Wednesday -- Bus Has Really Come A Long Way!

We started out early this morning, again, at 6:00am at the factory. When we started, the motorhome looked like this first picture of the backside of the washer/dryer all over, and when we left at 2:30pm, it really was beginning to look like a motorhome! It got a lot of progress today!!!

Here's the back interior wall going on:

Here's the passenger side wall going on..........

And then the driver's side:

During the day, Patsy enjoyed watching all the progress as the next two pictures show:

Soon the ceiling was dropped into place, and then the fiberglas roof on top of that:

We went looking for the slides, and found them. Here's the two bedroom slides and the main kitchen slide waiting in the fab areas:

Here's a couple of slide installation shots.............. one in the kitchen, and one in the bedroom:

Shortly before lunch, I complained to one of the floor supervisors about an employee who installed the housing around my driver's side front wheel. When it did not go on easily, he kicked it with his foot and hit it with a ballpeen hammer. He broke a small piece of the fiberglas as shown in the following picture. After we got back from lunch, a guy approached me and asked if I saw someone break a piece of fiberglas on my motorhome by kicking it. The guy turned out to be one of Bob Tiffin's sons, Lex, and he had the guy replace it!! He is in the second picture:

At the end of the day, here what it was looking like (inside and out):

The next picture shows the rear end cap in place:

As we were leaving, they were finishing up the front end cap. Tomorrow, most of the work will be detail items inside, like cabinet doors, light fixtures , etc. We are scheduled to be completely built by noon on Friday.

Tuesday -- Bus Flooring and Inside Walls

Today started early. Patsy and I got up at 5:30am to get to the factory in time to see work start. Although our schedule said our rig would not be worked on until 8:30am, I wasn't trusting and did not want to miss anything. I should have listened.......... They pulled it in at 8:30am!!!

Here's a picture of our chassis and frame waiting outside the factory doors (in the cold) for it's turn:

Here's what the frame looked like before and after station 1. They added flooring for the storage area, the water tanks and the dump station assembly (Plus some smaller items). The center picture shows the guy putting the carpet in the storage area and showing that there is plenty of room for our daughter-in-law to ride here!!:

The next two photos show the setting of the sub floor, and the poor old engine getting more and more covered up:

I think Patsy enjoyed the day, although it was long. I went all day on Friday and Monday, but she wasn't interested in the welding and wiring shop. Today, with the floor and 'furniture' being put in, she really got with it. Here she is supervising:

The following photos show the setting of the tiled floor in the front two thirds of the motorhome, and the carpet in the bedroom:

The last two photos show the washer/dryer in place, and the shower being installed in the bathroom:

Monday -- Bus Building Continues!

The Tiffin factory starts at 6:00am and they work until 2:30 with lunch time from 11:20am to noon. It was not easy for me to get up at 5:30am (even with the time change to help), but I made it. It was a long day on my feet trying to keep up with everything that is going on.


Today, the Bus finished it's time in the weld shop with the hydraulic lines installed and tested (along with some more welding), and then it got a good dose of black paint (everywhere!!). After that, it went to the wire shop, where they installed two large containers of wire harnesses and the 12volt house batteries. That was finished at about 12:30, and then it sat outside the rest of the day for the paint to dry.


We have ordered the 40' QSP model, and I spotted another one about 6 spots up the line. I have been watching it closely to see and learn what I can before my gets in line. This way, if they close something up before I see what I want to see, then I can watch it more closely when mine gets there.

Here's a picture of the unit fresh out of the paint shop:

Here's our entry with fresh paint. It will be interesting to see how this changes over time. Note the nice hub caps!!:

Here's a couple of shots in the wire shop:

Here's the rig, all wired and painted and waiting for tomorrow when they start building the 'home box':

Saturday & Sunday -- Walmarts, Parkway & Coon Dog Cemetary

On Saturday, we slept in late to rest up from the activity of the week getting started at the factory. Around 10:00AM, we left Red Bay and drove about 55 miles to Florence, AL. We wanted to find a Walmart, Sam's Club, and a Target. Patsy had seen some rugs in a Bus similar to our colors and the lady got them at Target, and she wanted to check them out. We did, and then did some shopping at Walmart and Sam's Club for groceries and medicines. We ate at a KFC, and then headed back to Red Bay. It was a pretty slow day!

Sunday started slow with us hitting the laundromat at the campground to do a week's worth of wash. After that, we decided to take a little drive and look for fall color. We headed West toward Mississippi, and picked up the Natchez Trace Parkway. We took it about 40 miles north until it went back into Alabama, and then took some country roads back down to Red Bay. Here are some fall color pictures from the parkway:

As we were driving back to Red Bay on the back roads, we got sorta lost! The highway signs in Alabama are different and a little iffy. We eventuallly figured out that they often use 'street' type signs on smaller highways. As we were driving, we noticed a road sign that said "Coon Dog Cemetary Road", and we had heard at the campground the the infamous Coon Dog Cemetary was one of the tourist highlights around Red Bay. We felt that we could not pass up this opportunity, so we turned on the road, and, after passing double-wides, single-wides, outhouses, and various rusting vehicles in the fields, we found the cemetary. I think I also heard 'banjo' music along most of the way. Here is an assortment of pictures:

The cemetary was interesting.... and the pictures pretty much tell the story!!

Friday -- Bus Building Begins

The building of our Bus was scheduled to begin at 9:55AM today. I went over at 8:00AM to look around and as I approached my chassis, I heard a loud noise. Some damned fool driving a pickup and pulling a trailer had hit it. It wasn't bad, but it bend my tail pipe. However, when they pulled it into the welding shop, they noticed it, and had a Spartan guy come by and fix it. Here are pictures of the damage, the fix and the fixer! I even kept the end that he cut off and will make a keychain out of it.............. so I can prove that I did not have the first wreck!!

Here's the chassis being driven into the welding shop:

Here's one of the leveling jacks that was attached to the frame:

Here, they are laying out and welding the frame for the floor of the coach. In the next two pictures, they are setting in on the chassis and then welding it out:

Patsy and I went to get some lunch, and when I got back, they had already added the 'firewall' and framing around the back of the engine. Here's a picture of the generator platform (in the front of the motorhome), and as soon as I took it, the generator was behind me ready to go in!!

Thursday -- Found my Chassis!

Today was an interesting day. I went early to visit the factory and checkout the welding shop. They don't encourage you to watch the activity in the weld shop........ I assume because of the eye danger with the bright welding light, but I went by myself and toured it. I was surprised and impressed at how much gets done in one day.

I also walked around the whole factory, and found a couple from south Texas whose Phaeton has been painted and is on the finish line. They were complaining about a couple of things, and I hung around to see how the response was, and I was pleased to see what happened. I also got to meet some more key people in the process, and got a chance to find out more about the MCD shades in the coach. I found out about the "test' shades that they are putting in mine, and was told that a Tiffin 'higher up' would directly supervise the installation of mine. I will be there with him.

Patsy and I drove over to the fabric shop and watch the installation of the MCD shades on the valences. I also had the lady show me how to remove them for repair.......... looks fairly easy if my hands fit inside the valence. I had her give me one of the clips, so I know how they work.

When we got back to Red Bay, I took her into the plant, and we walked to the weld shop. To our pleasant surprise, our chassis was sitting outside, and we got a chance to look it over and take a lot of pictures. Our build number is "26638", and everything that goes on it will be makred with that number so we can find it. It goes into the weld shop at 9:55am! Here are some shots (note: the first picture is titled 'Beauty and the Beast'):

We also just got notified that we will get into a site later today. It only has water and electric, but I don't mind dumping every three or four day.

More on the build later.