FIXING OUR RV: REPAIRS & COSTS | Part 2 of Our Service/Paint Experience at Tiffin

[@PaddyWagonTravels]

Really enjoyed this video ... great that you were able to get all your service work done so fast and Marc was able to work through the whole process. Thanks for taking us along with you guys!

[@woodywaddell9844]

Another video that shows why Tiffin is number 1!

[@Rvlove]

:)

[@gvc56100]

Another fine video, thanks for sharing! Love a company that stands behind their work...

[@Rvlove]

Yes, it's a major reason we chose that brand, thank you.

[@jim-uu2db]

thank you for the information on how they do the service work and lineup for service.

[@Rvlove]

Welcome!

[@carrietakushi2485]

TY for sharing. I like how happy hour was in the parking lot. That is awesome.

[@Rvlove]

Welcome - yes we liked having social neighbors we could visit each evening to share stories! Made it fun

[@Desertfox92308]

Great job guys! Tiffin does look like they care about quality and provide excellent service. The cost seemed very reasonable and the coach looks great!

[@Rvlove]

Thanks Norm. Yes we are still very happy with our coach 2 years on... pretty minor issues really and all taken care of well and affordably... all important factors as an RV owner!

[@kwatl]

Thank you guys! I'm sold Tiffin it is! Awesome service!

[@Rvlove]

Yes, they do offer good service, Tiffin is one of the better brands for sure.

[@ernestoquintero747]

Great workers at the depot. Very reasonable pricing. Happy RV'n. I'm a couple months short of my own RV adventure, selling house and everything in it comes first, looking forward to the changes and way smaller chores. Can't wait to travel most weekends all over Florida and southern states.

[@Rvlove]

Awesome, you will love it! We enjoyed watching someone else mow the grass around us this morning at the campground! Pools and no spas... that we won't need to maintain :) More less less chores!

[@garylewis1674]

Thank you for the great video! We took the factory tour not long ago. It was great! We really want a Tiffin!

[@Rvlove]

Awesome! Yes, it's a great brand, we're really happy with ours. We have a video of the factory tour coming soon too. All the best!

[@irokradio]

G'day guys great video! I think we will get our work done there on our Allegro (2007). Very reasonable prices and they seemed genuinely interested in doing a good job. Glad to have you back from Aus..I miss it... See you on the road. Paul

[@Rvlove]

Yes you'll have a good experience we're sure and definitely very reasonable prices...other shops in the area for after market installs also very good, and even lower rates. I still have so much Oz footage to get through and share! But so many people were asking about the Tiffin experience we bumped these vids up in the Q. Safe travels!

[@patjohnston8165]

That looks like an amazing place! Thanks for sharing it.

[@Rvlove]

Sure thing!

[@timcombes9054]

Very cool and informative! Thank you!

[@Rvlove]

Welcome! Glad it gives you a good insight into how the place works

[@billlong5979]

Hey guys, I have a friend that had a Tiffin Allegro built there and he loves it. Tiffin seems to be a good company. I got my RV last week - Thor Chateau Class C (Classy) and have already had a couple of warranty things happen, the generator is the big one left. Not sure what they are going to do with it. This is night 4 living in it full time and I absolutely love it. Thank you for the inspiration and information that you share. You guys are the couple I would love to meet up with on the road, so fun and cheerful.

[@Rvlove]

Hi Bill, Great you are loving your coach and full-time RV life. Like the RV name "Classy" - keep an eye out for us and our paths will cross some day! We appreciate your kind words - always great to know our content is inspiring and helping others in some way. Happy Trails!

[@david1tek]

Thanx for the info and the great videos guys! We will be planning on hitting Tiffin ourselves with our Open Road early next year on our way through. This information is great and super helpful for our planning.

[@Rvlove]

Great, glad it's helpful, more videos on the way! It's a great experience going to Red Bay. Enjoy!

[@happyhobos4194]

Very sweet of you to make them muffins! Had to laugh at the fact that they were chocolate since they had been dealing with the toilet LOL Super nice service guys! No wonder they are techs of the month.

[@Rvlove]

Hahah you know I didn't even think about that until I was doing the video editing! Made me laugh out loud... A little bit of baked goods/treats for the guys taking care of your coach goes a long way I find ;) they sure do appreciate it.

[@eddiechavez6095]

Great to hear you got all the issues you had taken care of. And the price wasn't bad at all, if it were an auto dealership you'd probably be paying several times more. Stay safe and be good to each other.

[@Rvlove]

Most definitely we would be paying more at a dealership Eddie. WE were very happy with our experience. Thanks - we will!

[@Riker-eq2yv]

That was a great video,,, so much so,,,, that I will definitely consider a new Tiffin based solely on how well you were treated,,, the attitude of the employees and the very reasonable cost and of the repairs.

[@Rvlove]

We love our Tiffin and have had very good experiences with it for the most part. It's one of a few tops brands we can confidently recommend, but no matter which brand you choose, you still need to do in depth research on the specific model you want. Good luck!

[@rv-ollie]

Thanks for sharing this unique experience. I'm sure Tiffin's service camp ground is also quite unique compared to other brands. I'm still researching and learning for the near future.

[@Rvlove]

It's pretty much a parking lot with hookups but we'll be sharing and showing a bit more of that soon too.

[@patriciapentz686]

great video Julie & Marc!! must be a great feeling having everything done in one visit!?! have you decided what you are doing with your dining area?? we just returned home from our trip to South Dakota...saw everything you suggested! an amazing trip!!

[@Rvlove]

Oh fantastic! Glad you had a great time :) We loved SD, heading back next month! It is a great feeling having everything all done at once and especially now we know it doesn't cost a fortunate... some of those smaller repairs we had just been putting off for a while as they weren't a big enough deal to take in for that repair, you know? YES I have a plan for the "renovated" dining area.. should be done in a month so stay tuned! :)

[@johnraffler497]

Tiffin is an excellent Coach, and Bob Tiffin will treat you right !!!

[@Rvlove]

Our Tiffin definitely served us well, and the company (especially Bob) have a great reputation.

[@takayama1638]

Wow Marc, and Tiffin boys, great job!! Tiffin looks like a great company. If they take care of their customers like that, they'll be in business a long time. Just think about house maintenance! Oh me, just tax on our place is $1,500 a year, insurance another $1,200, if heat pump goes, there's another $5-7,000, roof, lawn, oh me, I long for full time RVing. Thanks for the video.

[@Rvlove]

Ah your message made us laugh. Yes Tiffin is a good company - it's why we bought that brand - and so far we remain very happy with it, they have been around 40+ years and weather the recessions which says a lot. We totally agree with you on all the costs of a stick and brick - a lot of people forget about that when they only think of an RV as a depreciating asset! We have way more time to play and have fun, less maintenance of a house... Hope to see you out there some day!

[@takayama1638]

Me too, Marc! I'm longing to be full time!

[@o2bnov0307]

Congrats on the water pump timing!

[@Rvlove]

That was SO lucky!!! :)

[@gruivis]

That is a great sales video for Tiffin...nice to know what to expect

[@Rvlove]

Yes it sure is - shame we weren't even able to get a meeting with them while we were there - never responded to our emails :( Would have liked to share our feedback based on what we hear from our community. Don't even know if they have seen any of our stuff... but yes, it's good to know what to expect at a visit.

[@dianecraig6055]

Great video - I've been waiting for this one! After seeing the wonderful customer service from Tiffin, I'm so tempted to change my mind from a fifth wheel to a Class a... ;)

[@Rvlove]

They have a 5th wheel brand now too called Van Leigh - owned by a Tiffin son/grandson, maybe their service is similar? I think Bob has a guiding hand in that too. You could check. We did see inside of one in November and I liked it a lot.

[@oldciscodude]

AWESOME! video...very informative. Thank you.

[@Rvlove]

Cool, thanks and you're welcome!

[@illuminate1970]

Thanks for sharing... finally made more time to watch! Seems like all went well. Hope all is well! Safe travels!

[@Rvlove]

All great thanks! Yes our experience was a successful one

[@Jim.Hummel]

Marc, your headset looks pretty comfortable. Would you share the make and model and your thoughts on it? Many Thanks!

[@steveblanck6067]

Dear all knowing RVers, is there any way to get fenders for the rear wheel wells. If you are as old as I am your would remember them on the cars of the '50's rear wheels. It seems to me that they would keep the sun off the tires.

[@Rvlove]

Hi Steve - we are not aware of any after market fenders to protect tires from the sun while driving. There are plenty of tire covers to protect them when parked. But most RVs spend the majority of their time parked anyway. :)

[@jordansriver8036]

Hey y'all. We love your vid's and being able to be apart of your traveling adventure. We have kin folk in Alabama. We did have a quick question. What do y'all use as your vid camera and editing software? Your vid's are so clean and clear. Thanks and have safe travels.

[@Rvlove]

HI Guys - thanks for the warm fuzzies :) For the last 3 months we've been using a Sony camera - this one: amzn.to/1Un1ixR - and we really love it, compact, great quality! Before that - believe it or not - a good amount of our video was shot on an iPhone 6! Earlier videos I edited using iMovie (9 then 11) and since October 2015 have been using FinalCut Pro X - always on a Mac. Hope that helps and happy travels!

[@jordansriver8036]

Thanks y'all. Be safe!

[@daveputman4402]

I just found you guys on youtube. I really love your attitude towards your daily challenges, pretty cool

[@Rvlove]

Hi Dave! Welcome! Glad you're liking our content - having a positive attitude despite the inevitable challenges is essential to success as an RVer in our opinion! :)

[@danberns2406]

Did you install Sumo springs on the front and back?

[@Rvlove]

Yes we did - video coming on that soon too - after we drive 1,000 miles to Colorado next week

[@bobshaw4063]

That was lucky the water pump conked out while your coach was still in the service bay. Did you bake the muffins in a regular oven or in a microwave convection oven?

[@Rvlove]

Convection! I love it!

[@bobshaw4063]

Thank you Julie !

[@BobKeefe]

I've recently found your channel & subscribed - it's really helpful & you provide quality information. Just wondering, what did you find is under the big box under your bed that you can't use as storage?

[@Rvlove]

Welcome! It's the slide mechanism for the rear driver side bedroom slide!

[@bev5660]

where can I go to learn what kind of RV you have and what it looks like and how you like it. video??

[@Rvlove]

Hi Bev - we talk a LOT about our RV, why we chose it, howe we like it, repairs and upgrades etc over at our website www.rvlove.com and you can read several articles there - be sure to scroll back to older posts which we shared early in our journey. Here is a link to the section I mentioned rvlove.com/start-here/rv-setup-vehicles (the older posts link is at the bottom left) rvlove.com/start-here/rv-setup-vehicles/page/2/ and also rvlove.com/start-here/rv-setup-vehicles/page/3/ - that should give you plenty of info!

[@Twisted_stitches_leather]

Love the costs of repairs there. Such a great company. Tip your techs they don’t make much there.

[@Rvlove]

Yes, very affordable there. We took extra care of our techs. -M

[@mikebereck7641]

Do you guys find that getting work done at the HQ is much better then on the road? Is it a little cheaper?

[@Rvlove]

Yes, we would say definitely yes to both. If we had a major repair we needed taken care of (and wasn't necessarily urgent) we would strongly consider driving to Red Bay for them to do the repair...for MAJOR repairs that is... anything minor we would not drive that far unless we were already within say a 6-8 hour drive away.

[@liamgray9113]

I was actually impressed at how reasonable the pricing was. How long was the lead time to get an appointment like that? Do they charge to stay in the campground or is that included in the service fees?

[@Luther-dj8si]

Wow, a much better price and outcome than I would have imagined. Heck, I go in for an awning and fluid changes and it's 1.8k hahahaha. I really like the "pit" area where you wait, and can meet others.

[@Rvlove]

Yes it's a social place for sure, we too were pleasantly surprised by the price!

[@Jim.Hummel]

Julie, Hey there! Just touching base about the answer to my question below. I know you touched base with me about asking the question but I never saw the answer.I know you guys keep super busy and I probably slipped through the cracks, but I really would like to know. Soo sorry to be a pain in the arse rude fan ;-) Cheers!

[@Rvlove]

Sorry Jim completely forgot - the headset right? This is the closest I could fine - but Marc's is black amzn.to/29TLggz

[@Jim.Hummel]

Perfect! Thank you so much...color is not a problem. I figure Marc spends enough time on the phone that he would not use a shoddy headset.

[@maryferguson6226]

Well, from new who would think the lights didn't work because of the fuse.

[@Rvlove]

The confusing part about that fuse was that it was not located with the rest of the light related fuses in the fuse box. It was a random single in line fuse in the engine bay, that I didn't even know about, let alone assume it would be linked to lighting. Lesson learned that day that not everything is where you would think it would be.

[@MyplayLists4Y2Y]

What did you negotiate to be taken in and have repairs done on the same day? Usually a vehicle needs to be left and the shop gets to it when they get to it. Also, because the paint cost $0 I assume that it was a warranty fix? How did you negotiate that "same day" fix? I've heard a number of horror stories of warranty repairs on RV's taking 4-6 weeks at least, with your rig just sitting there most of the time while they wait on parts or who knows what : / Just curious of how you got all the same day service. Great videos! Thumbs up!

[@Rvlove]

Thanks glad you liked it. We called ahead to find out what the Tiffin Red Bay system was, being the company HQ, they have a huge facility for both service and paint/body work. You can't book in advance, you have to s how up and register at the campground and get a service number and you go in the queue. I called ahead to find out what was the wait for the Express Bay (we knew that was all we needed as our repairs were fairly minor) and it varied from 1-3 days but it can go up to a week during busy times. We were staying just 1.5 hours away and when I called and they said the wait was 1 day, we headed right down to register... so it's all about the workload... and the Express Bay is a set 3 hours you are allowed (max) so once we knew we were oging in Monday we knoew we would be done in just 3 days. Had to then go in a queue for the paint shop but they weren't busy and we got in the next day. Maybe we were lucky... but we also did a lot of pre-planning.. that's just how they do it there at Tiffin. High volume and turnover, in and out... As a general tip with other repair shops,, as full-timers, we always communicate our situation and needs ahead of time with a repair shop and when they know it's your home, they are usually really good about doing the repair quickly, often same day or a couple of days if you plan ahead and work in with their schedule. Yes the paint repair was a warranty fix covered by Tiffin (see our previous video on our repair list as Marc talks to that). Also Tiffin did have a bunch of coaches "out back" that were left by owners and there are some tech who work only on those... I guess they are owned by people who don't live in it full-time and/or don't want to hang around. We ended up actually being there a week as we arrived on the Thursday night and were in the shop Mon-Tues. Another video coming soon on that process.

[@michaelsmith9308]

Great service there:)

[@uplift56]

Hey, what state did this take place?

[@barbarafloyd897]

Red Bay is in Alabama...my home state.

[@Rvlove]

Yep Alabama

[@sok8888]

The rubber seal in the toilet gets a lot of chemical abuse, like bleach or deodorizer or even acid from human waste. They fail less frequently if you coat it monthly with plummer's grease which is rubber friendly (do not use petroleum gel which soften rubber).

[@Rvlove]

Good tip - thanks!

[@geraldhenrickson7472]

Are you certain the seals these days are rubber? There re so many other materials that have been around awhile that are far superior. Also, many brands of plumbers grease are...petroleum-based. Perhaps you meant a silicone-based grease?

[@PNWJMc]

I'm shocked at how reasonable the repairs are. The place where I bought my Forest River wants 165 an hour for labor......

[@JM-jo9dg]

Enjoy your videos! Your video is great quality, however your audio is low and extremely hard to hear.

[@Rvlove]

Hi Judy thanks for the feedback. Hmmm that's seems odd as we filmed this with video a microphone and I also bumped up the audio file in the editing suite to 3x volume. Would you mind sharing what device you were watching the video on and do you recall the volume level you were play it at? Some of our earlier videos had this low volume issue but we thought this was fixed with the external mic and editing suite audio adjustments...we haven't had any other mentions of low volume until yours just now... the video volume works great on my Macbook Pro and iPhone... so any more insight you can share would be helpful.. Meanwhile I will test it on a few other devices as well. Thanks so much!

[@franknovella2345]

I thought you were kidding about the chocolate muffins

[@Rvlove]

LOL ROFL. Dead serious. :)

[@xplorearizona154]

So isnt there a warranty on any of this? Those new rvs are expensive and you have had to fix alot of stuff. My 1990 Allegro seems built much better. Still on the original water pump and toilet.

[@Rvlove]

Ours is a 2012. The body work was fixed under warranty. Actually, considering we live and travel in this full-time, 20K in 2 years, we consider repairs to be minimal. A lot of these items were small ones that we only had them take care of because we were at the factory, otherwise we wouldn't have bothered. Glad you are having a good experience with your 1990 Allegro. The newer ones have a lot more advanced systems and technologies now, like slides etc. Do you live and travel full time in your coach?

[@xplorearizona154]

+RVLove | Marc & Julie Bennett I live fulltime.

[@gosman949]

So sad that people have to take their Tiffins to Redbay for service. The local dealers, mine included just don't cut the mustard. Why does Tiffin allow this from their dealers?

[@Rvlove]

Hi Jay, we didn't "have" to take our Tiffin to Red Bay for service but we wanted to as we had heard it was a great experience and we wanted to do the factory tour. We have actually had pretty decent experiences from a few Tiffin dealers. Not the same as Tiffin of course, but still, there are a few we would be happy to return to and feel confident in the work they do. Sorry if you haven't had good experiences. That's frustrating! All the best to you.

[@johngilder9650]

Never by a newnar or anything else from national indoor rv. Terrible service dept.

[@geraldhenrickson7472]

Like all authorized dealerships, they are independent businesses. And they can be very independent. Even if the dealership is the worst in the nation, it can take several years to effect any change whatsoever. Never underestimate the power of a dealership association.

[@thetruckersmanifesto3873]

yeap, i didnt grow up till well in to my retirement, didn't have to you know, the last 20 years of my retirement i made 300,000 a year to golf,and drink. its not as fun as it sounds.

[@dodgeguyz]

Great video. But if you can’t do 90% of what was shown here, then you should not be RV’ing unless you have really deep pockets!

[@Rvlove]

Glad you liked the video. Yes, most of the repairs done on that visit were pretty simple, and yes, I do most all repairs myself since then. -M

[@rvdreamin836]

I'll never eat another chocolate muffin!!!

[@thetruckersmanifesto3873]

i used to drink to much, and my attitude was of that of a hairy stinky area in the Netherlands, i learned the hard way dont piss off the mechanics, if anything tell then if u do good ill leave a tip,or your going to smell pee in your air ducks foe 10000 miles