Comment on my new design

[llamadave]

Been working hard the last week with Huntington on a Sprinter EB Sportsmobile design. Please check it out: http://www.davidelmore.com/Sportsmobile.html. I welcome your comments. I have not seen before a design like this with a large storage cabinet in the rear over the foot of the bed.

I have some particular questions.

Has anyone positioned a table between the two front seats? It seems to me that this is the only configuration where the person in the driver seat can get in and out without removing the table.

Does anyone have a sliding screen door? There would be a permanent screen on the half of the door behind the counter, and the other half would slide to the left on the outside of the stationary half.

Will I need a block heater for starting in cold weather (we get below zero in Indiana)? If so, do you recommend a heater that bolts to the block or one that splices into a cooling water line?

David

[BroncoHauler]

Herb

[LenS]

The 40" wide dinette seems tight to me though part of it does not have walls in the shoulder zone. Our dinette is 50" wide w walls on both sides (kind of like a booth). Fine for one person per side but just usable for an occasional 4 people. I would look closely at that area to make sure it is meeting your needs.

[Ford_6L_E350]

Let me borrow it for a week and I will tell you what I think.

Seriously, it looks quite functional. I think 40" is tight for the dinette side-by-side seating but quite useable for one on each side.

Mike

[Spenard]

Nice plan but i agree on the booth width. We have a RB Sprinter with PT with a similar dinette configuration but ours is 42" wide with no enclosure above 36" on either side. It is snug for two adults on one side. That 14" below the closets to the bed sure will be snug for making the bed. We use a temperpedic 2 inch mat on ours. Besure to get a tilt for the tv so you can watch it easily while laying in bed. Theres a lot of weight in your build out and equipment so I assume you are going with dual rear wheels.

BTW think about not getting the button tucks on the seats which seems to be an Indianna thing from the pics I have seen of their productions. They are not comfortable to sleep on and they snag clothing.

SMB CA was great to work with on ours and I suspect Indiana will be too.

Best wishes!

[llamadave]

Thanks for your comments. I need to tell more about our planned use. Mostly my wife Janet and I will be by ourselves but will every now and then have two grandchildren with us. Actually I expect we may not even use the dinette all that much with just the two of us. The dinette in our big rig is 40 inches wide. Moving to a Class-B requires lots of compromises and I expect to be squeezed in many ways.

We sleep with fitted bottom sheets and a loose comforter on top without a top sheet. We will leave the sheet on the back part of the bed most of the time and can reach from the back doors when making it up.

Yes I am ordering a dually and the 11,030 lb GVWR.

Nancy at Huntington has been great!

David

[jage]

I think the front seats in that configuration are a bit wishful thinking. With the cabinet behind the driver seat and the steering wheel I've never bothered to turn mine around. Or sideways. Cocking it about 7º is about as much as I bother with. I'm not saying it wouldn't be possible, but while we spin the passenger seat around at ever stop, the driver seat is a much different story.

We never needed block heaters in Indiana on gassers. If you're getting a diesel you should have one anyway, a gasser should be fine with a 100w bulb if it's 10 below. Then again if you're getting a diesel you can kill two birds with one stone and get the espar, cabin heat plus prewarming the engine.

Taking the grand kids is laudable, but make sure the non-forward facing seats are pre-approved by the parents... Don't want to get the thing built and have an issue with safety that wasn't an issue in your larger motorhome.

[LenS]

Roof vent: Fantastic Vent 6600R/417 ? Pricy but the best.

[LenS]

Since you are now retired, are you planning any "go-go" years? That is travel the USA/Canada for several months at a time? Parks w full hock-ups a must or will you be using dry camping while traveling? The above would impact your van design perimeters. Looks like one priority you have is having the grandkids with you. If they will be buckled into the belts in the dinette area you might want to consider some form of wall padding. Passengers can get thrown around in side facing seats during starting and stopping. With your experience w larger RV's you might already have experience in this area.

[llamadave]

Our current big rig is a Ford F-550 towing a 39' "horse trailer" with a large living quarters and 8x10 space in the back for toys or llamas. We mostly do not ride in the trailer and have no experience with safety of riding in a side facing dinette. I realize this can be dangerous. Bringing along grandkids is not our highest priority (parking in their driveway is, however). So if deemed not safe by their parents, we will not take on riders, no big problem. The padding idea sounds good.

Yes, we do like to dry camp. We lived 6 months in our trailer in 2004 when I was on sabbatical, without hookups about a third of the time. It has 80 gal fresh water and 26 gal gray and black tanks. We can't match that in the Sprinter but will try to get as large as possible. We plan to take it to Alaska.

Our MB dealer will install an engine coolant heater that will be included in the MB warranty.

We considered the suspension seats but the dealer said only the long-haul commercial drivers get them and almost all RVers get the swivel seats (you can't have both). I think the ride will be better than our F-550. I will go to Huntington again soon and spend more time swiveling in the seats to see what configurations up front will work for us.

Thanks for all your input.

David