Spartan Chassis Plant Tour (Part 1)

I had the opportunity to tour the Spartan Chassis Assembly plant this morning, while our coach was in for service at the Factory Service Center. Here are some impressions and comments that arose from the tour. Spartan started operations in 1975 when a couple of executives from the Diamond-Reo organization that had gone bankrupt decided to build custom chassis for fire trucks. They have numerous manufacturing plants spread around the Charlotte, MI campus. All plants were amazingly clean and tidy: the proverbial eat off the floor clean. The bulk of the production lines are oriented towards fire truck production with most of the cab outfitting being done on site. The actual “body” is added elsewhere. The cabs move station to station by hand without the use of robotics. This is explained by the fact that the options, sizes and features are so extensive that it would be almost impossible to automate. That being said the production and support equipment is all state of the art. One feature that was really leading edge is that the wiring is all multiplex wiring where digital signals are sent along a common bus or wire and arrive at the appropriate component which interprets this information and acts accordingly. This greatly reduces the number of wires and individual circuits required to operate all of the various components. It also allows diagnosis much like that used in cars and trucks for much more of the systems.  With integration between the chassis builders and body makers this simplicity provides the end users with a quicker diagnosis and a greater chance that the repairs will be completed right the first time. -- R.L.


This is the 1st of 3 parts.
Click here to go to Part 2
Click here to go to Part 3
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