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...