'08 Alfa See Ya

hoteltur wrote:
My questions are for those who have exp with late model alfa's. at what age did the delam or paint pock problems arise? is there a safe age that these problems may not occur? it doesn't seem to effect all their units. this one is 6 years old with no signs of it, could it be in the clear? the fiberglass is really my biggest concern. any other things we should look for?

Not to muddy the waters by actually addressing your question, but...

I don't think any year is necessarily in the clear when it comes to the paint issues (usually called "blisters" when discussing them).

The common opinion is that it has to do with water intrusion into the walls. What a lot of people have noticed is that their coaches might be fine, sometimes for a long time, until they experience extremely cold temperatures, and blisters appear. The thinking is that the water in the walls expands when it freezes, and pops out the exterior.

I've been fulltiming in my Alfa for over 10 years, and have been in a whole lot of very cold weather and have some blisters. Not as many as some people, but I do have some, and the pattern tells me it has something to do with water intrusion. One cargo door is almost solid blisters, and it's the one below the water-fill inlet. Not much mystery there.

But to your point, I noticed that within the last year or so, I have blisters in a different area of the sidewall. So that area went almost 10 years before developing them.

How long has this coach been in Canada? If it's been outside through a Canadian winter, I'd have a lot more confidence that it won't be plagued by blisters than a coach that had never been north of Arizona or Florida in the winter. Then again, you just never know.

That said, the price does seem high. I think one thing about resale value that people might overlook is that these units were relatively inexpensive when new, so to compare two different manufacturers' units' current selling price, you have to take into account what each cost when new.

For the record, I'm happy with my coach. It primarily has to do with the high ceiling (7-1/2 feet), as well as the huge windows, which definitely are a big heat gain when the sun is beating on them. But I just deal with that with awnings or sometimes window coverings, and the majority of the time, I just enjoy the wide open feeling.

The high ceiling allowed us to modify the bed into an office because there's room for it to go to vertical:







The storage is incredible, and I just roll my eyes when people complain about the high cabinets. Because they're high, we have extra-tall windows. And you don't have to use them--it's not like they're in the way of anything. Mine are full, and I just stand on the coffee table if I can't reach what I need.

I'm not happy with Alfa's general workmanship (they did stupid things like reverse the labels on the knife switches for the house and chassis batteries on a series of coaches) and some of the cheaper touches (like vinyl-wrapped something instead of real wood in some areas, and decals instead of full body paint). But on balance, it is extremely livable, which is important to me as a fulltimer who spends a lot of time in it.

As for repairs, I don't want to jinx myself but in 10 years, the only breakdown we've ever had was because the Allison transmission brain up and died. That was in 2005 and was covered by the Allison warranty.

Our big slide (which is not as big as the full-wall slides on later models) quit working several times and we kept replacing the motor. Then we upgraded to the center-drive system Alfa had started using (covered under the extended warranty that Alfa provided) and it's worked fine for the 9 years since then.

We used spray foam to seal up a bunch of areas where there was air intrusion; fortunately, a fellow owner who is an HVAC person put out a list of the problem areas he found. The rear cap also needed better sealing. I think these issues were rectified in later coaches--ours was one of the early ones.

The headlights are for a Ford Explorer, and generally too dim and poorly aimed. Many owners have upgraded them, including us.

We replaced the radiator about two years ago, but that was because it was hideously corroded from spending way too much time right on the beach on the Texas coast. Replacing radiators is definitely not something many Alfa owners have done. (And that damp salty air also killed some of our non-RV electrical things like computer monitors and MP3 players, which I do not blame on the monitor manufacturer.)

We replaced the alternator, and then replaced it again under the alternator warranty, and recently replaced the brushes. Possibly hastened by corrosion from the salt air.

Our basement air conditioner evaporator coil needed cleaning after about 5 years, which is really just maintenance but is a special pain because it's a basement unit and as far as I can tell, Alfa started with the air conditioner and built the rest of the coach around it.

We've replaced the control board on the air conditioner (twice on that one, I think) and the furnace, again possibly hastened by the salty air we've spent too much time in.

We reconfigured the refrigerator flue to conform to Norcold's installation guide and saw better performance.

I don't like way Alfa's innovative charging system worked, splitting the batteries into two banks, so we've wired around that.

I think that's it, other than general maintenance (tires, batteries, oil, etc.). Maybe I'm unrealistic, but I don't think that's notably horrible for over 10 years.