Factory tours?

I have done the KW Chillicothe tour twice. Once watching a group of my fleets trucks getting assembled and once during training. Also took tour of Peterbilts Denton assembly plant during customer appreciation event. Very similar plants. Workers at KW nicer, non UAW. Hell I know of a guy who wanted to haul his peterbilt glider from Denton. They wouldn't let him on lot cause he was non union. Had to hire someone to tow it off the lot!

 

Chillicothe one was, but have to schedule it. Not sure on Renton. Hell, give them a call!

 

They will give you a tour. It is not open to public as in walk off the street. But if you call and tell them what your trying to do they will usually accommodate. Anytime I went was to see my equipment assembled. But it’s not limited to that.

 

I have done the Peterbilt Denton tour. Pretty #### cool. The new truck 579/567 cab assembly is crazy quick. Entire dash assembly swings in as one unit. 30 seconds to mount it. Access transportation has the contract to move all the new Petes. They sure don't like a customer coming in and moving their own truck.

 

If you’ve never seen it done before and are into trucks then it’s def something you should do. It’s very cool to see the process, and learn the history. I’ve never done a plane tour but I’m sure that’s awesome as well.

 

Might be taken as a cop out answer but...I'd call whatever factories you want to visit. As the posters above me noted you may have to schedule it, or call when on way. I know in my travels a lot of the factories I've come across(non-truck related) usually have the policy of "If we're not stupid busy, we'll give you a tour" but don't go out of their way to advertise it either.

Worse case they say no. Best case they say yes an it's free to boot! If it was me tho...I'd visit a whiskey, beer, potato chip, pretzel, etc factory. You normally get a free sample. Doubt WS will let ya just roll out with a truck as a gift for taking the tour. At lest not without buying it or making you take a loan. haha!

I'm sure you'll find plenty that would be happy to give a tour. Not like they got bus tons of tourists stopping in daily bugging them. Probably be something they welcome. due to the rarity.

Good luck and be sure to report back if you find any that do offer tours.

Sirscrapntruckalot - Why is it called tourist season if we can't shoot them? - The Internet( Read that as : not me. )

 

That is actually one of my bucket lists. I would love to visit Peterbilt or KW and see first hand the assembly. But I don't think that will ever happen. Best I can do is try and find videos.

Mack I think had Assembly in either Allentown or Hagerstown with Bodies built north and WEST of Ronoke that was delivered by me into NC via Fancy Gap to be assembled into Mack Trucks but I was not allowed into the facility itself. That particular run did not go well due to excessive waiting at the dock at the shipper up there leading to a late delivery due to no sleep and a attempt to complete the trip after being up 20 hours straight and then driving all those mountain miles. Its not one that worked out very well at all.