Discovery: Discovery 40m vs Phaeton 40IH

[dkrobath]

I am Looking at both of these units. I;m sure if you bought a Discovery you must of looked at Tiffin too. What were the reasons you chose Fleetwood over Tiffin or even Newmar. I read a lot about how going to Red Bay is the best thing for repairs for Tiffin but nothing about Fleetwood. Please share some insider info on service , quality etc on the Discovery. Help make me a believer. Thanks Dave

[paddler1954]

You are correct, we cross shopped the 40IH and the 40D. For us it boiled down to price and availability. The Tiffin was about $40k more and would require a 3 month wait for it to be built. Our 40D was on the lot and ready to go.

As to warranty service, yes, Tiffin is head and shoulders above most RV manufacturers but they have reduced the services they used to provide to older coaches. Blame the bean counters. We took our coach to REV in Decatur for our first year punch list and were satisfied with repairs performed there.

As to initial build quality, our REV had no show stoppers, or what I would consider major issues. A buddy of mine just picked up a new 2019 Phaeton and he immediately had to take it to Red Bay for build quality issues. Front roof air died, water leak from kitchen sink, air suspension leak, replaced both reclines due to tears/scuffs in the pleather, plus all the usual cosmetic touchups for the interior.

[mikey52]

Our Discovery is a little older but when we purchased it we looked at Tiffin also. the Phaeton was 40-50k more and we got more options as part of the lower price. Although overall our Discovery has been a great coach we did have a few issues that needed repair and every one of them was like pulling teeth to get Rev to do anything to repair the coach.

The worst one was our paint is showing small cracks from the outgassing of the fiberglass siding. I know this was a problem several years ago and was supposedly remedied but our coach is showing the same old problem.

Rev's response was that the siding has a one year warranty and said they would not do anything. My coach is waxed three times a year. The bottom line is although the coach is a great coach the customer service from Rev is less than one would expect for the money we pay for these vehicles.

If I could do it again I would get the Tiffin.

[wjohnson913]

Both fine units. The Discovery gives you the roof mounted awnings which are very nice and more standard equipment that are options on the Phaeton. People have mentioned the price difference and there is no getting around that. Only you get to decide which is the better value for you.
We drove both and the independent front suspension and larger tires on Tiffin’s Poweglide chassis made the ride a noticeable difference.
Never been to Red Bay for service, only warranty item I had was a mis-aligned dishwasher door and a couple light bulbs. I didn’t go to the dealer for those as we have a couple great local shops that are authorized by Tiffin and they tell me how well Tiffin stands behind their product. An example of that is when we took our coach in for its first out of warranty annual service (oil change, filters etc.) one of the LED ceiling lights was bad. Several coach builders has the same problem with bad lights a year or so ago. The repair shop replaced every ceiling light in the coach and told me he was told by Tiffin if one of their coaches comes in with a bad light, change them all even if the coach is out of warranty.
I kid my wife about Tiffin owners being in a cult as they tend to be pretty passionate about the company but it is nice when a family owned company stands behind their product.
I started this too long response by stating both coaches are fine coaches but in our case we opted to spend some more money and are very happy with our choice. My next coach will undoubtably also be a Tiffin.

[Dippytwo]

We looked at a lot of MH’s and 5th wheels and ended up with the Discovery. We got it for what we think is a good price, several thousand less then the Tiffin and others. It has everything we wanted, or thought we wanted. Turns out we use the dishwasher as storage and the driver and passenger seats have that non-adjustable head rest that hits our shoulders. The theater seats we wanted are very uncomfortable to us, but we knew that going in and we have other seats on order. When we picked it up and did the walk through they had it on the gen and everything worked fine, but when we got to our first cg and plugged in to shore power our outlets didn’t work. Our ac’s worked and some of the other electrical stuff worked, but no plugs. The next day we took it to a different General RV then we bought it at and it turned out that the inverter was wired backwards. They replaced it and we were back on the road a few hours later.

We are FT in our MH and have a small punch list, nothing that keeps us from using the MH and will make a appointment with Dixie RV for next month.

There is a quirk with the LG TVs. Even though all the TVs have their own remotes when I turn one on others will come on. I turn off the tv I don’t want to watch and it may turn on another. It’s like playing wack-a-mole. When I watch cable tv and Change the channel it turns on another tv. I’m sure there is a fix for that but I haven’t found it yet.

So far we are happy with out MH and have no regrets.

[Fiesta48]

2015 40E Discovery. At $195k new there was no need to look further.
Many small problems I resolve. No majors. 39k miles.
Have looked at many other Mfgrs and much more expensive coachs, but none better than ours.