??? I Every road is there for the taking. Let’s drive. Don’t time share. Share time. While driving your motorhome, confidence is everything. With our independent front suspension and industry- What if instead of a single vacation home, you could own dozens of them? One in the mountains. One on the seashore. Another, next to your favorite football leading wheel cut, every road is yours to drive. stadium. Nothing gives your family more rewarding ways to enjoy time together than the 2009 Phaeton,® which is now the top-selling motorhome in America. Phaeton. It’s the vacation home that’s always where you want to be. freightlinerchassis.com | 1.800.545.8831 Call Freightliner Custom Chassis Corporation at (800) 545-8831, or visit us on the Web at freightlinerchassis.com. tiffinmotorhomes.com Specifications are subject to change without notice. Freightliner Custom Chassis Corporation is registered to ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 14001:2004. Copyright © 2008 Daimler Trucks North America LLC. All rights reserved. Freightliner Custom Chassis Corporation is a subsidiary of Daimler Trucks ??? 1 North America LLC, a Daimler company. RIS_Winding Road_AD_112508.indd 1 11/25/08 4:21:59 PM Tiffin-0660 09 Print ads 4.indd 2 3/14/09 9:18:57 PM Roughing it SPRING 2009 VOLUME 6 NUMBER 2 Smoothly April 2009 Volume 6, Number 2 Roughing It Smoothly® magazine is published four times a year by Book Production Resources for Tiffin Motorhomes, Inc., 105 2nd Street NW, Red Bay, Alabama 35582. BPR offices are located at 1403 Cedar Point Way, Monroe, GA 30656. Printed in the United States of America. Postage paid at Birmingham, Alabama 35211. Postmaster: PHotoGRAPH BY GarY Platford / NPS.GOV Send all changes of address to Book Production Resources, 1403 Cedar Point Way, Monroe, GA 30656. This issue of Roughing It Smoothly® has a postal Departments Features distribution of approximately 40,000 copies and a dealer distribution of 12,000 copies. It was President’s Corner 4 On the Road With Rita 40 The 2009 Allegro RED, 36 QSA — Tiffin adds the rear-engine diesel to its entry-level printed by American Printing Co., 428 Industrial What It Takes to Survive . Lane, Birmingham, AL 35211. Serious Tech Talk 42 • coach. See page 6. Copyright © 2009 by Book Production Resources. All rights reserved. Roughing It Smoothly® is a News You Can Use 14 From the Road 46 registered trademark of Tiffin Motorhomes, Inc. Diesel Fuel & An Open Letter The incredible Big Bend National Park . the sunsets turn the buttes into an amazing No part of this magazine may be reproduced in • light show. See page 18. any form without the written permission of the On our cover: Big Bend National Park, publisher. Tiffin Management Team 16 Publisher, Book Production Resources; Editor, Charles Spencer Builds Boxes Chisos Mountains, last light on west side of Fred Thompson; Typesetting and Page Makeup, mountains. Photography by Laurence Parent, Seriously, would you believe Bill and Judy Konvalinka use their 1915 Model T Ford as Andy Cargile; Copy Editor, Carolyn Breuer. On the Production Line 27 Austin, Texas • their tow car? See page 46. Contributing Writers: Bob Tiffin, Fred Thompson, Porcelain Floors Danny Inman, Norman Spray, Rita Warren, The following names are registered Dr. John P. Pilarczyk, Marlin Saint. Tiffin Motorhomes high-tech production of porcelain floors for the Phaeton, Allegro Bus, Contributing Photographers: Fred Thompson, Traveling With Your Pets 32 trademarks of Tiffin Motorhomes, Inc.: Patrick Holloway, Laurence Parent, Rita Warren, Open Road®, Phaeton®, Allegro®, Allegro • and Zephyr. See page 27. Gary Platford, Norman Spray, Carole & Paul Meitler Dealer Profile 33 Bay®, Allegro Bus®, Zephyr®, Roughing It All Seasons RV Smoothly®, Pusher®, and Powerglide®. • Can a family of six travel happily for eight months in an Allegro 32 BA? See page 37. Letters, We Get Letters. By the time you read this issue of Traveling With Your Pets “Traveling With Your Pets” Changes of Address Roughing It Smoothly, we hope to have You will notice in this issue our Roughing It Smoothly Please do not call to make a change completed our move to Monroe, new column, “Traveling With Pets,” 1403 Cedar Point Way of address. It is too easy to make a Georgia. After 11 years in Temple written by Dr. John P. Pilarczyk, a Monroe, GA 30656 mistake while taking the information Terrace, Florida, we are moving back veterinarian specializing in small over the phone. We are often traveling to Georgia where our two sons and animals who practiced for 38 years The USPS is currently building a when your calls come in and it is very their families live. Our daughter and in Temple Terrace. Dr. and Mrs. Pi- new post office near our home and difficult to handle the call on a cell her family recently moved to San larczyk, who own a 2007 Phaeton, we expect to have a post office box by phone while we are en route. Please Antonio, Texas. made an ambitious trip to Alaska the time the next issue is published. use a standard change of address card Don’t stop writing! Your partic- last year and are currently wintering You can also send your questions provided by the post office or send ipation is the key to this magazine’s in Arizona. If you prefer to use the via email to fredthompson1941@ the change by email. In the subject great success. Here are some guide- U.S. Mail, please address your ques- hotmail.com Please enter “Traveling line, put “RIS Address Change.” lines to help. tions to: With Pets” in the subject line. First Time Subscribers From the Road Tiffin coach owners may receive a free To tell us about your experiences on subscription by writing to Roughing the road, you may use the postcard It Smoothly®, 1403 Cedar Point Way, bound in this issue, send a longer Monroe, GA 30656 or emailing letter to the address above, but using [email protected]. “From the Road” in the first line, or Please include your phone number, send an email with “From the Road” the last six characters of your in the subject line. vehicle identification number (VIN), Serious Tech Talk and the year and model of your To address your technical questions coach. If you sell your coach, to Danny Inman, you may use the please email stephanie.umfress@ postcard bound in this issue, send tiffinmotorhomes.com and give her a longer letter to the address above your VIN, year and model, and the (put “Serious Tech Talk” in the first new owner’s address. This will allow line), or send an email with “Serious all service bulletins or recalls to reach Tech Talk” in the subject line. the new owner. Thanks and best wishes from Fred & Carolyn Thompson Recently, Southwest’s chairman and continued to invest in improving your If you have visited the plant at Red Bay, PRESIDENT’S CORNER CEO Gary Kelly paid tribute to chairman RVing experience in our coaches. you know that my office door is always emeritus Kelleher: “He taught us to man- In product design, TMH has developed open to our owners who want to come age during the good times so we could three new innovative floorplans this past in and talk about their coaches or RV ex- What It Takes To Survive . survive the bad times.” What a great trib- year, plus one more we will introduce in late periences. If you call and miss me on your ute! Like Southwest, Tiffin Motorhomes March (see opposite page below). Tiffin’s first try, leave a message and Iwill call you by Bob Tiffin survived the severe recession of 1979–81. R&D and engineering departments are back. If you’re interested at all in buying a There were weeks and months during that working on new ideas and plans to make motorhome this year, RIGHT NOW IS THE When Tiffin Motorhomes began build- plant in Red Bay for any motorhome we had period in which we built only one motor- our coaches even more user friendly. Based BEST TIME ! All of the factors are in your ing “campers” in December 1972, I really ever built. I have always believed that if you home per day. That experience helped to on our customer surveys, we keep stirring favor. Call me at 256-356-8661, ext. 2206, had not considered the idea that we were provide excellent service, sales will follow. prepare us for the current situation. the innovation pot to come up with exactly and let’s talk. I will do my best to help you putting together a company to make our With all other manufacturers, you will Now, yes right now, the motorhome what you, our customers, want. in any way I can. Wbuyers’ dreams come true. I was fascinated have to find your favorite dealer or local industry is facing the most serious crisis with the building process and the product RV repair shop to provide service after the in its history. We prepared for this crisis, as well as the competitive marketplace warranty period ends. Sadly, in this severe knowing it would come sooner or later. that was quickly developing. By the time recession that threatens to be the worst in But we are not so proud that we can’t ask we had built a couple of thousand motor- 70 years, many coach owners have no com- for help. This time survival depends on all of homes, I realized our customers were pany at all to stand behind their warranty us. We provide the best service in the Class investing their hard-earned money in our work, much less any service or repair work A motorhome industry.