Tiffin Factory and Campground – Red Bay, AL

Apparently, Red Bay does not have any standards as to what families can open a restaurant. It appears that some of Laura’s (Rick’s wife) relatives operate a BBQ place here:

Here’s a picture of the factory welcome center and some of the rigs on the finish line:


Here are some shots of the campground and office:

The campground also is the location and waiting area for service. Tiffin has a new 21 bay service area here. If you are waiting for warranty service, full hookup campsites are free for as long as you need to be here. If you are here to take the factory tour (like us), you get one night free, and the rest are $10 a night for full hookup.

Here’s a picture of the service bays:

Tiffin Factory Tour – Red Bay, AL

The Tiffin Allegro factory gives two tours a day…… at 10:00am and 2:00pm. They are very informally led by an 80 year old guy that is good friends with Bob Tiffin, and they last about 2 ½ hours. He kinda leads, and you sorta go where you want to look around. Patsy and I went on the 10:00am tour on Monday, and I went again at the 2:00pm tour. Tomorrow, we plan to both do the 10:00am tour again, and then leave the campground and head for Little Rock via the casinos in Tunica, MS. Each time, there are different style motorhomes in the line, and you get to see something new. Here are some pictures.

A finished motorhome waiting to be painted:

A Phaeton chassis with a Mercedes engine:

The two-piece washer and dryer in a unit under construction similar to our choice:

The 400hp engine (our choice) on a Spartan chassis with heavy duty side radiator:

A side wall being construction on its side:

Touring the Allegro Factory in Red Bay, AL

It is Sunday, and we are in Red Bay, AL. We plan to spend two nights here, and tour the factory on both Monday and Tuesday. When we leave Tuesday, we plan to head to the casinos in Tunica, MS to gamble and spend Tuesday night. On Wednesday, we expect to be in Little Rock, Ark to have dinner with Deanne.

Following are three posts to cover the last week after we arrived at Perry, GA for the FMCA rally.

More on the factory tour later.

A Visit with Linda and George

Since Perry is only about 200 miles south of Dalton, GA, we called Linda and decided to visit them after the Perry convention on our way to the Tiffin factory in Red Bay, AL. Just before we got to the Dalton cut-off on Interstate 65, just 16 miles south, we pulled into a Flying "J" truck stop to dump our tanks and fill our water tanks. After I dumped, I went to start the motorhome, and it would not start. It wasn't a dead battery, or corroded cables, it was something in the electrical system. I called the Good Sam Emergency Road Service that we subscribe to for instances like this, and we had to wait for an hour and a half for someone to come. In the meantime, we had the dump station blocked. Here's a picture:

The problem turned out to be bad connection on the starter. The mechanic found the insulator on the starter solenoid broken, and we had to install a new solenoid. $242 later, it is starting fine.

We then went to see George and Linda. We got to their house about 4:00pm, and they had already made plans to take us to their favorite steak house in Chattanooga. It was called "Bone Fish", and George is good friends with the owner/manager. Here's a picture of Linda and George along with a picture of George and the owner of the restaurant.

The meal was excellent, and we had a good visit with George and Linda.

Perry, GA -- Oak Ridge Boys Concert

Each night at the FMCA convention, they had some form of entertainment. On the last night, Thursday, they had the Oak Ridge Boys performing. We had to stand in line for a while to get good seats, but it was worth it. We had seat right up front, and they were very friendly about allowing you to walk up to the stage to take pictures. Here are some pictures that we got:

Perry, GA -- Search For A New Motorhome

We went to the Perry FMCA show mainly to decide what kind of motorhome that we wanted to buy. We had already narrowed it down to either a Newmar Kountry Star or an Tiffen Allegro Bus. We found out that both could be purchased on a Spartan chassis with a 400 hp Cummins engine. Given that, we focused only on semiars that covered Cummins engines and Spartan chassis, along with a few others. We also visited all the vendor areas, and spent a lot of time at the Spartan and Cummins booths. We spend the rest of the time between the Allegro and Newmar lots looking in detail at the motorhomes. By Wednesday, we had decided that, if we buy, it will be an Allegro Bus. Here are some pictures:

FMCA Rally In Perry, GA

We arrived here Sunday morning. We were scheduled to enter the fairgrounds between noon and 5:00pm, but we showed up at 10:30am and they went ahead and parked us. We are at the end of a row, and that makes it easier to get around and to leave on Thursday night.

They said that there are about 4000 motorhomes attending, and another 800 that the vendors have for showing.

I took some photos of our site, and some from the roof of the motorhome.

We're In Georgia

Today, we drove to a Flying J about 60 miles north of Perry, GA, and will spend the night here with a lot of other motorhomes waiting for thier convention arrival time. Early tomorrow morning, we will dump our waste tanks, and fill our fresh water tank in preparation for a week without water or sewer at the convention. We will then head to Perry, and get in line.


As we drove around today, we saw the Atlanta Speedway. We also spotted a TV blimp above it. Here are the pics.....

More later from the convention......

On The Way to Perry!

We did not get off as planned on Wednesday night after we had a pizza party for Rick at the house with him, Laura and the grandkids. When they left at 8:00pm, it was beginning to rain again.......... as it had for three days. We were also tired. After a little discussion, Patsy and I mutually decided that we would sleep at home and leave early Thursday morning.

Early Thursday morning ended up being about 9:30am. That put us driving through Houston around noon, and the traffic was light. I also had to stop at PPL Motorhomes to purchase a latch handle for the refrigerator. We drove I-10 to I-55 at Hammond, LA , and then took I-55 north to Jackson, MS. We got there about 9:30pm, and found a Wal-Mart parking lot, and went to sleep.

This morning, we got moving at about 8:00am, and got into Birmingham , GA to the RV show at about 2:00pm. We spent about 3 hours there, and then headed towards Atlanta, GA. We are now stopped for the night at the Flying J at Temple, GA (about 40 miles west of Atlanta), where I can get connected to good internet signal.

At the RV show, we were disappointed. There was only 1 Kountry Star Motorhome, and it was not a model that we are interested in. Also, the Tiffin dealer, Bankston, told us that they were not allowed to show any Tiffin motorhomes because it is another dealer's territory...... and he did not participate in the show. We enjoyed it anyway, and casually looked over the motorhomes that were there. We did see a Pace Arrow with the full side slide, and it is a neat floor plan.

Tomorrow, we plan to move closer to Perry, park the motorhome, and use the car to drive around the Atlanta area. We don't check into the rally until after 12:00pm on Sunday.

More later.............

On The Way to Perry!

We did not get as planned on Wednesday night after we had a pizza party for Rick at the house with him and Laura and the grandkids. When they left at 8:00pm, it was beginning to rain again.......... as it had for three days. We were also tired. After a little discussion, Patsy and I mutually decided that we would sleep at home and leave early Thursday morning.

Early Thursday morning ended up being about 9:30am. That put us driving through Houston around noon, and the traffic was light. I also had to stop at PPL Motorhomes to purchase a latch handle for the refrigerator. We drove I-10 to I-55 at Hammond, LA , and then took I-55 north to Jackson, MS. We got there about 9:30pm, and found a Wal-Mart parking lot, and went to sleep.

This morning, we got moving at about 8:00am, and got into Birmingham to the RV show by the 1:00pm opening. We spent about 3 hours there, and then headed towards Atlanta, GA. We are now stopped for the night at the Flying J at Temple, GA (about 40 miles west of Atlanta), where I can get connected to good internet.

At the RV show, we were disappointed. There was only 1 Kountry Star Motorhome, and it was not a model that we are interested in. Also, the Tiffin dealer, Bankston, told us that they were not allowed to show any Tiffin motorhomes because it is another dealers territory...... and he did not participate in the show. We enjoyed it anyway, and casually looked over the motorhomes that were there. We did see a Pace Arrow with the full side slide, and it is a neat floor plan.

Tomorrow, we plan to move closer to Perry, park the motorhome, and use the car to drive around the Atlanta area. We don't check into the rally until after 12:00pm on Sunday.

More later.............

On The Road Again..... Soon!

We plan to leave Wednesday night on our next trip. Wednesday is our son's, Rick, birthday, and we have committed to keep the grandkids while he and Laura go out for dinner. When they get back, we will hit the road because I want to get through Houston at night to avoid the traffic.

We are heading toward Perry, Georgia to attend the FMCA convention for a week starting March 19. On the way, we are going to attend an RV show in Birmingham, AL, and visit a couple of dealers to look at motorhomes.

After the convention, we plan to visit the Tiffin motorhome factory in Red Bay, AL, as well as a couple of more dealers. We will also include Little Rock, Ark on the way home to see our daughter.

We plan to keep this blog up to date, including pictures.