Phannie

Phannie
Photo taken near Monument Valley, Utah

Friday, September 13, 2013

Upgrades for Phannie

In Red Bay, Alabama...


Like seagulls circling and soaring behind a fishing trawler, some savvy entrepreneurs have set up shop in Tiffin’s shadow here in Red Bay, and it is difficult to resist the services and products they offer to us motorhome owners as we wait our turn for factory service.  As you may have read in the last post, we have already gotten an engine service from Bay Diesel, and yesterday was the installation day for some important upgrades for Phannie.

Trevor Nichols is a local guy who has a good reputation for installing new carpets in coaches, and he recently began offering ceiling light upgrades for the older coaches (like Phannie) in which fluorescent ceiling fixtures had been installed as original equipment in one of Tiffin's weaker moments.

I have a visceral dislike for fluorescent lights of any kind, and replacing Phannie’s with LED fixtures was a “must have” during our stay here at Red Bay. I gave Trevor a call and made a deal with him, and he needed only a couple of days to build the fixtures and matched Phannie’s wooden cabinetry. We also had the same lights installed under the kitchen cabinet. What a difference!

Trevor Replacing Old Fluorescent Fixtures

Under Counter Fixtures Installed

What a difference!

I have wanted to upgrade Phannie’s cockpit seats for some time, but I just couldn’t bear to shell out the $3500 it would have taken to install top-of-the line Flexsteel chairs.  Trevor had a line on a couple of these chairs that had been removed from a new Allegro Bus, and I was able to get them at a low fraction of their cost new.  Another lucky break, thanks to Trevor.
Phannie's Old Chair

New chair...so comfortable!
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7 comments:

  1. Gordon PierceSeptember 13, 2013 at 1:20 AM

    Well done...great upgrades!!

    Gordon

    ReplyDelete
  2. Richard and Patsy KingSeptember 13, 2013 at 8:56 AM

    The new lights look great. We had halogen ceiling fixtures and I swapped out to LED bulbs and it made a big difference. I also removed the fluorescent fixtures from under the kitchen cabinets and installed LED's. That was a really nice upgrade as was yours.

    Have you seen the dash covers that Trevor makes........ might as well leave the rest of your money there!!!

    Hope you continue to enjoy your Red Bay visit.

    ReplyDelete
  3. MerikaySeptember 13, 2013 at 10:07 AM

    I have to show Craig the pictures of the lights. He is a do it yourself guy and they may give him some ideas!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Paul and MarySeptember 13, 2013 at 10:52 AM

    Looking good! Glad to see y'all are making good use of your time while you wait. Love those lights! Are Winnies allowed in Red Bay? We'd love to replace our ugly fluorescents, too!

    ReplyDelete
  5. NanSeptember 13, 2013 at 10:46 PM

    We need to remove our bench dining and have a table and chairs. Could you supply Trevor's email? We are going to Red Bay soon.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Mike MillsSeptember 14, 2013 at 8:06 AM

    Hi, Nan! I don't have an address for Trevor, but his contact info and that of many other vendors can be found here: http://rvtechlibrary.com/redbay/afterhours.pdf in the Tiffin website.

    ReplyDelete

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