Day #1 - I Fall In Love With A Chassis

A few weeks after we ordered our new motorhome, we received our “build sheet” - an amazing document that lets us know exactly - and I do mean exactly - when and where in the Tiffin factory our new rig will be as it travels down the production line.  It also tells us (in Tiffin shorthand) what will be happening to it at each stop.  Here’s a look (click on the image below to view a larger copy):

After some pondering, we interpreted the first line to mean that our very first encounter with our new home would be on Friday, August 7th at 7:15 AM in the Mechanics Shop where the chassis would be prepped and get some fluids.

Now I must confess that throughout my life, I’ve never given vehicle chassis much thought.  I did not even know that the plural of chassis is chassis.  But that all changed on August 7, 2015, precisely at 7:05 AM.

Art and I had arrived at the Tiffin factory at 7:00 AM and went in search of the aforementioned chassis.  As we approached the area next to the Mechanics Shop, there it was, standing all by itself.  Our chassis.  And I’d never seen anything so beautiful in all my life.

Okay, that was an exaggeration.  But I tell you, something happened to me...I actually got excited about a chassis.  OUR chassis.  Our new home’s foundation.

It wasn’t due to be in the Mechanics Shop for several minutes yet, so Art and I walked around it and around it and around it again.  I wanted to know everything about it.  Even if I didn’t understand it, I wanted to hear about it.  Poor Art...he will be repeating all that stuff about hydraulics and air lines and the DEF tank to me again and again.  It’s a good thing he’s such a patient teacher.

And then it was time for our chassis to be taken under the collective wings of Tiffin’s mechanics.  When one of the mechanics came out to drive the chassis into the shop, he invited us to follow him in and to watch them work.  Now we already knew that it was okay for us to be there, but to receive an invitation from the very people whose shoulders we would be peering over, well, that made us feel a whole lot better about it.

So we followed our chassis into the shop and watched what appeared to me to be a carefully choreographed production as four mechanics deftly dodged hanging air hoses, tools and each other in order to efficiently fulfill the order on that build sheet:

  “MS CHASSIS PREP, FLUIDS”

 Lug nuts were tightened, decorative wheel covers were installed, the chassis was lubed and various fluids were topped off.

Once the mechanics had done what they needed to do, we had a few minutes before the chassis was due at its next stop.  The crew in the mechanics shop were all young men, in their 20s and 30s.  They were all full of Southern politeness and charm and were quite taken with the fact that a couple of folks their grandparents’ ages had sold virtually everything and were going to live exclusively in this motorhome that they had just had a hand in building.

And they also were eager to show us the improvements they felt had been made on this year’s Power Glide chassis.  A quick note here:  Tiffin uses four different chassis to build their six different lines of Class A motorhomes: Ford, Freightliner, Spartan and Power Glide.  The Power Glide is actually engineered and manufactured right at the Tiffin factory and is the chassis that our Allegro Bus will be built onto.  These mechanics were really excited about some of this year’s changes.  I’m afraid most of that went over my head, but Art definitely appreciated it.

Then it was time for our chassis to be driven to its next stop on its path to becoming our motorhome - Tiffin’s welding shop.  Alas, the welding shop is the only part of the entire construction process that we cannot be a part of.  Potential damage to our retinas was all I needed to hear to be totally okay with that.  What we could not see being done was the welding onto the chassis of the frame that will hold the floor in place and support the basement storage.  OMG, we’re going to have basement storage!  I can’t wait!

Then Monday morning, the welders will weld some more, and then - be still my beating heart - the chassis will move into the main production facility where it will receive some of its “guts” - namely, the black and gray tanks.  It will also get a bunch of wiring installed before the floor gets installed and Art is most anxious to get photos of that.

And, at some point, we’ll get a proper driver’s seat...and I sure hope a passenger seat!

To be continued...