We just spent five nights in Yellowstone, without any internet access (or shower). It was quite pleasant… well, not so much the no shower part, but that was fine. Now we’re in Missoula, MT for a night (and a shower), on our way home.

Since we have Wi-Fi at the campground, I thought I’d do one more post touring our new motorhome, again using photos from when we first bought it. This time, the basement compartments. It has quite a lot going on under the floor. I’ll post about our Yellowstone trip later.

But first, an exterior compartment that isn’t under the floor; the outside TV and sound bar:

Starting at the passenger-side front, here’s the basement fridge or freezer (it can do either, by setting the temperature):

One of two full-width slide-out trays:

The trays are slid out and in via a switch on the door:

Inside the storage compartments, you can see through to the other side, with a raised rail beam down the center. Plus what looks like a speaker? Not sure about that:

The second slide-out tray, with an electrical outlet:

Next, a smaller compartment, plus the central vacuum container (yes, there’s a central vac):

Air hose and slide room hydraulic compartments:

Chassis batteries and electronics, powering the vehicle side of the coach:

Engine compartment (at the back; it’s a “diesel pusher”, as the diesel engine pushes the coach down the road):

Closer:

Around to the driver side, the surge protector and 50 amp power cord reel (with powered winder):

The wet bay, with water filter, outdoor shower, black (toilet) and grey (sink) sewer outlet, and water hose reel (also with a powered winder):

The Aqua-Hot hydronic heat system, that uses diesel or electricity to provide heat, continuous hot water, and pre-heat the engine:

Above one of the storage bays from the driver side; the auto-generator starter and the electrical inverter, that provides 110V power from the batteries:

Speaking of, the house batteries, that provide power when not hooked up to “shore power” via the electrical cord:

There are six house batteries (currently flooded cell, but we may change them to AGM or lithium someday):

At the front of the driver side, a bunch of electrical breakers and such:

Behind the front cap of the coach, where a gas-powered RV would have its engine, is instead the 10,000 watt generator, which slides out for servicing:

I hope you were fascinated by this tour under our coach!

I’m currently sitting in a campground in La Grande in eastern Oregon, next to a rental travel trailer, while our fancy coach sits idle at home. Why? Because we’re on our way to Yellowstone National Park, for a family gathering. A trip that was booked over a year ago, before we had the idea of buying an RV. And our booking isn’t big enough for our coach and truck. So, crazy as it is to use a 19-foot travel trailer (without a functioning shower, as it turns out) with our 40-foot coach at home, such is life. It’ll make us appreciate our coach all the more when we get home.

This campground doesn’t have good Wi-Fi, so I’m tethering to my iPhone, and don’t want to upload lots of pictures… but fortunately I have a draft post about the control panels of our coach, so that’s what I’ll share today.

I actually was going to include these pictures in the previous internal tour post, but decided to split them into their own post, since many people probably don’t care about buttons. But for those who do, please enjoy this tour of the various control panels.

The controls aren’t as fancy as in more recent models, but they’re state of the art as of 2017, and certainly more numerous than in this rental trailer.

Next to the entry door is a control panel to turn on or off lights, and other functions. When a button is white, it is on, when blue, it’s off. The buttons with the up/down arrows are dimmable; hold down the button to dim the light. The Light Master control is handy, to quickly turn off or on all of the lights that were used last time. And the Step switch stops the entry steps from automatically retracting when the door is closed:

Driver controls to automatically or manually level the coach via air suspension or hydraulic jacks, open and close the driver side window and blinds, and manage the transmission gears:

Driver controls:

Dash gauges:

Camera, GPS, and various switches:

Passenger controls for lights, shades, etc:

Above the driver cockpit, a cupboard that hides power management and awning controls:

Another cupboard has the solar panel controller:

Yet another with antenna, door awning, and front/mid thermostats. The thermostats can be cooling, off, heating with diesel fuel, or heating with electricity:

Kitchen control panel, with lights, water pump, and vent:

Fridge controls:

Bedside controls, with lights, ceiling fan, bed lift, generator start/stop, door unlock/lock, and another light master to quickly turn them all on or off:

The bedroom has its own thermostat, plus a touch control panel:

More recent coaches have fancier “Spyder” control panels around the coach, which I would have preferred, but this covers many of the features.

Let me show a bunch of pages of that control panel, starting with the home page, with water tank levels, Aqua-Hot continuous hot water controls, and battery status:

Master lights page:

Bed lights page:

Fans page:

Slides page for the two bedroom slides; the front slides are controlled by switches on the sides of the cockpit seats:

Floor heat page; yes, it has heated tile floors:

Shades page; open or close all day or night shades with the touch of a button:

There are other pages for individual shades etc.

Finally, the bathroom control panel:

Highly fascinating, eh?!

As promised, here are a bunch of pictures of the interior of our 2017 Tiffin Allegro Bus 40SP motorhome. I’ll probably do a separate post sometime with photos of the basement compartments, and other details.

These pictures are from when initially took a look at the coach. It’s a bit of a mess at present as we move in; I’ll probably do a followup post once we’re settled in.

Firstly, to help orient you, here’s a floor plan (note that the living room layout is a bit different):

The entry door and steps (the exterior steps automatically slide out when the door is opened); welcome aboard:

In front of the passenger chair is a pull-out workstation surface:

Thusly:

The driver cockpit:

The living area:

The L-shaped couch and ottoman; we plan to remove and store this, and replace it with our nice recliners; we’ll also remove the couch opposite it (seen above) and replace that with a desk:

Dining table (it can be pulled out to extend it a bit):

On the right of the dining sideboard is a keyboard tray drawer, for a computer workstation; probably where I will work:

Residential refrigerator and freezer:

Pull-out pantry shelves:

The kitchen:

Pull-out counter:

Drawer dishwasher (made by NZ company Fisher & Paykel):

Dual sinks, with covers when more counter space is desired:

Induction cooktop:

Convection microwave, that can be used as a normal microwave or as a convection oven:

Half bath; yes, this coach has two porcelain toilets:

Bedroom:

Tiltable king bed (with way too many cushions; we’ve stored all of these):

Bedroom TV and cabinets:

 

Moving into the bathroom, the sink:

Washer and dryer:

Shower:

I stood in the shower; a little cramped, and I might hit my head on the rain shower head, so I might see if I can raise that up a bit:

The above pictures were with the four slides out; when traveling down the road, the slides are retracted, which makes things much more cramped.

Here’s the living room with slides in; it’s difficult to get past the couches, another reason why we plan to remove them:

Dining and kitchen with slides in; not so bad. We’re able to get to the fridge and half-bath pretty easily, once past the couches — great for rest stops:

Bedroom with slides in; not really possible to get past the bed without climbing over it, but that’s fine:

Stay tuned for more pictures of our coach!