[A/S] Jackson Centre

["John P Sargeant" <sargeant@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I was coming back from Texas with my son and a 20' Ryder Truck on I75 
a few days ago. I took the oppurtunity to drop into the Airstream 
factory. I was most impressed.
I was greeted warmly. (The thermostat in the show room was on the 
fritz and it must have been 80F in there !!) Kidding aside, what a 
nice bunch of people. 
I had called before and the tour took off at 2:00 PM with a kindly 
gentleman in charge. The tour was very small, just me for the first 15 
minutes until we were joined by a couple from Dayton. 
The facility in Jackson Centre is divided into two areas, 
service and the factory. The factory makes both motor homes and 
trailers. I was only interested in trailers and on realizing that I 
had a 74 International, the guide made ongoing comparisons between my 
trailer and the current production. 
You can see an excruciating attention to detail. I gained a much 
higher regard for the trailer we all love.
Anyway, I found out why the end panels on the trailer are a slightly 
different gleam than the middle panels. That's cause they are 
stretched when they are formed. Never thought of that.
The other difference that was pointed out is that the narrow trailer 
doesn't have a middle roof section, it has a series of beams running 
from starbord to port edges of the floor.. Now there are a pair of 
beams that run the length of the trailer at the top of the wall curve 
and then a middle section is inserted. That's how they gain the extra 
width in the "wide bodies".
For historic purposes, there is no 2001 Airstream Calender.
Final comment:
If you ever get the chance to visit the factory, do so..........Now 
where did I put the two shirts, bottle of polish, and floor mat I 
bought in the tuck shop.