAY ADVENTURE CONTINUES

Monday, April 20th

After an uneventful weekend, we pulled back into our service bay to finish up the repairs on our list. Our technician finished them all by noon and we returned to site 66 to resume the "waiting game".
We watied the rest of the afternoon and no calls to a bay. However we finally were called to ask us to  report to the "mech" bay at 6:00AM on Tuesday (woohoo...)!

Tuesday, April 21st

We were waiting at the door of the bay (is there a song in there somewhere) at 5:45AM to have our hydraulic jacks fine tuned. Fine tuning included welding the collars to remedy a problem when raising them. I failed to get a picture of ours on the lift, but here is another one on the lift next to where ours was just finished.

 

 

 They completed the repairs about noon, then...... you probably guessed it, back to site 66 and the infamous "waiting game"!

Wednesday, April 22nd

I checked with Wanda (the scheduler) last thing before they closed yesterday and was informed that we would have a "free day" today. Thank you so much for the free day, it is just what we wanted (sarcasm evident?). We decided to stay close in case something opened up unexpectedly. We toured Red Bay,  the town, not the Tiffin Factory (been there done that) and after that 10 minute tour retreated back to the coach for a day of reading and relaxing. The high point of the day was a call to ask us to be at bay 17 at 7:00AM. Oh boy, just what we wanted (no sarcasm here)!

Thursday, April 23rd

Pulled the coach in bay 17 at the appointed time and our "cap rail replacement" commenced. It seems that some years back someone at Tiffin Motorhomes decided to stop using metal cap rails and go with fiberglass ones instead. Over the years it was discovered that the fiberglass has a tendency to crack from the stress between the roof and walls when traveling. Mr. Tiffin's solution is to replace all the fiberglass cap rails with metal ones at no cost to his customers. I love Tiffin Motorhomes!

I did manage to remember to take pictures of our home this time.....

 

These repairs were finished about 3:30PM and the techs did a great job. It will be painted after all other repairs have been finished. We were then told to have it at the slideout bay at 7:00AM tomorrow for the next free Tiffin repair.

 

Friday, April 24th

 

Again we reported to our next service bay at the appointed time. Since the crane was going to be in use and we had to vacate the bay; we decided to hang out in the customer lounge. I decided to back to get a picture of the operation after about an hour into it. When I got to the bay, the lead tech told me he was just about to call. It seems that well into the operation to disconnect and remove everything involved in removing the slideout room; they discovered the wrong floor had been delivered! I felt myself start to get flustered, but then it was evident that the technicians were more flustered. The had worked hard to get ready for the removal and now they would work just as hard to undo the preparation. The whole operation would be repeated upon the arrival of the correct floor (hopefully on Monday). Since this whole repair was at no cost to me and we still had to wait on the paint shop; I was not flustered anymore.

 

It seems that a decision was made in the past to use wood under the drivers side slide out room. Similar to the cap rail decision, it turn out to be a wrong decision! The wood floors were not holding up, so again Mr. Tiffin decided to take care of his customer at no cost to them. Even with the wrong floor mistake, I still love Tiffin Motorhomes!

 

Until next time, God Bless us all...............

 

 

 

MORE WAITING, THEN THE REPAIRS BEGIN

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, April 13, 14, 15

I am lumping three days into this posting, since the all three were just a clone of the first! These days consisted of waiting, walking around the Tiffin Service Center (TSC), driving to Jack's for lunch, again walking around the TSC (necessary after lunch at Jack's), and watching some TV in the evenings. We did meet some interesting folks when we were out and about, although we had a lot of rain and indoor time. All in all, it was relaxing, interesting at times and boring at other times.

Thursday, April 16

This day started out like the previous three and after an assumption (last we heard we were #15 on the list) that we would not be called into the service bay; we settled inside to relax. We were spread out with computers, magazines, etc. and outside we had full hookups (water, sewer and electric). At noon we got the call; be at bay 5 at 12:30! Wow, with mixed emotions of joy and stress (30 mins to get unhooked and ready to roll) we started hustling to get into the bay on time.

We made it into the bay, met our technician and soon after looking over our list, the work began. He started with our rear ac/heat pump problem, turn out to be the thermostat which he replaced. He also got on the roof and adjusted some kind of band that holds the fan in place (it was hitting the cowling slightly).  Next he replaced the magnetic guage on our propane tank, now for the first time in over a year our propane guages work! Upon completing those tasks, it seemed it was too late to start another, so we left the bay at about 3PM until the next day.

Friday, April 17

We learn our lesson on the previous day and did not hook up anything (except electric) and did not spread out for the night. We easily got ready and were at the bay door before 7 AM. The great thing about this place is that for most of the service, they allow you to stay in the coach if you so desire. Since most all the work is on the outside, we so desired to stay in the coach a while to drink coffee! We offered our service tech (name withheld for now) coffee, which he graciously declined in favor of his usual breaktime routine of sausage biscuit and soda.

Meanwhile, he began knocking out tasks from our list. Our fridge was icing in the bottom of the freezer. The problem was resolved by removing something called a "duckbill" from the drain line. It seems this part was installed to keep out dirt daubers and other critters, however it only freezes up and causes the drain line to back up and freeze as well (or so I was told). Since this is a residential fridge and the back is not opened similar to a propane fridge; I don't know why you need to worry about dirt daubers anyway? Another question that I did not ask, where does the drain line lead? Where does it drain? I will ask that question once we return to the bay.

Next he tackled our rear furnace problem. The furnace just "died" and would not start. It  turn out to be a circuit board gone bad. Once replaced the furnace worked fine, but made a noise while firing up. Our service tech decided (with our avid approval) to pull the furnace, clean it and check for cracks. No cracks, furnace cleaned and re-installed, it now is quieter.

The rest of the day resulted in a replacement power knob that closes the exhaust fan in the front bathroom, a new strap for the generator tail pipe, new caulking for all my running lights and door, the a lock adjustment on a bay door.

One of the arms on my large awning was bowed outward at the hydraulic spring, he ordered the awning arms (only come with two in a pack), but by the time the right parts came to the bay,  it was too close to closing (especially for a Friday) to start the repair.

In the meantime, he took a look at our bedroom slide, which has been making a lot of scraping noise when closing. I thought it was probably out of alignment and could be re-aligned. He informed me that it utilized a Liepart system (probably spelled wrong), which meant the slide room rolls wheels and the track leaves no room for aligning side to side. Wow, talking about bad engineering! His first solution that came to mind is to remove the mirror on the wall where the slide scrubs it. The mirror was factory installed so you would think that the clearance was there for it. Also if you get on the floor and look under toward the slide you can see daylight where the seals meet the wheels on which the slide room rolls. Does not seem like a good system. Anyway, the problem has been deferred until Monday morning, when we are to report to the bay at 7AM again, :)

WEEKENDS ARE FOR SIGHTSEEING

Saturday April 11

Since there was no chance of being called to a bay for service on the weekend; we decided to do some sightseeing. We struck out early (10AM seemed early to us). The first place we headed was to Bojangles in Russellville which is only about 30 mins from Red Bay. I love the biscuits and gravy at Bojangles.

We then headed for Muscle Shoals which is a bit further north of Russellville and Red Bay.  Lots to see in Russellville and we did not see it all this trip! I definitely want to go tour the Helen Keller birthplace museum. We did visit the Wilson Dam.

 

It was a beautiful  area and great weather....

 

We left Wilson Dam and stopped at Swamp John's for lunch. Now we had heard a lot about Swamp John's and once we had lunch there, we wondered why? The food (catfish) was ok, but nothing to write home about. We later found out there are at least two Swamp John's, we were at the one in Muscle Shoals and the one we have heard so much about is on the outskirts of Red Bay. We will try that one a little later. :)

 

We left Muscle Shoals and headed out to see the much talked about "Coon Dog Cemetery". When I first read about it in print, without my reading glasses; I thought it read "Corn Dog Cemetery". I was kind of wondering why they would bury corn dogs, unless they just tasted really bad! Much to my relief, when we arrived we only saw coon dog graves and no corn dogs.

 

 

All in all a great weekend. We spent Sunday just relaxing and walking and watching the rain fall. I know I am behind in posting by a few days. Spoiler alert, we are in the service bay as of yesterday at lunch time. I will  have to post another blog to bring you up to date on the events leading up to and including our adventures in the service bay. Until then God bless us all...........

 

 

 

 

A FEW DAYS AT RED BAY

Thursday, April 9

Where was I in the last post? Oh yeah, it was Thursday morning. Later in the day we received another visit from a Tiffin employee to survey the work requirements. His main oblective is gathering information to complete the extended warranty paperwork. After looking at our cap rails, he inspected our ceilings for water damage. He spotted some spots over our bed that "may" be signs of water damage. He also informed me that when the cap rails were removed they would be able to get a better look. I sure hope this too will be covered by our extended warranty!

Friday, April 10

We did the Tiffin Factory tour on this morning. It was a great tour that was very informative. I paid particular attention to the areas where they install the roof and walls. I wanted to see exactly what lies behind our walls and is in our roof that could get water damaged. The roof and floors seems to have the most materials (wood) susceptible to water damage.

This is the composition of the roof

 

 

 

 

I did not get a good shot of the wall composition. This is a completed wall.

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 Ever wonder what your tank sensors look like?

 

 

I may have to make another visit to the factory to get some better shots of the wall and floor compositions. This was not my first visit to the factory, the first visit was in 2012. A lot has changed since then and their production lines have been reorganized.

After the tour we had lunch at Jack's, then back to CRB to visit with Wanda to go over "our list". We decided that we want to get everything in need of repair completed before leaving and maybe express bay was not the right choice to accomplish our goal. The express bay is limited to 3hours maximum work and then you go back to the bottom of the list to get into another bay for the remainder of your work.

Since this is a longer post with pictures included ;) I am going to stop here and get this posted, check back again soon to hear about our adventures during our first weekend! Until then, God bless us all.....

PLANNED REPAIRS, UNPLANNED REPAIRS

Day one of being "on the road" again.
Monday April 6

After a full day of preparations on Saturday and a full day of family time on Easter Sunday; we thought we would be hitting the road early this morning.  Well, if you consider 10:30AM early then we were right on schedule! We have sit too long in one place and find that we are "rusty" at preparing to travel. We find things will work out well if we begin our travels with prayer, this morning especially!

Everything went well as far as the drive, except for the driver being tired and quickly becoming drowsy. I rarely sleep more than six hours in a night and the night prior I slept less than six. We needed to take breaks often to ensure I remained alert and attentive ( mandatory).

At approximately 4:45PM we stopped for the night at Ameristar RV Park in Vicksburg,  MS. We have stayed here before; it is a nice park, but with hardly no level sites in the 50amp section; that is ok for an overnighter.


Tuesday April 7

Once again we get our usual early start; 10:30AM!  We were so exhausted from the previous days travels that we slept soundly (about six hours for me) and sat drinking coffee too long that morning.

Again everything went well and the driver was not as tired and drowsy. We still stopped often, having had plenty of coffee before leaving! We stayed on I20 east and took I55 North until at some point we got on the Natchez Trace Parkway for about 60 miles.

Our first time on "the Trace" was both interesting and a tiny bit nerve-wracking for Cheryl. The scenery was beautiful;  historical markers interesting; the two lane road with no shoulders and sometimes rather steep dropoffs, not my wife's favorite part of the journey!

We exited the Trace close to Tupelo, MS onto MS23 then made our way into Red Bay, Alabama around 6:00PM. We checked in at the Tiffin Service Center to find what we had already suspected, the place is packed and we were directed to an alternate campground (McKinney's across the street).
Mr McKinney has developed a portion of his property into some full hookup sites; it is a nice alternative when Camp Red Bay is full.

We had another restful evening, it is very quiet at night here (at least on this side of the street).

Wednesday April 8

After the restful night of sleep, I was feeling great and decided to empty my storage bays to rearrange. It was hard work, good for the soul, but not the back..lol. I was near finishing when a white van pulled up in front and a technician had arrived to inspect the driver's side front slide, wet bay and rails. These items were not on my list; the tech informed me it is procedure to inspect these items due to some problems they had encountered in the past. It turns out my wet bay is good, the improved design. The driver's side slide out has a floor problem; they are going to pull out the slide and replace the floor.  Also our rails are the problematic ones, that are not metal. They are going to remove them, replace them with metal, gel coat them and then paint. Sounds like my Red Bay vacation just got extended! I have not been visited by Norris yet; we will get a time estimate from him on those repairs then the rest of my planned repairs as well.

After our very informative visit by the tech and finishing the job I started in the storage bays, we decided to just relax and read for the afternoon.  The relaxation last until 2:00PM, when we received a call from the Red Bay office informing us they have a site for us in Camp Red Bay. We un-setup at McKinney's and re- setup at CRB.

We had a fairly restful night at CRB and that leads us up to this morning.

Thursday April 9

This morning I was up at 4:45AM and after checking the news/weather, began writing this post. I noticed things started getting a little noisey around 6:00AM, people were getting ready to move their rigs into service bays. I also noticed the bay doors were open around 6:30AM.

Now I am up to date on this posting and will try to post again soon. Until then, God bless us all......

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

YAHOO... we are going on the road again!

I used a sturdy pry bar to loosen Cheryl's grip on the newest grandson long enough to hit the road. Now all that is left to do is convince myself that I can leave him for a while to take this trip!

We have been "anchored" since our return from South Carolina in February. It is now time to shake off the cobwebs and make the wheels on the bus go round and round. First order of business is much needed repairs on our rolling retirement home. We have a slide that doesn't want to close unless the engine is running. What is up with that? Also our propane guage is eternally stuck on the full mark,  leading to a couple of surprises upon trying to use the gas stove! Also the rear AC/heat pump has become very noisy ($$$).

After what I am certain will be a long stay at the factory service center; we may head back to the just wander around aimlessly? I don't know how long we will be roaming, but I am sure it will only be a short jaunt before we hastily return for some grandchildren time!