We're in Kansas City, Missouri.

Beautiful Kansas City, Missouri.

And we're very excited because we are at the Ford Assembly Plant where

they make a Transit Chassis that we use on the Wonder motorhomes

and we're going to go through a tour

of the entire factory. We are very excited!

Okay, I've got all my safety gear on

We're going to go through the entire manufacturing plant.

They have 1200 acres of manufacturing facility area.

So this is the largest Factory in North America.

They've built the F-Series chassis here

for 41 years!

and of course, they started building the Transit Chassis here in 2013

and this is where it all begins

They make the floor plans right here

All done by computers

They have a laser cutting machine

and this is where it all starts

to build the Transit Cutaway Chassis and in 13.1 hours, we're gonna have a

completed Transit Cutaway Chassis

as you can see behind me, those are called

'Godzilla robots'. Most factories might have 1.

This plant has 6.

The Transit is the most complex build that Ford has with over 2,000

variances of build,

so 6 'Godzilla machines' building the Transit.

Now that's very cool!

They build the Transit Van Chassis and the Cutaway Chassis all in

the same assembly line. So depending on the mix of build, similar to what we do

at Leisure when we have different floor plans and we mix the build, they do the

exact same thing here at the factory so that is very cool.

Now you can see these are some of the finishing robots in this area

There's one of our Cutaway Chassis

Getting made. So you can see, the box tubular steel steel chassis framing all

welded construction. You can see the robots are getting it ready for final finish.

Very cool.

TIG welding MIG welding and fuse welding makes the Transit

Chassis super-strong.

so this is one of the DC tools that they use here at the

factory. They don't use any torque wrenches anymore,

so everything is done

right here by this machine

if I don't torque this at the correct pressure,

lights are coming on and we have a problem.

so, very cool that everything is done

precisely on all the Transit Chassis.

I love that.

So this is why they don't

have me working in the factory

because I have 1 minute and 30 seconds to do my job.

I would never get it done in time!

1 minute 30 second move times.

we're in trim shop, they have nine different

assembly lines coming in here to finish the units

there's a hundred different pieces

of glass they have to choose from

and they have to get the units all done

Above me is their hour clock of how many units that they have to be building

every single day

and right now they're a little behind.

probably because I'm here, disturbing the whole system.

As you can see, the mix of the different Transit

vehicles that they make down the assembly line.

There's one of our Cutaway Chassis

With a diesel engine, 178 inch wheelbase,

you see all the box tubular steel

framing, spot welded.

see the beautiful structures that we have that we can put the floor on.

That's one good-looking Chassis.

So this is where they put the windshield on

As you can see, on the Transit Chassis

The Chassis stops, it goes around

The windshield goes in. They do a picture of it.

If the frame isn't perfect, it won't install the windshield.

Very ingenious.

You're probably wondering, 'where do all these parts come from?'

They have a MSC center

that is the size of 3 football stadiums

that they collect all

the parts.

Behind us is the Material Sequencing Center (MSC)

and all these

carts that you see going by us

are all the parts that are coming into the main factory.

So they get pulled in the exact sequence so that every single trim kit

and windshield in part comes from the assembly line just in time they don't

allow any forklifts that could damage parts or people. All done with little trollies

that bring the parts from the MSC centers. This factory is incredible.

Behind me are the 'clam shells' that actually pick up the Chassis so there's

sensors in the floor. If I were to step outside the yellow line, it would stop it

and stop the assembly line

and I would be thrown out of here like that.

so stay inside the yellow line.

I'm now in the Chassis Shop. They called the de-skin area

so the entire motorhome has gone through all the different areas.

Through paint,

through final trim, and glass

the 'clam shells' come over,

Up on the clam shells there's different wheel bases

They have to tell the clam shell which wheelbases it is.

We build on the 178 inch wheel base.

And then it's going to take it off the skids and put it

up int he air.

now you can see the Chassis is raised up in the air, there's one of our beautiful

Cutaway Chassis.

Anything that goes underneath the chassis this is where

they put the fuel lines on, all the brackets here to get that ready for all

the axles and things that are going to get installed next.

Pretty cool to see it

coming down the line in the air

So in this area here, they're

getting all the breaks and the hub's ready to go, and on the Transit

that we order, we have 4 all-wheel disc brakes.

Okay, so this is the decking area.

We've got about 16 decking carts.

If you look around that's where they put

the bottom part (the motor, the transmission, the axles, driveshaft) all

gets done and then we're going to install it into the Chassis.

so it'll stop about six inches short before they install it now they'll go

inside and connect the shifter cables into the transmission and then they're

like fully install it up into the Chassis.

So you can see, we got one out of

our Cutaway Chassis coming down the line in this area here, they're putting

tailpipes on anything below it, and of course the Ford front grill

so everything's gonna go on. They're getting ready to put the lights on next

They're getting ready for the headlamps to go on and seats are gonna go in next

you can see the lower suspension. Leaf spring suspension with heavy-duty shock absorbers.

so now we have to get the tires put on to

the Transit Chassis. They go through almost 5,000 tires a day putting them on

the Transit Vans and the Cutaway Chassis.

Is that not crazy?

and of course we use a

16 inch tire in all of our Transit Chassis. And that's all done right here

This is where the last move station is before it comes off the line

as you can see it's

always moving as it comes down. So they're going to put fuel in, diesel fuel

about six gallons. Fill up the DEF and then they're gonna fire it up for the

first time and drive it off the line so all the final inspections are done

making sure that everything is perfect before it gets shipped to us,

so we can build a beautiful motorhome on top of it.

we're at the end of the assembly line, and I'm gonna

start this baby up and drive it off the assembly line.

it started! Is this not cool?

Being able to see a new baby born. From start to finish.

Very exciting!

So once again, we come off the final assembly line and then it's got to go

into testing you can see they're making sure that everything's working they're

aligning the headlights making sure that everything is fully functional on the

Chassis. Of course, before it gets shipped.

Now we gotta simulate road speed.

so they lock in these place and got the rollers, they're gonna fire that up

make sure that everything is working

They're going to run it at full highway speed.

so now that we road tested the Chassis, made sure that everything is fully

functional, now it comes to the CAL line because we're not done yet this is

the 'Customer Acceptance Line'.

So it has to come from there, onto this line

where all the Ford inspectors go through the entire Chassis with a fine-tooth comb

They're looking for pain scratches, or any defects. Anything that isn't

working correctly, then it's going to be repaired before it you go to our customer.

This is a very important part is why Ford quality is at the top of the

industry, because they do this check now. Not later.

Okay so CAL line. This is the CAL 2 line. Over and above

customer service, customer quality. It takes a picture of every single unit as it

comes off this assembly line to make sure that all the right options were on it.

Well, that's what Ford quality is all about.

You can see, here's one of my

Cutaways coming down the line, and of course on our Ford Transit Chassis we

order the diesel 5-cylinder engine. 185 horsepower, 350 foot-pounds of torque,

six-speed automatic transmission, we've got the SYNC 3 navigation system, we load

these Chassis up, so they're perfect for our end customer.

We're still not done testing yet.

We're now in the, what we would call the 'rain shower' in our factory,

but this where they do high-pressure water testing, you can see the

water nozzles behind me.

They're going to water test the entire Chassis to make

sure that there's no water leaks at all.

Very cool.

Hey, I want to thank Mike for taking us to the factory at Ford here in Kansas City.

It was fabulous.

And what a beautiful facility where they build the Transit Chassis for us.

And I'm just looking at the Ford mission statement:

"Our mission is to produce vehicles that meet or exceed our

customers and stakeholders expeditions in a safe and rewarding environment."

Let me tell you, this plant does that.

What an incredible build.

Incredible people that work here.

Over 8,000 people,

they run basically 24 hours a day

with the F-150 series, 7 days a week.

Correct.

Wow, what an incredible factory.

Incredible facility.

The largest Ford factory in North America by the way.

And Mike is great, he's been working here for:

Twenty nine and a half years.

Twenty nine and a half years! And the guy looks like he's 25 years old.

How does that happen? Thank you very much.

It's been our pleasure to have you here too in Kansas City.

Thank you very much, you have

Mike from Ford

and Dean from Leisure Travel Vans!