her name is Phae

[soisew]

I'm trying to redo Photobucket images so thought I'd get a few of our MH in here.

The caption for this photos of "Phae" should be --"don't let this happen to you" taken in the parking lot at Scotty's Castle in June of 2002, just a couple of months after we bought her. Our air dryer fell off (doesn't dry clothes, it drys the air in the air brake system is a vital component), a problem caused during production at the factory. Tiffin was wonderful and paid for the whole mess.

Since then, like all RV's we've had issues but none have been serious enough to warrant our wanting to sell the rig. Tiffin has been wonderful. We've made 3 trips to Red Bay, AL for minor repairs, and alterations, most of which the company paid for. Lots of Tiffin coach owners just love visiting the repair facility and touring the factory. Don't we all love looking at the new inovations in motorhomes.

We bought our 2002 Phaeton new and have no ideas about upgrading/trading in etc. The price of RVs has doubled in the 6 years since we bought ours so...unless I hit the Power Ball...we'll just redo our rig. And our rig gets close to 10 mpg where as new rigs get 1/2 that.

Having an RV of any kind is a constant learning experience. Hardly has there been a year when we've not had to call the factory with questions. We've had water leaks, frozen icemaker valves (why we just unhooked it and buy bags of ice), a rear inside dual blow out (while I was driving), a broken windshield (again while I was driving and it was another MH that tossed a rock at us), frozen water lines, a broken awning spring, replaced the satillite dish with a dome, had our furniture fabric fail (therefore we made a trip to Dubuque, IA for new upholstry at Flexsteel), those imfamous day/night shade strings break (on all but two of the windows), hit a "road gator" (again me driving) which broke loose one jack spring (another trip to a plant near Moscow, IA for 2 new jacks) after we replace one set of springs ourselves (I don't recommend it), a lightning strike not 12 feet away (taking out one AC unit and causing various other problems we didn't discover for months), ran into a huge pile of dirt from a huge hole in a dark RV park (lots of scratches but not serious), scraped up the nose on a steep incline, got lost more times than I can remember, ran over a wooden picnic table (in the dark, another reason we don't travel after dark), and have been from coast to coast racking up over 50,000 miles in 6 years.

Mostly we like being parked more than rolling. That does not mean we are done traveling. We have many more destinations to explore.

[dcricket]

Goodness!!!!! You've certainly been through a bunch haven't you. I've only had issues with water leakage (from under sink water pump and lines going into hot water heater), side mirror getting hit, replacement of bedtroom slide motor as the original had issues. Now my ABS light stays on, still drives fine, but I've got to have it looked into as to why it stays on. But, then again, I don't drive mine nearly as much as you all do. I think I may have 7000 on it or is that 5700?

[Bethers]

Are you sure you aren't related to Sparkle? Just kidding, but I think you could write a book about Phae's experiences. Maybe we all could if we wrote them all in one paragraph like that Thanks for sharing the experiences and the pic!

[Cedar518]

No matter what,.. Phae is still a beauty!

[asirimarco]

Must have been quite an experience having her trucked out of Death Valley. Is there an easy way out of there?
Keep enjoying the RV life. All of us have had some bumps in the road.

[soisew]

The road out of Scottie's Castle from the east isn't too bad. We came down it ok and the big truck didn't have much trouble getting out albeit the curves but he made it ok. After our 1st season out we got "seasoned" really fast. After that...we came to expect things to go wrong.

I forgot one incidence I forgot to mention that other RVers should watch for -- one august we went to the NC mountains to get away from the piedmont heat. Upon arrival the ususal gathering of guys happened as someone new pulled into the campground in Boone. One guys said--- what's wrong with our tail light, as we were unhooking our toad. The two taillight lenses were melted! Come to find out our exhaust pipe was a steel, not stainless steel pipe (flexline) from the muffler to the decorative pipe in the back. In the moist NC climate it had rusted through allowing the super hot exhaust to vent straight up and melt the taillight and associated wiring. We'd not yet pulled into the site but found our rig would not go into reverse (the allison transmission would not engage) so hubby pulled around the park again then pulled into the site but found it would not go into forward. After some waiting we were finally able to get into the site. It was nice and cool in the high country and began to rain. So we set up and spent the next day going to get our tools and trying to figure it all out. the hot air had told the computer the transmission was overheating so it would not engage. A phone call to Alllison gave us that information and said the tranx. was ok. We found a locate truck repair shop and bought a new flexline exhaust pipe and spent a while in the mud puddles putting it on. So our cool off trip to the mountains turned into a wet work time and yet another thing to watch for and tell folks to watch for. Those plain steel flexlines in a humid climate had better be checked often. Our rig was only 3 years old at that time!

Ah yes, RVing is a daily adventure. Luckily both of us are mechanically inclined and have learned to not get too rattled and learn how to laugh a lot!

I told hubby after I met him and he related stories of his close calls when in a patrol plane during the Vietnam era -- he had angels looking out after him. Thank goodness his angels are still on duty as so far -- we've never been in danger during any of our mishaps even though some of them could ahve been fatal.

When the air dryer came off going down the hill into Scotties' Castle we learned that "don't touch our brakes if the air system is leaking, when the pressure drops to 50 # the brakes will lock up and the rig could roll". The tow truck driver told us we were very lucky the brakes did not set until we rolled to a stop on the engine retarder in the parking lot. Oh yes...angels surely do watch over us! And we've learned to go slow, stop when we are tired, never drive at night, and always investigate every little noise no matter what!

[MsBHaven]

Great to read about a happy Tiffin owner. We used to own a Tiffin Allegro and loved it. Always heard about the great customer service in Red Bay but never had to go there because nothing went wrong in the 6 years we owned it. We are currently considering going full-time and hope to be able to buy a slightly used Phaeton. Your Phae is very nice looking and I'm sure you really enjoy her.

[SeeyaGal]

Our friends have a new Phaeton it's beautiful inside, Dennis calles it his " Fart-ton"
Crossing my fingers yours holds up and no more trouble with it.
Knock on Wood we have not had much go wrong with others but we did upgrade a bunch of stuff and I think I paid for Charlie's swimming pool now in Utah from the bill!!

[carold]

Things go wrong with an MH just like a stick home-glad to see it doesn't stop you from traveling. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed (does that work?) that our new Bounder stays healthy. I don't want to write a long paragraph like that. carold