Thursday Day 11

The work at the main plant in Red Bay is essentially finished. We can see a finished unit and it looks great. More super nice employees that all do great work. Now it's headed back to Belmont Mississippi for some final details. It comes back to Red Bay on Tuesday May 10 and it should be ready to go the our Tiffin dealer in Sherman Mississippi. We met the company owner, Bob Tiffin, this afternoon and made sure he knew how good we were treated and how good his employees are at their jobs.

Work begins again Thursday morning at 6:00 am.

Employees are very helpful and willing to show and tell Mary about what they are doing. If we see an issue we just let them know and it's looked at quickly.

Found out that we really do need the large outdoor TV. 
There are three inside so this is TV number four.

Tiffin employees (two more in the bedroom you can't see) are busy working on  interior finishing.

Diamond Shield is being applied to the front end. 
She did a great job with the invisible protective film.

Bob Tiffin is the owner of the business. He has three sons that also work in management. Bob is famous in the motor home industry. He provides the best service and support of any motor home manufacturer. He started the business in 1972. Watch the highways for lots of Tiffin Motorhomes. They are named Allegro, Allegro Bay, Allegro Open Road, Allegro RED, Phaeton, Allegro Bus and Zephyr.

Wednesday Day 10

Today we are back at the main plant in Red Bay where more work continues. Today and tomorrow will be mostly interior finishing and inspections. The exterior is finished except for a few side marker lights. It goes back to Belmont for a few paint repairs (very few, it really looks good). Belmont will be it's final destination next week before going to Sherman RV in Mississippi.

We had to take each other's picture.

It's back indoors for final finish work on the interior. A nano technology sheet is applied to the front end to protect the paint from rocks and bugs. It's invisible when dry and it works very well. Our current Tiffin 34tga has the same material on it and it looks like new after almost four years of use. The interior is almost complete but gets more inspections and a few touch ups on the wood trim. They do multiple inspections and test everything during construction and re inspect more at this stage.

Tuesday Day 9 - Waiting on Paint to Dry

Nothing to show for the day. We went to the Belmont MS paint facility right before work ended for the day. Ours was painted and clear coated, ready to return to the main plant in Red Bay but we could not locate it. When leaving we saw it behind the ceramic tile building but too late to go back. Here is a photo of the same model and paint colors as ours that we took in February. We will see it tomorrow morning at Red Bay. 

It should look like this one.

Wait a minute, that's not me!
Looks like an impersonator at Mobilcomm stealing my old hard hat. 

Monday Day 8

More rain today but the forecast is good for the next 10 days, mid 70's and sunny. The first clear coat is done and now it gets a very fine sanding. Now it looks dull again. Tomorrow it gets the "super" clear coat and final high temp bake so it will look like the finished product..

Sunday in Red Bay

Red Bay Alabama on a late Sunday afternoon

Friday Day 7 - We Have Paint!

We had a look late today after it went through the first two paint steps. It looks dull now until it gets the two clear coat applications. The clear coat applications start on Monday so by Tuesday afternoon it will really shine. 

It really rained hard here when a storm came through after we left the plant. I should have taken a photo of the storm. Reports were 3 inches of rain in an hour. That provided a real leak test on our current Tiffin 34tga motor home. No leaks to report and it cleaned it better than a hand wash. 

Here it is between paint booths. This place is huge with 12 paint booths and many more work spaces. The motor home is is almost 42 feet long so you can see how big the building is. It's also a very clean plant, using modern paint dust and fume extraction. This was just before quitting time on Friday afternoon so it looked like things were winding down for the week. I would rather have my clear coating started on Monday!

Preparing to touch up the stripe colors was the last step today.

The nose extends out because the 10 KW diesel generator is on slide rails like a big kitchen drawer, making access easier for service work. The generator exhaust pipe is at the lower front corner.

Thursday Day 6

A slow day for us since we could not get into the sanding/paint prep area. We did get a look late this afternoon as they started the masking process. The base coat of paint will be applied tomorrow. It goes into a high temp baking process when painting is finished. Next week it receives two coats of Super Clear Coat and gets baked in the oven again next Tuesday. 

The masking work takes several people. 
They must have a huge bill to pay for all the tape they go through in a day. 

The interior of the external "basement" cabinets are all sealed off with plastic sheeting 
to prevent paint spray and dust from entering the cabinets. 
We saw over a dozen motor homes line up for the paint booths.

They told us that it will look much better by Friday afternoon.

Wednesday Day 5

Our motor home exited the main factory at noon. This morning was mostly interior cleanup and adding the interior doors in the bathroom and bedroom areas. After that it went for some undercoating work and front end alignment. It ready to go to the Belmont MS paint building. We followed it over there (about 4 miles). Tomorrow is paint prep day (sanding) so we will not be there for that work

Leaving the main assembly plant.
It will return to Red Bay for more work after it's great paint job at Belmont MS.
It will look like a real motor home next Wednesday. 

Additional undercoating

My first look from the bottom end. Looks a bit difficult to work on.

Good front end alignment to double check wheel tracking and toe in adjustment.

Modern alignment equipment. Much better that what I used 45 years ago as a GM mechanic.
Back then it was done with mirrors. Now it's a light beam.

Supervisor gives it the first test drive.

We rode along for our first ride in it. Here we are crossing back into Alabama.
Red Bay city limits are on the state border in Alabama.

A short trip and it's at the Belmont MS paint facility.
This is the sanding building where it will be most of the day Thursday.
We will visit later in the afternoon to check on progress so we get a day off to rest! 

Tuesday Day 4

Today was had less action to photograph. The work was all interior finishing. Cabinet doors, dash board, TV's, DVD and lots of inspections by the quality control people. There were about 15 different Tiffin workers running in and out all day. Here are a few photos from today.

Inspectors were inside for almost 2 hours checking everything.
Green tape is used to indicate a problem with operation or fit & finish.

The driver cockpit is now operational. There sure are plenty of switches and indicators. All this just to drive the motor home! The seat was installed after this photo was taken.
I have to drive this rig in about 4 weeks.

The residential style frig is in and working well. Cabinet work is near completion. The doors were all installed later in the afternoon. The installer said there were a total of 89 doors to install.

The TV's are all quite complex. Not just the old RG6 cable to each set. CAT-5 cables and multiple HDMI cables plug in everywhere. This is behind the front cabinet, TV mounted to the left of this.

Center TV is in and working. We watched the Santa Clause DVD staring Tim Allen (The Tool Man). The Tiffin crew had to work so they missed the movie.

Monday Day 3

Monday started out with activity inside and ended with all the doors and most of the interior finished. There are still 1 1/2 days of mechanical assembly then it goes to the Belmont MS paint building for another five days. Here are a few photos from day 3.

There are 4 slide outs. This is the bedroom right side.

Slide getting close

One slide is in place

Bathroom slide is larger. Two others up front are much larger.

Exterior doors are next and there are about a dozen doors.

Front driver side slide is in with large sofa bed.

Here it is before the doors were installed.

Going back in the plant for the next 6 work stations. It's just a big gray box but the paint work next week at Belmont will look much better.

Friday Day 2

Tiffin employees did a lot of work on Friday. The interior cabinets are in, walls are up, roof was installed late in the afternoon. Here are some selected photos of the 200 I took today.
Monday will be day 3.

Got to have a nice shower

Electric fireplace is needed

Front end coming together

Side walls being attached

Here comes the roof about ready to install

Interior cabinets

Roof is attached and lights are on

Rear fiberglass cap is attached

AC units are being installed while other workers are inside below

It's Friday and time for the weekend.
Back on Monday at 6:00am