THE COUNTRY COACH BUILD PROCESS: Roof, Wall, and Floors…

All good things begin with an idea. Like the Country Coach you own, for example. Bob Lee had a vision for a true luxury motorhome, one that was built as if your very own mother would be driving it. One that handled like a dream, boasted the luxury amenities that discerning motorcoachers would expect, was equipped with the finest materials, components and equipment, and was manufactured with innovation and engineering that would set it apart in the RV industry.  Utilizing a huge array of talents from engineers, designers, installers, assemblers, painters and wood artisans to purchasers, inventory controllers, accountants, marketers, and salespeople, people put their creative energy and abilities to the goal of putting the wheels under Bob’s vision, producing the world’s finest motorcoach, the Country Coach you still proudly drive.

In an earlier post I shared DynoMax chassis information from Carolyn Gsell’s (a favorite former CC co-worker) extensive “plant tour” information. My earlier post addressed the rugged, custom tuned DynoMax chassis upon which each motorcoach was built. Here, I revisit the process Country Coach, LLC employed, specifically looking at what went into building the Roof, Walls, and Floors in your Country Coach Motorcoach.  

Thanks Carolyn, for this wonderful information you put to paper about the coaches we both enthusiastically marketed during our “Country Coach” days.

Like the DynoMax providing the strong foundation for the motorhome house, your coach roofs, walls and floors were built incredibly strong, and “the box” was fused to the chassis to create an integrated structure.  Lamination and vacuum bonding were the two key processes providing the integral strength of the roof, walls and floors of a Country Coach.  Each roof, wall and floor consists of a welded tubular steel frame filled with high density foam insulation, sandwiched between some form of wood product, which varied depending upon the application. 

FLOOR
Heavy gauge wide tube steel borders the long sides of each floor, with square tubular steel welded every few feet across. The top side of the floor consisted of half inch thick marine grade plywood, a particularly good surface for a floor due to its strength and moisture resistance factor, provided a great substrate on which to attach flooring materials.  The under-layer is a protective 1/8” waterproof material called Trugrit© and then the 3/16” thick rubber sound mat is strategically placed beneath the engine deck (the same material as is placed on top of the steel chassis before the floor is attached). 

ROOF

A Country Coach is built strong, a full seven inches thick at the center, with a gradual radius supporting the protective fiberglass cover.  The roof’s tubular steel skeleton has welded steel trusses every few feet. Its perimeter is spanned with wide tubular steel.  Once the frame is set, dense foam insulation was installed, and wire harnesses were laid in channels.  Roof vents openings and other accessories were bordered with plywood.  #26 galvanized steel was applied to the surfaces where roof-mounted appliances, satellite dishes, and antennas were to be attached for that added measure of reinforcement.  A polyethylene drip tubing was installed from each air conditioning unit so condensation off flow through the tubes to the ground. All this eliminates the streaking seen running from the roof down the sidewalls on some coaches.  Finally, Unicore© board was laminated to the underside and Luan paneling to the top side of the structure.

WALLS

Walls feature tubular steel to provide the main structure, high density foam for insulation, and lauan paneling[1] (1/8” thick wood sheeting) to the interior wall and fiberglass mounted to lauan for the exterior wall.

Lamination was a sight to watch. A row of glue guns spans the entire width of each piece to be laminated. This quick action glue is activated by water vapor.  Laminators had to work quickly to make this process work. Once the glue was laid down, both sides have their laminated materials applied, the entire piece, whether it is a roof, a wall, a floor, or smaller sections to build the slide rooms, were slid onto the vacu-bond table which could be compared to a giant “Seal-a-Meal.” Vacu-bonding infused strength into the structural components. Once these components were out of the Vacu-bond tables, the process was completed by cutting openings in floors for ducting and pipes or applying wallpaper to some sidewalls, etc.  Then these assemblies were delivered to the production line.

High density foam insulation, as mentioned previously, but what does that offer you, the owner?  Carolyn shared that years ago a service technician actually ran an interior/exterior test on a Country Coach, comparing it to a similar sized other brand motorhome.  He measured the temperature on the roof at 145 degrees F.  He went in both coaches and measured ambient temperatures.  The Country Coach was 20 degrees cooler compared to the other coach. That’s insulation at work.

While lamination was being done on a specific coach, other assembly areas were busy building other components going into the completed coach.  The cabinet shop used select hardwoods to craft door and door fronts. They built face frames, window boxes, slide room soffits, trim flanges and other accessories to be installed in the coach. The solid surface group hand cut and polished all the various pieces, from galley countertops to the trim pieces for nightstands and windowsills. In the wire harness department long rows of wire harnesses were woven together, while at outer assembly tables the dashboards were getting components installed. In the meantime, the purchasing group organized the delivery of appliances and furniture to the assembly line.  Materials arrived “just in time” for installation. 

Take a look at your coach and just about every component has a coach number. This number is on the chassis rails, on the edges of drawer frames, backs, entry steps, storage tanks, sofas, dashboards and fiberglass assemblies.  Each Country Coach is unique and special, worthy of a sense of pride of ownership.

…More on the Country Coach Build Process to follow later. Until Next Time, Happy Travelin', Sherry