Tuesday, May 4 – This morning was our tour of the Tiffin manufacturing plant.
Tiffin has a reputation for going the extra mile to service their customers. That's is one of the big reasons most people buy a Tiffin Motorhome.
We met Red Davis at the welcome center.
Red has been running these tours for his friend, Bob Tiffin. for a number of years. Red is 82 years young and gives two tours per day! He's lived in Red Bay all his life. It seems he knows just about everyone working for Tiffin Motor Homes.
We dawned our safety glasses and audio hearing devices (so we could hear Red's description in the noisy plant) and headed into the plant. This was the craziest tour I've ever had. We walked right among the workers and were free to ask them questions and look over their shoulders as they worked.
And work they did. They seemed like a hard working bunch. I was surprised to see a $500,000 Zephyr come down the assemble line right behind an $100,000 Open Road. Diesel Pushers right next to gas motor homes. The workers give each MH the same attention regardless of the eventual selling price. They know which parts go with each model.
First, there is the chassie and frame with all its wires and
Side walls
Most of the interior carpeting, cabinets, washers & dryers, electronics, and furniture are put in place before the walls are assembled. All the cabinets are hand made here in the cabinet shop.
Even the windows are now built in a Tiffin window factory. They use to purchase from an outside source for their windows, but they weren't holding up. As a matter of fact, that's why we are here. We're having five of our windows replaced.
All the walls are laid out on huge tables then welded together and then the inner skin and outer fiberglass skins are vacuum formed into a finished wall that is then lifted and bolted to the MH frame.
Below: Slabs of polystyrene foam are cut by CNC (Computer Numerical Controlled) routers to hollow out slots for the aluminum frame.
I was amazed to see the entire tile floor being lowered in ONE PIECE to the plywood sub-floor.
The roof is formed in the same way and lifted onto the finished walls.
Then the fiberglass nose and rear caps are lifted into place. It was weird seeing these fiberglass front ends and rears sitting out in the plant storage area on pallets.
Then comes miles of wiring, plumbing, and HVAC that come together in the completed unit. It seemed like mass confusion with workers making sub-assemblies and parts in every corner of the plant. And then they bring everything together to form the motor home. Absolutely amazing!
Now for the slides. They are built and then installed.
We spent over two hours on our tour. This is a tour I would suggested everyone take…if you owe an Tiffin or not.
Eight miles down the road is the paint shop. It's in Mississippi. I can't explain why it is not part of this sprawling facility. We will tell you about that in our next blog.
Before we leave, let us introduce you to our new friends, Don and Cathy.
Cathy is a retired school teacher and Don is still working for a medical supply company. They still own a house in Cincinnati. They are headed for Tampa where Cathy will have back surgery. We met them on our tour, hit it off and spent a part of each day with them. They left on Friday afternoon. We send our prayers their way for safe travels and a success surgery for Cathy.
Here is a picture of a group of friends at our campground. Everyone is waiting their turn. Is Marsha sitting down or is she just that short?
Thanks for stopping by. See y’all real soon.
