Our plans today revolve around visiting the Winnebago plant and going on the plant tour. We also have to pick up the parts we ordered at the dealership up the street. (More on that later).
We are camped near Clear Lake, in the City of Clear Lake, IA. So I guess I should show you Clear Lake. here it is.
Did you know Winnebago was originally part of a California company? Me either. The town of Forest City was dying and needed some big company to come in so there would be jobs. Long story short, that company was eventually named Winnebago. The city of Forest City is in Winnebago County and the Winnebago Indians lived here. So that is where it came from.
We didn't want to be late for the tour so we left the rig a little after 11:00 AM to be on the 1:00 PM tour. Obviously, we got there early. Good thing too. We browsed around their museum and checked out a couple of rigs they had on display.
They don't let you take pictures on the tour so I don't have any. The tour lasts about 2 hours and you visit about 5 different buildings. We got to see them make the cushions, curtains, and other soft goods. The main assembly building is called Big Bertha. It is about 13 football fields long. We actually went into this building twice. Winnebago makes most of the parts of the RV themselves such as the walls, floors, cabinets, etc. They do use chassis' make by Freightliner, Mercedes, and I think Ford. Parts like refrigerators and stoves are also purchased premade. The plant was very impressive. We have visited National, Fleetwood and Airstream. Winnebago was definately bigger and more streamlined. It was kinda like watching a Ford automobile assembly line.
After the tour was over we went across to Customer Service to see how much it would cost to put the original couch back in. I was shocked when I was told that it was over $5,000.00!!!!! I think it is one of those fully automatic foldout couches but I won't be putting one in the rig at that price. They also had a small parts store and some shirts you could buy. We did pick up some suction cups for my front screens.
Afterward we drove up the road and picked up our other parts then headed home. I had put beef stew in the crockpot before we left this morning. We stopped at the SuperWalmart to pick up a couple of things and I got some french bread to go with the stew. I made a little salad and dinner was ready.
That was our day. Once again I forgot to take pictures of the campground, and I really liked this one. Oh well. Have a nice night.
No comments:
Post a Comment