Bravest,
There are 2 a/c & 2 heater units, one set for the front and one set for the rear so even with the pocket door closed there is plenty of climate control. But with the two large escape windows in the rear bedroom plus the individual windows in the bunks there was never an issue with ventilation. Those rear windows are larger than they appear (maybe 14" x 24").
My original plan was to have larger windows in the sleeper section but when we took the interior panels off and saw all the steel structure that we would have to remove, we decided to stay with the oem windows. I could not beleive how many steel cross members and such were on those sleeper walls. If we were to do the same design over I would have cut the sleeper off and just made the box longer for 2 reasons. One is we could then have made the windows as large as we wanted and the other is it would have given us a bit more interior width up there since the sleeper tapers inward from bottom to top. As far as the passengers (i.e. my kids) view goes they were always watching the tv that is just above the windshield or sleeping.
I was never worried about anything stronger in the rear since there is a 1" thick steel plate welded to the frame members for the mounting of the 40,000 pound hitch. I never came close to backing into anything but someone did back into me and dented the corner. It is just formed sheetmetal so it was easy to remove and replace with a new piece.
As far as changes goes, I would use an AquaHot system for the hot water and heat instead of LP furnaces. They are too loud and inefficient.
Overall I was very pleased with everything. I loved the way the Volvo chassis drove but with 500 HP and 12 spd auto anything would be. It was extremely easy to drive. I would change the 2 front seats for something better. There are a few other things but nothing major. I plan on using a new Volvo 670 for the new one since I am cutting the sleeper off.
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2005 Kingsley Coach
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