It's official, we are now the proud owners of a Tiffin Allegro 36LA.
It has been a very long 10 weeks from order to delivery. Fortunately I was in frequent contact with the factory asking questions and trying to learn all I could. My contact was nice enough to send me the production schedule which it seems they pretty much kept to, it left the factory only one day later than estimated.
The PDI went well though I don’t remember much of what I was told. Since we’ve had TTs for the past 8 years we had the basics covered and we tried to pay attention to the new features like the washer/dryer, hydraulic jacks and the ice maker in the fridge but with all our excitement I couldn’t remember everything. I’ll have to find out later how to drain the line for the ice maker. I did notice a fogged headlight assembly but before I could point it out they told me that a new one had already been ordered. After the walk through and signing our life, and first born, away we were off. Wow, is this a weird feeling, now it really feels like driving a bus. It drives much better than towing a TT and is very easy to back up, especially with the backup camera.
We had a very interesting first trip in our new MH. Since we were unsure when we would be taking delivery I couldn’t plan ahead very far as to where we would spend our inauguration so we chose our local county park. It is a good choice since it puts us about 7 miles from home. When we pulled up to the ranger station I saw our local power company working in front of the comfort station. Not a good omen. This part of the county was without power for about a week after the derecho that came through the DC Metro area June 29th and there are still some lingering effects. The girl in the ranger station told us the power came on about 5 minutes before we pulled up. Hopefully it will hold. We’ve had weekends here when the power has been up and down several times. One part of the problem is the wiring for most of the campground about 40 years old. Hopefully they’ll be able to secure funds to get it upgraded. Setting up went real well, especially using the auto level on the jacks, and since we could only score an electric only site all I had to do was plug in using the 30a adapter. I was surprised that we could run both ACs on 30a. We set about putting things away that we had picked up from home and started to probe some of the new features. It was an exciting but tiring day so we decided to turn in around 10pm which is early for us on a Friday. Around 1:15am DW wakes me up saying something is wrong, the ACs are not running (we always set the fan to On not Auto on the thermostat so the don’t cycle on/off). Great, we lost power. I put on shorts, t-shirt and flip flops and go outside to see what’s going on. I open the door and the first thing I notice is the AC on the MH next to us running and the lights are on in front of the comfort station. Four sites on the other side of us were not occupied then there were tents so I didn’t think anything of it that there weren’t any lights/sounds, my head went straight to something broke on our new MH. I check the breaker on the pedestal to see if it tripped. Nope, looks good. I flip it off/on just in case. Nothing. DW pulls out the owners manual and starts looking for info on the fuse and breaker locations. I find the resettable fuses in the first storage compartment on the drivers side. I didn’t have my regular flashlight but luckily DW had an LED pen light in her purse. It didn’t put out a great amount of light but it helped. I’m on my knees under the slide out looking in the compartment. I quickly realize that kneeling on gravel hurts and I have no idea what I’m looking at so I hope the issue isn’t here. I go back inside and we locate the circuit breakers for the coach. They all look fine. I flip the main 50a breaker off/on just in case. Nothing. Great, brand new MH and something is broken and we've only had it about eight hours. On the third time going out the door I notice the volt meter plugged into outlet by the door. I wonder if the 110v outlet is working on the pedestal? I plug in the volt meter into the pedestal outlet and it works! After some thought I figure that the 30a circuit is what died and we were the last site on the circuit (this was confirmed later). I add the 30a to 15a adapter, plug it in and we have power. I turn on one AC and after it cools down a bit we go back to bed. I’m just starting to drift off when I hear a noise. I’m not sure what it was and since I remember locking the door I don’t really care. Next thing I know DW is hitting me on the arm, shaking me and whispering loudly that someone is trying to get in. I’m awake enough now to briefly think clearly. I tell her the noise was the ice maker in the fridge dropping a load into the empty bucket. We had water in the onboard tank and the pump was on so DW could use the new loo so it must have filled the ice maker. She seems satisfied with that answer so we roll over and go to sleep. Around 5:30am DW wakes me up again saying something is wrong, the AC is off again. I get clothes on and go outside. This time all is dark and quiet, the entire campground is powerless. The person who provides nighttime security came by while we were outside. He advised the power company shut the campground down because the transformers were overheating. They weren’t expecting to start working on the main repair until later in the morning. We found that the work done the previous day was a temporary fix and they were expected to return anyway. We obeyed the park’s rule regarding quiet hours and waited until 7am to fire up the generator. I’m sooo happy that there is an onboard generator. Just push a button and off she goes, no more filling the tank and pulling the cord over and over. I spent the better part of the day sitting inside in the AC watching a DVD and going through all the manuals that came with the coach and pulling out the warranty cards, filling them out. Since it was in the upper 90s with high humidity we didn’t feel like exploring the outside of the coach anyway. Power was finally restored about 5pm, shortly after we were told it would be 9pm at the earliest. No further problems with the power and we finally had a restful nights sleep.
Sunday was uneventful as we spent the better part of the afternoon loading stuff from the U-haul U-Box we had rented to empty out the TT. Where we kept all that stuff in the TT I’ll never know. Next up, a reservation this weekend at Kings Dominion’s campground for a full hook up site so we can explore the water based features.
Beautiful rig! We have an '04 Country Coach Allure and we still have to get out the manuals after 7 years! LOL. Be patient with your learning curve. You don't need to remember anything but the important basics and you can look up the rest!
Enjoy!!
Lonny & Diane
2004 Country Coach Allure 33' "Big Blue"
Towing 2008 Chev Colorado 4x4
Semper Fi
DW and I have pretty much decided the Allegro 36LA will be our next MH. Like the 24Klb F53 chassis with 22.5 tires. Rear bath/mid lounge floorplan is what the DW likes most, so I guess we'll order a 2013 to ensure we get the driver's door, table/chairs, 4 door fridge, leather package and cooktop w/microwave. Not interested in washer/dryer...yet. Maybe next MH.
Keep us posted on your new adventures, and enjoy the ride.
Andy & Lee, plus Ruby & Bella, the Cocker Spaniel girls
'05 Fleetwood Bounder 33R, F53 w/6.8L V10...towing a
'07 Chevy HHR LT2 w/2.4L EcoTec,
Blue Ox Aventa LX, Brake Buddy Classic
FMCA #F359977 - Colonial Virginians
FCRV #733452 - Tidewater Wheels
Everyone - be sure to follow the TIFFIN FORUM (you'll find a link at Tiffin's webpage. By far, it is the most active and informative forum of ANY BRAND.
DW also fell in love with the floorplan. I love not having to walk through the bathroom to get to the bedroom, just a pet peeve of mine. This web page has all the pictures of the inside of our MH. We went with most every option except the oven (never used the other ones) and the 7Kw generator (I regret that decision although the 5.5Kw is doing great). I figure it this way, the options are available, nothing beats a factory install and they're selling points if we ever decide to trade up.
* This post was
edited 08/01/12 10:22am by DznyFan *
DznyFan
WOW!!! Congratulations on a beautiful rig. It will give you many years of enjoyment. We have been enjoying our Tiffin for six years and plan to have it many more which will be followed by another Tiffin.
Enjoy
Bob and Ann
One HAPPY Schnauzer - Della
One FRISKY Chihuahua - Lola
2005 37 DB Allegro Bay
Workhorse Chassis
GM 8.1L (496 CID)
340 HP
Onan 7000 Watt
Double Slide
2006 Suzuki Grand Vitara Toad
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