David At The Wiring Station

David At The Wiring Station

Day One:

We started our day at 6am at the wiring station in 18 degree weather. (Note the layers of bulky clothing.) This is where they make all the wire that goes into the coach and loop it all together.

Wire Rack For Our Tiffin Allegro 45LP

Wire Rack For Our Tiffin Allegro 45LP

Wire Rack For Our Tiffin Allegro 45LP

Wire Rack For Our Tiffin Allegro 45LP

Their is literally miles and miles of wire that goes into making of just one coach. This rack, both front and back, is most of the wire that is just going into our 45LP. Crazy right?

Every Wire Is Printed With A Label

Every Wire Is Printed With A Label

Some Of Our Wiring Team

Some Of Our Wiring Team

And yes, every wire is printed with the label of what coach it goes into and where or what it’s for. Their is a whole team that does nothing but measure and pull wire from a giant loom and put ends on them. They then place all these wires on the rack for the next team. Then the next set of team members lay them all out on this giant (and long) peg board. Every wire has it’s place. It seems like total chaos but their definitely is a system.

David Working Along Side Chris Running Wire

David Working Along Side Chris Running Wire

David Checking Things Out

David Checking Things Out

David, as you all know, loves to get his hands into everything. So he helped run some wires and was able to add some extra cables that he wanted run. Some to the roof and others to the back bedroom.

David At The End Of Our Wiring Day

David At The End Of Our Wiring Day

The team can have an entire 45LP coach laid out, bundled up in wire loom and set into a bin with our order number on, all in 2 hours!

Our Giant Wire Bundle Going To Our Bin

Our Giant Wire Bundle Going To Our Bin

Our Wire Bin With Our Order Number On It Ready To Go

Our Wire Bin With Our Order Number On It Ready To Go

The Empty Loom Waiting For The Next Wire Run

The Empty Loom Waiting For The Next Wire Run

All the wire bins are labeled with the order numbers. This is what it looks like at the end of the process. Our wire bin over-flowing with all our wire and cables.

The wire loom is empty and ready for the next run of cables.

We finished just over the 2 hour mark. Not bad.

Then we wandered around looking for other items that had our order number on it.

David Signed His Name Right By Our Order Number

David Signed His Name Right By Our Order Number

Our Wall Panel With Our Order Number On It

Our Wall Panel With Our Order Number On It

We ended up across the factory floor in the area where they weld the frames for the floors, walls and ceiling. After talking with the guys there they pointed out our actual wall panel that they were working on. We got there just in time!

If you look closely at the first picture (click picture to enlarge), with the guy welding the frame, David signed his name on it. He’s too funny.

Inserting Foam Insulation

Inserting Foam Insulation

Applying Wall Panel To Frame

Applying Wall Panel To Frame

Once the frames are all welded they head to insulation. The insulation is all cut to size right there at the station. Once all the sections are insulated, the wall panels go through the glue machine and get placed on top of the frames. The panels then go into another machine that presses the wall panel onto the frame, fully seating it into place.

Pretty interesting to see our actual panels be built. The ceiling and floor panels will be built tomorrow. Trust me, they do have a system. You don’t mess with the system.

OK, so now we’ve seen our entire wire harnesses be built and some of our wall panels. It was on to see what else we could find.

Remember yesterday how we found one piece of our shower? Well, we decided to go and see if it was done and what it looked like.

Our Shower Being Built

Our Shower Being Built

Well, if you haven’t figured out by now, with Tiffin, they fabricate almost every piece that goes into a coach. Our shower was mostly done at this point. A lot of the time for these types of things, I believe, is the curing of all the pieces together. As you can see, the shower is on the floor in a 90 degree mold. Braces are used to keep everything tight together as it all cures and dries. This shower will be done by the end of the day.

Our Shower Being Built

Our Shower Being Built

And keep in mind, they are not just working on our shower. That would be terribly inefficient. Their are many showers, sinks, counter tops, etc that they are making, sanding, extending and putting together all at once.

There’s nothing like sitting around and watching glue dry, so we moved on at this point.

By this point in the day, it’s only noon or so. Yup, when you start you’re day at 6am you can really get a lot done.

Our final stop for the day was our chassis. It was built a few days prior, by Tiffin, as they use their own chassis on the Allegro Bus. So they really are built from the ground up by Tiffin. Today was the day it went into the mechanics shop to get a thorough check over and fluids topped off. (No, they did not do the 150 gallons of diesel fuel. Sigh.) Once it leaves their it heads to the welding shop. For us, this is scheduled for tomorrow. So our chassis is sitting outside somewhere in this freezing cold Alabama day.

Our Chassis!

Our Chassis!

Wandering around in 20 degree weather is not our idea of fun. However, we were on a mission. To find our chassis. And at last, we found it! Our actual chassis. As you can see, it’s clearly identifiable by our order number.

Yeah!

Our Chassis!

Our Chassis!

Our Chassis!

Our Chassis!

David Trying To Steer

David Trying To Steer

Somehow we thought these things came with seats. I guess that was an add on that we missed.

On tomorrow’s agenda…

Our chassis goes into the welding shop and we have a meeting with the paint guys.

Friday is when the real exciting action starts. When the coach will actually start to take shape.

We are getting more and more excited as the days go on and we can’t wait to watch our new home take shape.

Here is the full photo set from today…Click “Show PicLens” for best view.