Planning to expand their operations to refinish more than their standard fleet of camping vehicles, Camping World of Madison needed a paint booth large enough to accommodate nearly everything on the road and water.
A Large Equipment Paint Booth from Global Finishing Solutions (GFS) and Platinum Equipment — measuring 60 feet long and 18 feet high — has been plenty big for the task, enabling Camping World to significantly increase throughput with much-improved contamination control and faster curing times.
“This booth operates really well for us because of the size of the vehicles we are finishing. We can get a 50-foot motorhome in the booth and still have space to be able to work around it,” said Ryan Bartlett, Fixed Operations Director of Camping World in DeForest, Wisconsin.
Painting at Camping World was previously done inside a curtained enclosure, forcing technicians to battle dust in the shop, as well as humidity in the summer and freezing temperatures in the winter. It made for an unpredictable environment, and with production-slowing rework, hitting their goal of finishing a couple hundred vehicles a year would have been difficult.
“The booth really helps prevent the need for respraying or doing work over again,” Bartlett said. “And the quick curing times help speed up the process. It makes the process a lot quicker and a lot cleaner, and the booth does everything that we need it for.”
Camping World of Madison is targeted to become the go-to location for Wisconsin-based Camping World locations to send vehicles when body work is needed. Plans also call for operations to scale to be able to refinish everything from semi-trucks to boats, golf carts and cargo trailers.
The Large Equipment Paint Booth’s speedy flash cycle has been most beneficial for eliminating bottlenecks.
“Our paint line changes color as it dries. Being able to flash something really fast to see if it’s a good blend, that makes a huge difference,” said Ben Walsh, head body man for Camping World of Madison. “If you have to wait around half an hour between coats to see what the color is looking like, that slows you down. The flash cycle is five or 10 minutes and we’re good to go.”
