Touring a Lippert RV furniture factory

The Softer Side of Lippert

Last week we got to tour Lippert Plant 50, where Lippert mattresses and furniture are made.

My mom is a seamstress. Throughout my whole childhood she sewed. She made a lot of our clothes (we cutely always matched), as well as having business making curtains, draperies, backpacks… The sound of a sewing machine would wake me in the morning and lull me to sleep at night. So after we got to tour a couple of noisy, hot welding plants I was thrilled to see something different.

So much fabric!

We started the tour at the fabric storage area. Floor to ceiling, row after row after row there were racks of fabric rolls. It was fascinating to think of using that much fabric in probably just a few days.

Our tour guide told us that he had the idea to test the Lippert fabrics for durability not just in the traditional ways (I picture rubbing the fabric for hours and hours with sandpaper) but also, to see how the different fabrics hold up to such products as sunblock and bug repellant.  It seems so obvious once we heard it, but we never really thought about what we might be putting on our skin, and then onto our chairs and sofas, while we are camping that would probably not ever be a concern in, for example, our office chairs. Some fabrics simply cannot hold up to all those products.

Testing out an RV mattress

One of the things Tony is good at is lieing down on the job and here he practices this skill while also testing out a mattress at the Lippert interiors plant

Fabric of all types

There is a seeming unlimited number of fabrics at the Lippert Furnishings plant. RV manufacturers choose the material and grade of fabric for their RVs

An ocean of foam

The volume of foam padding that comes into the production facility every day is incredible with multiple semi loads per day.

RV mattress choices

While RV mattresses get a bad rap, Lippert actually makes everything from very affordable to quite luxurious. The RV companies themselves make the choice of which model goes into their products.

Detailing the upholstery

One of the professional seamstresses at Lippert working on the upholstery for RV furnishings. The work is very detail-oriented and requires a great deal of skill.

A lot of cushions

Tony standing in front of a mountain of cushions ready to be delivered to RV manufacturers

Programming the cutter

A Lippert team member works on the system taht controls the giant Gerber automated cutting machine that cuts all the fabrics for the upholstery.

Gerber cutting machine

A massive automated cutting machine takes digital input and very precisely cuts the fabric pieces for the furnishings. Watching this machine do its thing is fascinating.

Sewing mattresses

A unique sewing machine on a rotating base allows for very skilled individuals to sew mattresses together.

Tool vending machine

Workers can get new tools to help them do their job in a tool vending machine. The various tools of the upholstering trade are available at a moment's notice.

Foam of all sorts

Lippert will build components to order of specifications of all sorts. Here are just some of the types of foam available for customers in the mattress factory. There are also custom inner spring pieces as well.

Strips of fabric

The automated cutting machine takes huge pieces of material and turns it into a tremendous number of different pieces that are collated and prepped to go upstairs to be sewn together.

Hands on at Lippert RV Owners School

Professionals take all the loose pieces and put them together on an ocean of sewing machines. These highly skilled team members transform the raw little pieces into finished furniture coverings. The sound in this room is like none other with all these very high speed sewing machines buzzing away.

Building folding couches

The final assembly for folding couches makes a huge number of these pieces every day. The couches are built and pacakged ready to go into RVs.

Mattresses

Next we got to see the mattress-making process. Some mattresses are made with innersprings, others with various thicknesses and densities of foam.

These guys aren’t laying down on the job as once again Lippert’s innovation shines through. Foam rubber has been difficult to get over the past couple years, so they tried using an inner core made of a material similar to pool noodles. That polyethylene foam provides a firmness, and is covered by memory foam or other materials that are more comfortable to rest on.

The mattress sewing machines also fascinated me. The machines are mounted vertically, and controlled by a knee pedal. The people running the machine have to walk, knee-control, and pull the fabric together all at the same time. It looks like hard work!

We saw a pillow-stuffing machine, which squeezes down the padding so it fits into the casing easier. Sadly, nobody was stuffing pillows so we didn’t get to see it in action.

Seamstresses

Upstairs, a huge sewing room houses hundreds of machines. Everyone (that I noticed) works standing up. The machines are grouped into three “inside stitching” machines and a top-stitcher. Like in other processes we’ve seen, these seamstresses work together putting together furniture coverings. Cushions get stuffed, then take a ride on a big slide to the downstairs where they are assembled onto the frames.

A cut above

Tony’s favorite part of the tour was the machine that cuts the large rolls of fabric into the pieces required to make cushion covers. Like a CNC machine for fabric, this machine cuts pieces designated by a computer program. The pieces are separated from their protective backing and sorted into sets, to be sent to the sewing machines.

After we saw the production, we spent a few minutes in a room full of beds. Those mattress samples are set up for manufacturing customers to test and decide which mattresses they want to supply on their RV beds.

Let’s be real, here

Now, before you get mad, please let me explain a couple things. First, Lippert makes whatever type of mattress a manufacturer wants them to make. They certainly can, and do, make very high-quality mattresses for customers who want them. Secondly, it’s important to understand the RV industry’s decision-making. It’s very nearly impossible to make a mattress that everyone, or even a majority of everyone, will like. One of the first things many RV customers do is remove that mattress and buy one to their liking. Knowing this, it makes sense that a manufacturer will choose to spend less on the provided mattress than putting a lot of effort into something that only a small percentage of people will find perfect. They allow you to be your own princess, and bury your own pea.

So why have a mattress at all? Well, there are those few who like it just fine. And others who are happy adding a mattress pad (we used a three-inch pad for several years) instead of complete replacement. So, the odds are good enough for the manufacturer. And really, when you spend your first night in your new RV wouldn’t you rather sleep on a thin mattress than on a frame?