RV review: 2023 Tiffin Allegro Open Road 36LA motorhome
Today’s RV review is of the 2023 Tiffin Allegro Open Road 36LA motorhome. This is a gasoline-powered Tiffin motorhome based on the Ford chassis. But why a gas-powered motorhome? Isn’t a diesel pusher the king of the road? Maybe.
Why a gas powered motorhome?
In the past it was known that if you wanted the best type of motorhome, you were going with a diesel pusher. With the combined durability of diesel engines and the torque diesel provided, these were a natural. Further, there were handling advantages of the diesel chassis simply because they were closely related to tour buses.
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Things have changed
The price hike for a diesel engine is absolutely significant in the overall cost of a new motorhome. Further, with the increased number of regulations on diesel engines they are no longer the stalwarts of reliability that they once were.
In fact there are a number of articles around about people being stranded in newer diesel motorhomes due to the issues with Cummins engines.
RVTravel article on campers being stranded by Cummins engine issues
Further, unless you do a lot of driving the theoretical efficiencies of a diesel engine are difficult to justify. Yes, they have torque for days but some of the cost and reliability issues are absolutely worth considering.
Ford has really stepped up their game with their gasoline commercial chassis. Specifically, the 7.3 liter “Godzilla” engine offers a lot of the torque and reliability that appeal to RVers. While people make a lot of noise about advanced gasoline engines with turbos and such, this is a relatively simple two valve per cylinder pushrod V8. You can run it on regular unleaded gasoline and it produces 468 ft-lbs of torque.
Since this engine is also used in Ford’s Super Duty pickup trucks, oil and air filters and all the usual routine serviceable parts can be found at your local auto parts store.
An oil change on one of these probably won’t set you back $500 or more as they might with a diesel engine.
My thanks to Lazy Daze RV for use of these images since Tiffin didn’t bother to put any out nor respond to my email request.
Disadvantages of gas-powered motorhomes
One of the things that’s really nice about a diesel pusher is that the engine is “back there.” When you’re rolling down the road in a diesel pusher there is the distance sound of the engine, but it’s 35 feet or so behind you. Further, it’s isolated by sound deadening materials as well as all the pieces of the interior of a motorhome.
In a gasser the engine is right up front with you. The noise, vibration and heat of the engine are an ever-present factor in driving down the road.
Another thing that can’t be understated is the Ford chassis itself. Let’s face it - it was designed to sit under delivery trucks and that sort of thing. While I haven’t driven a long distance in one of these I know a lot of people who have.
To a person they all describe the ride and handling as miserable. After all, if you’re delivering packages the comfort of the delivery truck essentially don’t matter. The idea is to make the chassis as simple, durable and inexpensive as possible and that’s the result that’s painfully obvious in this chassis.
A better ride solution
One of the ways to improve the primitive ride and handling of the Ford Chassis is by upfitting a suspension system from a company called LiquidSpring. This system is not at all inexpensive but, from what I’ve been told by owners, offers a dramatic improvement over the lousy ride quality that the Ford chassis delivers.
The nice thing here is that Tiffin has made this an option right from the factory. Frankly I can not be more emphatic about recommending this if you this is the motorhome for you. Check out the video I’ve posted here from my friend Matt Foxcroft on this technology.
It used to be that Chrysler and General Motors also built chassis for motorhomes but only Ford remains in this market. After 2008’s terrible financial toll on the RV industry both GM and Chrysler dropped out of the market altogether. It is a boom-bust market, after all.
Tiffin Allegro
With all that being written let’s actually look at this motorhome itself. Tiffin is a company that has a pretty stellar reputation in the motorhome field. Part of that was founder, Bob Tiffin, who was at the helm of the company and put his name on all the products that came out of it.
This is the most affordable of the Tiffin Class A lineup but, at $256,447 it’s still not cheap. For that money; however, you get a fit and finish that really are first-class.
Tiffin is also known for engineering good solutions to problems. For example, routing water systems so they’re easy to access which is the case here.
Despite being on the more affordable side of the Tiffin equation, this motorhome does have two bathrooms and decent seating if you like to entertain, or have several people who are part of your camping crew. That seating resides on the road side of this rig with a jackknife sofa and a recliner along with your choice of a booth dinette or free-standing table and chairs.
If you need to sleep more guests, there is an optional drop-down bed over the cab of this motorhome to add two more sleeping positions. This could be a really good choice if you have a number of people who come with you sometimes, but not always. I can see this appealing to grandparents, for example. The ability to sleep more guests doesn’t detract from the day-to-day use of this coach.
The kitchen in this rig is interesting in that you get a three-burner cook top and then a very large convection microwave. The shallow depth of the propane cook top means that there is quite a bit of drawer space which is further added to by a lot of overhead cabinets both in the kitchen and above the seating.
In fact storage is one of the things that Class A motorhomes have above virtually all other configurations. There is all this storage inside but also a lot of storage in the bays along the exterior of this camper. Storage is one of the big reasons that Class A motorhomes work so well for full-time RVers. In many cases, you can bring it with you.
I also like details like the extended desk function on the instrument panel. This is great for the camper who’s the navigator - you can pull out whatever tool you use for mapping and have a space to use it there.
There’s also a nifty little window by the passenger footwell that might be so the driver can see who’s in the next lane but often gets used by the small dogs owners of these like so they have a view of the road as well.
Speaking of views, of course this has a full suite of cameras on the outside.
Overall the interior of this nicely done with features that do reflect a high quality feel.
A warning to you
One of the biggest complaints I have about almost every Class A motorhome is the ability to escape in the event of a fire.
Fires often start in the kitchen or in the instrument panel of these things. Wiring and electrical issue in these can start fires. Of course propane systems, too, can fail as these rigs age and traverse the roads we have in this country.
So where are the occupants? All the way in the back. If there is a fire you have to run past what likely caused the fire to get out the main entry door. There are only a very few number of Class A RVs that recognize this and I wish all of them would.
Yes. There’s a fire exit window in the bathroom. Since the owners of this aren’t often part of the flying circus, getting down from what amounts to a second-story window in a big hurry when things are going wrong can result in physical injury. I wish there were better standards for fire escapes in Class A motorhomes and I hope to make the inadequate design that is common today known through these articles. I hope you choose to share them as it is an important safety consideration.
We have two great podcast episodes with retired fire chief Todd Mullane about this very subject and I encourage you to listen to them:
RV fire safety podcast episode 1 with retired fire chief Todd Mullane - listen here
Part 2 of the RV fire safety podcast with retired fire chief Todd Mullane - listen here
Boondocking and travel access
Class A motorhomes, in general, are really good at boondocking. They come with big generators and huge holding tanks. That’s absolutely true here. This rig comes with an Onan 7K generator. On board there’s storage for 70 gallons of fresh water. I could easily spend at least a week off the grid with this much water - we already do it with the 54 gallons in our own travel trailer.
Motorhomes are also generally really good at mid-journey access and this one is no exception. While you can’t get to the master bath, which is at the very back of this rig, you have access to the guest bathroom in the center of the coach. You can also fully access everything in the kitchen.
In fact it’s known that one of the best reasons to own a Class A include the fact that someone can get up and grab lunch while the rig is shuttling down the road. Not something that is often recommended, but it’s probably pretty darned common.
What I would change
Aside from the obvious changes to the ability to get out if there’s a fire, there are a few things I would do if my family name were on these rigs.
The second thing would be to put together better customer-facing information. The website gives very little information on something that costs more than many homes. If I can find out all sorts of details about the cheapest car you can buy on the market and look up the towing information on my eight-year-old pickup, there is no reason why I shouldn’t be able to find photography of the interior of something in this price range.
The RV industry, in general, seems way behind the times in providing usable information to prospective buyers but my expectations would be higher if I were in this price category.
Also, give me a choice of exterior decor that doesn’t look like a carnival float. Please? For those who like the disco swirls from the 1980s those could absolutely still be a choice. But for those of us who think these paint jobs are silly looking, there should be at least one option that could be described as tasteful.
I like to end these reviews on a positive note and this is a very nice rig that offers some great features at a price that I think is fair. I think that, if this is the rig for you, you absolutely should opt for the LiquidSpring feature. Trust me.
But it’s tough to recommend these knowing what I know about the fire escapes. Now I grant you that the chance of a fire is not high, but the chance of your crashing your car is not high either yet we all wear seat belts. Minimizing risks is part of the human condition.
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