Winnebago’s RV Shaker Table vs. Stef’s Car Sickness

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If I sacrifice my wife in the name of RV science (and laugh my way through it), does that make me a terrible husband? Watch this video and judge for yourself:

I found the whole experience to be like an amusement park ride. Stef was less amused. And the less amused she got, the funnier I thought the whole thing was.

OK. I’m a terrible husband.

But the bigger picture here – as with all of these “Winnebago Versus” videos – is that they built a facility to run these kinds of tests in the first place. I can tell you for a fact that not all manufacturers have something like this.

In software, there’s a saying we use when we can’t duplicate a problem in a test environment. It’s called “testing in production”. It means “we *think* we know what caused the problem, and we *think* we’ve fixed it – but we won’t really know until you let everyone use it.”

So, when you’re bouncing down the road in your RV, with your belongings and your loved ones siting underneath the TV… are you “testing in production”? Or has your manufacturer already done this testing for you?

Something to think about.

(And yes, it’s taken several months for Stef to stop reminding me about this.)

James

James is a former rocket scientist, a USA Cycling coach, and lifelong fitness buff. When he's not driving the RV, or modifying the RV (or - that one time - doing both at once), you can find him racing bicycles, or building furniture, or making music. In his spare time, he works for a large IT company.

6 thoughts on “Winnebago’s RV Shaker Table vs. Stef’s Car Sickness”

Drew June 23, 2015 at 5:27 am
James,
A while back most major manufacturers had an R & D department. Ford, GM, Chrysler all tested new systems sometimes years before they were going into production. The same was true for G.E. another large companies. I’m sure you’re aware that 2014 was a high water mark for the number of vehicle recalls. Likely some of these would have been avoided with r & d. (The air bag fiasco should never have happened). In reality, consumers are now the “r & d” department.
Drew
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1. James - Post authorJune 23, 2015 at 8:45 am
  And let’s not even get started on “self-driving cars”… Since I work in software and know what most programmers are like – it’ll be a long time before I get into one of those.
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Ted June 23, 2015 at 5:21 am
Looks like any hopes for upgrading to a “4 x 4” chassis for rugged off road adventures in the future have been firmly “shaken” off the table.
I’m sure Stef will find comfort plotting the largest possible object to be placed in her new fridge…….. hmmmm…. how about a watermelon!
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1. James - Post authorJune 23, 2015 at 8:38 am
  She’s actually mentioned using the extra space to store clothes…
  And you’re right. I don’t see us doing much off-roading (sadly).
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Velda Solomon June 23, 2015 at 2:02 am
One man’s amusement ride is a woman’s nightmare. While I would love it, I’m on Stef’s side.
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1. James - Post authorJune 23, 2015 at 8:39 am
  Yeah, Stef’s not much on amusement park rides either.
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