Smoky
Well-known member
By now I expected to be reporting in on how my eye operation went.
The bad news is my surgeon called in sick, thus I was rescheduled for the first week of June.
The good news is that my ticked off wife (she took off work to drive me to and from) took me to lunch and we sat there and suddenly realized our coach was going on line the next day (Wednesday).
We raced home and I packed a small bag and took off for Nappanee Indiana ... well actually Elkhart where all the good motels are.
I drove all night and arrived at 4:30 am Wednesday morning, only to find that all the hotel rooms in Elkart were booked for Notre Dame graduation week. One desk clerk felt sorry for me and mentioned she had a room with a sink that did not work. I took it and fixed the sink in 5 minutes.
With three hours sleep I arrived at the Newmar factory for their 10 am scheduled factory tour. I mentioned I had a KS3910 on the assembly line and the tour guide kept an eye out for it. At one point we rounded a corner, saw a molded fiberglass roof suspended in the air, slowly dropping down on a coach. The tour guide turned to me and said, "Smoky, I see your number on that one."
I am trying to upload a pic of me standing by it, just after the roof was lowered. Not very pretty at this point as no paint job , partial cabinetry, and slideouts waiting to be installed.
The tour guide told me that by 9 am Thursday it would be in the prepaint area, being prepared for full body paint. They do not allow the public in the paint shop, so the pre paint area is the last place you can see it.
So I returned Thursday and took the tour again. I kept looking and looking for my coach. All of a sudden some guy was tapping me on the shoulder and telling me the tour guide was talking to me. We wear headsets in there so the tour guide can talk over the factory noise. She was calling me to come forward to where she was standing.
I went up to here and she pointed at a nearly finished coach (exterior all sanded down for paint preparation).
She said, "Smoky, that is your coach. If you like you can have 5 minutes to go inside it and take pics. Since you were here yesterday, you know the rest of the route, so just catch up to us."
Oh what a thrill that was. When I get home I will try to load a couple more pics to the forum. One of the Amish people inside was just beginning to lay down the area where we special ordered some hardwood flooring. He asked if I had come all the way from Maryland. I was impressed he knew where the customer was accepting delivery. He told me that because of the customer special orders we had submitted, that this was the last 2005 KS being put together and in his opinion the most beautiful. He wanted to know where I got the ideas from like removing one of the two sofas and replacing with two recliners, mixing colors of day night shades,etc from. I had to admit all the cosmetic custom work was my Admiral's ideas, though he could blame me for all the extra wiring orders.
It was an odd feeling standing inside my very own coach, and seeing a factory interior outside the windows.
I was VERY impressed with the entire factory operation. You could see and feel the pride of workmanship and the focus in the faces of the Amish craftsmen and women that work there. 80% of the company are Amish.
I was astonished that it only took 1 person to push a motorhome anywhere on the floor. They set each motorhome on air pads and use a quarter inch of cushioned air streams to remove friction and allow the coaches to be pushed and turned in any direction.
They have holes in the floor and people constantly sweep the scrap into the holes which have conveyor belts that take all the scrap out of the building.
With my coach they only had 4 or 5 gas 2005 coaches behind me and all the rest were 2006 coaches including the new Ventana (sp?) entry level diesel designed to compete with pushers like the Bounder. It has a full basement and IFS so it ought to be VERY competitive with all the lower level Fleetwoods. Since the new CEO came from Fleetwood, I guess he is getting his revenge.
The 45 foot 2006 Essex looked awesome!
I am on my way home this Friday evening and in a Celina Ohio motel. And I am towing a shiny new black cargo trailer!!
The 6x12 trailers that were selling in Maryland for $4500, were selling in Indiana for $1900. So I hitched up and brought one home to keep all the Admiral's "junk" in until she decides in a year or so that she really can get rid of life's junk. Then maybe we will put an ATV in it lol!
Bernie, you were right about one thing. If I had accepted factory delivery in Indiana, I would have had to pay the 6% sales tax. They do not honor out of state residency. I learned this when I bought the cargo trailer yesterday, even using my Montana address. Fortunately Maryland does honor out of staters when they take delivery in Maryland.
Next week I fly to Montana to get my driver license and other chores to establish residency. Already have my Kalispell bank account ready and waiting to receive proceeds from land and house sale.
Then the week after we finally get to put our delivery acceptance checklist to work. ;D
Ron: do you have Verizon phone service? If so, maybe I could make a Verizon to Verizon cell phone call to you to discuss satellite installation. I am really struggling over the issue of roof versus tripod and would like to talk with you over the phone about it. Email me!
The bad news is my surgeon called in sick, thus I was rescheduled for the first week of June.
The good news is that my ticked off wife (she took off work to drive me to and from) took me to lunch and we sat there and suddenly realized our coach was going on line the next day (Wednesday).
We raced home and I packed a small bag and took off for Nappanee Indiana ... well actually Elkhart where all the good motels are.
I drove all night and arrived at 4:30 am Wednesday morning, only to find that all the hotel rooms in Elkart were booked for Notre Dame graduation week. One desk clerk felt sorry for me and mentioned she had a room with a sink that did not work. I took it and fixed the sink in 5 minutes.
With three hours sleep I arrived at the Newmar factory for their 10 am scheduled factory tour. I mentioned I had a KS3910 on the assembly line and the tour guide kept an eye out for it. At one point we rounded a corner, saw a molded fiberglass roof suspended in the air, slowly dropping down on a coach. The tour guide turned to me and said, "Smoky, I see your number on that one."
I am trying to upload a pic of me standing by it, just after the roof was lowered. Not very pretty at this point as no paint job , partial cabinetry, and slideouts waiting to be installed.
The tour guide told me that by 9 am Thursday it would be in the prepaint area, being prepared for full body paint. They do not allow the public in the paint shop, so the pre paint area is the last place you can see it.
So I returned Thursday and took the tour again. I kept looking and looking for my coach. All of a sudden some guy was tapping me on the shoulder and telling me the tour guide was talking to me. We wear headsets in there so the tour guide can talk over the factory noise. She was calling me to come forward to where she was standing.
I went up to here and she pointed at a nearly finished coach (exterior all sanded down for paint preparation).
She said, "Smoky, that is your coach. If you like you can have 5 minutes to go inside it and take pics. Since you were here yesterday, you know the rest of the route, so just catch up to us."
Oh what a thrill that was. When I get home I will try to load a couple more pics to the forum. One of the Amish people inside was just beginning to lay down the area where we special ordered some hardwood flooring. He asked if I had come all the way from Maryland. I was impressed he knew where the customer was accepting delivery. He told me that because of the customer special orders we had submitted, that this was the last 2005 KS being put together and in his opinion the most beautiful. He wanted to know where I got the ideas from like removing one of the two sofas and replacing with two recliners, mixing colors of day night shades,etc from. I had to admit all the cosmetic custom work was my Admiral's ideas, though he could blame me for all the extra wiring orders.
It was an odd feeling standing inside my very own coach, and seeing a factory interior outside the windows.
I was VERY impressed with the entire factory operation. You could see and feel the pride of workmanship and the focus in the faces of the Amish craftsmen and women that work there. 80% of the company are Amish.
I was astonished that it only took 1 person to push a motorhome anywhere on the floor. They set each motorhome on air pads and use a quarter inch of cushioned air streams to remove friction and allow the coaches to be pushed and turned in any direction.
They have holes in the floor and people constantly sweep the scrap into the holes which have conveyor belts that take all the scrap out of the building.
With my coach they only had 4 or 5 gas 2005 coaches behind me and all the rest were 2006 coaches including the new Ventana (sp?) entry level diesel designed to compete with pushers like the Bounder. It has a full basement and IFS so it ought to be VERY competitive with all the lower level Fleetwoods. Since the new CEO came from Fleetwood, I guess he is getting his revenge.
The 45 foot 2006 Essex looked awesome!
I am on my way home this Friday evening and in a Celina Ohio motel. And I am towing a shiny new black cargo trailer!!
The 6x12 trailers that were selling in Maryland for $4500, were selling in Indiana for $1900. So I hitched up and brought one home to keep all the Admiral's "junk" in until she decides in a year or so that she really can get rid of life's junk. Then maybe we will put an ATV in it lol!
Bernie, you were right about one thing. If I had accepted factory delivery in Indiana, I would have had to pay the 6% sales tax. They do not honor out of state residency. I learned this when I bought the cargo trailer yesterday, even using my Montana address. Fortunately Maryland does honor out of staters when they take delivery in Maryland.
Next week I fly to Montana to get my driver license and other chores to establish residency. Already have my Kalispell bank account ready and waiting to receive proceeds from land and house sale.
Then the week after we finally get to put our delivery acceptance checklist to work. ;D
Ron: do you have Verizon phone service? If so, maybe I could make a Verizon to Verizon cell phone call to you to discuss satellite installation. I am really struggling over the issue of roof versus tripod and would like to talk with you over the phone about it. Email me!
