Heed Help

[grace11111]

I am in the process of designing a sportsmobile, Ford regular body. Any advice about top, inside layout, cooling and heating system, windows, etc? Many thanks.

[Skywagon]

See posts started by warholic

[Trek777]

I've been working on designing my SMB over the last two years and am just now about finished. I can tell you from experience that it's best to thoroughly read through everything you can on the Sportsmobile website first. Particularly the DYO pages and PDF downloads. Then try to find users here that have a similar vehicle to what you're interested in and read through their posts. Chances are that someone has already asked your questions.

It's also best to not try to be too original in terms of your interior layout, as you can run into alot of "brick walls" like I did. There are a number of built-in design limitations that are not immediately obvious. Alot of thought has gone into the floor plans they offer. While you can tweak any design, try to find something that's close to what would work for you from the available layouts, keeping in mind that you may only be able to make minor adjustments.

Hope that helps,

David

[Ed in Montana]

Very good points David. I tried to duplicate a center aisle design from a friends older SMB, and could not really do it in a newer SMB, mainly because of the size differences with newer appliances and windows.

Finally I threw in the towel and chose an EB-50 that was 90% of what I wanted anyhow. Thoroughly read the SMB website first, then datamine the threads here and ask owners lots of questions and you will be fine.

[Psomaki]

Grace, first of all, I envy you the process! Our SMB was a great find, purchased used at a really good price, and it offers a lot of what we want, but if we ever design a new one, we'll change some things. To the earlier posts I'd add the following. First, after you get a pretty good idea of what you want, see if anybody with a similar design leves near you. Then try to arrange a visit to look at those folks' SMB. Seeing it "in person" is a great way to evaluate your planning. Second, the choice of roof design is tough. Looks to me like lots more people get the penthouse than purchase one of the permanently raised, solid tops. We got the camper top, now called the "cruiser", and love it because we can always stand up and move around without restriction, even in a parking place in town. BUT - every time we use or WA State ferry system, we pay an extra $11.50 because we are an "over-height" vehicle. Lots of tradeoffs.
Best of luck, and keep us all posted!

[JIMAPAL]

Grace, Like everyone has said here. Mine this forum for every little bit of information. I spent a couple of months reading the forum from end to end. At first I thought I would DYO mine but things just got too complicated and expensive. So since I wanted to be able to walk the length on the van, I finally picked the RB-34 plan and just swapped a couple of cabinets around. Had an accumulator and point of contact water heater (only draws current when the hot side of the faucet is turned on) installed in the water system. Plus a couple of little odds and ends here and there. The process can be almost over whelming sometimes so do get discouraged. Ask Sprotsmobile for help and suggestions. Since I already have a Ford E250 2X4 van that I did the insides of a few years ago, I already had a idea of what I wanted. Now it is just playing the waiting game as my 2009 E350 RB 4X4 is being built in Fresno.
Jim

[deaconband]

Hello,

I am researching buying a used smb. I live in Spokane WA and was curious if there is anyone around my area who I could meet with, check out their rig and talk shop. I'll bring the beers!
thank you for your time.