Our tour guide at Entegra, Ted Cook, has been with Travel Supreme and now Entegra for 25 years and has been involved in every aspect of the coaches and is now in sales working with the dealers. Ted started out our tour by warning us that his tours many times go overtime because he wants to make sure that his guests can get all their questions answered. Lucky for us!
Our tour lasted about 3 hours and was exceptional. We walked right through and around the production line of the Entegra coaches starting from where the chassis first arrives at the facility all the way to when they perform the final checks of the coach. The only thing we didn't see was the painting of the coach because it is done at a different facility -- either a paint facility that Jayco recently bought or Precisions Painting in Bremen, Indiana.
We were very impressed with how the coaches are manufactured and all the things they do to make Entegra the "Quietest Riding, Best-Handling Coach on the Market Today." Ted repeated their motto about 8 or 9 times during the tour. But throughout the tour, he showed us what they do to be able to stand behind that motto. They are currently producing 4 coaches a day or 20 per week but their goal is 25 per week. And, their coaches are supposed to be "washed and ready" when they leave the factory. In other words, once they leave the factory, they are ready for the customer.
A couple of things we liked about the Entegra coaches were they don't install the tile on the floors before putting the floor on the coach which helps reduce the chance of the tile breaking or cracking and they use a lot more insulation in the ceiling, walls and floors.
On Tuesday, we went on a Tour of the Newmar Coach factory in Nappanee, Indiana. Newmar is also a privately owned company and are one of the few motorhome manufacturers that survived the downturn. One of the reasons is probably because the coaches are built to order and no coach leaves the factory without being paid for by the dealer. They currently employ over 800 employees but it had been as low as 300 during the downturn. Newmar is currently producing 9 coaches a day.
Newmar's tour was not as "personal" as the tour at Entegra but it was still very interesting watching how the coaches go from chassis to finish. Like Entegra, we were unable to see the painting of the coaches because it is done at another building on Newmar's campus. Both plants utilize air to literally push the coaches along the production line. A couple of guys give the 30,000+ lb. coach a push to the next stop on the production line and the next step of the work begins. Amazing!
A couple of things we liked about the Newmar coaches is they are installing rear doors on the coaches now. The doors can only be opened from the inside but in the event of a fire or need to get out of the coach very quickly, it would be a lot easier going out of a door than trying to climb out of a bedroom window. Also, a completely tiled coach, even on the slide-out, is now available on the upper end coaches that have a full-wall slide.
After leaving Newmar, we drove to Precision Painting which is located in Bremen just a few miles down the road. Sue, a designer at Precision Painting, gave us a tour of their factory. We first became aware of Precision Painting after meeting Montie and Ann several years ago at Defeated Creek Campground in Tennessee several years ago. They had a Dutch Star that they had repainted at Precision Painting and it was beautiful. Since then, we have met several people who have had their coaches painted at Precision Painting. Their paint jobs are amazing.
We were impressed with the hardworking employees of both companies. Let me tell you something: there are no slackers on either of these production lines. It is amazing how quickly and efficiently they work.
What was interesting is that Precision Painting has predominantly always done the paint work on new RVs. They do the paint work for several RV manufacturers including Jayco and Hallmark but during the downturn, they began doing more work of painting of older coaches which helped them to survive (and thrive) the downturn. We have always said that if we ever had our coach repainted, that Precision is where we would go. After seeing their work today, our opinion is still the same.
After leaving Precision Painting, we decided to treat ourselves to something a little different but yet familiar to the area: a family-style dinner at an Amish restaurant. It was delicious but too much and we didn't even ask for seconds (which you can do)! We were so full that we didn't even try any samples when we stopped at Costco for groceries an hour later.
It's been an interesting couple of days touring Entegra, Newmar and Precision. .
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