Red Bay, Alabama: Dancing With Elephants At Tiffin's Campground

If you have ever wanted to see elephants dance, just come to Tiffin's Service Center in Red Bay Alabama. Red Bay is the home of Tiffin Motor Homes, manufacturers of Class A motor homes.

Tiffin's tag line is "Roughing It Smoothly" and it's an apt description of their building style and motor home designs. We love our Tiffin motor home; the design is perfect for the two of us.

Tiffin packs a lot of features into their motor homes and is widely recognized as offering a lot of value for the money. You can easily spend more without getting more for your money. Don't get me wrong; there are many, many motor home manufacturers, some with similar quality and features. You can find similar quality with a few other manufacturers however to find better quality you will have to spend much, much more. But that's not the only reason we choose to buy a Tiffin.

Nope, what sets Tiffin apart is their after sale support. If it's not right, they will make it right. Bring it to Red Bay and stay in the campground for free until it's repaired. Cant' get to Red Bay? Take it to your local Tiffin dealer. No Tiffin dealer nearby? Call Tiffin in advance of the repair and they will authorize the shop of your choice to perform the repair if the dealer meets some basic requirements.

Tiffin will quickly send the dealer the parts needed or, if you prefer to do your own work, they'll send the parts directly to you. Where ever you happen to be, at home or travelling throughout North America (South America too I guess), they'll send the parts and pay the dealer for performing the work.

Tiffin has a rock solid reputation for taking care of it's customers after the sale. There are plenty of examples of Tiffin performing warranty work (at no charge) to vehicles long out of warranty.

Which brings me to the "Dancing With Elephants". Tiffin converted the Red Bay airport into a state of the art facility for repairing Tiffin motor homes. They turned the runway into a large campground that holds ~ 100 RV's up to 45 feet in length. Almost all these RV's are powered by big Cummins or Caterpillar diesels, ranging from 300 up to 600 horsepower. As you can imagine, these beasts makes a powerful racket when they first start up.

Tiffin's Service Center is located in two large buildings right next to the runway and they have ~ 50 stalls.

Imagine what happens every morning (except Sunday) at 7am. That's when the service center opens it's doors for business. Suddenly the still air is penetrated by the sounds of diesels starting up. Many, many diesels. It's not unusual to have 10-20 large RV's all trying to move from the runway into their assigned service bay at the same time. It's all over in about 15 minutes but it sure is exciting while it lasts. Lots of noise, dust, and the occasional sound of someone blowing the train style air horns; either to claim right -of-way or to get the service personnel to open a service bay door.

Throughout the day the RV's are back and forth although in much smaller quantities. Then there is a similar 'rush hour' in the afternoon, just not as congested.

It really is a sight to see, these huge lumbering, loud RV;s with their smelly diesels dancing around the crowded campground, jockeying to get their RV's work completed so they can get back on the road.

I named the RV next to us "Dumbo", after Dumbo the Elephant. This particular RV, in addition to the normal click-etty clack and growl of the diesel, has an additional, highly irritating, sound effect. When ever the driver applies the brakes, the RV lets out an incredibly loud sound, very much like the trumpet of an elephant.

"Dumbo" makes this sound whenever the brakes are applied, in forward and in reverse. How do I know? For some reason, every time the owner returns from the shop he pulls his coach back and forth on his site, apparently looking for just the right spot.

What exactly he is looking for I haven't a clue. The entire site is identical from one end to the other. There is no one spot better than the rest. Everyone else just pulls up to the line, puts the RV in park and begins the set up process. Not this RV owner. Nope, this gentleman moves his coach back and forth, back and forth, multiple times, apparently oblivious to the loud trumpeting of his brakes.

If looks could kill, MLA's glare would have put that RV in a junk yard so fast it would already be compacted to the size of a washing machine.

Hopefully, getting his brakes fixed is on his punch list of items to be repaired while here in Red Bay. Meanwhile, Dumbo leads the elephant dance in a way that all the other elephants can only dream about: with trumpets blaring.

See Ya!