In touring the John Deere stamping facility and manufacturing plants in Horicon, WI, earlier this summer, we had a unique opportunity. We got to “follow” a part—a piece that makes up part of the front frame on a RSX—that was created in the company’s stamping plant all the way through the manufacturing process until we couldn’t see it anymore after it was covered up by the vehicle’s dash assembly in the final stages of the side-by-side’s build.
It was definitely a new way to tour an off-road vehicle manufacturing plant.
We started in the stamping plant—which pushes 50,000 tons (the company expects to process around 54,000 tons this year) of steel through the facility each year on presses that run 24 hours a day—where we saw all sorts of parts being created, from lawn mower decks to a myriad of other parts for various John Deere products, like the aforementioned lawn mowers, tractors, side-by-sides and Gators.
One of the interesting takeaways from our tour of the stamping facility was that John Deere builds and repairs its own tools used in that factory.
It was also interesting to see the huge rolls of steel—in varying widths—used to make all the various parts the plant produces. One of the rolls we saw weighed 5,000 plus pounds. Those rolls are placed on a unit that feeds the stamping machine, which are scattered all over the stamping facility.
Once over at the manufacturing facility, which is about a mile long and half-mile wide and located in downtown Horicon on the banks of the Rock River, we watched a utility side-by-side being built. The RSX line was idle the day of our tour but there were several vehicles in various stages of being built still on the manufacturing line. The RSX line not being active the day of our tour actually allowed us to see our part more closely during the process.
