Plant Visit

[KCLOST]

I will be visiting the plant this Friday and taking a tour with Richard Stanley who is the quality manager at the Clinton plant. If anyone would like me to ask some questions to him while I am there, let me know. I believe my boat is in some point of production, not exactly sure, but my main purpose of the visit is to get up to speed on the boats how they are constructed, materials, etc.

[Nailbender8]

PM sent

[Ben Danbleume]

I will be visiting the plant this Friday and taking a tour with Richard Stanley who is the quality manager at the Clinton plant. If anyone would like me to ask some questions to him while I am there, let me know. I believe my boat is in some point of production, not exactly sure, but my main purpose of the visit is to get up to speed on the boats how they are constructed, materials, etc.

Wouldn't that have been better done before ordering?

[BasscatmanQCA]

I also received a tour from Richard. A first class guy!

[KCLOST]

Wouldn't that have been better done before ordering?

Can't argue with that, lol... I have taken this tour before but it has been a few years, just getting a refresher....

[BMCD]

It is cool, I did it back in 2008.

[Nailbender8]

It is cool, I did it back in 2008.

I wish I could do it.

[greg88]

How did the plant tour go would love to hear about it

[KCLOST]

It was very good, and it hasn't changed much since the last visit I took... The boats are all hand made my friends... I paid closer attention to what all was going on this time.
What I learned is that it takes 5 days to make a boat from start to finish. And the TAKT time is around 32 minutes. Meaning every 32 minutes a boat comes off the line. Each Z series bass boat has about 5 sets of molds, at least the Z18 and up do. In each set, there is a mold for the Hull, the top cap, and the stringer structure. And then there are molds for the consoles, etc. So when you take the tour, there are molds everywhere in the plant, each in some point in the manufacturing process. Every mold is a bright orange color and they have small black markings on them to guide the taping required for the gel coat process. It is pretty cool how many people were involved in the process. The last time I was there, production was not happening, so I didn't really get a feel for what happened where. This time there must have been 100-150 people involved in the start to finish process. One side of the main part of the manufacturing area deals with the Hull, the other deals with the top-cap, and as both molds go down the line, they eventually put the 2 together to make the boat. Then the molds go back to another area of the plant to be prepped to start the process all over again. They rig most everything they can even before they put the top cap on the hull. The Trolling motors, seats, and I think I saw even electronics, are mounted prior to that. They have a pretty substantial quality control system, where there are people assigned to only look for any imperfections. And if found the problem is identified, noted and the boat is pulled off the line to an area solely dealing with quality control and re-work if needed.

I was really impressed with the Stringer structure of the boats. This is not at all what I thought it was, and something I did not really see the last time I was there. The stringers do not consist of single pieces that are each glassed into the hull. It is a one piece structure, that is made of fiberglass, composite material, and is really heavy duty! It is lifted into position with a hoist and then every surface to surface contact area is glassed in. They then fill all areas under it with foam. It makes a lot stronger boat, than I ever would have thought. No wood there! The Transom is super thick (close to 2") and 100% composite material that is cut by a CNC machine (one of the few automated processes). No plywood. I'm not sure what material it is, but trust me friends it is tough material! It is not layers of glass or Kevlar, it is a solid piece of composite material.

The only plywood I saw is under the top cap where the trolling motor is mounted and for the inner vertical sides of the rod boxes, and those pieces are glassed in and sealed.
I could go on and on, but if anyone has any questions, I will try my best to answer accurately....
I came away very impressed.

[hatcreek]

Thanks for sharing your experience... I'd like to make that tour one day.

[TMG]

Thanks for sharing. I would love to go there someday.

[dchance]

Any idea how long the current processes have been in place? For example, could I expect my 2010 to have been built the same way or have some procedures and processes changed?

[KCLOST]

Same way...

Richard told me that they "tried" the Resin Injection method about 12-15 years ago on one of the models, probably the 21ft model made back then. This method has a sealed cover that goes over the mold and glass that is put in place, and the resin is injected into the glass. But what they found out was that there were too many inconsistent areas where the glass was not pressed down well enough, or not enough resin, etc. He said that KVD ran one of those boats that year, and it basically "fell apart" and that was Richard's actual words that he used. So that method was axed pretty quick....

The Nitro hulls and top caps are made using sheets of fiberglass, and the resin is hand rolled into the glass, pressing it down against the mold and into the grooves or vortexes...

I did find out that Ranger does it a little differently. They use chop guns, meaning chopped up glass fibers mixed with resin is sprayed onto the molds... I imagine that they press that stuff down with a roller as well after it is sprayed...

[TXZ21]

KCLOST,

Were you allowed to take any pictures while on the tour?

[KCLOST]

No pictures allowed...

[1stindoor]

Thanks for that. I always wanted to do that tour.

[BMCD]

Any idea how long the current processes have been in place? For example, could I expect my 2010 to have been built the same way or have some procedures and processes changed?

What he is explaining is the same as it was back in 2008. Even the same guy, I believe, the same gave my tour in 2008. He use to build MasterCraft boats.

[potomacbassin]

Well it must have changed because there's definitely a big chunk of wood well hidden in my 2015. Not complaining. Just saying.

[Fishysam]

Well it must have changed because there's definitely a big chunk of wood well hidden in my 2015. Not complaining. Just saying.

Lol yeah my 2015 z8 has a big hidden chunk of wood or two, but I did see they advertised a "new all composite deck" with superior thermal properties in the 2018 model year. Wood covered in glass is still composite though

[Jigman78]

And minus the wood and my passager side doesn't have much fiberglass either. The plant might be nice but lord help you if you need warranty work done. I'm not here to bash them but 3 times back to the factory and still cracking in the same spot. Guess I will see if the third time gets me a new hull. When you see daylight though the hull it should be a no brainer but they sprayed clear and some color on it and sent it back. Well it fainted and cracked in 6 mo.