Plant Tour: Where Tiffin Motorhomes Are Born

Monday, 18 February (Part II)
Camp Tiffin — Red Bay, Alabama

I started writing about our day and the tour in the previous post … if you haven’t read it, it’s worth taking a peek to check out the photos of a ‘76 Allegro, one of the early motorhomes built at the plant.

Now for the plant tour.  We joined four other people to see how a motorhome is born at Tiffin’s main assembly plant.  We started out in the cabinetry area, which is located in what used to be the cotton warehouse for the gin operated by the Tiffins.  As Harold put it, “they didn’t tear down the buildings, they just re-purposed them.”

I would like to have given you a step-by-step tour of the process, but that’s not how the two-hour tour went.  That was a tiny bit disappointing.  Nonetheless, it was interesting to see the work that goes into building a house on wheels.  So my photos will pretty much be in the order in which we walked through the huge facility.

Assembled coaches lined up and ready to go to the paint plant in Belmont, Mississippi.     

On the positive side, we were right there with the workers, not kept at a distance.  There were Phaetons and Allegro Busses on the production lines today.  And we saw one Zephyr, too.  Breezes were being manufactured on a separate line.  Each coach is assigned a number, and all the bits and pieces for that coach carry that same identifying number, including all the cabling that goes into the coach.  This ensures the installation of the right parts in a motorhome — especially important when specific options are exercised, thus changing the standard build.

From what Harold told us, it takes three weeks to get a coach ready for shipment — 5 days at the main assembly plant, 5 days at the paint plant, and 5 days in final finishing.  (I am not positive of the last five days, so if someone knows otherwise, let me know.)  That time frame changes to 3½-days x 3 for the Breeze.  If you order a Tiffin, you will have your coach in two months from when you place the order.  Another tidbit — the production rate has been brought up from about 3/day (during the recent economic downturn) to 12/day.  That’s a lot of coaches going out the door!

(You can click any of the photos to see bigger versions in the online gallery.  There are some additional photos in the gallery that I did not post here.)

Some of the 1,500 Tiffin employees are skilled carpenters responsible for building the cabinetry
used in the motorhomes.  On the left is the “Galley Cell” where the kitchen units are built.
On the right is where they prepare wood panels by gluing together strips of hardwood.

The “overhead cell” (left) builds the cabinets that are attached to the ceiling.
Pre-routed trim pieces come to this shop to be cut out and prepared for staining.

In addition to using Ford, Freightliner, and Spartanburg chassis, Tiffin manufactures the
PowerGlide chassis.  Only a few of these chassis are built because of the demand of production.

Prepping a Cummins engine for installation.

A closer look at a Cummins engine installed in a chassis.

All tricked out, these chassis are ready to placed into the manufacturing line.

Dropped in place, the plywood flooring is secured to the frame.

The foam insulation for the roof is bonded to luan paneling and grooves and niches
for wiring and aluminum frame pieces are cut out using a computer-operated router.

The top photo shows the luan paneling with the foam underneath it.
Bottom left is a Phaeton 40QTH roof with the wiring and aluminum frame in place.
Bottom Right is a roof with the skin placed over the insulation; the dome satellite,
AC units, antenna, and fans are already installed.

The tile flooring is in place; the lavatory is next to go in.
interesting to see that most of the interior elements are mounted
before the shell of the motorhome is put in place.

The shell is in place; lots more work to do!

One of the bedroom slides is ready to be installed, and we get to see it being swung into place.

The face cap … outside and inside.

One of the things not manufactured by Tiffin is the windshield.
They are made in Turkey, which has a big bus manufacturing industry
and the technology to curve the edges of these big windshields.

This department prepares the wiring that goes into the motorhomes.
The machine to the left of the woman cuts the wiring at pre-designated lengths.
She then loops them in bundles and places them on carts (one cart per coach).
The plastic jackets on the wiring are stamped with the ID of the coach they are
intended for, as well as the purpose for which they are to be used.

The coils of cables on the rack are laid out on a series of spindles with numbers on the
panel corresponding to  specific positions in the coach; the cables are then bundled together.

The protective diamond shield is placed on the front of the coach once it has been
painted.  Next, the air bubbles are squeegeed out to present a crystal clear finish.

I understand we could have stayed on after the tour to wander around at will.  We didn’t quite get that at the time, and thought Harold meant that we were welcome to go into the finished coaches that were at the various quality control stations, or those parked on what they deem the “yellow brick road” outside.  In any event, Mui was anxious to pick up our Phaeton from Bruce Deaton’s paint shop.  And I was overwhelmed by the “beehive activity” and noise around me.  So, we’ll do self-guided tour the next time … as I am sure there will be a next time.

The Paint Plant: Where Tiffin Motorhomes Go to Get Their Beauty Treatment

Friday, 15 February (Part II)
Camp Tiffin — Red Bay, Alabama

First, current information about our whereabouts …

We left Red Bay on February 21 and are now in Montgomery, Alabama.  We’re back at the Maxwell AFB FamCamp, where we plan to stay for the next two weeks.  I’m hoping that a few uneventful days here will allow me to catch up on the rest of our Red Bay posts … the words are written, I just have to process photos.

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After a morning spent getting the M3 service done on the Phaeton, we decided to do something other than sit around Camp Tiffin.  After all, we were done with the service center and it wasn’t like we were going to get a call to take the coach into one of the bays.

Picking up a hand-drawn map from the camp store, we headed to Belmont, Mississippi — 6-miles (9.5 km) from the campground.  Our plan called for lunch first, and then a tour of the Tiffin paint plant.

We’d been told that Belmont Café was one of the best places to get a bite to eat in the area — we were not misled.  Good homestyle southern cooking.

(Belmont Café is on Main Street — #1 on the map above;
the Tiffin plant is on the corner of Dickinson Road and Hwy 25 — #3 on the map.)

antiques and quirky items decorate the inside of the Belmont Café.

The portions at Belmont Café are quite big; leftovers for dinner.

After lunch, we drove over to the Tiffin Paint Plant for a self-guided tour.  You read that right — visitors are welcome to wander around the plant at will.  We didn’t have to sign in or provide any information to prove that we were Tiffin owners, so I imagine anyone can go in for a look-see.  All you have to do is check in at the guard station to receive visitor passes, and protective eye goggles and ear plugs.

And so off we went to see how the coaches get their beauty treatment.

Google satellite shot of the Tiffin Paint Plant; the vehicles (top left) are coaches that have been painted.

The guardhouse where Mui received our visitor passes has the look of a gas station of yore.

Armed with passes, we set out to explore the paint plant where Tiffin coaches get a
custom paint job; pictured here is just a small portion of the plant.

Tiffin celebrated 40 years and 65,000 coaches in 2012.

From the office just inside the door, we picked up a laminated chart showing the process flow.  As we made our way from the beginning to the end of the line, we were greeted warmly by Tiffin employees working on various stages of the paint process.  Not only did everyone have a smile for us, they were also willing to answer any questions we posed.  Their pride in the work they do was evident not only in their responses, but also in the repeated encouragement to go where we wanted.  “Nothing to hide,” seemed to be the motto here.  The exception to this open invitation was the paint bays and what I term the “baking” bays.  Even then, the paint bays were viewable through windows.

The flow chart makes it easy to understand the sequence of the work done.

Tiffin does not use decals for the swirls and stripes that decorate the exterior of the coaches.  Everything is done by hand, using patterns and masking tape galore.  I have heard $10,000 to $12,000 per coach being bandied about as the cost of the custom paint job on the motorhomes.  Having seen the work being done, I now understand why the five-day process to get a coach from no-paint to super-clearcoat is so expensive.

Already primed, the windows, gaskets, and wheels are masked off before the coach
is sent in to the paint bay to receive its base color; the coach on the right is
in the paint bay (sorry about the smears from shooting through the window).

One of the things that struck us was the general age of the workforce.  Can you say young?  This is NOT because Tiffin is discriminating against those who are older.  Rather, youth brings with it agility, not to mention better eyesight — both of which are essential to the detail-intensive work that is being performed in this part of the plant.  I sure wouldn’t want to be sprinting from one end of the roof to the other, laying protective plastic sheeting … or spending hours on my knees, applying miles of masking tape … or going up and down ladders, taping protective paper to windows or marking off swirls and stripes for hours on end.

This coach is being prepared for striping.  Can you believe these swirls are all masked off by hand?  And then the tape has to be removed once the paint job is completed.

Being striped in the paint bay.

This coach has been striped, inspected for defects, and is being prepared for stripe repair.

As one young woman removes the old mask, another one starts putting on the tape for the repair.

We arrive at one of the clearcoat bays just as this coach gets pulled in for
the first of two clearcoat layers it is going to receive, and…

… get to watch the prep work before the door is closed.
as the two men get set up in the rolling scaffolding on either side of the coach,
The young man on the left mixes up the clearcoat in disposable buckets.

The coaches are Baked (OK … the paint is cured) in bays like this one at temps averaging 165F (74C).
The instructions say that high temp is for “baking” and low temp is to keep the burner Going while
a coach is being loaded/unloaded.  Oh and check out the high-tech timer on top of the panel.

Having received its super-clearcoat, the coach on the right is ready to leave the paint shop …

… and go to “final finish” to receive accessories, such as awnings, headlights, brake lights, etc.
That done, the coach will be ready to be shipped to a dealer near you!

And here’s what I found flabbergasting — the production rate here is 12 coaches per day!  That’s up from the 3 units per day that were being produced at the end of 2008, which is when our 2009 coach was built.

Technically, we should have visited the paint plant after touring the factory where the motorhomes are built.  The problem is that the factory tour is offered only once a day, and you can tour the paint plant anytime you want.  So, keep your eye out for another tour coming soon.

(P.S. I understand you can do a self-guided tour of the factory as well, but we want to have words associated with what we will be seeing, so we’ve opted to wait until Monday morning.)

M3 Service at Bay Diesel

Friday, 15 February (Part I)
Camp Tiffin — Red Bay, Alabama
Temps: Lo 35F / Hi 57F (1.5C / 14C)

Graduating from the Allegro Tiffin Service Center didn’t mean that we could have a lay-in today.  Things to do; places to go … and that meant having to wait until the weekend to be lazy.

We were up early this morning to drive the 1.1 miles (1.8 km) to Bay Diesel & A/C to keep our 8:00a appointment to have the M3 service done on the Phaeton.

The collage shows the zig and zag that gets us to Bay Diesel and the facility itself.        

We went to Bay Diesel prepared to drop off the coach and make ourselves scarce for a couple of hours.  It turns out that we were welcome to stay in the service bay to watch the work being done and ask questions.  So, as a team of three techs went to work on the long M3 checklist, that’s what we did.

There goes the Phaeton up into the air again.

Mui chats with Chris Morrow, the owner of Bay Diesel, and gets some of his questions answered.

Both the generator oil and the engine oil are drained and replaced.

a pump mechanism is used to refill the engine oil.

Doug (right) and Josh replace the air dryer as part of the service we receive today.

In addition to the M3 service, we got a new tailpipe while we were at Bay Diesel.  This wasn’t on our list, but Chris noticed the rusted tailpipe and called Freightliner to get a free replacement authorized.  Who are we to say no to a bright and shiny tailpipe ;-)

Josh cuts off the old tailpipe, and soon we have a new one in place.

Mui bids the old tailpipe adieu!

The new shiny tailpipe gets a star for its more elegant design.

Before we left, Chris showed us some of the new work he’s offering to customers.  Having done enough damage to the wallet today, we politely declined … but I thought I’d share them with our readers in case others are in the market for some coach mods.

Left: In addition to custom ceiling light fixtures, Chris Plans to offer under-coach rope lighting.

Right: body armor along the edge of the basement doors is a good idea, but it’s a bit
too much bling for my taste.  Now, if they can be painted, we might consider it.

While today’s M3 work was not inexpensive, it’s one of those essential things that will pay dividends in the future.  The better we take care of our Phaeton, the better it will take care of us as we go tooling down the road.  We came away pleased with the service we received from Bay Diesel, and are happy to add our name to the extensive list of satisfied customers they already boast.  I couldn’t find a website for the company, but you can reach them at 256-356-8803.

After we left Bay Diesel, we returned to Camp Tiffin, parked the Phaeton in our site, and drove into Belmont, Mississippi.  We had a two-pronged plan that included lunch and a tour.  But that’s for another post …