patron

We are currently in Yosemite staying in the town of Oakhurst at the High Sierra RV and Campground in a 38' Allegro Bus with CRV toad. The premium full hookup rate is $48. They take Good Sams but we opted for a 15% discount for a 7 night stay=$290. Our rig is situated near a waterfall on the Fresno River. There is also a very small "beach" and waterhole for swimming. Our dog enjoys the easy access to the water. I did extensive research before our trip determining our only option was outside the park. The Mariposa KOA is a good option. We chose to stay in Oakhurst as the location made more sense with arrival from the Monterey area and then heading out to Three Rivers/Sequoia/Kings Canyon after our Yosemite stay. We've enjoyed many of the town's extras-Oakhurst Distillery, Southgate Brewing, Wine Tails. There is a Discover Yosemite Tour that operates here with pickup from our campground. If you are into photography, check out a couple of 4 hour classes ($95/ea) offered by the park through the Ansel Adams Gallery. Hubby thoroughly enjoyed those. We have been unfortunate in that several wildfires have dampened the enjoyment of the park. The main park entrance for us on Hwy 41 has been closed for many days (now open), requiring an extra hour of travel to the west entrance. They also closed Glacier Point Road, one of the main viewpoints. There is so much smoke at times, difficult to see anything. Many people evacuated to shelters in Oakhurst. As to the visitors, it was extremely crowded the weekend after Labor Day, Sept 8-10. Today (Monday) there wasn't the same hour plus wait to get into the park and actually found a parking space unlike other days. The weekends are killers. Try to visit on the weekdays. I would expect later in Sept less visited. If you ever get a chance to stay on the Pacific Coast in the Monterey area, highly recommend staying at the Moss Landing KOA on the harbor. Enjoyed spending hours watching the harbor life, including the playful vocal sea lions. We took a whale watch cruise and had a memorable experience watching a group of humpbacks and sea lions work together diving for anchovies, then surfacing several minutes later. Better whale watching than our experience in Alaska last year.

2003 Allegro Bus Freightliner Chassis, CAT, 107,000 miles, bought used @ 97,000 miles Dec 2015. Wholesale Warranties contract. Need help determining whether this Freightliner outfit is troubleshooting this correctly. Blew turbo charger in Montana on our way home to Georgia after a 4 month trip to Alaska. Towed to a Freightliner service center using Good Sam Roadside Assistance (great 2nd experience with them on our trip). Freightliner diagnosed as blown turbo charger, with oil blown through the unit. Repair requires replacing turbo charger, cleaning CAC, RAD and replacing air filter, etc. Wholesale Warranties covers the turbo charger, but no progressive damage. Freightliner initially indicated the repair may take up to 2 weeks, but would start pulling things out in the next 3 days. They had most of the parts and Wholesale Warranties had approved the main repair. Luckily, we have a CRV toad and took advantage of the downtime, headed off to several National Parks including Yellowstone NP, Grand Tetons NP. Touched base with Freightliner almost everyday asking for updates and reminding that every day we are down we're out of pocket $200+ on motels/eating out, etc. 17 days in, this evening we were informed they are running the rig, road testing and we can come by late this evening to pickup. Receive another call from Freightliner an hour or so ago. After installing turbo charger and starting engine, running through tests, they discovered the head gasket leaking (running out) oil. They said they could not determine this was the problem as they could not run the engine. It seems like they missed this in the initial diagnosis and perhaps the head gasket created the blown turbo charger. How long should this repair now take? Any help from the FMCA experts appreciated here. We're now waiting on Freightliner to call us this evening with the newest repair details. They had just called us earlier before we ran over there to pick up our rig. Ron and Pat Brown

Purchased our 38' 2003 Allegro Bus Dec 2015. After extensive research, decided on Progressive since it was competitive with others. More importantly, offered a zero deductible on windshield replacement for a reasonable cost. We planned a trip to Alaska from Georgia, May-Oct 2016, anticipating the need for windshield replacement. 10 minutes from our house, a 14" lateral crack was discovered on the driver's side windshield. What a way to start a trip! Immediately made a call to Progressive who coordinated replacement to coincide with a few day stay near Rapid City SD. Replacement went without a hitch and we went on our merry way. Their customer service was top notch, calling back to match up glass type and ensure we were taken care of. Were told the cost of the window glass, crating of same, transportation and installation came to $1,300. We paid ZERO. The entire yearly premium for the rig was $1,250. We are staying with Progressive. BTW-Have made it all the way through Alaska, now in Dawson Creek, BC on our way home via Wisconsin and Michigan (relatives) and have not experienced a crack, although we had a turkey vulture and several birds slam into the windshield. The turkey vulture was rather gruesome, parts sticking to the MH windshield for most of the day until we could clean.

We are in AK too, starting from Gainesville, GA May 12th, now in Valdez, on to the Kenai, Denali, Fairbanks, Alcan, Alberta, Canadian Hwy 1, then returning home in early Oct. We have stuck hydraulic leveling jacks that started giving us issues a couple of weeks ago. Was referred to Karen's RV Service Center by one of the old timers (Donald) that works here at Eagles Rest RV (a FMCA park). He used to live in Anchorage/Palmer and highly recommends them. We have an appointment with them next week. You might give them a call ..................FYI, we have a 38' 2003 Allegro Bus, Freightliner, CAT Karen's RV Service Center Directions Website Address: 1850 Viking Dr, Anchorage, AK 99501 Phone: (907) 336-2055 Reviews Yelp (1) Recent · Favorable · Critical Oct 05, 2015 08:17 PM We were on a two month tour of Alaska when our coach's hot water / heating system gave up the ghost. Far from home with a sophisticated and CRITICAL component broken we were frantic. … Full review See all Yelp reviews Data from: Yelp Suggest an edit · Is this your business?

Patron, Glad you had a good time and very glad it was an excellent learning experience for you. That is what FMCA Conventions are about-- learning while having a good time! Brett Thank you Brett for sending the handout to us. Don't know how we lost the first copy--maybe filed somewhere in error and we'll find again later. Again, thank you so much for taking the time and postage to get to us.

Thank you very much Brett.

Brett, We have lost our copy of the "what you need to know about your diesel" handout you distributed at the Hands on Driving Class in Perry. Is it possible to receive a copy via e-mail? If so, please send to patbrown30506@gmail.com and/or ronbrown30506@gmail.com. Thank you for your help.

This was our (Pat and Ron Brown) first FMCA Rally and the first trip in our "new to us" 2003 Allegro Bus. We had uncovered many "fix its" in the prior weeks before Perry, crossing our fingers we wouldn't have more, but knowing if we did, we were headed to the perfect place to yell "help"! Plugged in power--oh, oh--no power. Thank you Hermann Mullins for coming to our rescue. He narrowed down the issue, spending close to an hour fixing the power cord with stripped wires and a bent prong (kinda looked like the previous owners drove off before unhooking the electricity). We were extremely lucky there wasn't a fire. Talking about a fire, we were located two rigs away from a new Allegro Bus that caught fire. Everyone OK. The guys from Tiffin, RV World, Allegro Club and many more were so helpful in taking care of that couple from Clarkesville, GA. Thanks to Shannon in the nearby Entegra and another lady walking her dog for spotting the fire. Shannon got to call the owners who were in seminars to give them the news. She also had bruised hands from banging on the door of another Allegro Bus next door to the fire. Luckily those folks were there and with everyone's help pulling sewer, water and electric, able to pull their rig out of harms way in short order. I guess that is one situation where you don't wait to warm up the diesel? In any event, we had an absolutely great time. Pat (me) was signed up for Hands on Driving School where all the drivers were conveniently placed together in a full hookup lot near the South entrance. The full hook up also allowed us to try out our washer/dryer for the first time (it worked!). I did well with my driving lessons, enough that so that I felt comfortable driving back from Perry to the outer Atlanta limits. Thank you Charlie Adcock and everyone involved for making this happen. No doubt more RVers will appreciate you offering again and at other rallies. Learned so much from everyone. We were so tired from attending seminars that we didn't have the energy to attend any of the meet and greets or any of the entertainment. We're headed to Alaska mid-May, so this rally was perfectly timed for us--needed all the help we could muster. Thanks again everyone for an awesome time!

Thanks Herman and Jeff. I have been given instructions there is a meeting for the Drivers Ed bunch Sunday night. We'll be given our instructions then. I believe the training originates at the Rally with a couple hours of instruction/safety rules before hitting the parking lot/road. Of course, I am making some assumptions here. Again, thanks.

We're Newbies arriving at the Perry Rally on Sunday for me/Pat to take the driving lessons offered earlier in the week. Since we are there for the whole week, where is the nearest sani dump if we should need it? Also, coming from north of Perry (Gainesville, GA), preferring to wait until we near Perry to load water. Any suggestions?

Our neighbor recently had a long, drawn out experience with CW. 6 months to clean camper and replace manual awning with automatic type. Ordered wrong awning, sent back, wrong parts, waiting waiting, waiting, finally ready to pick up. Where's the button to operate the awning? Couldn't find it. Can you believe they installed a regular one instead of the automatic? Neighbor missed deer season this year. Enough of the negatives. Let us tell you about what started as a rough get-go but ended up as a POSITIVE EXPERIENCE WITH RV WORLD OF GA in Buford. Bought a used 38' 2003 Allegro Bus from RV World of GA in late Oct 2015, to use for retirement and pending trip to Alaska heading out May, 2016. Prior to receiving our "Bus", RV World replaced all the window and door seals, installed a new radio, and repaired other miscellaneous items. We paid for painting on the top and front along with a small repair to side area from previous owners. RV World did more than required and we were very happy with the result. As previous 5th wheel owners, but new to Class A's, we set out to our local campground to try out this massive 38ft rig, including learning all the systems and processes inherent with a Class A Bus. Having problems with multiple issues, some intermittent, including 12 volt dead after a few days. RV World sent out service technician to our campground on a late Friday afternoon to attempt to fix (40 miles away)--surprised they would go to such lengths. Technician upset with our situation, indicating "this is not how we do business". He could not fix at site so back to RV World for repair. Appeared there may have been an electrical surge with resultant electrical issues. Required replacing major items such as Xantrex display panel, converter, inverter, jack leveling system pressure switch, hazard and ACC switch, water heater thermostat, TV antennae, new awning door instead of new spring arm, and a few various smaller items found at camp. When we picked up The Bus after RV World keeping for a few weeks (to insure no issues with 12 volt/120 volt systems, etc.), we were ecstatic to learn we were not billed for any of the several thousand dollars of parts and labor. Again, many apologies from RV World for having the issues and resulting inconvenience. Should some of these issues been discovered/repaired by RV World before the sale? Maybe. But, to their defense, many of the problems were intermittent and/or required using the rig to discover same. Let me say that in our dealings with RV World, every employee was professional and attentive to our needs. The technicians appeared passionate about their work and proud of the end product. This is the way to do business. No Camping World for us. Only RV World of GA.