Tiffin Factory Tour

We're in the routine now - the alarm goes off at 4:45, followed in a minute by the sound of the coffee being ground. We get up, stumble around, get our coffee and wake up for a few minutes. I walk the dogs, come back and start packing things back up to move over to the bays.


We have moved from the general repair bay to one of the paint bays. They have fixed up several places on the paint that have scratched or chipped. One area was way at the top on the back where some over-zealous employee at the dealership got carried away with a buffer. We had a little chipping around the handles on two basement compartment doors, they just repainted the whole doors instead of trying to do touch-ups.


Today we figured would be the best day to take the factory tour. They give tours twice a day, but the morning tour gives you a better sense of the activity in the plant, because the afternoon time is when workers are wrapping up for the day. The fellow who gives the tours is known as Red. He's been around Red Bay for a long time, but has only officially worked for Tiffin for about 7 years.

I can't compare this tour to any other company's, since I've never toured a motor home factory, but it was extremely interesting for me. We saw motor homes in all stages of construction. We were furnished with headphones and little gizmos to hear Red, who had a microphone. There were 3 couples on the tour, one of the couples turned out to be our neighbors here at the campground who have owned a 2009 Phaeton for a whole week now. The other couple is here in a Dutch Star, they are considering the purchase of a Phaeton.

When the tour was complete, Red asked if we wanted to look at any of the motor homes on the lot. The couple who is considering a purchase went to look at some of the models there, while we and the other couple asked if Bob Tiffin might be available. Red directed us to the offices, and we asked the receptionist if Mr. Tiffin was in. In less than a minute, the 4 of us were sitting in Bob Tiffin's office, visiting with him. We all expressed how we appreciate his accessibility. I asked him a couple of questions, the other couple just said how happy they are with their brand new 2009 Phaeton.

We visited with him for several minutes. He talked about batteries and inverters, how important it is to understand how that works, especially in the models with a residential-style refrigerator.

We took our leave and came back to "Camp Red Bay" to check on our progress. We're still waiting for the tv folks to investigate the still-present green interference lines on the tv, and a couple of other things are still pending. We were scheduled to go for a front end alighment tomorrow, but the painters are not quite finished, so it could be tomorrow afternoon or Monday before we get the alignment. Not a problem for us, we are not in a hurry, and we want things to be done right.

We moved back to our site right about 3:00 or a little after, and are settled in for the opening night of the NFL!