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| 2010 TOUR: Chalet RV |
| Gordon White | Friday, 23 July, 2010 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Truck Camper Magazine visits Chalet RV in Albany, Oregon and finds their new TS116 triple slide and DS116RB double slide campers on the production line. ... ...  Last November, Chalet RV shocked the truck camper community when they debuted the TS116. Here was Chalet RV, a company that had never before built a hard side truck camper, debuting the largest hard-side truck camper on the market, an 11' 6" triple slide! A few weeks later, we got to see the Chalet RV TS116 prototype for ourselves at the 2009 RV Trade Show in Louisville, Kentucky. There was little doubt that Chalet RV had something exciting on their hands. Since that time, about a dozen 2010 TS116 and DS116RB truck campers have left the Chalet RV factory. The focus at Chalet RV today is to steadily increase the quantity of their production while maintaining the quality of the finished campers, a challenge every growing truck camper manufacturer faces. To see this careful balancing act first hand, we visited Chalet RV and spent two days with their management and camper production teams.
LEFT: Chalet RV consists of two buildings. The first building holds Chalet’s business offices and the production lines for folding trailers and truck campers. CENTER: The second building features Chalet RV’s cabinetry shop and vacuum bond lamination areas. There’s also a small fifth wheel production team in the second building. Between the two buildings is where Chalet RV keeps inventory prior to shipping. There we spotted one Oregon Camper and one TS116. Chris Hanson, President of Chalet RV, explained that the Oregon Camper has been put on hold while the team re-evaluates the design and the market for hard-side pop-up truck campers. Carl Kern, Chalet RV’s Product Development Manager, later said that he’s got big ideas for the Oregon Camper, but the time isn’t right. RIGHT: The TS116 in the yard was built for a customer in the Middle East and had some unusual electrical outlets and other details we had never seen before in a camper. Inside the factory was another TS116 destined for the Middle East. Both campers had some enormous transformers to make the necessary voltage adjustments.
The last time we visited Chalet RV, they had two stations building Oregon Campers one at a time. On this visit, we were excited to see a production line for the TS116 and DS116RB campers. One TS116 was nearly completed and a DS116RB wasn’t too far behind. The third camper on the line was a TS116 waiting for slide-outs.
We talked at length with Carl Kern about his plans to speed production through design and process management. After our first day in the plant, Carl even moved the campers to improve the production workflow. Keep in mind that Chalet RV is just over six-months into building it’s first line of hard-side campers. As with any company that tackles a dramatically different product line, growing pains are bound to happen as demand picks up. With Carl’s design and process management strategy in place, Chalet RV is on it’s way to meet the demand without sacrificing quality.
When I asked Carl about designing with SolidWorks, he opened a new file and took me through the basic steps to designing with the program. It was stunning to see how fast Carl was able to render and detail an object. With in a few minutes, he had completed a three-dimensional model of a random part that was sitting on his desk. Then Carl took me through the SolidWorks model of the TS116 triple slide and showed me various details that make the camper structurally sound. He started with the interlocking walls, side floors, and other bulkheads. He then showed me how the floor is strengthened using a secret method. Following the digital fly through of the triple-slide, Carl loaded some other camper models into SolidWorks. These models only exist as digital files on Carl’s computer, but he was able to show me how they would look, how different parts would work, open, and close. It’s as if he was able to try out the camper before physically building it. How long until we can throw on a pair of goggles and see these campers in virtual reality? Next we’ll able to get into our virtual campers and go to virtual destinations and hang out with our virtual friends. Red pill or green pill Neo? I’ll stick with the real thing, thank you.
If you talk with Gary Hubbard, Chalet RV’s General Manager, he’ll tell you that Chalet’s new triple slide and double slide camper designs would not be possible without the use of Lippert’s new slide mechanism. LEFT: While we were at the factory, I asked to see one of the new slide mechanisms as they come from Lippert. Barry Lindholm got one down from inventory and left it for us to check out. The new Lippert slide looks more like the frames used for mounting large flat panel televisions on the wall than a camper slide mechanism. The new slide is also very light and balanced in the hand. Gary said each slide mechanism weighs twenty-seven pounds. CENTER: What I’m pointing to here is the motor used for the Lippert slide. It’s very small and light weight, especially compared to the motors used in other slide mechanisms. RIGHT: Here the slide mechanism has been installed on a TS116 on the Chalet RV production line. You can clearly see the unique gears that hold the slide room as it slides in and out from the sides like a drawer.
The woodshop and lamination teams were not only right where we left them in 2007, but most of the same people were at the same posts. LEFT: Aaron Engel was working on what the industry calls a head knocker. A head knocker is the cushioned arch above the interior camper door. As someone who is 6’ 3” tall and enters and leaves a lot of truck campers, I regularly put head knockers to the test. CENTER AND RIGHT: Jeremy Buys and Phillip Connelly were building LP boxes and cabinetry for a folding trailer. This is the same team that builds cabinetry for Chalet RV’s camper line.
During out visit, the Chalet RV lamination team was working on a set of floors for Chalet RV’s folding trailer line. Where the Chalet RV truck campers are framed in aluminum, the pop-up trailers are framed in wood. With the exception of the wood frame, the following lamination process is very similar to what Chalet RV uses for an aluminum framed truck camper. LEFT AND CENTER: In these photographs, you can see Randy Scharpen applying the adhesive to luan plywood panels and the exterior frame. RIGHT: After the first layer of luan and the frame are in place, the insulation is installed.
LEFT: The first layer of luan was immediately fastened in place to ensure that it would not move during the lamination process. CENTER AND RIGHT: As adhesive is applied to the luan plywood panels, the panels are placed onto the floor assembly layer by layer. While it may look like Terry Chapin is casually throwing these luan layers into place, this team has been building walls and floors for years and their precision is very impressive to watch.
LEFT: With the adhesive activated and the panels fully assembled, Randy and Terry pulled the blue vacuum bag over the table. Once the bag covers the table, the bag is tucked and latched to the table sides to create the vacuum seal. CENTER: Once the vacuum is applied, you can clearly see the assembled panels inside the vacuum bag. When the adhesive has completely cured, the vacuum will be released and the panels will be routed for the production line. RIGHT: In the building with the camper production line, laminated camper side walls, rear walls, slide walls, and other wall components are stacked and ready to go.  The aluminum frames for Chalet RV’s truck campers are welded about twenty-five feet from the camper production line by Sean Merton.
LEFT: Slide-out rooms get more and more complex each year. In a way, they’re turning into little truck campers themselves in terms of the layers involved in their production. Here Zach Vargas is installing the exterior trim on a rear sofa slide destined for a TS116. CENTER: By no small margin, the basement in the TS116 is the largest in the truck camper industry. If you look closely at this photograph, you’ll see Alex Matkin’s legs as he works to install the black and grey tanks. You can also see how easy it is to access the electrical systems in the TS116. As a side note, if the Oregon mafia finds out how easy it is to stuff a body or two in the TS116, Chalet RV might get an offer they can’t refuse. RIGHT: John McNabb was one of several new members of Chalet RV’s truck camper production team. Here he’s installing a Rieco-Titan jack. We watched Scott Deckelmann box this model of jacks at Rieco-Titan just a few weeks earlier during our Rieco-Titan tour story.
LEFT AND CENTER: Here’s Chris, Gary, and Carl looking up the back side of a TS116’s basement. They’re looking for opportunities to improve the layout of the electrical and plumbing and further maximize the storage space available to the customer. In the center photograph, Gary is showing Alex Matkin and Patrick O'Donnell some of his ideas on how to better dress the plumbing in a TS116 basement. RIGHT: Here a TS116 sofa slide room is outfitted with a window. Note the Lippert slide mechanisms have already been installed.  There’s no shortage of will to make everything about Chalet RV’s new campers state-of-the-art. Gary’s office was filled to the brim with materials, appliances, and gadgets he’s researching and testing for future versions of the TS116 and DS116RB. On the production line, Carl even showed us a new jack bracket prototype they’re working on. Carl explained that the existing bracket was safe and reliable, but he saw opportunities to improve upon it’s design for Chalet RV’s campers. The photograph above shows the main part of the prototype for the new jack bracket. According to Carl, it won’t be long before they’re using an improved and finished version of this bracket on the production line. Six-months into hard side truck camper manufacturing, Chalet RV is off to a very promising start. They have two extremely compelling truck camper floor plans and several more waiting in the wings. Chalet RV also has the right focus; build their campers with increasing efficiency, but without sacrificing an ounce of quality. If the determination we saw is any indication, we will be seeing many exciting things from Chalet RV for many years to come. For more information about Chalet RV’s truck campers, visit their website at http://www.chaletrv.com/campers.php. For more Truck Camper Magazine articles on Chalet RV, visit www.truckcampermagazine.com/chalet. To join in the discussion about this article, go to our Facebook or Twitter page. |
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