SCIC Rally

When we purchased our Bus, we joined the Spartan Chassis International Club (SCIC).  One of the perks is a discount on Chassis and Engine parts plus free shipping.  In the old days (before the current economic situation), Spartan had a “homecoming” at the factory for their chassis motorhome owners.   Apparently, it was a first class affair, with a lot of money spent.  We heard about “white table cloth meals”, with terrific food and “dripping chocolate” desserts!!

Beginning last year, this all stopped.  SCIC has decided to take the homecoming over, and have an annual “Homecoming/Service Week” rally.  This was the first, and we were pleased with it.  Some folks, who had experienced the first class event, did some moaning, but we were pleased.  As with other things in my life, ignorance is, sometimes, a nice thing to have!!!

The folks putting on the rally did a great job with what they had, and Patsy and I were very satisfied with the results.  I came for maintenance knowledge and parts….. and I was very pleased.  I learned a lot about maintenance of my Bus, and even about some things that I wasn’t doing. 

However, when we showed up, we weren’t sure that the rally was a good idea……… almost all Newmar coaches, and for a while, we were the only Tiffin.  I thought it was going to be cliquish because most folks were in little groups due to having met here before.   However, they turned out to be very friendly, and we met a lot of new people, and met a few new friends!  There ended up being three Tiffins in attendance….. all Busses!!

It rained here a lot, and the rally was held at the local fairgrounds.  The seminars included a Spartan chassis maintenance class, a Cummins Engine maintenance class, and a Spartan Customer Service presentation.  All were very good.

Here are a few pictures……..

 

Spartan had a chassis and engine display trailer, and a great parts sales trailer…….

 

 

The best thing that Spartan had was my new best buddy, Chuck (in shorts), the parts guy!!   He was very patient and helpful with all the MH owners in answering questions and supplying information…….

Here’s Patsy at one of the meals with some of our new RV friends, Ron and Ann from Pennsylvania and a picture of my plate of food……..

A neat Spartan buggy………

 

Some new Tiffin friends, Jackie and Art.  I helped them get back onto the TRVN forum.   They had been deemed “inactive” for some reason…….

 

My ‘high dollar’ diagram from a class on checking ‘ride height’ on my Bus…….

Here is a better picture of Ron and Ann sitting in their Newmar Kountry Coach …..

On the last day, we were treated to a tour of the Spartan factory.  They make motorhome chassis’, complete fire trucks, and military vehicles.  We weren’t allowed in the military facility for security reasons, and the motorhome chassis business is close to non-existent, but we did get to see a lot of the fire truck assembly.  Here are several pictures………….

 

  

   

The rally was over on Thursday morning, so we packed up and headed south. 

More later……….