Our DSDP in production

[MJFZ]

We toured the Newmar factory Friday 10/21 and again on Monday 10/24 to see our new DSDP on the production line. I was amazed how much progress they can make in a shift. I also have to say everyone we met at Newmar was great! Even a few of the production crew paused for a moment and introduced themselves-- they really take pride in their work and it showed. I recommend taking the tour-- if you take the 1:00 p.m. tour, the production facility is much quieter and you can have an easy discussion with the guide. The 10:00 a.m. tour your in the plant during peak production time. What made a real impression on my DW and I was how clean and organized the work areas are, how pleasant the employees and clearly they knew what they were doing. I also noticed the attention to detail the Quality Control folks had; not being bashful documenting flaws that needed to be corrected.

Below are a few pictures of our coach in production. The first picture was taken on Friday 10/21. Coming out of having the front and rear caps installed and the basement doors installed, the coach was in the "roofing" department getting the fiberglass roof installed on top of an aluminum frame and decking, along with everything mounted on the roof. The second picture is a shot I took through the slide opening. The third picture is from the 10:00 a.m. tour the next work day-- they had all four slides installed, mirrors, and connecting appliances in the interior. After this station, the coach is prepped for the paint shop located in a separate building.
Delivery should be soon!!

Mike

[deanjeep]

I can only imagine how excited you must be. Congratulations.

[Mr_D]

I didn't get to see ours built but I did go back in 2004 and took the tour. Great to see them working.
Watch out for the young buggy drivers!! They run stop lights just like teenagers do in cars.

[Traps90]

That would be fantastic to see your coach being built. Great stuff.

Trap

[GaryKD]

Hi MJFZ,
Congrats on the new coach. Many happy memories are waiting to be made.

[DandS]

Great pics which look a lot like the ones I took back in July 2009. Like you, I took several tours over two days and saw a lot of the work done from chassis thru roofing. Even got invited up on the scaffold to drive some screws by the Amish crew. It is a great experience and adds to your over-all knowledge of your coach.

[Bob.D]

Congratulations MJFZ, we have also ordered a new DSDP and the production dates on the main line are November 18-23. We are trying to decide if we should (can) go to the factory as you did. In November they will only be offering the 1:00 tour. As it is a two day drive from here to the factory we are trying to decide if the one hour a day is worth the trip. I know it would be exciting to see our coach being built. Since some of you have done this, do you think we should go?

[DandS]

Bob.D - Congrats on the new coach and welcome to the forum. I live 140 miles from the factory so it was an easy trip for me. If I had to drive for two days, probably wouldn't do it, not that much to see. I had the advantage of having my previous coach when mine was built so I stayed at "Camp Newmar" for a few days and could walk over to the tours.

[Bob.D]

Thanks Dave, that is sort of where I am at right now. At first I was really excited about going but have decided it might not be worth the drive and expense.

[MJFZ]

Hi Bob D. Congratulations on your DSDP-- good choice!! I bet you too are real excited, now that you have your production date. It was a 625 mile trip just a bit over 10 hours of driving for us to visit the factory. We spent the two days on either side of a weekend and made a mini-vacation out of it. For us it was well worth the drive. The last two motorhomes we owned, I had not seen them in production and did not have a good idea of what was “behind the walls”. I do now. I appreciated seeing how the coach is manufactured and meeting Newmar employees in production, customer service, parts, and corporate office-- giving me more insight and contacts should I ever need them. Friday morning, Steve from the Sales office gave my wife and me a private tour and was very accommodating as well as educational about our specific unit. Roxie, who gave the afternoon tour on Friday allowed us to linger as long as we wanted, ask as many questions as we could. She too was very knowledgeable in every aspect of production. Our Friday afternoon tour lasted about 90 minutes and the Monday morning tour less than an hour—as I ran out of good questions to ask. If you are customer and have a unit on the production line they are very attentive and you will learn so much about the motorhome.

As Mr. D stated above watch out for the horse drawn buggies they are everywhere—and the freight trains come through town about every 15 minutes. Seeing the trains come through at the old Nappanee Train Station was exciting!! Well, then again, maybe I wasn’t supposed to be standing that close to the rail siding….. made for a great video.


Mike

[Bob.D]

Thank you MJFZ, DW and I are still trying to decide what to do. It is Thanksgiving week but we may still go. It does sound like a fun trip.

[Mr_D]

It's a 5 day trip one way (about 2,200 miles) so I know I probably wouldn't unless I was taking delivery there!

[DandS]

I had the advantage, due to our proximity to the factory, of taking a private tour earlier in the buying process which provided an excellent overview of the construction process. However, Newmar features an extensive video library on their web site containing film of each and every stage of production, some of which you won't see on a tour. I found those videos to be very imformative. Highest Contruction Quality Motorhomes | Newmar Corporation

[JohnRR]

I'd sure like to see something like that if it were mine