My Tour

[Mojo]

Vacation time is over. I cannot believe we loaded up the bus, spent all the fuel to go over to Daytona Beach, parked it a few miles from the ocean and then we both get the flu and was sick the whole time. On top of that, while I am trying to keep from puking on myself a new customer calls and wants all of his awnings replaced on his coach. All six of them. I tried and muddle through the conversation and told him I would have him his estimate on Friday.

I did manage to get through the tour on Monday as I wasn't hit with the flu till that night. Impressed ??? That is an understatement. The craftsmanship they put into these high end coaches is astounding. I did get to see their woodshop ( massive with every single machine you could think of ). I drooled over their racks and racks of wood. Specialty plywood, exotic veneers, hardwood, etc. and the way they constructed everything was amazing.  The guys working there in the woodshop are truly artists and masters at their craft. I was very impressed with the way they bent their wood for making curved dinette booths, couches and even curved cabinetry. They do not cut reliefs into the backside like many places do but rather bend the wood using steam.

Their upholstery shop was large and had numerous machines and work stations. It appeared they were pretty much standardized on the Consew 206rb5 though they did have a Pfaff as well and a few specialty machines. There were racks of fabric that I would be afraid to know the costs of. Leathers, knits and other fabrics were lined up and down the racks. They had numerous layout and cutting tables as well. I watched a guy put a dinette booth together and he was just putting decorative pleats/gathers along the outside corner. He did it so fast I nearly missed it and they came out perfect. Obviously this guy has been doing it for years. :)

They have a showroom where the customer comes in and goes through the design process. This room looks like the lobby of a 5 star hotel. It has a fabrics sample rack that was twice as big as Jo Ann fabrics. :) I went through a few of the fabric samples........over the top in quality. Also in this room were stands filled with marble, granite and wood samples. The customers come in here and select all the fabrics, counter tops, flooring, etc. that they want on their coach. It was really impressive how they had the entire process down to a science and it was very apparent that this company caters to millionaires.

The tour was great but the rest of the vacation sucked. Being sick a few miles from the ocean is NOT fun.

Hope ya'll had a great week. I will post pictures later.

Chris

[Mojo]

Here are the pictures from the tour. I just provided a link so you can view them all individually or as a slide show.

The interior of the coaches are all brand new 45 ft Prevost's before the conversion. Typical price tags on each coach is approximately $ 1.5 to 2. 3 million.

http://s181.photobucket.com/albums/x200/throgmartin/Misc/

Chris

[scott_san_diego]

Thank you for the pictures.
Nice to see how the big boys do it. 
But not that much different than the way we do it.
One stitch at a time...

[Mojo]

Pretty much Scott. The only thing that I was impressed with was how they built all of their interior parts for upholstery. That and their use of exotic and high end fabrics. :)

Their two upholsterers do urn out some amazing very high quality work. I have went through their finished coaches and was never able to find even a little tiny flaw anywhere.

Chris

[Mike8560]

Hooe your getting over it chris.  Got sux getting wll the way over there and come down sick   You could have stayed home sbd done that. Hey ?

[Mojo]

Mike: That is exactly what I said to the wife. We laid around in the coach and watched movies the whole time, something I could have done at home.

Oh well, we will take another trip this fall when the temp's are down. Hopefully diesel prices will be down too.... lol.

Chris

[bobbin]

Sick in the summer is a drag, but sick on vacation is a double suck.  Bummer. 

[BigJohn]

So Chris when is your new coach due to be completed?

[Mojo]

Ummm.... Unless someone drops a boat load of cash in my lap, it won't be anytime soon. :)

Chris