winnebago on TV

PDI · 01-28-2008, 02:37 PM

tonight at 9 PM EST the channel National Geographic channel will air a show about the chassis and main plant.

PDI · 01-28-2008, 02:37 PM

tonight at 9 PM EST the channel National Geographic channel will air a show about the chassis and main plant.

MaverickBBD · 01-28-2008, 03:15 PM

Thank goodness I won't have to watch the State of the Union speech. 358 days and counting!

lthrnk · 01-28-2008, 03:24 PM

Thanks. We'll take a look, nothing else on anyway.

rvten · 01-28-2008, 03:28 PM

Just set DirecTv to switch at 8 central time to NGC.

comp-time · 01-28-2008, 05:05 PM

Thanks, have the DVR all set. Comes on at 6:00 here in Seattle.

JRP · 01-28-2008, 06:22 PM

Just watched it and I thought that was a very interesting and educational TV show. Showed the Vectra factory assembly process from start to finish. Was like a 3 day factory tour on fast forward. Can't cover all the details in one hour, but it was a good overview.

It was an episode of the NGC "Ultimate Factories" series, which will get rerun frequently.

Jim

lthrnk · 01-28-2008, 06:22 PM

Watched the program, saw them build a Vectra, from Gaffney to Winnebago to out the door. Good show. They really do put a lot of effort into it all.

FrontRangeRVer · 01-28-2008, 09:44 PM

I missed it tonight because of the State of the Union speech...(we enjoyed it because it's fun to watch Polosi sit behind our President and POUT.)

The Winnebago show comes on again as repeat Saturday at 8 CPT, and 11 CPT I believe.

bjbkkb · 01-29-2008, 12:17 AM

Great show, now just bring back RV Roadshow.

CC38EL · 01-29-2008, 02:10 AM

Never having been to the factory, this show confirmed my feelings about our coach. Great coach, well built.

It also confirmed that whatever breaks inside the coach, was installed first and then had the coach built AROUND it. Fortunately, that hasn't happened that often.

Pusherman · 01-29-2008, 05:57 AM

National Geographic Channel will air the show again Saturday 2-2 @ 9pm EST.

John Hilley · 01-29-2008, 06:38 AM

It is also on tonight and Sunday

Ultimate Factory Winnebago Show Times

jk_and_dog · 01-29-2008, 07:06 AM

I'm confused! I watched the program and though it was good. My questions however may raise some issues, which I really don't want to start but here goes.

1. If it takes only 5 days to build the unit, then why does it take 3 months to deliver the unit? Does winnie have that many orders and backlog?
2. It appeared to be an 07 Vectra (??). Are sales down that much that they have to layoff folks in 08? How many folks have paired their enjoyment of economy? Just a note for the "maybe buyer': If you can't afford the lux..then don't waste my time. Don't buy! There are way too many used unwanted unaffordable units on the market which deflates the $$ on my unit.
3. I was hopeing to see a little more care taken when building the unit. Since this is the high end unit one would think a little more time would be spent in the manufacturing process. At 9 inches a minute in "Big Bertha", and i think they said the length of the run was 1000 ft, that means the unit at 40 ft length spends 22.2 hours under construction. They indicated a 5 day sequence including painting which equates to 4.44 hrs in each sequence averaged. Given that some sequences take longer for construction such as painting, there appears to be a rush in some of the sequences. Maybe this will explain why there are so many gremlins associated with "some" portion of the unit. What's rushed and what's not i don't know, but with my unit it may have been the electrical.

Still overall I' happy with the winnie.

becks · 01-29-2008, 07:41 AM

I took the plant tour this past Oct and I have to say I did come away that day with the feeling of why do all the workers appear to be in such a big hurry. I sure hope the answer is that they simply have the whole building process down pat. Maybe however, it answers the question of why some coachs have so many problems and others so few. I do still feel Winny builds a good coach and am thankfull my coach bought new in 05 has had no issues.

Tom N · 01-29-2008, 08:10 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by jk_and_dog:

3. I was hopeing to see a little more care taken when building the unit. Since this is the high end unit one would think a little more time would be spent in the manufacturing process. At 9 inches a minute in "Big Bertha", and i think they said the length of the run was 1000 ft, that means the unit at 40 ft length spends 22.2 hours under construction. They indicated a 5 day sequence including painting which equates to 4.44 hrs in each sequence averaged. Given that some sequences take longer for construction such as painting, there appears to be a rush in some of the sequences. Maybe this will explain why there are so many gremlins associated with "some" portion of the unit. What's rushed and what's not i don't know, but with my unit it may have been the electrical.

Still overall I' happy with the winnie. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

What was shown and the 5 day build time is actually "assembly" time. The actual build time of the various components is >30 days. Don't forget to add about a week for full body paint.

Once parts are ready, assembly line time is ~5 days.

To compete and keep costs down, Winnebago uses the "just in time" parts arrival method.

-Tom

rvten · 01-29-2008, 11:03 AM

Unless things have changed from when we went on tour in 2001.

They make more than one type of MH on the same line. Might be a class A followed by a class C. Maybe a DP followed by a gasser class A. We were4 told floors and wall were aligned with a laser for accuracy. Every part is numbered for that RV not just picked off a shelf and tossed in.