I went on a budweiser factory tour in fort collins. going on that made me wonder- is there a wilderness systems factory tour?
if not, don’t be too sad
lot’s of industrial espionage has happened on tours. Many fewer factories allow touring these days.
nope
we don’t do factory tours. It ain’t really too pretty. lots of big, nasty machines and what looks like kaos as worker bees do their thang. and right now it’s hotter’n heck with humidity and temp both near 100. Imagine pulling an aluminum mold outta a 400 degree oven and pulling a hot plastic boat out of the mold with only a giant fan working at keeping you cool?
steve
Cripes
And my employees (grocery distribution warehouse) are complaining about 85degF/90% RH.
Jim
wimps! (nm)
Besides, your boat was really made by
The Keebler Elves
sounds like a paper mill
tour to me.
now, those are cool.
ever seen a sheet of paper as big as a football field? ok, half as big (but longer)…
hey flatpick:
now that you’ve revealed the alluring working conditions, you left out where to pick up a job application form…
working conditions
Man, if you want to see hard working conditions, try visiting a steel mill. I toured one in PA a number of years ago, and even in the dead of winter, it was practically unbearable. And there’s nothing like dim lighting, incredibly loud machinery, fast moving gentries with huge chains, and molten steel. I figured working in there as a laborer for a year would’ve likely aged one about 5 years, assuming one was lucky enough not to get injured.
But, getting back to boats, the process I’d like to see is the vacuum formed sheet plastic process like Hurricane and others use. I’ve been inside one of the major fiberglass power boat plants, and it was every bit as loud, noxtious and nasty as what Steve describes in rotomolding. Maybe it is best just to see the finished product and envision Keebler elves making all this stuff.
I’d be curious
to see the guy who lost the special wrench that holds the lock nuts on the inside of the SOT eyelet hardware. A local shop has had nearly every WS SOT with a one or two ss screws held on by a few turns and not tightened down all the way. You have to reach in through the little day bag hatch in the cockpit to get to the nut that holds the eyelet on.
LOL
Quite a tool collection
has been accumulated by one dealer I know, from the leftovers inside WS boats they get in. Maybe a quick inspection before they go out the door would pay for itself in tools recovered?
I was wondering
Because the lock nuts were accesible with ones elbow inside the little 4" hatch but they were attached with only a few threads or cross threaded. There were also a few other loose screws like the ones that held the handles. When little details like that pop up you can tell someone isn’t responsible for ensuring the job is completed or are rushed, or the owners of the company really don’t know their product.
A regular socket wrench could do it but I could see someone who has to do a lot of these would have a favorite sized socket wrench to do the job.
And if you have only one of something,and it gets lost, or the fellow who finally found that one favorite wrench gets transfered/fired/promoted/rushed that one wrench dissapears and the standard for assembly is simply “it looks right” because you can’t stop the entire production and shipping for one damn tool.
Jeez, are we picky or what?
There might be a factory tour
but no one will ever know because WS does not answer the phone or return emails. I give them ‘F’ in customer service. They leave it all up to the retailers. Booo, WS.
That may be
– Last Updated: Jul-16-06 3:18 PM EST –
but I love the tarpon sot's for fishing, I haven't had much experience with the rest of the line. hah.
jim
that’s the pisser
lots of good designs, especially the proliferation of rec. boats but the emphasis on claiming market share is sacrificing a lot of follow through.
close to the same
BIG flat ‘pizza oven’. lots of heat on a flat sheet, then the vac mold drops down on hydaulics and viola…a hull or deck pops out. the glue they bond 'em together with, methacyrlate, is waaayyyyy stinky.
same noisy, hot conditions.
steve