It's Here or Birth of a Phaeton - Part 11

On Thursday, September 12th, we completed the purchase of our new home.  What a relief.  Did we start moving in right away?  Nooo, we took off to Jasper, AL to visit our bank to get the certified check we needed to pay the tag transfer fees and new vehicle tax for South Dakota.  Only a 200 mile roundtrip commute from Sherman, MS.

It's got the same sticker as the one we followed through the plant.
I guess it must be ours then.

In position for final cleaning by the Sherman RV staff.

The motorhome had actually arrived late Monday afternoon and Sherman called us Tuesday AM.  We had Sherman do several add ons for us because we knew that Brannon Hutchinson at Custom RV was swamped with work and shorthanded.  The two photos above were taken Wednesday AM.  We found the ladder we had Tiffin delete.  They hadn't installed it but they put it in the storage bay.  Another spare ladder for Sherman's inventory, I guess.

After our Thursday walk through and test drive, we noted a few things, and wrote the big check.  The real work began Friday (the 13th if you are superstitious) with us transferring the interior contents from our 32CA over to the 36GH.

We were kind of parked nose to nose which made transfer easier.

We did the interior fairly quick as the 32 had less interior storage than the 36.  By Friday night, we were living in the 36 with everything moved on the "first floor".  Saturday was reserved for exterior storage as we finally had a break in the weather and the temperature and humidity dropped to something a lot more comfortable.

Saturday started off kind of poor.  I was taking Gabi out for her pre-breakfast walk and she came flying out the door, went behind me, and cut my legs out from under me.  Boom, down I went on the concrete apron and left a good size patch of skin from my knee on the concrete. Thanks, dog.

Guess what?  We had more exterior storage space in the 32 than the 36.  We ended up with four extra plastic tubs and some stuff to get rid of.  We also decided that we really didn't want the coffee table and donated that to the Sherman Staff as well.  The extra interior space we had was soon filled up with former basement stuff.  Now we were filled up.

Sunday afternoon, Sam is safely stored as well.

By staying at Sherman over the weekend, we had a chance to test out just about everything except the propane furnaces.  It was cool enough to run the heat pumps but not cool enough to fire up furnaces.  We had a couple of nagging electronics issues.  The new TV antenna (still a MiniState) uses a wireless remote which only worked from about 6" away.  The IR repeater (also a new, wireless design) above the front TV only worked some of the time. Other issues:  The solar shade by the dining room table had a scratch/tear in it, the shower drain was really slow, the refrigerator freezer handle had a dent in it, the front electrical bay door didn't fit well, paint marks on last two doors on driver's side, and the black tank didn't register on the SeaLevel gauge.

Resolutions:

• MiniState control unit was bad and replaced.
• IR repeater was bad and replaced
• Solar shade was replaced
• Shower drain slow - this appears to be a drain strainer design issue.  It's gotten a little better over time.
• Freezer handle replaced
• Door realigned
• Doors buffed out
• Black tank level - seems like 3 days of use didn't produce enough waste to register.  More #1 and #2 contributions are needed.

Pretty minor stuff and all fixed before we left for the CAT scales and Barnes Crossing were we are waiting for our paperwork (registration & title) to catch up to us.  

Birth of a Phaeton - Part 10

8/14 - 9/1

(Want more detail?  Click on image to enlarge)

Final Assembly and the Wait Begins

We didn't see our coach go through getting it's steps, handles, slide toppers, awnings, ladder, etc. but we did take some pictures of others.  When we walked through the area Mary started talking to one of the young women working there.  We found out we could delete our ladder (hadn't thought about it) but couldn't find the person we need to speak to.  We didn't think much about it at the time but later that day Danny Inman tracked us down and we were able to modify the order.  We caught up with her the next day and told her what happened and she told us what she had done - she tracked down the coach while it was in base coat (that was the only thing we had told her along with the model), called Danny with the information and he took it from there.  Unusual to see that level of followup anywhere these days.

Belmont Final Assembly.  

All of the "stuff" on the outside of the coach gets added here.  

Bubble test station.
The big blower adds pressure to the coach and every opening is then checked for leaks.

Some final assembly takes place in Red Bay as well.  Rework/testing/re-testing is also performed in Red Bay.  We caught up with our coach one last time before it went to final inspection.

It's Shiny!  And it looks good without the ladder.

Side view

Diamond Shield install

And this was the last we saw of the coach...  We know that there at least 4 things left to be fixed - 2 windows needed new seals, a surround sound speaker needed to be replaced, and a trim piece around the central ceiling fixture was the wrong wood finish.

After this, it was scheduled to go back to Belmont for final inspection and then they had up to 7 additional days for rework prior to shipping.  And so we wait in Tupelo, MS at The Campground at Barnes Crossing.  Really not a bad place to stay as we are close to everything.  Every store you can imagine is within 2 miles of this location.  And so we wait...

Birth of a Phaeton - Part 9

8/14 - 9/1

(Want more detail?  Click on image to enlarge)

Last day in paint.

New to the paint process is Super Clear.  This new finish is apparently a special clear coat with a hardener added to the mix.  Whatever it is, it come out shiny, really shiny.  Has Tiffin gotten rid of the need to was your coach?  Time will tell I guess and I'll let you know next Spring before we hit the road.

The traditional clear coat is sanded first and then the Super Clear is applied and baked.  Here's ours going through the process.

Sanding

Wiping with solvent and tack rags

Prepped and ready

Super Clear being applied

Done but not baked

Into the bake booth for an hour

After the bake booth, all of the masking tape is removed and the coach driven out of the building to a que area for final assembly.

Birth of a Phaeton - Part 8

8/14 - 9/1

(Want more detail?  Click on image to enlarge)

We caught up with the coach again after lunch.  It was at the Belmont facility.  Belmont is huge compared to the Main Assembly area and it is hopping.  I used to think of Belmont as the Paint Facility, but in reality, it serves many more functions.  Also located in Belmont is the Tile Shop (floors), Final Assembly (awnings, toppers, ladders, etc.), Leak Testing, Fueling, and so on.  

The Paint Shop is the largest part of the operation.  Coaches are sanded, masked, base coated, striped, touched up, clear coated, baked, sanded again, and clear coated with something new for 2014, Super Clear.  There a large number of people involved in the painting process.  This is not work that is done by robo spray equipment.  All of it is a process that requires hands.  You'll notice in the following pictures that there are teams of people working on the coaches at any given time.  I've compressed the time here a bit.  What the pictures represent is a three day process.

First up, the Sanding Shop

Every square inch gets sanded.  There are four stations in this building.
This is our coach at Station 1.

After sanding, the coaches are prepped for the base coat of paint.  This is a 40' Phaeton being readied for its base coat.

This is our coach going into base coat.
This was about 24 hours after its arrival at Belmont.

Base coat being applied.  Not much to see but there are usually four painters working at one time.  Two spray the lower area and two the upper area.

After the base coat has cured, the stripe team gets on it.  The stripe masking material comes in rolls specific for the model being painted.  

  

The next day, ours had been painted and was in an area known as Strip Repair.  Areas that hadn't passed inspection were re-masked and re-sprayed.  

Masking done and ready to roll back into the spray booth.

Paint and stripe touch up is very much an individual
process and it takes a bit of time to complete.

 After the stripes were repaired and the paint cured, the coach came back out of the spray booth and all of the masking tape was removed, and the paint gone over by a couple of young ladies with razor blades.  They would feel along the edges of the stripes and use the razor blades to take off any high points between colors.  All of this was done prior to the first coat of clear.

 First clear coat application

The Birth of a Phaeton - Part 7

8/14 - 9/1

(Want more detail?  Click on image to enlarge)

The Last Day in Red Bay (for a few days, at least)

We arrived bright and early.  We thought we would catch the last two stations in Main Assembly (we had been running a couple of hours behind schedule) but they had caught up.

Leaving Main Assembly

Going up on the lift for undercoating

I got to go under the coach at this point and look at the chassis.  Kind of neat and I did get photos of the main mechanical systems if I should ever need them.  Pretty neat seeing all of that hardware from underneath.

Undercoating being applied

Waiting at the Mechanical Shop

After Undercoating, the coach was scheduled for it's visit to the Mechanical Shop.  Mary got her first ride, albeit short, in the coach.  In the Mechanical Shop, the fluids are rechecked, the alignment is checked and adjusted if needed, and the coach is taken on a test drive on it's way to Belmont.

The Birth of a Phaeton - Part 6

8/14 - 9/1

(Want more detail?  Click on image to enlarge)

After the last stage (see the last picture of the previous post), the unit was moved to a little building with no visitor access.  All of the exterior doors are installed in this building.  We last saw it without doors and the next morning, it had doors and had been moved back into the main assembly building.  Where it got its generator cover and lots of interior work.  At this point the line virtually shut down as a coach ahead was having problems with the electronics package.  Policy dictates that it stays until it is corrected.

Cover all installed.  Notice the bright orange "adjustment tool" in the workers hand.

 The next stations on the line were all associated with interior installations.  Cabinets drawers and doors installed, furniture brought in, pictures on the walls, etc.  The coach was plugged in for the first time (that is "plugged up" in Red Bay speak), air conditioning was turned on, and workers happy it was cool inside.

We got our Tiffin number and VIN along the way.

This is the new bedroom TVs and AV cabinet
design used in all of the 2014 Phaetons

All the furniture is in and the slides closed.  Ready to travel.

During the time leading up to us leaving for the day, we had met one of the inspectors who was checking all things interior.  We were invited to participate in the process as well and we given a roll of red tape to note anything we were not happy with.  We were not too pleased with the finish on the cabinet doors.  Lots of rough areas from dusty conditions when they sprayed or just no use of a tack rag before they were sprayed.

The Birth of a Phaeton - Part 5

8/14 - 9/1

(Want more detail?  Click on image to enlarge)

Three days and counting.  We've gone from a bare chassis to this rolling wreck coming out of the scaffold area.  It still doesn't look like much but wait until the next step.  Instant transformation.

As I've said before, much of this assembly plant runs on JIT principles, the next two stations being really good examples.

Slides are assembled in an area adjacent to the assembly line.

Bed Slide

Kitchen and Living Room

Other half of Living Room and Dining area

The other half of the bedroom

The 36GH uses a different slide mechanism arrangement than the 40 ft Phaetons.  The front slides are HWH hydraulics and the rear slides are Schwintec electric.  Very different than its 40 ft cousins which I believe use three different slide mechanisms to move the four slides.

First slide in - the kitchen/living room

Passenger side looking in.  Notice the refrigerator siting there.

Passenger side bedroom slide

Bed slide

Passenger side slide

Front of coach

Looking forward from about the TV cabinet

Front Cap installation

At the end of day three, it was pretty much a motorhome.  Slides were in and operating, rear cap was on, front cap was on but missing the generator cover, all the interior cabinets were in, and so on.  Only thing missing were the compartment doors and the generator cap.