04 Allure - Like's and Would Like's - After 2 1/2 years of o
Yahoo Message Number: 91451
We have a very young, just turned 25K on this trip, 04 Allure 40' Tag, ISL370, High Cascade Model, with two Drivers Side Slides. We bought this 2 1/2 years earlier then we had planned, due to the economy being bad for others, allowing us to get much more coach for the same budget price range. So, we've used this time to learn it, and make some modifications along the way so that is becoming more and more everyday - our coach!
Thought those looking for used rigs, might want to reference my opinions on Like's and Would Like's in regarding this rig. Could help you think of something if you are looking into buying a used RV.
Likes:
-40' Room
-Galley in non slide, so more cabinet room and no moving plumbing and gas lines -Fridge in non slide side, so direct roof vent vs side vent -LP option on fridge for Boondocking Note: Norcold 1200 unit. So we pro-actively went with the Amish Cooling unit, added extra fans that I can control, and installed the SS-30 Halon Auto Fire Extinguisher. We wanted to retain the LP option. Others go with a Samsung house fridge, and great for them:)! -CCC is over 11K Lbs, and useable as the front end is not right at the top of the range -Good enough tank capacity, with Grey being a bit lower then we had wanted.
Note: We added hoses and pumps to allow pumping Grey into Black tank, so we consider our Grey capacity to be between 90-100 gallons now.
-Galley space is great, with plenty of counter space. DW loves this after moving from our T28 Bounder. This High Cascade model Galley, is bigger then many 45' models we walked thru.
-The CCC capacity allowed us to upgrade the House Batteries from X2 8D AGM's Deka's, to X4 L16 Lifeline AGM's. Total capacity now 800AH. Look up Dallas on the pictures, and you will see this era Allure/Intrigue compartment can be reconfigured for X5 8D's AGM's. This would have provided over 1000AH. I went with the 800AH as it was foot print wise right in the same place the two 8D's used to fit, and we had enough head room to have the taller L16's.
-Bathroom is god size, with nice shower space and a seat to put your foot up on -Inside storage is great to start with. We enhanced it by moving out the linen closet over the top of the washer/dryer area, extending how deep the cabinet is. One shelf now holds almost the same thing that all of he shelves combined used to hold. We also added shelving in the glass compartment over the sink, as it was so high we had plenty of room for a second shelf (the non slide head room helps here). We also tuned some under the counter shelves to enhance shelving. As well as one of the smaller cabinets over the couch area, has a second shelf we now use for cameras and binocular type storage. The wine/tumbler display was changed to smoked glass and has three shelves installed. DW still working with this space, and may make it the spice rack, even though it is 5' away from the stove top...
-Quality. The cabinet work is CC quality from that era. Ours is cherry wood, and the DW really likes them.
-ISL370 gets the job done. I would have preferred a bit more power for hill climbing and passing emergency accelerations reasons, but it is moving us and our light weight CRV along well.
Note: We looked carefully, and knew this rig did not have the Dry PTO or Aluminum Radiator problems to deal with in the future. Those are not deal breakers when looking for a coach, but need to factor into the pricing points.
-Handling and ride is now great, very stable in high winds and going down the road. The Tag really helps on this.
Note: The Holland Neway IFS had a recall brace added on recall. So if shopping for this era Allure/Intrigue, be sure to check if it is needed and has been done. We also knew from research that the Koni SPI Adjustable were not up to the job of handling the IFS. (Not a ding to Koni, as they argued with National/CC that this was undersized.) So, we negotiated for new shocks allowance in our dealing. Each of us look for different things in the ride of a coach. I like BMW type handling, others like Cadillac soft handling. I like this for emergency handling situations. So we added Road Kings all around, and Super Steer Motion Control Units front and back.
-Underneath storage, and slide out trays are great.
-Hydro hot. Hydro hot heating.
-Electric Floor heating in tiles
-Looks. I like the looks of this era CC's. And as those of you that may cross read RV Boards may have heard from Executive (RV.Net) - "Tag's look sexy!"
Would Like's:
-The double electric element in the Hydro Hot. Only single 120V on the Allure. Good enough to provide hot water for washing dishes, and for heating one zone overnight. But not enough to support two showers.
-Slide out generator. I knew going in that another way distinguish the pecking orders between the CC models, that the Allure of 04 era did not have a slide out generator. Most of the time that should not be a major issue, as the Onan QD8000 are pretty reliable. Murphy's Law hit us, and we have had to remove the generator two times in 2 1/2 years. The Temp Sensor's were problematic, and the 1st owner did not maintain the generator well (low hours at time of purchase with 265 hours on it). I probably would have save the second time if I had both done a full flush and radiator refill, and added a second Temp Sensor the first time we had it out. We now have a very young hour generator with a new radiator, and a second A/B switched Temp Sensor for in case it goes out again. We also changed over to OAT Final Charge on the refill, so should be good to go for many years now. (Onan has a newer Temp Sensor, so be sure if you replace one, that it is the newer Temp Sensor.) -Single pane windscreen vs two pane -DW still misses the oven, but learning the Convection Microwave combo -Better quality stove top (On our To Do List to upgrade to a higher quality stove top with higher BTU Capacity.) -Pure Sine Wave Inverter (The RV2012 unit is a pretty bullet proof unit, back in the days of Trace built Xantrex units. But we did lose a good coffee pot, and I'm a HiFi junkie, and needed PSW. So we just upgraded to Magnum MS2800 PSW unit. It also has a more sophisticated charger to support not just AGM settings, but Lifeline AGM's which have different Bulk/Absorb/Float settings recommended.) -Two head mirror came stock, we upgraded to a New Old Stock three head mirror.
-Silver Leaf is great, but the Allure came with a less sophisticated model. Would like to upgrade this in the future.
-No EGT gauge reading available anywhere. Will add this in the future.
-We have a queen bed, and are OK with it. But miss our King:)! -We went with two slides, but would have liked the three slide for just a bit more room in the bedroom.
-Bose 3-2-1 hurts my ears after 30 mins of listening. (Probably not a big deal to many, but HiFi is my hobby. So we've add Oppo and Meridian units so far, and have future upgrades planned.
-We have the 'Head Bumper' over Driver TV Cabinet. This will be changed out when we do that phase of our 'coach refresh' in 2014.
I'll stop here, as so many of the interior type items come down to personal preferences that would not matter to someone else. For example, DW wanted satin nickel pulls and door knobs, does not like the brass. So this is slowly being changed over.
We still feel we made a good choice with this rig. It had 13K miles on it when we bought it, with little but consistent usage over this time period. It has provided the great foundation to build on, and it was priced where we wanted it to be...
I wish others looking for coaches the best of luck on their hunt!
Best to all,
Smitty
04 Allure 31017
Topic: 04 Allure - Like's and Would Like's - After 2 1/2 years of o (Read 692 times)
previous topic - next topic
Country Coach Motorcoach Forum