We left Pumphrey farms early (for us) Monday morning, because we had 400 miles on the nose to drive to Red Bay, AL. The day started out cloudy and got worse as we headed northwest. After driving through intermittent showers, the sky starting getting very dark south of Montgomery, AL. The navigator (Linda) was watching radar closely. We saw an open parking spot at a large gas station and decided to pull over. Good decision, because the sky opened up and the wind started blowing. In about 10 minutes the weather wore itself out and we were on the way.
Birmingham came and went and the skies started clearing. By the time we found our way to Red Bay it was a nice, hot day. We wanted to tour the Tiffin/Allegro Motor Home plant for years, but never made the side trip. Tim had called ahead to find out if there was any space at the Allegro campground a few weeks ago. We were told they would try to accommodate us, but they were very busy. The campground holds 100 plus coaches with full hookups, plus they have an overflow area with no hookups. Generator use is allowed 24 hours per day and we would be welcomed there. Tim was digging around the internet and found a place called RED BAY SELF SERVICE RV PARK. It has a whopping 10 sites with full hookups on a gravel parking lot. The park doesn't take reservations....first come, first served. It was worth a call and the lady said to call a couple of days ahead of our stop and she'd try to hold a site. Sure enough, she did.
We backed into our site along 9 Tiffin motor homes about 7 p.m.
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| Red Bay Self Service RV Park |
For 20 bucks cash a night, it was a good deal and right across from the Tiffin factory. We drove over to the Allegro campground that night, which is next to the service department. There were over 100 coaches in the campground with full hookups. The picture below only has part of two rows shown.
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| Allegro Campground next to service center |
The next morning, Tuesday, June 11 we headed to the factory for the 9:30 tour. We met at the Allegro Welcome Center at the factor main gate.
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| Allegro Welcome Center at Tiffin Motor Homes factory |
About 40 people arrived for the tour. After an introductory movie about Tiffin, the 4 tour guides split us into two groups. We were each issued safety glasses and radios with headphones. Our first stop was the 1976 vintage Allegro located behind the Welcome Center. The gaudy green shag carpet and green exterior trim paint depicted the era. It had not been restored and it showed its age.
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| Tour guide by 1976 Allegro motor home by Welcome Center |
The tour proceeded to the Main Office, which is the building the first Tiffin/Allegro motor home was built from leftover, out of business, Commodore motor home parts in 1972. Next was the chassis department.
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| Tiffin motor home chassis |
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| Linda next to chassis and primary wiring being staged |
Tiffin buys chassis with drivetrains from various manufacturers along with building some of their own. From the chassis department, we headed to the main production building.
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| Phaeton model in early stage of production |
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| Cabinets and shower stall on the floor of chassis |
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| Workers prepping the roof, which is upside down |
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| Cabinets being assembled |
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| Sidewall being prepped |
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| Mostly completed sidewall waiting for slideouts to be installed |
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| Tour guide by front cap for a motor home |
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| Over 2 miles of wiring goes into a motor home from various barrels |
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| Sign in the production building with an important message about their jobs |
Our 2 hour plus tour was thoroughly enjoyed. Some observations about the Tiffin company are: they treat their employees and customers right, which are keys to why they have been successful for so long. The RV industry is very volatile. Tiffin has survived the peaks and valleys. They don't have the best product or manufacturing methods we've ever seen, but if you treat your customers and employees right you can overcome alot of other faults. The factory is controlled chaos. It's a combination of modern production techniques and old school manufacturing. They currently employ 700 to 800 at the main plant and approximately 1400 overall. They build 12 motor homes per day, which they said is up from 3 per day in dismal 2008. 12 a day they said is a "sweet" spot for their production. Our son-in-law would have a cow if he saw how we toured the factory. We were walking over people, wires, water, parts and dodging carts. Loss prevention regarding insurance was thrown out the window.
We got back to the bus about Noon, ate lunch and pulled out for our next destination.
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