I recently found myself at the Palomino Sabre (a Forest River company) factory checking on some repair work that was being done to my camper (which is a post for another day). While there, I met with both the warranty manager and plant manager quite a bit during the day. Towards the end of the day, after many of the workers had gone home, the warranty manager took me on a tour of the factory. We started with the building of walls, moved onto preparing the chassis and following along as they assembled the interior of the camper and built the walls up through finishing work. As a computer geek, it was really awesome to watch campers take shape.
01 – Wall Welding Jigs – All of the welding jigs for current and past Sabre models.
02 – Welding Station -The jigs are laid on the table and the sides are built on top of that.
03 – Wood Backed Wall Studs – Some studs are filled with wood so that screws have some “meat” to bite into.
04 – Walls – Welding Complete – Finished sides – this is likely 5-6 campers.
05 – Wall Insulation – Foam Backing
06 – Wall Fiberglass – They had different rolls of the different colors.
07 – Wall Press Roller
08 – Walls Awaiting Assembly
09 – Carpentry
10 – Carpentry
11 – Empty Chassis – This is the chassis as it comes from Lippert – slides are mounted but not axles.
16 – JT Strong Arms – Aftermarket stabilizers are a popular option.
17 – Misc Chassis Wiring
18 – Misc Chassis Wiring
19 – Misc Chassis Wiring
20 – Insulated Underbelly – Tanks Only – Interesting enough – only the tank areas are insulated.
21 – Valve Pull Handle
22 – Dump Plumbing
23 – Propane Connectors
24 – Misc Chassis Wiring Near Tank
25 – Dolly – All of the chassis and campers were on wheels – it was weird seeing guys push campers around!
26 – Air Plenum Machine
27 – Floors – I think; If I recall this correctly, this is the raised floors for the next photo.
28 – Elevated Bathroom Area
29 – Misc Chassis Wiring
30 – 36QB Bunk House
31 – Drawers Prebuilt – The drawer guides were built by the cabinet shop already in place. They’ll be mounted better when more goes in.
32 – Stairs Framing – I’m very interested in the stairs as I want to add a central vacuum system.
33 – Under Bathroom Inaccessible Space
34 – Misc Chassis Wiring – this is looking in the side towards the front of the camper.
36 – 36QB Half Bath
37 – 36QB Kitchen
38 – TrailAir Pin Box
39 – Shower Enclosure
40 – Landing Gear Wheels
41 – Pin Box Support – This is apparently necessary to properly support the camper when the walls are put into place.
42 – Behind Front Cap – Many units had the shoe storage box sticking out of this area.
43 – Cabinets Hung
44 – Premade Doors – The doors are made by another company and come complete with hardware installed.
45 – 35QSIK – Hi Tech Labeling
46 – 35QSIK Kitchen Island
47 – 35QSIK
48 – Scaffolding for Running Electrical Wires
49 – Misc Roof
50 – Misc Roof
51 – Misc Roof
52 – Misc Roof
53 – Top Down Wiring – All of the wiring is ran from these spools wire by wire (or a handful at a time).
54 – Top Down Wiring – There were guys above and below working the wiring, getting it roughly pulled to where it needed to be.
55 – Top Down Wiring
56 – Wiring
57 – Wiring – And this, this is why you’ll never see a real wiring schematic.
58 – Wiring
59 – Wiring
60 – Wiring
61 – Wiring
62 – QC Inspection – As much as we bellyache about a lack of QC, there were signs of QC throughout the process.
63 – Applicances Installed In Slide
64 – Wiring Termination
65 – QC Inspection – 1st Round – Green Tape
66 – QC Inspection – 1st Round – Green Tape
67 – Slide Roller – For Lippert Slides, they ride on these rollers.
68 – Slide Roller
69 – Misc Camper
70 – Hand Applying Decals – All decals are applied by hand and by eye based on a drawing of the campers.
71 – Subwoofer Under Stairs – This seems to be a new popular place for installing subwoofers.
72 – Misc Camper
73 – Misc Wiring – This likely failed some QC that it had wiring pulled out to be fixed.
74 – QC Inspection – 2nd Round – Red Tape
Warranty testing
After the manufacturing is done, the warranty department’s job kicks in. One thing that they do is test every piece of equipment sent back by dealers to verify its broken-ness. As explained, it helps keep dealers honest and is supposed to ensure/encourage them to more properly diagnose issues rather than just swapping parts out.
Thanks for the tour. We are thinking about buying a 2013 palomino saber with the idea of living in a full-time next spring. In your opinion with the saber be suitable for full timing? Thank you very much appreciate your time
My family and I have put many nights on this camper- 50 the first year, 50 the next year, and 100 the third year. In fact, we are currently living in ours as we are on an extended 14-month trip.
I've kicked around the answer to your question if these campers are "full-time ready" or not. The major issues that we've had are: a) The one slide out has been prone to issues (2 factory returns for it alone) b) The 2 of leaf springs in the suspension have flattened out before we were completely loaded up c) The tires that came on it originally were terrible and the replacements that I bought didn't have a high enough carrying capacity to support the axles (same as what came on it originally).
Minor stuff comes up here and there, but nothing to really ruin a day. There always seems to be something that needs tweaked or minorly fixed/adjusted. But from talking to other fulltimers- this seems to be the norm.
We're running pretty heavy- right at GVWR and GAWR. But she handles pretty well and has supported us alright.
Thank you for the photos. Very insightful as we just purchased a Palomino Sabre 34RDKS.
Thanks for the tour. We are thinking about buying a 2013 palomino saber with the idea of living in a full-time next spring. In your opinion with the saber be suitable for full timing? Thank you very much appreciate your time
My family and I have put many nights on this camper- 50 the first year, 50 the next year, and 100 the third year. In fact, we are currently living in ours as we are on an extended 14-month trip.
I've kicked around the answer to your question if these campers are "full-time ready" or not. The major issues that we've had are:
a) The one slide out has been prone to issues (2 factory returns for it alone)
b) The 2 of leaf springs in the suspension have flattened out before we were completely loaded up
c) The tires that came on it originally were terrible and the replacements that I bought didn't have a high enough carrying capacity to support the axles (same as what came on it originally).
Minor stuff comes up here and there, but nothing to really ruin a day. There always seems to be something that needs tweaked or minorly fixed/adjusted. But from talking to other fulltimers- this seems to be the norm.
We're running pretty heavy- right at GVWR and GAWR. But she handles pretty well and has supported us alright.