Currently residing in Red Bay, Alabama!

Red Bay, Alabama...never heard of it????  Well neither had we until we decided to buy a Tiffen Motorhome.  The town is on the northwest corner of Alabama about two miles east of Mississippi.  Many generations of Tiffen's are from this area. Bob Tiffen thought about building motorhomes but there was already a motorhome manufacturer in town.   When that guy went out of business, Bob Tiffen bought what was left of it which included 5 motorhome chassis'.    This happened in 1972 and the five motorhomes became his first 1973 models and as they say "the rest is history".  They currently build approximately 12 motorhomes PER DAY and each one takes approximately two months to build.

We arrived here Sunday afternoon, but let me tell you about our departure!  As I mentioned in the last blog it poured down rain on Saturday.  When we got ready to leave, one of our jacks wouldn't retract all the way again.  Ted went out and did them manually (as they taught him how to do back on August 28th when it happened before), but this time one jack remained down about two inches.  It wasn't enough to stop us from driving but it was enough for the warning alarm to go off continuously all the way to the factory...about a 3 hour drive!  Ted took off his hearing aid and that helped him, Sophie managed to sleep through it somehow and so I listened to the sound of the alarm and the music on the radio.  I think I was a little ditzy by the time we arrived!  Please ignore the slight tic I've developed!  LOL

We were not prepared for the number of motorhomes that are here for service!  On Monday there were 144 motorhomes here for service.  The campground has 79 full hookups and another 22 with water and electric or just electric!  It is amazing.  They have 49 service bays!  It is staggering.  We were dry camping (no hookups) for two days along with a bunch more motorhomes and then put in a full service site on Tuesday.  On Wednesday we had four guys in working on all of the items that didn't need a service bay such as the dinette table not be able to go down to make into a bed, night shade not working, air conditioning sensor not working correctly, some caulking in the shower and a few other items.  

The rest of the items will need to be done in a "service bay".  Our jack did start functioning by Tuesday when we changed places so they will look at the wiring to see where it is shorting out when it rains.   The water that comes from the air conditioners is pumped down into a tube and goes out at the bottom.  Our pump appears to not be working so it runs off the roof.  We also have a rubber seal around the bed slide that has torn that they will have to replace and we are having them re-grout the floor tile.  It is different colors in spots and in places doesn't look like it has any grout  at all.  There are a couple of other minor things they will need to do.  We are not sure when we will be out of Red Bay!

On Monday we went over and took the factory tour.  It is 1 1/2 hours long and you walk through a large part of the factory.  They showed us where they make all the cabinets and carpentry items, showed us the chassis and engine, showed us how the walls are put together and put on the chassis,  We went very close to a production line in every stage of assembly.  We also went on some of the other new models and looked at what they had, including the Zephyr which is the top of the line!  It was an interesting tour and they allowed us to take pictures!

Chassis (but not a Phaeton)

Chassis with engine

Chassis from a different view

Adding a wall to the chassis

Starting to fill in the chassis

Adding the water tank under the chassis

Interior walls added to the chassis (probably fire place)

Adding a few more things to the chassis

One that is being driven to the paint booth

The finished product!

They start pretty early here, employees start arriving around 6:00 a.m.  Sophie and I are usually up and out for the sunrise and the start of all of the activity going on around here.  Some of the sunrises have been really pretty!

Tiffen employees 1500 people from Red Bay and the surrounding towns.  There is a lot of activity going on with motorhomes coming and going to different bays until about 3:30 in the afternoon when all return to their campsite!  In town they appear to appreciate having us around buying groceries and eating in the restaurants!  Without Tiffen there are several towns around that would probably fail.

Sophie after a walk!

She's like, are you ready to go?

 Craig and Claire attended a wedding down in San Diego and took this cool picture!

Trent and his team, The Show, won first place at a baseball tournament in Temecula last weekend!  Trent pitched one game and they won 10-1 in five innings.  Trent is on the right, bottom row!

Motorhome life even waiting for service..."Ain't Life Grand!"