TOUR AMERICA 2019: ELKHART, INDIANA-THE HOOSIER STATE

Places We Have Called Home In 2019

Home Is Where We Park It:  Elkhart Campground, Elkhart, Indiana

August 2, 2019

Temperature 84 Degrees

Newmar Factory Tour

Oh yes we wanted to do this.  Why else would we even consider getting up at 6:30 am?  We where up this early inorder to make the 8:30 am Newmar Factor Tour.

This tour ran 4 hours and took us through every building.  Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed.

Pictures or not let me share some observations with you

• there is little automation when it comes to building their coaches.  No computers guiding routers, saws, etc.  Everything is done the old fashion way, measure three times and then cut by hand.
• the factory floors are as clean as clean can be.  There is one individual assigned to follow up and clean every work area as soon as a coach is moved out of the area.
• the coaches don’t move down an assembly line, rather the wheels of each coach are on pads that are powered by air and float just above the floor.  When they need to move a coach to the next area, the pads are aired up and the coach is pushed sideways to the next work bay.  Easy, quick and efficient.
• quality control inspectors are constantly roving the floor, easy to spot by the clipboard and inspection list they hold.  It begins when the coach is in welding and continues through to the very end.  I saw one coach moved out of production and to repair/touch up because a flaw was found in the side wall.
• once the water, black/gray tanks, and all sinks and showers, and water lines are installed all of the tanks are filled with water and all lines are pressurized and left like that to the end of the building process to determine if there are any leaks.
• each coach is built with aluminum studs in the ceiling and wall that are 16 inches on center.  The floor, sidewalls and roof are also insulted with a bat like insulation that is made of recycled material.
• at the end each coach is subjected to what amounts to a monsoon rain storm for 30 minutes to determine if there are any leaks in any seams, around windows, etc.
• midway through the build process and then again at the very end each coach is completely cleaned.
• once the slides are installed they are run out and in countless times.
• they have a new paint process for all coaches, if you now run your hand over the finished coach you’ll feel no lip between the graphics and the painted wall.  It is all one completely smoothly painted surface.
• they have just completed a new campground at their repair facility.  It has a total of 65 sides, FHU, some back in and some pull-through and all are level concrete pads,   It is really impressive looking.  The repair facility itself is equally impressive.  It is so clean, each coach is assigned to one tech and to one bay while being worked on.

I know I’m missing a lot more but suffice to say we both came away absolutely impressed with the way Newmar coaches are built.  We’ve always said if the opportunity presented itself we would absolutely love to have a Dutch Star.  This tour only reinforced our desire to someday, hopefully own one.

What else is happening?  I’ve been slowing working my way through the location spots on my map updating each with dates stayed, site number, attractions we visited and up to ten pictures for each.    One by one I’m updating them.

That was our day on The Road of Retirement.  We’re not used to such an early hour for wake up so we came home and took a nap.  We have two more attractions we definitely want to see before we leave here – The RV Hall of Fame and The Studebaker Museum.  We’ll have to get them in quick since as I said earlier we’re moving over to Geber on Sunday afternoon.  We’ll do it.

Thanks again for coming along with us today.  We always enjoy your company and your comments.  Catch you tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Graybeard and it’s two human soul mates.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have not been before

See you on down the road!