late build date

[i82much]

I just noticed my 2016 was built in october of 2016. I would have thought they were building 2017's by then. Was there something unusual about the model changeover last year?

[revrnd]

They didnt start building '17s until around the 24th of Oct'.

[i82much]

They didnt start building '17s until around the 24th of Oct'.

Thanks, I tried googling that but failed. I actually worked at the Broening Hwy Plant in Baltimore for a few summers when they were building the Astro/Safari, and from what I recall the changeover was always during the summer. I am sure there is some reason why they built the 2016's out until October, probably a little delayed getting the new Duramax engine ready for prime time.

[redwngr]

Probably delayed the HD changeover because the L5P or something else they changed to support it wan't ready to be shipped.

 

 

Used to be that all, or nearly all, plants did changeover at the same time. Typically the OEM's took the same 2 week summer shutdown -- which was handy for the autopart supplier businesses. Most ship to multiple OEM's and had parts on multiple platforms, and having a common summer shutdown made it possible to tackle maintenance and changeover projects that could not be done over a weekend.

 

Shutdown might be longer in years that changeover required major changes to plant equipment.

[i82much]

ok, makes sense. i am not too worried about it since the model year mostly affects resale and it is hard for me to believe i will need more truck any time soon. to think for 35 grand you can get a crew cab 3/4 ton 4x4 with a 360 hp engine that will last forever, 4.10 gears, a six speed auto and a locker, from my perspective that is an awful lot of truck for the money.

 

if all goes according to plan, i will trade it in on a 2036 model once she has about 300k miles, 10,000 trout, and 30 or so mule deer on her.

[revrnd]

Before my stints in the assembly plants in Oshawa, I thought the same. My father who spent most of his career in LD truck tooling here, said a few years before I started, the introduced the rolling model change. This was quite common in the 70s and early 80s when they was very little change between model years. With no real tooling changes involved no major downtime was needed. The 2 week shutdown was used for maintenance work. The RMC could happen before or after the 'shutdown'.

 

I wasn't involved with the RMCs but the drill went like this, 'old' & 'new' parts would be on the plant floor. When the last 'old' truck was built, the plant would stop while mat'l handling rearranged the stock (removing any excess old/obsolete stock) and when that was done thru the plant, operations resumed.

 

Also, a lot of tooling work was done on 'long weekends' in advance of changeovers to allow debugging & verification.

[newdude]

Do you have a crew cab? Crew cab build out date was 10/28/16. Double and regular cab build out was 9/9/16. They started 2017 trucks 10/24/17 for regular and double, and 10/31/16 for crew cab. That seems to be the norm more or less lately, I think because crew cab are the top selling body style so they'd rather run them another couple weeks to keep stock on hand at dealers. Also, crews roll out of Flint where the others roll out of Ft. Wayne.

 

EDIT: By crew I mean HD crew. 1/2 ton crew are mainly Silao, Mexico, though some roll out of Flint.

[i82much]

Yes, crew cab 2500 HD work truck 4x4, built 10/18/2016. Is that the date it comes off of the line? That would seem to make the most sense.

[newdude]

Yes, crew cab 2500 HD work truck 4x4, built 10/18/2016. Is that the date it comes off of the line? That would seem to make the most sense.

 

I believe so. Usually from looking at the parts sequence scans, they are typically that day if not late the day before.