2011 Allegro Breeze 28BR
Bob Tiffin's New Downsized Diesel Pusher
Article Date: May, 2011
Article and Photography by Mark Quasius
Bath and Shower
Directly behind the galley is the split bath area. An attractive one-piece fiberglass shower stall is located on
the driver's side, while a vanity, water closet, and medicine cabinet are located in a separate room on the passenger's side. Each area
has its own skylight. This area can be blocked off from the main living area and the bedroom area by a pair of sliding privacy doors with
frosted glass that stow out of the way when not in use.
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The bath area features a solid surface vanity top, residential-grade brushed-nickel fixtures, and a skylight to add
ambient lighting.
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The shower enclosure is fitted with a fiberglass seamless module with hinged glass doors and brushed-nickel fixtures. A
second skylight provides additional lighting.
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Bedroom
The bedroom features a queen bed with a memory-foam mattress and two shirt closets. The biggest drawback is
the lack of a full-height wardrobe. However, most RV owners wear casual clothing, so it may not be that big of an issue. Additional
storage is found in four large drawers in the bed pedestal, as well as in overhead cabinets and drawers.
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The bedroom features a 60-by-75-inch queen bed. Shirt closets flank the headboard on either side and nightstand drawers and
overhead cabinetry add storage space. Four drawers in the pedestal beneath the bed add additional storage capacity to this area.
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The Dirt Devil central vacuum system is located in the basement and is connected to a wall-mounted dustpan inside the coach. A
vacuum hose and accessory kit is also included that plugs into the wall.
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Road Worthiness
The real question was how the Breeze would perform on a road test. Typically a shorter wheelbase coach tends to be
more twitchy than a longer one, because the rear overhang is basically a fixed length on a diesel-pusher. You need a given amount of room
for the engine, transmission, a short driveshaft, and the cooling package, so this overhang length will remain fairly constant, whether
the coach is 28 feet or 45 feet long.
When the wheelbase shrinks, the affect that the rear overhang has upon it is increased and you get that "tail wagging
the dog" syndrome as the weight is transferred to the rear overhang. There are a number of recommended wheelbase-to-overall length ratios that
serve to determine how stable a Class-A motorhome will be, but I've found in the past that they aren't a true indicator of how a coach
will handle. Many variables come into play, such as how and where the weight is distributed.
In this case, the engine and transmission are fairly low in the chassis. It's also a departure from the norm in that
it's a short V-8, rather than a long inline-six-cylinder. Tiffin spent a lot of time fine tuning this system to perfection, so the truth
would be in our road t.
Our Conclusion
The Breeze was nimble and quick. The peppy Maxxforce V-8 launched us to 45 miles per hour quite smartly. Once it
reached 45 mph, it settled down and reminded us of a typical diesel-pusher. The Breeze's 560 lb-ft of torque was just right for a coach of
this weight. The Maxxforce 7 does not come equipped with an exhaust brake, but the transmission did have grade braking and the coach did
tend to slow down under normal driving just by backing off the throttle.
For serious mountain driving, an exhaust brake would be great, but a 22,000-pound coach isn't any heavier than a
gasoline-powered coach, which do not have any exhaust brakes either, so it's not something that's a huge concern.
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