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Old 02-23-2021, 09:12 AM   #1
JRTJH
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Inside the keystone assembly plant

There are a lot of threads in recent months asking about things like "how is the vinyl flooring glued down?" and "why are the holding tanks not accessible above the floor?" or "why can't I walk on my roof?" or "Can I install a ladder on the back of my trailer?" or even "Why can't I get a schematic of my electrical system, plumbing or air conditioning/heat ducting?"

Much of is answered in the following links. These are "inside looks" at how YOUR Keystone trailer was built and goes "step by step" through the entire assembly process. If you're curious about the "general construction of a Keystone RV" there's a wealth of information if you take the time to watch these videos and "stop/rewind/review" the parts that apply to the areas you don't fully understand about how to repair, disassembly, remove or modify a component on your trailer.

Not every component on every trailer is shown, but the general build is very well documented on Keystone RV's.


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Old 02-23-2021, 11:46 AM   #2
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Hi there John,

Thank you for posting these links.

Sure is revealing how the RV's are assembled!

Take care!
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Old 02-23-2021, 12:01 PM   #3
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Very interesting and informative.
Thanks.
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Old 02-23-2021, 12:43 PM   #4
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And when they have met their quota of completed units for the day watch out for the mass exodus out of there.
We went to have the factory do the warranty on our last 5th while in the area for a rally, pulled into their overnight spot about noon in the middle of all them hauling a## outa there, thought we were going to get trampled to death. They claim Amish build RVs, but at that factory there were only 4-5 horse/buggy teams parked next to the building, so they either walked, buggy pooled, or not many worked my there.
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Old 02-23-2021, 04:27 PM   #5
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Thanks for the post.. it’s good to have a view of how they are put together
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Old 02-23-2021, 04:28 PM   #6
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Thanks John!

Even those of us who have a good understanding enjoy seeing how they are built!
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Old 02-23-2021, 05:51 PM   #7
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Just a comment to put a perspective on how many trailers that Keystone builds per day, in the second video, around the 26:35 point, the guy that's following his trailer build is in the paint booth and states that Keystone paints about 150-200 caps per day. About 60% of Keystone's trailers use a molded front cap, the rest have a "flat FILON sheet" as the front cap. So, if 200 caps are used a day and that's 60% of the production with 40% using FILON sheeting, that would be a "daily trailer output" of somewhere around 334 trailers "out the door" daily.

Keep in mind, this is only at the Goshen plant as the Oregon plant paints their own caps..... So if they have 50% of the production (half of what Goshen builds) Keystone would be putting out around 500 trailers every workday. With roughly 230 workdays per year, that would be an annual output of around 115,000 trailers per year.

That's a BOATLOAD of Trailer King tires !!!!!!!
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Old 02-23-2021, 05:55 PM   #8
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It would be nice to have those wheel dollys to push my fiver around my driveway sideways if I needed to move it lol..they pushed it effortlessly...were they motorized dollys?
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Old 02-23-2021, 06:45 PM   #9
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No they aren't motorized. The floor in the plants is smooth concrete and in some parts of the plant, the wheels run in troughs that are inclined, so they're "pushing it sideways, on steel wheels in a guided trough, downhill... That makes it fairly easy for 4 or 5 people to push it the 15' down the line to the next station. One neat feature that I wish I had is the wheels for the front landing gear. At the end of the line, they jack the front of the trailer up, drop the wheeled lower units and insert what you and I have, the steel tubes with holes and "non-rolling rectangular pads"...
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Old 02-23-2021, 07:11 PM   #10
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Thanks for posting. I enjoyed watching those.
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Old 02-24-2021, 08:25 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JRTJH View Post

That's a BOATLOAD of Trailer King tires !!!!!!!
Ha - literally a boat load from China.

Crazy how many units are produced by all of them. How are we not drowning in RV's? Same with cars though - you see 100 F150's at the dealership, and they turn them over...some days you wonder "where does it all go?!"
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Old 02-24-2021, 09:36 AM   #12
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Thanks for posting the videos. A lot of work goes into the process.
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Old 02-24-2021, 03:42 PM   #13
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Thanks for posting the videos. A lot of work goes into the process.
It sure does....

What they don't show in these videos is the "back shop manufacturing". Everything from building cabinets, building ceiling joists, building wiring harnesses are all done "away from the assembly line. All of those shops "build components" for every Keystone line. Just imagine how confusing it would be to be building, staining and finishing Hideout cabinet doors on Monday and then switch to Montana cabinet doors the next day, completely different sizes, different colors, even different materials....

Then top it all off with "procurement"... imagine having to order all the parts, coordinate delivery of all the components to the line so there's no delays and no extra parts laying around. Building 2 axle trailers and having 3 axles for each unit delivered comes to mind. Or how about building 3 axle trailers and having 2 axles for each unit delivered... At 22 units a day, that's a shortage of 22 axles, just on that one line... It's not as easy as it looks in the videos, just keeping the right number of water heaters, stoves, air conditioners, doors, windows in each size, the correct pieces of molding for interior and exterior trim and even saving the "carpet cutout" for Montana units to be moved to the Cougar line where they are used in the bedroom of Half Ton models, but are too small for Cougar models....

It would be a "nightmare" to try to orchestrate all of that so it happens every day without shutting down even one worker's supplies......

I couldn't/wouldn't know where to start....
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Old 02-28-2021, 08:14 AM   #14
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Many Amish ride to and from job sites driven in vans. Slang term is “Yoder toters” very common in states like Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania with large Amish populations.
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Old 02-28-2021, 09:00 AM   #15
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Did I miss the quality control folks? Did not notice anyone checking/verifying the work
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Old 02-28-2021, 09:55 AM   #16
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On YouTube there is an older video taken at a Jayco facility. Workers are running on the assembly line. Worth watching for comparison. Zero QC.
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Old 02-28-2021, 12:09 PM   #17
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Quote:
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Did I miss the quality control folks? Did not notice anyone checking/verifying the work
Yep, you missed the quality control inspectors... They are there... in some videos you can see the "bright orange Post It dots" on various parts, screws, a scratch in the FILON, or on a window that's not installed centered... Next time you watch a video of a Keystone line, keep an eye out for "orange dots" in strange places.... That's the Quality Control Markers....
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Old 02-28-2021, 01:12 PM   #18
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Thanks for sharing!

No wonder why we have so many issues, look how fast they are working and moving in the first video. Lol. Thanks for sharing. I work for a large manufacturer of farming equipment so I enjoy seeing the manufacturing process in other industries.
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Old 02-28-2021, 01:14 PM   #19
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No wonder why we have so many issues, look how fast they are working and moving in the first video. Lol. Thanks for sharing. I work for a large manufacturer of farming equipment so I enjoy seeing the manufacturing process in other industries.
That's because they get paid by the units out the door & once they've met their daily quota they're free to go home.
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Old 02-28-2021, 01:20 PM   #20
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That's because they get paid by the units out the door & once they've met their daily quota they're free to go home.
I was talking about the video being sped up.
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