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tomwall777 · 06-28-2016, 05:28 PM

I know its not if you have a problem with a Motor Home its when. And I hate to put this information out but enough is enough, If any of you are retired on a fixed income you will know how much the payments are on these Motor homes. We bought our 2014 Tiffin Allegro RED "New" on December 31st 2014 in Nashville, TN. we have owned it for 18 months and it has been in the shop for over 5 months of that time. It has 5,000 miles on it. Here is a partial list of problems we have had.

If I had to list all the things that have broke or never worked in the first place you would get tired of reading it. I just returned home yesterday with the Motor Home from the service center and one of the main problems I had with the water pump turning on all by it self and not being able to turn it off unless you take a few wires loose on the pump, well its turning on all by itself again!

They replaced the covers on the driver and passenger seats because they looked 20 years old from wear after only a few months, "they got a bunch of bad material" from whoever they get it from.

Well now we have a brown couch and chair, And two Gold seats! they dont come close to matching the other furniture like they were at first.

We paid more for this Motor Home than we paid for our house and its been nothing but one thing after another.

As of now I only talked to the owners 1 time and he was friendly and seemed concerned but the service and our use of the camper has not improved at all.

So now we head out again "to Michigan" from Tennessee
with some of the things not working properly. The other things that were supposed to be fixed will be tried at the next camp ground.

Nana25K · 06-28-2016, 06:47 PM

While I hate to suggest it I would drive it to Red Bay and park it in Bob Tiffins lot
We hgavw many friends who have had happy service there

OldNavyGuy · 06-28-2016, 11:48 PM

What Nana25K said. If your coach is less than four years old, the Tiffin service center will look carefully at many of your issues to see if they count as warranty items.

dms · 07-01-2016, 06:43 AM

We too were totally dissapointed in the new (2014) Phaeton that we ordered. Upon arrival at the dealer, there was so much wrong with the coach that the dealer worked on it for 5 weeks. I finally told them to get it right or refund my deposit. Finally took delivery after 5 weeks and another 4 1/2 weeks when they sent it back to RB.

Kept the coach for 14 months (with numerous extended repair trips to the dealer) and made 8 trips...8,000 miles. Never had a peaceful moment.....one thing after another breaking. Slides, hydraulics, electonics, air conditioners, tankless water heater, check engine lights, steps, wind noise, water leaks, and on, and on, and on.

Most of which was lack of any QC and cheap components. After the last trip and 14 months, I'd had enough and sold it. Got really tired tired of spending all my time working on it, calling RB and waiting for parts.

Bought another brand and now have 6,000 miles on her with absolutely no problems. QC is superb and now am actually enjoying traveling.

NevadaNick · 07-01-2016, 08:44 AM

I think its luck of the draw. We bought a hardly used 2014 Red and the seats did the same thing. Bought a new 2016 Phaeton and no problems other than chassis issues which have been taken care of.

allegro1x · 07-01-2016, 10:46 AM

Tomwal777 - might be time to trade it off. A member of our Good Sams Club bought a new 2013 Winnebago Discovery 37F and after 2 years of repairs finally traded it for a 2011 Tiffin Red. Maybe consider a used mh with low mileage. I can't really recommend any brand over another, they all seem to have some problem. My current problem is a 3 inch crack in the outside wall laminate. Dave

Snyderwheels · 07-09-2016, 06:25 AM

Nana25 K has a good suggestion. I spent a week in Red Bay last October getting several odds and ends fixed on my 2013 RED. I've found that dealers don't have the broad background to properly diagnose and repair some problems. The Tiffin people at Red Bay were great.
It is important to plan your visit at a slower time of year if at all possible. They are very busy during the annual snow bird migration and you could easily spend two weeks there waiting to be scheduled into a service bay. If you call them they may be able to give you a better time frame.

I hope you can get the problems with your RED resolved so you can enjoy it as much as we enjoy ours.
Good Luck.

kalynzoo · 07-09-2016, 11:12 AM

My dealings with Tiffin have been excellent. Apparently there was a bad batch lot of fabric. I complained to Tiffin and they authorized a complete re upholstery at an upholstery specialist. I have little faith in the dealership I purchased at, great salespeople, but an overworked, overburdened, not really interested, service shop. I will always seek out a smaller specialty shop. JMHO

Fancy Free · 07-10-2016, 08:11 AM

I think the "all brands have problems" point has been made and is absolutely valid. In the days when cars were built by people and not robots, buyers were warned not to buy cars that were built on Mondays or Fridays before a 3-day weekend.

I think there is truth to that with motorhomes today.
But I also think people with chronic problems with a motorhome need to take a step back and ask themselves a few questions:
1) what are the chances some or many of your problems are caused by the dealer/repair shop? Do they have skilled and trained techs in your brand of MH? Do they have a parts inventory for your make/model? Or are they better at sales than repairs, and sell 5-ers and TT's, not MH's? Do they have new faces in the repair shop each time you go in? A high turnover of techs, many hired from car repair shops, are not MH specialists? A poor repair facility not only fails to fix problems, but can create more problems.

2) as the owner of a MH, what is your pain tolerance for "problems"? If a locking mechanism for a drawer breaks, do you obsess over it for days until you find a new one? Or do you put it on a list for attention during an annual trip for service? I rarely walk into a MH owned by friends or folks we meet at resorts where SOMETHING doesn't work right. The owners attitude, ranging from a shrug and move-on, to an almost fit of rage, has a lot to do with how happy they are with their coach overall. I admit that a constant stream of small problems can beat you down (especially on a brand new coach) in which case I refer you to #1 above, or #3 below.
3) Life is to short to dance with ugly people or put up with a MH you grow to hate. Sell that sucker, chalk one up for life experience, and move on.

HD Ultra · 07-10-2016, 11:54 PM

To me, it sounds as if 2014 was NOT a good production year. But, of course, I really do not know. First and foremost, I truly feel for you with all of your MH issues and the frustrations it causes to you. As previously suggested, if you can sell that particular rig and begin again, I'm sure you will become quite happy again. Cetainly a little gunshy waiting for "something" to happen, but that will pass. We own a 2010 Allegro Red 38QBA that we purchased directly from the original owner. He was very upfront about all issues that he had encountered, including the Norcold fridge, but produced a binder of all paperwork from his acquisition to all repairs. That, by the way, were all completed by thestaff at the RB factory. We have two small issues that I am going to take care of but we absolutely love our coach and possibly more so because 1. We know everything about and 2. We did not pay anywhere close to new coach money for it.

You can see our rig under SHOW YOUR NEW RIG forum under the post Long Time Coming. This, only to show what can be had. Believe me, I truly put in my due diligence and didn't just pick one because I thought it looked good. I am well aware of the present fact of life that MH ownership dictates that the owner accept that issues, repairs and almost constant maintenance becomes a way of life.

Fancy Free · 07-11-2016, 06:35 AM

A riff on HD Ultra's opening sentence "2014 was not a good production year". When the U.S. economy tanked, RV sales/production also fell off the cliff with several manufacturers closing their doors. Tiffin production was greatly reduced, along with their work force, but fortunately Tiffin is a survivor. By 2014, the economy was regaining strength and RV sales/production picking up. Unfortunately, many of the skilled workers, construction processes and QC protocols were rusty at best, forgotten at worst. IMHO, buyers of RV's built by ANY manufacturer during the "recovery period" of 2013-2015 need to exercise extreme due diligence to compensate for less than stellar construction as assembly line workers got OTJ training. Just some thoughts.

PBG · 07-11-2016, 07:20 AM

It seems the common demoninator with the problems plaguing Tiffin and the entire RV industry is that they are built to RVIA Standards.

RVIA is the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association and they are comprised of the manufacturers themselves. They spend money promoting the RV industry and made "glamping" a household word. They also spend money in DC fighting lemon laws, HUD intervention and other political matters that take away any voice the consumers have when problems arise. Basically, it's setup where the industry polices itself. From what I've learned so far, this appears to be the perfect example of the fox guarding the hen house.

It seems the simple answer is the RVIA standards for building RVs and motorhomes have become outdated and while the manufacturers are not limited in building higher quality units, they seem to be building to the absolute minimal standards to keep prices down as they think that we buyers only care about price and would never consider paying a bit more for a quality unit that doesn't require a long punch list that can expire the warranty period to get addressed. It seems that Bob Tiffin and other industry leaders need to step up the game or risk losing everything they worked so hard to achieve.

One day, one of the big motorhome companies that is not owned by Thor or Forest River (who combined, control the RVIA) will break away from this trade group and raise the bar on the level of components that go into their products, work hard to make sure all the dealers are trained to provide timely and accurate customer service and be the role model of building a RV or motorhome that doesn't fall apart and require the new owner to spend a large percentage of the honeymoon period waiting for parts or service.

Bob Tiffin has an excellent reputation for customer service as he answers the phone and likes to talk to customers. The problem is, in a perfect world, if motorhomes were built to a higher standard, we shouldn't need great customer service for anything other than booking the annual routine maintenance.

For some reason it seems a lot of people seem to think that adding better components and increasing the quality control during the manufacturing process will greatly increase the price of a motorhome. I for one, totally disagree with this as if the manufacturers spent the time and the money building a quality product on the front end, they would have a lot more happy customers who would tell their friends and the manufacturers would gain marketshare due to earning a reputation for quality. This would trigger a race to the top and guess what, everybody wins.

So, whether it's Tiffin, Winnebago, Newmar or even Nexus, something's gotta give or this industry will fall apart as new buyers, such as myself will get tired of reading all of the complaints online and simply decide ownership is not worth the headaches. As a recent RVIA research report stated, 90% of buyers use the Internet to do their shopping. Really? So, what do they learn when they start surfing the net in search of a new motorhome?

They fall apart and the owner needs to wait a long time for service. And, if they want good service, they need to make an appointment many months in advance and drive a broken motorhome across the country to get it fixed at the factory as most dealers seem to be poorly trained to fix things as they break.

Sorry if this sounded like a rant, as that wasn't my intention when I started responding to this post. But Tiffin is on my short list for my first motorhome and it's stories like the one in this thread that make me want to walk away from the entire industry.

huntnski · 07-11-2016, 07:59 AM

I think every potential Rv owner should read this thread. I too was greatly disappointed in the quality of our Rv. You see the glitz and hear the salesman but you are in disbelief that anyone with such a nice coach or life style could be unhappy!

It wasn't till after the purchase that I found the post after post of unhappy owners. Well I've owned mine now several years. Still experience things falling apart, but now I just except that as part of my maintenance and don't let it get me down. Not saying this is right, but I love hitting the road and staying in motels just dosnt sound like fun. So I accept it as what it is. Might have been different if I had truly understood the extent of the problems industry wide before I got hooked on the Rv lifestyle. But for me, now I fret more over the repairs and upkeep of my S&B which seem to come up pretty regular now a days.

Potential new Rvers read these threads and decide early how you will handle these people issues because they will come up!

silverado574 · 07-11-2016, 04:18 PM

We purchased our 2015 37PA and took delivery of it in February of that year. Since it was delivered to me in Maryland by Lazy Days, I drove it for the first time in May 2015 on a trip to NC. From the time I rolled out of the driveway every time I turned the steering wheel it felt like someone hit the left front tire with a sledge hammer. When it banged the steering wheel would seem to slip and change positions in my hand. When I asked a friend who had a Monaco Knight if his steering system made a banging noise, he told me I was imagining it. When he rode in it and he heard it he Stated "What is that noise." To make a long story short I was told by Tiffin to take it to a Freightliner Dealer. A local dealer outside Washington D.C. told me they could not find it and charged me $1,300.00. Sent it to Tiffin and they paid the bill. Next I took it to Gaffney and found the C channels in the front had never been welded together. One day there and no charge other than an oil change and fuel filters and I was on the way home.