Class C Plant Tour

**RedLdr1** · 07-14-2015, 07:39 PM

First, I want to thank Josh Cavitt for the plant tour he gave my wife and I yesterday morning. During the tour Josh did a very thorough presentation at each of the areas and answered all of our questions.

We were lucky in that our schedule coincided with the plant's schedule for building the MBS. Seeing a bare M-B chassis helped my wife understand what is M-B's and what is Forest River's. Seeing the line and watching how the sub assemblies, like the roofs and walls, are made was very informative. The stacks of storage compartments, water tanks, appliances, and other parts helped me visualize what goes where in a unit. Watching the workers assembling the sub assemblies gave me a much better idea of how it is all "put together". To show you what I mean here are a couple photos of a "W" on the early stages of the line:

W Drivers Side

W Passenger Side

Since there were several "W's", both Forester and Sunseekers versions, under various stages of construction it appears the "W" floor plan is very popular.

The high point of our visit was finding out, after the tour, that our MBS was one of the ones being built.

It should be off to the paint shop for the Full Body paint this week.

If you are considering taking the tour my wife and I highly recommend it. My wife is not usually in to the plant tours but she really enjoyed this one as she had a lot of her questions answered. Thank you again Josh for taking the time for our tour!

Regards,

aceinspp · 07-14-2015, 07:53 PM

Thanks for the post. Nice. I'm hoping will get on a tour when we go to the FROG rally in Goshen. Later RJD

**Joshua Cavitt** · 07-16-2015, 09:30 AM

Thank you for coming! It was a pleasure meeting you and Christine. You have my number if you want to talk about anything else.

Hexnut · 07-17-2015, 04:51 PM

I wish I could have been there too! I have a MBS 2400R somewhere there about now. It was estimated to be "off line" around 7/12, then off to be painted. It would be nice to access updates on-line to check on the status of ordered units. We were hoping for delivery around 7/31 because of a long trip we have (50th HS class reunion) in early August. It would be nice to know if will be here and ready to go in time.

By the way, do you know if yours is built on a 2015 chassis or 2016? I was told that it depends on what they have on hand at the time they switch the coach model year.

We have been waiting since mid-May and it's not been easy. I can't wait to have it here to get it ready to go. Good luck with your MBS.

**RedLdr1** · 07-17-2015, 07:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hexnut

By the way, do you know if yours is built on a 2015 chassis or 2016? I was told that it depends on what they have on hand at the time they switch the coach model year.

It's my understanding they were still using the 2015 M-B chassis during this MBS run.

Your schedule may be a bit tight. I asked bclemens if mine would be delivered in time for the FROG Rally, beginning August 9th, and he didn't think I'd make that time frame. Adding in the time for the Full Body paint, delivery, and getting back up to Goshen just cut it too thin. Now if they would have done a factory delivery, like Chevy does for new Corvettes, I would have been okay....

Hexnut · 07-22-2015, 07:03 PM

For RedLdr1: If you don't mind my asking, when was your unit ordered and how long has it been from the time your order was placed to anticipated (or actual delivery)? So far it has been about 9 weeks for us and I am also doubting we will make our trip too. It is what it is, but I am curious.

**RedLdr1** · 07-22-2015, 07:39 PM

We signed the order and placed our deposit on May 27th. Allowing for dealership paperwork I'd guesstimate the order went in to FR on or around June 1st.

Based on discussions with our dealership, bclemens, and jcavitt we are "assuming" our delivery will be somewhere between 15 August and 1 September. If the paint shop isn't too far behind we may beat that date a bit but I'm not planning on it....

FYI, I now have our M-B chassis VIN and it is a 2015.

Beach Bums · 07-23-2015, 08:28 PM

We received confirmation that our 2401W MBS headed for paint this Tuesday (2 days ago).....we must be build neighbors! Based on assurance from our sales gentleman we purchased tickets to fly to the East Coast on the 2nd of August (from West coast) when we gave him our credit card at time of order for a pick up on the 3rd of August. Not sure how we will make all of our obligations work if it is more than a day later as we must be in in Lafayette, La the evening of the 6th of August for a huge family 85th birthday gathering for my wife's mom. So far our sells guy has been stellar even working to resolve a major honest error early on so we are thinking positive thoughts...

GREAT pics of the factory; if you have any more, I would love to see them.

Hexnut · 07-27-2015, 02:14 PM

We must be in the same production group. I heard today that our 2400R will be shipped any day now. If all goes well, it seems we will make our trip date after all. That came as welcome news.

**RedLdr1** · 07-27-2015, 06:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beach Bums

GREAT pics of the factory; if you have any more, I would love to see them.

Unfortunately I don't... I carried a real camera but was asked to leave it in the Toad To Be. Joshua kindly allowed me to take those shots with my cellphone. I know from experience that cameras and production lines don't mix well and different manufactures have different rules. At one manufacture I was required to leave my cellphone at the plant entrance since it had a camera!

EDIT: Make sure you click on the photos and open them in my Flikr folder. They are quit large and very detailed as I took them with a 16M pixel S6 cellphone camera.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hexnut

We must be in the same production group. I heard today that our 2400R will be shipped any day now. If all goes well, it seems we will make our trip date after all. That came as welcome news.

It sounds like we are... Now whose W did I get those shots of????

**RedLdr1** · 07-28-2015, 02:00 PM

Our "W" showed up yesterday afternoon! We went by the dealer this morning and there she was all covered in bugs and "stuff" from the drive down. We do our PDI and paperwork Friday and plan to do our shakedown run early next week.

It's changed a little bit since those assembly line photos!

2016 Sunseeker MBS Drivers Side

2016 Sunseeker MBS Rear

2016 Sunseeker Passenger Side (Blurry Cell Phone Camera)

Now I just have to wait it out until Friday!

EDIT: BTW that is about nine weeks from order to delivery...

Beach Bums · 07-28-2015, 09:26 PM

It looks GREAT!!!! what is pdi?

Beach Bums · 07-28-2015, 09:29 PM

does it have the so much talked about sway bars (hellwig)?

**RedLdr1** · 07-29-2015, 09:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beach Bums

It looks GREAT!!!! what is pdi?

Pre-Delivery Inspection. You go through the entire unit with a tech and make sure everything works. What doesn't, or any damages, are noted and then covered under the warranty.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beach Bums

does it have the so much talked about sway bars (hellwig)?

Yes, it even has a "Hellwig Equipped" sticker on the passenger side with the Model sticker....

Hexnut · 07-30-2015, 02:24 PM

Looks like FR is hard at work. It looked like your unit was going to be a while longer. Nine weeks is pretty good. So far it has been over 10 weeks for us (originally estimated to be about 8 weeks) and still waiting for the phone to ring.

Tell me about the Helwig sway bar. Is this for the rear? New for 2016? If so, I may have to return the one I bought expecting to replace the OEM rear bar.

Enjoy your new MBS!

**Joshua Cavitt** · 07-30-2015, 02:28 PM

Don't return it just yet! Make sure your unit has the Hellwig sway bar.

**RedLdr1** · 07-30-2015, 04:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hexnut

Tell me about the Helwig sway bar. Is this for the rear? New for 2016? If so, I may have to return the one I bought expecting to replace the OEM rear bar.

The Hellwig is a larger diameter rear sway bar that was introduced as a running change to the MBS production line a few weeks ago. There are several threads in the Solera forum about it. Everything I've read here had convinced me that if we didn't get one from FR I'd buy one and install it.

I was really glad to see it on our unit from FR as I didn't want to have to deal with some overzealous warranty rep at my local M-B dealership if I'd installed it.

Now I'll just give them Joshua's phone number if they ask me about it!

Hexnut · 08-05-2015, 08:10 PM

Well, our 2400R got here this morning and yes, it also has the Hellwig sway bar. Now I have an extra one. Anyway, we pick it up Friday and then off to the tire shop to get the steel valve stems installed.

**RedLdr1** · 08-06-2015, 02:10 PM

Hopefully our "W" will be out of the shop tomorrow. The CEL turned out to be a bad DEF pump. Our local M-B Sprinter dealer has ordered one that may be here today. After it is installed our dealer can pick it up and we can retry the rest of the PDI. I'm glad we didn't have a tight scheduled trip as this issue has taken a week now...

Hexnut · 08-06-2015, 06:28 PM

Glad they found the problem so you can on with it. We are doing our PDI at 11:00 am tomorrow. I hope nothing pops up because we will be on the road Wednesday morning. I phoned the local Sprinter dealer today and had them check the chassis VIN against any recalls, TSBs or updates and it came back clean. He said the 2015s have been good so far. Good luck with your new MH!

You may also like: