Chapter 14, Newmar factory tour and bad weather

 After leaving Madison, Wisconsin, we drove to Nappanee, Indiana which is where our motorhome was made at the Newmar motorhome factory.  We wanted to visit the factory and go on a tour.  

The bad news is that they wouldn't allow photographs so we couldn't take any pictures of the amazing facility.

The good news is that they have a video tour on line that I was able to capture some photos from to show you a little about what we experienced.

The factory employs over 800 people and the town of Nappanee has basically grown up around the factory and the people either work at the factory or work in businesses that support the factory and related activities like stores and other services needed by all communities.

We arrived in Nappanee the day before our tour was scheduled and spent the night at the Newmar factory parking lot. We arrived a day early because they wanted us at the Newmar headquarters building by 7 AM to begin the tour. Work starts at the factory at 6 AM.

After watching a brief orientation video, all of the tour participants piled onto a party bus and began the tour. There were about 10 people on the tour and all of them owned Newmar motorhomes. The tour bus drove all around the town, pointing out various buildings where components of the motorhomes  were manufactured.

The first stop on the tour was a very large parking lot where they stored all of the bare chassis assemblies that the motorhomes are built on. There had to be at least 50 very large chassis.

The chassis are manufactured by Spartan, Freightliner and Mercedes. They come as a complete assembly that is driveable. The front instrument panel wiring and instrumentation are installed along with the steering mechanism. Steering wheels are not installed and the dashboard assemblies are not installed because they are manufactured by Newmar and installed during the motorhome manufacturing process.

The chassis assemblies are driven into the first assembly building, which is the welding shop.  Here, precise jigs are used to hold large metal beams in position as welders attach them to the underlying chassis. These jigs keep everything properly aligned so that all further construction is square and level. 

The underlying frame structure of the motorhome is made of welded steel components. All of the upper structure of the motorhome is welded aluminum forming a solid structure that will not warp or rot.  In the following picture, a craftsman is welding sidewall components.

 Nappanee, Indiana is located in what is frequently referred to as Amish country. A very large percentage of the employees at the factory are Amish. We have learned that the Amish are fastidious craftsman and  the work that we saw being performed affirms that.

 This is what a completed sidewall frame assembly looks like. The layout of the wall and ceiling follow the dimensions of a brick and mortar house, and all of the studs are 16" on center, just like a house.

 This is the layout table for welding of the roof support assembly.

 While all of the welding is being done, further down the assembly line, other work is taking place. Each of the motorhomes is hand built and assembled. They are built in the order in which the actual dealer orders are received, so there are many different models being assembled on the assembly line at the same time. We were told that this keeps the work interesting for the workers because they are not doing the same repetitive thing over and over again like you see in an auto manufacturing plant.

 Once the steel frame is attached to the chassis, the chassis is moved into the next building where the sub floor is installed along with all of the wiring and plumbing that go under then floor. Once those things are installed, the ceramic tile floors are installed.

The floors are hand laid in a large assembly building. The tiles are cemented to a wooden sub floor that is designed to flex as the motorhome bumps and bounces down the highway. They use a fiber reinforced epoxy adhesive to secure the floor tiles to the wooden sub floor. This substance allows for flexing without cracking. Cement based mortar and grout would not work in this environment.

  Once the ceramic floor is installed, the chassis is moved to the next building where all of the interior is installed prior to installation of the exterior walls.

 

Once the interior cabinetry and bathroom sub structures are installed, all of the above floor wiring and plumbing are installed. This is all done using residential-type construction materials and wiring. 

While we were on the tour, we got to see them moving these monstrous projects down the assembly line. All of the floors are polished concrete, and because each of the motorhomes under construction is a different model, they won't fit on a regular conveyor belt-type assembly line. Instead, each motorhome is moved on its own set of air cushion pads.  The motorhomes that are being built here vary in lengths from 20 feet long to 45 feet long and by using these pads, each motorhome can be handled by just two or five people.  When each motorhome chassis first enters this building, it is driven up on separate pads that rest under each of the tires. These pads are connected to 2 inch compressed, air lines. When it's time to move down the assembly line, air is supplied to each of the pads, causing them to rise slightly above the polished floor. Then, workers push the chassis sideways across the floor to the next station, where the next phase of the job will be completed.

Once all of the interior components are installed, then the side walls are installed and insulated. It looks just like building a house and is heavily insulated, just like you would want your house to be. 

  After all of the wiring, plumbing and insulation are installed in the sidewalls and ceiling, it's time to put on the siding. Once that is installed, it moves down the line, where the slide-out assemblies are inserted into the motorhome. Then the motorhome keeps moving down the line.

Next, trim pieces, finishing touches and ongoing quality control happen.

  Then the final step is on to the paint shop.

As we have been traveling on this amazing summer trip, we have encountered really bad roads in the northern part of the country. It is spring time and the roads have been tortured all winter by snow, ice and rain, as well as heavy truck traffic, and gigantic potholes and cracks in the pavement were everywhere.

As a result of the hammering that the motorhome tires and suspension had been experiencing, we discovered severe front tire wear. I suspected that the front end had been hammered out of alignment, and we needed to get it fixed soon. While we were at the Newmar factory, I spoke with the service technicians, trying to find a reliable place that could sell us tires and align the front end.

 We had to add in the extra complication of living full-time in the motorhome and needing to find a repair facility that could work on the motorhome during the day and release it to us in the evenings so we would have a place to live. 

They recommended a local tire store and a quick phone call resulted in ordering eight new tires for the motorhome and four new tires for the car. This tire store did not do front end alignments on heavy equipment, but recommended another local business that worked on heavy equipment like ours. 

I contacted them and they were able to immediately shuffle their schedule so that they could begin working on our motorhome as soon as the new tires were installed. 

 The next morning, we took the motorhome into the tire store, and after several hours, left with brand new tires all around. We then drove about 10 miles away to the closest RV park where we spent the night. It was a beautiful park on the lake, and the manager did not have a problem with us, taking the motorhome out every day and returning in the evening so that we could get our service completed at the alignment shop.

 

The next day we took the motorhome to the alignment shop, expecting to wait several hours for them to complete the alignment.  Unfortunately, the service manager called us to let us know that they had found severe damage to the front end suspension components, as well as damage to some of the rear axle mounting assemblies.  He then emailed us a detailed description of the damage, which included photographs and videos for us to consider. The pictures and videos made it obvious that repairs had to be made before we continued our trip.  He also sent a detailed estimate of the cost for the repairs. He also told us that they would have to order parts, and that we could come get the motorhome and return to the RV park until the parts arrived. We then spent the next several days traveling from the RV park every morning to the repair facility where they worked on the motorhome all day and then released us to return to the RV park for the evening.  

This went on for several days and we were able to explore the area and found interesting things to see and do.  We also experienced some severe weather.   One night we were awakened by our cell phones screeching a siren-lik sound, which woke us both up. As soon as we looked at the phones, we were sure that we were in for an exciting evening.

  At the RV park, there were no substantial shelters for any of the guests to hunker down in, so we just watched the weather radar and kept our fingers crossed.  We didn't think to take a screen shot of our weather radar until all of the excitement quieted down, but the following picture shows where we were at the blue dot and the extreme weather that had just swirled all around us.

 When we got up in the morning, we noticed  many of the trees in the RV park, had large branches that had been blown off, and were lying on the ground around our motorhome. After we dropped the motorhome off at the alignment shop for the day, we drove around our immediate neighborhood. We talked to a man who told us that a tornado had touched down briefly in the neighborhood and had done some damage.

 

Although we saw several buildings that were struck by trees or flying debris, we only saw one really heavily damaged area. A large travel trailer had been blown through

 a fence and into the side of a nearby building after it went through a corral fence.   

 

  

A nearby barn had its doors blown off and part of the roof was damaged.

 

 

We feel very lucky that we did not experience any damage from the storm.  It's frightening because you don't have any idea that it's coming until suddenly your alarm starts going off.  Then you don't know where to go because it's pitch black outside, pouring down rain and the wind is howling. 

 

They finally finished repairing the motorhome suspension and we continued on our trip. 

 

There's one more chapter coming from our stay here in the Indiana area and I hope to get that out to you soon. We hope you're having a good summer and staying cool. 

 

Tom and Suzie