Nappanee Nirvana

While we were visiting family in Nappanee, Indiana, we decided to participate in Newmar Corporation's factory tour.  We selected the extended tour. Wow, what a great opportunity that was.  At the Visitors Center we were shown a video and provided safety goggles and radios.

Our first stop on the tour was where they offload the Freightliner and Spartan chassis from the delivery trucks.  They used a dual boom gantry crane setup.  They moved the bare chassis around the campus using a temporary seat and the driver had to wear a helmet as there was no body on these frames.  They looked like go-carts gone berserk.

At the second station, called chassis preparation, they welded on the steel STAR foundation to the chassis using a jig to make sure it was straight, square, and true, and able to stand up to the stresses of the house going down the road.  They then painted the foundation in preparation for building the “house."

From this point, they move the motorhomes from station to station by sliding them sideways instead of rolling them forward.  I think this is because the assembly line for long chassis happens in the buildings that were not originally designed to house 45’ long RVs. To do this, they use what look like upside down air hockey tables under the wheels. One to three men can then push them to the next station. They were temporary hovercraft. It was quite a ballet of movement to watch.

We moved on to Main Production where we saw them flip the chassis upside down for the first part of assembly, then put the outside walls on, then the roof, which was originally built upside down also.

Paint is where Newmar shines. They use BASF automotive paints and they hand scrape the color changes so the final product is flat and smooooooth.

Unlike the Jayco factory where they make a run of a single model of RV each day, at Newmar you might see the lowest priced RV being built right next to their highest priced RV.  My hat is off to Newmar’s logistics department for having all the right parts in the right place, at the right time.

We toured the new RV Service Center which is a garage where they can service over 50 motorcoaches at one time!!!!! WOW, was that one big facility!

Due to the beliefs of the numerous Mennonite and Amish employees, photography was not allowed anywhere on the campus. Well, that and the usual legal and trade reasons applied.