Tuesday Laugh Of The Day. A Cut And Paste Quote

Someone mentioned QC in this RV thread. What a concept! Could revolutionize the RV industry.

I doubt it will catch on.

How many assembly plants have you visited Moisheh? I was forced to in representing OEM battery manufacturers. To believe some yokel would take the time ad effort to fabricate a story about him using a particular product is beyond credibility. When I visited the Fleetwood plant there (Yeah, my physical body actually visited the executive offices, and the assembly line) I was aghast. I saw pallets of new batteries punctured, dropped, smashed, cracked, exploded, and a few with the terminals melted off. My four hundred dollar fee saved the vendor I represented a lot of money. The plant officer explained to me those batteries were "for warranty". Fleetwood argued the price of a battery down to one dollar and change over what my employer was paying OEM. Mark Dougherty, president of RAMCAR battery laughed so hard when I told him my experience he almost choked. His quip: "They change vendors like I change underwear".

But inside the coaches it was not brightly lit. The workers literally RAN from place to place, maximum frenzied assembly. The lot outside the plant had two dozen (I did not count) units that were being trouble-shooted. Needless to say I left the plant not in a good frame of mind. I continued on to Corona to U.S. Battery on other business.

I hope this answers your curiosity...

Quality of any product is controlled by the manufacturer, not the workers.

A conscientious company will demand quality work, they will pay for quality, and eliminate workers that cannot perform.

The problem is that the manufacturers do not demand quality, they demand speed and low cost which results in poor quality work.

Mexico Wanderer: Here is what I posted:Much ado about nothing. For starters the person who did the review on the Harbor Freight website lives in Moreno Valley California. Fleetwood does not have any plants outside of Indiana. The Company that bought the old Fleetwood plant in CA is out of business, Aside from that assembly line workers do not provide their own tools. And no decent RV mfr. would use a $40.00 tool on an assembly line. No Harbor Freight drill could last under those circumstances. Many of the RV mfrs. do not install the roof vents until all assembly is finished. They drop electric and air lines through the roof hole. That HF user post is just so much BS. Maybe he assembles tent trailers!
Note that I never stated there were no RV manufacturers in CA. I merely stated that FW does not build anything outside of Indiana. PERIOD. I also never made any comments on Mexican workers. Please do not misquote me. I can get into trouble without any outside help!

Moisheh

MrWizard wrote:
i always though of Orange county as the inland empire
neither Riverside or Lancaster,
are considered "Inland Empire"
Lancaster is at least 100miles from the Inland empire

Ontario, San Bernadino and Riverside... pretty much anything alont the I-15 south of Cajon pass, down to San Diego county line.

Inland is pretty much a county with no beach property. Riverside, for sure, but the Census Bureau refers to it as The Greater Los Angeles Area, so... perhaps I stretched things a little bit... Not much English spoken on the production line at Lance Campers as a native language. I had a hard time communicating with them. Cheap labor is where it's at.

You can go on Craigslist, and do a search for Orange County, and for Inland Empire. See what cities show up in your search. Different regions, at least when I was looking for a used Honda Generator. Seemed that contractors used them in the Inland Empire, pretty much worn out there, and RV enthusiasts used them in Orange County, in much nicer condition. YMMV, those were my observations a year back. I ended up buying my used Eu1000i in Orange county, mint condition, $350 cash, about a week before Christmas.

i always though of Orange county as the inland empire
neither Riverside or Lancaster,
are considered "Inland Empire"
Lancaster is at least 100miles from the Inland empire

Good one, MW!

I worked for Fleetwood in '75 building Terry trailers in LaGrande, Oregon. The job I enjoyed most was when I was in interior electrical, installing 12v and 110v fixtures. We never lacked for light as there were no windows or other objects in the rolling frames, and there was plenty of light to do the job.
As others have mentioned, we had air drills/drivers, and were assigned a set of hand tools. If we damaged a tool, it was replaced one-for-one. If we lost a tool, then we paid for it.

Even though Terry was supposed to be a "cut above" the average RV builders, the parts and construction techniques are designed to get the maximum product out in the minimum time. For a small line, we regularly pushed 8 to 12 units out a day. If everything worked while rolling through final inspection, then it was shipped. How well and how long that product performed after the sale??

After many years of ownership of these beasts, I've had to rebuild a lot of things that were hap-hazardously tossed together. If I ever had the money to purchase a new rig, I'd still spend the first year fixing and rebuilding things...

Add in Eclipse in Riverside, CA and Lance in Lancaster CA. I've toured the Lance facility. Unimpressed. As a reference, General Contractor, remodels and additions.

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
I noted your comment about "No RV Manufacturers in The Inland Empire" Makes me curious.

Lazy Daze is still made in Montclair....http://www.lazydaze.com/index2.htm

Moiseh maybe you have disassembled nearly new RV's as I have done (for Good Sam) for insurance totals because of warranty electrical damage. Without fail I had to contact Good Sam and have a rep return and survey wiring and "installations" that were freakin' land mines. Not part of the original damage. I noted your comment about "No RV Manufacturers in The Inland Empire" Makes me curious. I'll go have a look, and in the meantime I will offer a "I stand corrected" with Fleetwood.

As far as me bashing English or Spanish, I am a Mexican citizen referred to as a Ciudadano. I vote, I belong to Ejido Chucutitan, and nowhere in that post did my remarks to the reviewer make the slightest reference to either intelligence or ethnicity. In prior comments I have used nombres latinos because a huge percentage of the RV workforce I have encountered is latino. Being Mexicano I have the same right to kid about things as is the same derechos you have about kidding Americanos.

In 1982 when I built my Crown, a wealthy contractor asked me to supervise construction of a new MCI chassis for him. Myself doing the electrical and "warren" an incredibly talented ship's carpenter to outfit the rig with teak. I sort of know what I am doing with RV electrical. I ended up getting tired of going tooth and nail with crabber and midwater dragger owners over new construction bids, costs, and profits, and finally decided to limit my non battery engineering work to building alternators.

Strip the paneling off a new RV sometime and take a look at what's underneath. The last Bounder I rehabbed had over two dozen staples run through wires.

BTW Good Sam paid like clockwork. I was and remainin impressed with the organization. One of the upper echelon adjuster supervisors confided that Good Sam had to threaten many manufacturers with lawsuits including punitive costs before they would "settle" a warranty claim. You wonder why I retain a sour disposition toward manufacturers. They aren't all that they but too many of them are.

EDIT EDIT

A 10-second search revealed this. Sorry but I have other duties to attend to so I cannot spend more time on this.

http://www.rvbusiness.com/tag/california-rv-manufacturers/

Beemerphile Only California structures tend to vibrate, rock and roll, highway vibration is the color of a different horse :)