4/25/07 (Wednesday?): Wow--you know you're retired when you can't remember what day of the week it is!

We're at a KOA campground almost to Holland, Michigan, now. Yesterday, we left Ypsilanti and headed for the Sunnybrook RV factory near Elkhart, Indiana. We still had a few warranty issues we needed addressed and we wanted to take a tour of the factory.

Unfortunately, about half way there, we were stopped at a roadblock (just the second vehicle in the queue). There had been a fatal accident just ahead of us. The road was closed for about an hour. We took advantage of the time to go in the camper and have a little lunch. We were pulled over right beside a little pond with a pair of geese on it. I read for a while and Wiley perused his ever-present maps. It wasn't too bad, but we missed our appointment time. We called ahead and rescheduled for the next day, and we still made the factory tour. It was quite informative!

The process starts with the steel trailer and wheels that the body of the camper sits on. It's brought into the factory through a big door and turned upside down. (These pictures are dark because the lighting in the factory was poor, but I thought the process was so interesting that I'm posting them anyhow.)

The sides are assembled on large tables. The framework is all aluminum to keep the weight down.

The wires are run as soon as the framework is complete. Then all cabinets, appliances and the shower and commode are installed. The next step is insulation all around.



Side panels and end caps are assembled on the floor and then attached with glue and screws.

All components except appliances are made onsite from raw materials, but they're made and stocked in advance (in assembly line fashion). These are solid oak cabinet doors. They make about 6-12 RVs per day, and they do all the ones with the same options on the same day. So, for instance, our 5th wheel was made on the same day as those of others who had chosen the light oak cabinets and the tan color scheme.

The final step is the decals and gel coat.

We were surprised to learn that there's no final inspection. Supposedly, each work station completes an inspection before that component moves to the next work station. We're not particularly impressed with this system. Our slide leaked when we picked our RV up, and the set screws on the awning were not properly aligned, which caused it to retract crooked. Then we had a water leak at the fresh water inlet. All of this before we ever left Florida! The reason for our stop at the factory was that the hot water heater kept overheating and spraying steam and dripping hot water outside the camper. We also had some cosmetic issues (insulating foam showing over the slide and some other minor problems). Both the dealer and the factory seemed reluctant to address these issues. The dealer seemed to want us to go to the factory and the factory thought we should go to a service center.

All ended well, though, because I was pleasantly persistent. Unfortunately, it took most of the day today to get all the issues resolved. It was also very rainy and cold, so we didn't feel like touring the area. This part of Indiana has a large Amish population. There were horse and buggies everywhere and lots of Amish-related tourism. We did drive around a bit and we ate in an Amish restaurant that was quite good. We finally left at about 2 PM and arrived at this campground around 4 PM.

We stopped for dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Berrien Springs. I got to talking to the owner because I thought he had a Norwegian accent. He was actually from Iceland! He's married to a Mexican. It seems Berrien Springs has a large 7th Day Adventist population and a local college attracts students from around the world. The food was excellent--the owner makes everything from scratch. It's an interesting world, huh?!

That's it for tonight! Tomorrow we should arrive at Betsie River Campground. I'll blog again as soon as I can.