Day #4 - Sliding Into the Next Phase

It was not that long ago that Art and I said to each other “We’ll never get a motorhome with slide-outs!”

And then recently we were asking each other “How many slide-outs do you think we should get?”

We are a classic example of the following:  When one’s circumstances change, so too does one’s perspective.

Our changing circumstances were our motorhoming habits which recently went from some-timing in a Class C to full-timing in our soon-to-be completed Class A.  I think that might be enough to change anyone’s perspective about slide-outs. :-)

And so there we were, on Wednesday, August 12, Day #4 of our build...and we’re about to get our slide-outs installed.

How many?  As many as Tiffin would give us.  Which is four.  Which is really surreal considering we once believed we’d never have any slide-outs.

We arrived bright and early on Day #4 and first watched as the Tiffin workers of Station #8 installed our air conditioners and our satellite antenna.  Yes, camping is tough...but someone’s gotta do it.  :-)

Then something caught our eye, just beyond the station.  It was a veritable candy store of slide-outs.

Would our four slides be among them?

Before going over there to find out, I’d like to first tell you about #102148.  That is the production number we were assigned when we ordered our Tiffin motorhome.  That number is written on absolutely every single component that will be installed in our rig.  That’s how we found our chassis on the very first day of the build, and that’s how we found our inverter, our tanks, our tile floor, our washer and dryer, just to name a few.  It’s been great fun hunting for all the different pieces...kind of like an Easter egg hunt. 

So we went to check out the "candy store" for our slides.  And yes, there was our bedroom slide!  And yes, that box is our bed.  But no, we won’t be sleeping inside it...that is storage, glorious storage.  And there will be a comfy mattress on top of it all.  And those four “holes” above the bed?  Cabinets...more storage!  Every RVers dream come true.

So one slide down, three to go.  And there it was...our living room slide, complete with sofa, and space for the recliner that will soon be installed.  And five more cabinets...still more storage!

We have two more slides to find, but first, I just want to mention that I had absolutely no idea how much was pre-built into the various slide-outs.  As you can see from the photos, the bed was already in the bedroom slide-out, the sofa was already in the living room slide-out (and the recliner would have been there if our chosen color had been in stock...we are assured it will be there soon).  All the cabinets (minus their doors) are already built in.  And it makes sense, a lot of sense.  Some of the components would be almost impossible to bring in after the slides are installed.

Now back to the slide-out hunt...

And there’s another!  This one is a combination slide-out: the left half contains our bedroom dressers and the right half has our bathroom sinks and cupboards and drawers.  There will be a pocket door separating the two.                                        

One more slide-out to find.  The one I most wanted to find.  The dinette and kitchen slide.  Now that I knew most of the components were pre-installed in the slide, I was nervous.  Would it be the right interior design?  Would they have remembered not to install a dishwasher?  Would the induction cook-top we ordered be there? 

Yes, yes and yes!  Whew!  The big space on the right is for the refrigerator which - due to obvious reasons of weight - is not pre-installed in the slide-out.

Okay, we found our four slides...now let’s get them installed into the motorhome.

Evidently, to get a slide-out to slide in to its proper place, you use whatever works.  Be it  straps and pulleys and lifts...

...or good ol' manpower.

Please, I beg of you, please do not drop my kitchen!

I can only assume they know what they are doing.

The slide-outs are in!  Here are the driver's side slides...

...and here are the passenger's side.

And to cap off an amazing day, they even gave us a door!

And so ends Day #4 of our new motorhome build.  And so also does my documentation of our build.  Art is doing such a great job telling the story of the build on his blog, and since there are other things that I am chomping at the bit to blog about, it really doesn't make any sense for both of us to be posting about the same thing.

So please do return here for musings on the build (just not day-by-day documentation), full-timing and travel, but please do go and visit Art’s blog (arts-work.blogspot.com) for what I feel is a really terrific summary of the building of our next motorhome.






 

Day #3 - We Get A Floor...And A Whole Lot More!

Tuesday, August 11th was the third day of our build and the second day our chassis would be in Tiffin’s main production facility.  And whereas on our first day in the facility we visited only one station (Station #1), this day would see us going to seven different stations.  Seven!  Well, we better get started then...

The beast arrives at Station #2, seemingly under control, with its tentacles (cleverly disguised as wires and hoses and tubes), all tied up and secure.

But are they really?

Who knew?  The beast has a striped tail!

Sneaky beast!  While no one is looking, it deploys its tentacles, intending to slither through the Tiffin production facility and do what sneaky beasts do.

But not to worry...the good men of Station #2 know what to do.  What you see before you is a stack of motorhome sub-floors, each one of them specifically cut to be installed on a specific chassis that will come through Station #2 today.

After hooks are securely attached to the underside of the sub-floor, a special crane lifts it from the stack of sub-floors and then swings over and carefully places it down onto the appropriate chassis.  In this case, ours!

Now the brave men of Station #2 risk various body parts to push and pull the wires and hoses and tubes through pre-cut openings in the sub-floor.

The sub-floor is secured to the chassis frame...we asked one of the workers how many drill bits he goes through in a day. He told us usually about four, which we thought was pretty good considering how much hard steel these guys drill through every day.

The beast and most of its tentacles are now contained.  And here, dear blog readers, is where I give you a break and cease the beast references.  But in my defense, I simply could not get over how many wires, hoses and tubes are in one of these chassis, and the idea of the chassis being an untamed and diabolical beast just refused to leave my imagination.  I mean, just look at all these wires and tubes and hoses...don't they look diabolical to you?

But now, let’s go on to Station #3 and turn this beast into a proper motorhome!

This is the special mesh that will eventually warm our tootsies through the tile floor that will be installed above it.  I’m going to let Art tell you more about that in his blog.

Steps!  We have steps!  By the way, if I was still blogging about the beast, I would be yelling at Brett to watch out, that the beast is about to grab his...um...rear end.  But since I’m not blogging about the beast anymore, Brett is on his own.

 Time to put the tile floor on.  But first, a batch or two or three of adhesive batter needs to be mixed...

...then poured onto the sub-floor and the heated-floor mesh...

...and then trowled around.

Just as with the sub-floors, the ceramic tile floors have also all been pre-cut for specific motorhomes.

This very-fun-to-watch machine has suction cups that attach onto the tile floor.  It then lifts the floor and lowers it down onto the appropriate rig.  By the way, that's our tile!

Our tile floor being lowered into place.

And now, buckle your seatbelts because the pace of the build really picks up...

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am pleased to announce that we have a toilet!

OMG, OMG, OMG!  We have a shower!  Could it get any better than this?

Why, yes, Barbara...it could.  And it did.  Oh, my...whatever could this be? :-)
 

Okay, that right there makes me one pretty darn happy camper.

A sneak peek from Day #4 (tomorrow) with both units in place.

And here come the walls...

First, the driver’s side sidewall...

...and then the passenger’s side sidewall.

And if that wasn’t enough, we also got ourselves a proper rear end.

We also got a roof, but my iPhone’s battery said “no more, no more!” and so that was it for me as far as taking photos.  But Art got some great shots of the roof...head on over to his blog to see more.

From chassis to something really resembling a motorhome in eight hours.  Well done, men and women of Stations #2 through #7!

Okay, dear family and friends...before ending this post, I must ask for your indulgence.  I simply must do one more photo of wires.  Because Chrissy deserves one...

Before our build began, whenever I would imagine watching our motorhome being built, I always thought of the obvious stuff that RVs are made of - the tanks, the appliances, the slide-outs, the roof.  I never, ever once thought about the wiring in a motorhome.  Then when the build began and I finally saw all those wires (and hoses and tubes), I was blown away by the sheer quantity of them.

But I still didn’t think past that.  I didn’t think of what those wires did, only how they looked.

Until Station #4.  At Station #4, we met Chrissy.   Sitting on her mechanic’s stool, Chrissy was patiently and good-naturedly taking every wire in front of her and attaching it to a breaker panel - a very large breaker panel that I now know is vital to the successful operation of the motorhome.

And the successful operation of the motorhome is vital to the satisfaction and contentment of that motorhome’s occupants.

Yes, I realize that observation is obvious to most folks, but for whatever reason, I just never connected those particular dots before.  Even though Art and I have motorhomed extensively for over 13 years.

Maybe it’s because this particular motorhome will be our only home that I am now taking more notice.  But whatever the reason for my epiphany, I now know that I will no longer take the wiring in a motorhome for granted.

I now realize and appreciate that it’s not just the air conditioner in our current motorhome that is keeping me comfortable and sane on a hot Red Bay, Alabama day...it’s the wires keeping the air conditioner working that I really need to appreciate.  And now I do.

So here’s to the seemingly endless miles of wires in a motorhome and here’s to the women and men who take this...

 ...and turn it into this.

Or take this...

...and turn it into this.

Okay, I know that was more than “one more wire photo” but I hope you’ll agree that the folks who work with the wiring - the stuff that we normally don’t see - deserve just as much respect as the folks who work with the things we do see, like the slide-outs.  Because where would those big ol’ slide-outs be without the likes of Chrissy and her crew?

And speaking of slide-outs, it’s on to Station #8 tomorrow morning...where, rumor has it, we get our slide-outs!

To be continued...
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Day #2 - From a Chassis to a Beast!

Monday, August 10, 2015: the day our new motorhome entered Tiffin’s main production facility.  It went in a chassis on August 10th and it will come out a real motorhome on Friday, August 14th.  It will still need its exterior painted, but it will most definitely be a fully-functioning motorhome.

The main production facility at Tiffin is a massive building that is divided into several production lines with stations placed periodically along each line.  Each station is responsible for building or installing specific parts of each motorhome that comes through.  For example, on the line our motorhome will travel down, station #7 installs the roof.

Each line sees four new coaches every day and the organization on display in the factory is really impressive.  But it has to be in order to produce 12 coaches per day.

Monday (August 10th), after spending the morning in the welding shop (for more work on the frame), our chassis was ready at 12:30 PM for the main production facility and Station #1.  It was now sporting some goodies it didn’t have before.  And wires.  Lots of wires.  And hoses.  And tubes.  Lots and lots of wires and hoses and tubes.

Whoa...it looks like the innards of some diabolical beast ready to devour Red Bay, Alabama!  Help, help!

They’re everywhere, sprouting from every square inch of the chassis!  Isn’t there anyone out there who can help us?

Never fear, Lisa is here!  Lisa has been working at the Tiffin factory for 10 years and has never met a wire she couldn’t tame.

Below is the answer for those motorhoming folks who do not wish to always be tethered to electric power: the humble 3,000 watt inverter.

Dale, who has been with Tiffin for 12 years, helps wrangle some of that tenacious wiring.

Now this is teamwork.  Lisa and Dale have been working together at Station #1 for 10 years.

Lisa was fearless, jumping right into the middle of the beast in order to tame it.

Two of my newest friends - a central vacuuming system (sigh...) and the AquaHot “hot water on demand” system (double sigh...).

John adding more hoses, as if there were not enough already.  But it’s okay...these are the hot and cold water hoses.

 Ah, the true innards of this beast: the fresh water, the gray (waste water) and the black (sewage) tanks.

Our sliding pass-thru basement storage tray...the perfect solution for aging backs.

 Lisa corralling even more wires and hoses and tubes before sending the chassis on to Station #2...where it will get a floor!

Many thanks to the good men and women of Station #1...because of you, Art and I (and our chassis) had a great first day in the Tiffin production facility.

Now it's on to Station #2!


To be continued...