Last night, we left the self-serve campground by the Tiffin Service Center, and drove over to Vina, AL to park overnight at Brannon’s “Custom RV Service” building. We had a scheduled appointment for 7:00AM this morning, and the forecast temperature was 8 degrees. Although Vina is only about 10 miles away, there are some pretty good hills and a long overpass that might be iced up, along the route……….. so, we decided it best to wake up there!
Brannon showed up at 7:00AM, and immediately went to work on my list. It took until about 1:30PM for him and his helper to finish up our work list. All jobs were done efficiently and correctly.
Since our timeline included the lunch hour, Patsy and I had a good chance to have a conversation with Brannon and his wife. We did the visiting in the customer lounge in the shop…..
We had noticed a new building next to his shop (partly hidden and to the left in the first photograph), and Patsy asked them about it. Finding out that it was their new RV Sales Store, Patsy wrangled a tour. I went along because it was a slow “blog day”
It looked like a metal building with a brick front. However the brick front was a special vinyl…… and looked really nice. I asked and found out that Brannon and his father-in-law did all of the construction themselves. They did a very good job. He said that the old wood on the inside was taken from an old barn. The siding on the checkout stand came from the old barn, also. Here are some photographs of the interior……….
We also took a look at the bulk storage area at the back of the store which is through the double doors shown in the above photo. It is 20’ deep and extends across the width of the building. It has a large ‘receiving’ door at the rear.
When we went through the double doors, I saw this work table set-up. Brannon said that he was going to start making his own ‘slide toppers’ on site in gray, white and black!
Brannon and his wife have been accumulating sales stock, and storing it in his shop. After we left this afternoon, they were going to begin moving it to the store building. The plans are to open the store shortly after April 1.
I have known Brannon since before I picked up my ‘08 Bus in December, 2007. The first modification that I did on the Bus was to have Brannon install the SeeLevel system to read accurate levels in our water (fresh and waste) tanks. Since then, he has done a lot of work, and all of it is professionally done!
His plan is to have more than an RV parts store. He says that he wants to stock every mechanical part that he changes on motorhomes. I think he said that this is over 100,000 items. He wants to have them on site, so that he can make his repairs/modifications more quickly and efficiently. However, he would also sell the parts if somebody wanted spares…… and with Brannon, you would know that when the time came, you would have the correct part.
Brannon will also carry accessories such as TPMS, remote temperature monitors, tire gauges, sewer system parts, hitch accessories and towing equipment including Blue Ox and Demco. Again, as his Tiffin customers know, if he stocks it for sale, he believes it to be a good product!
In addition to the slide toppers, Brannon shared that he is buying a ‘Binder Machine” to be able to put binding on the edges of carpet installs and to be able to make carpet covers for motorhome dashboards.
He further told me that he wasn’t trying to take work away from others in the area, but instead, to be able to do the complete job without having to schedule others to finish up the work!
Brannon is a hard working technician and businessman, who will be very successful, and will be an asset to Tiffin motorhome owners!!
2 comments:
Enjoyed the update on Brannon, Richard. He's done some work for me, and I agree with your assessment. He is a pro! Y'all stay warm!
Glad to hear that he is getting into awning toppers. Looks like we'll be due for a few shortly.
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