Country Coach Motorhome Wiring

Sometimes it’s what you don’t see that sets your Country Coach apart…Like the Country Coach Wiring Process by Sherry Fanning

When we were building Country Coaches, I produced the employees newsletter. There were twenty different departments in the production facility at that time. One issue of that employee newsletter featured a tour through the Dash and Wiring Departments.  I was impressed with CC’s commitment to meeting stringent coding requirements set forth by RVIA to ensure your coach wiring systems were not only state of the art but user friendly, safe and easy to maintain, too. Wiring systems were first documented on schematics using CAD. From there, wire number lists that documented identity of each circuit by number and description of function were generated for use in construction, installation and service. The wire number lists and a full set of schematics were published in the user’s guide with each coach.

One of the many unique features of the CC wiring department was the fact the wiring was color coded wiring, identical from coach model to coach model, all labeled on both ends with numbers for tracing purposes and bench assembled into harnesses. They did not run a single wire at a time. Along with quality checks, wiring systems were subjected to dielectric strength testing to assure proper wire conductor strength and performance. Tests were run using high voltages at very low amps. Specific energy management systems (transfer switches, inverters, control centers, converter switches) were bench assembled in the “clean” room. This impressive process was visible on factory tours via the large picture windows into the room. Some of you probably watched the work in process yourselves.

An example of the intricate and simultaneously user friendly wiring in the Country Coach is in the Dash. The Dash/cab area is the nerve center from which most coach systems operate. For example the layout of the dash prioritized controls strictly for driving functions, with items such as air leveling and the systems monitor placed within easy reach. During wiring installation, harnesses were kept extremely neat with splicing never done. Components run to AMP plugs via a modular system for ease of maintenance. Should components fail, they unplug easily for replacement.

A favorite CC Tour guide was one Jim Reab who noted that an estimated 3 miles of wiring went into a Country Coach—that’s a lot of wire!

The workmanship in the Dash and Wiring department all those years ago is evident in the motorcoaches driven on the highways and byways of this nation yet today. Country Coach artisans and craft persons really did build every coach as if our own mother would be driving it.

Bob Lee, company founder, used to instruct us to approach our jobs with that philosophy whenever we’d meet in company meetings. Evidently his employees took his directives to heart—I see  Country Coaches visiting Premier RV Services in Junction City, Oregon that are not only still operating beautifully and but are still looking like what they are – The World’s Finest Motorcoaches!