We have picked a tentative floorplan for our conversion. Michelle (my wife) made it clear that this rig will have a washer/dryer, dishwasher, king bed and residential fridge. I want to keep the box at 32'/33' to keep the overall length at 43'. We will nix those rear cabinets in the bedroom to get us at about 33'. We need to make some mods to the front cap area since we will use a fairing vs the bunk. I will post a updated plan in a few days
__________________
__________________
2012 Showhauler 28'6" Motorhome on a Columbia w/ 450 Mercedes.
I'm jealous. I wish I could plan my perfect rig with a salesman instead of a mig welder, but hey, someday.
I'm curious why that 2 extra feet is such a big deal? I can't imagine anywhere you can stick a 43' tc into that you can't fit a 45'. Or are you towing a trailer and need to keep total length down? What about one of those rear closet slides that Renegade was doing that stuck out the back to add 2' of floorplan without lengthening the truck? They were making a 45'er into 47'. I'd hate lose all that closet space in such a spacious rig.
Good luck and keep us po' folk posted on your progress.
WP, please consider the booth / couch combo area. Check out my living room we have the same basic Booth layout, the couch is UNCOMFORTABLE for two people watching a movie. Some day soon I am ripping it out and going with two recliners....The booth is OK, the couch stinks......
VERY nice! Personally, I'd give a lot of though to ditching the curbside sofa and extending the kitchen countertop/cabinets to give you more "prep" room... But your priorities may be different.
__________________
-Currently window-shopping for a class8 coach conversion...
Thanks guys for all of the suggestions! Actually alot of the things you guys are bringing up are/where concerns of ours.
We found a compromise on the rear cabinets, these will be 10" deep and the clothes will hang sideways.
Gene on the couch, this is a motorized reclining couch with a foot rest that comes out from underneath. We had something similar in our pusher and I must say it is very comfortable.
Still have the kids around for a few years so got to have that second couch, but your right Michelle is not exactly excited about the limited counter space. We hope to incorporate a pullout cabinet with counter on the end where the pantry is.
I think your right on some of the doors maybe changing to pocket doors, but I have a feeling it might be tough due to increased wall space required for them.
Keep the ideas flowing, I am sure there are many other things I am not thinking about.
__________________
2012 Showhauler 28'6" Motorhome on a Columbia w/ 450 Mercedes.
I like the floor plan, but I wish someone would standardize the terms for sofas that convert to beds (sofa sleeper, jack Knife sofa, hide a bed, easy bed, etc.). Have you picked a chassis?
Yes we do have a king at home, and in an effort to keep the length reasonable we have currently spec'd a queen. The current RV has a small queen and it is ok, we have not totally ruled out a king just yet.
The truck will be a Columbia, there are a few new 08-09 models out there at pretty huge savings. What do you think of your Volvo? What motor & trannie are you running?
3 A/C's, hydronic heat & endless hot water & double insulation. Just coming back from the Southwest and experiencing the crazy heat as well as living in the Northeast we want no issues with heating or cooling.
__________________
2012 Showhauler 28'6" Motorhome on a Columbia w/ 450 Mercedes.
Have been running my Volvo for little over a year now, I like it but I have only had one class A pusher before the Renegade. Has a Volvo 12 speed auto or man trans and 485 hp Volvo engine.
With the bedroom slides a King bed may not work
If you are going to have three a/c units I am pretty sure you will be able to run only two on 50 amp service. I can only run two. I strongly suggest you have them wire one a/c of your choice to that you can operate it as you would have off the coach power (gen set and 50 amp shore) or able to plug it in to it own 20 amp shore. If you will be in extreme heat you may want to run all three units at some point. All three will run off the gen set but dont think you will be able to off 50 amp. Had one of my a/c's re-wired two months ago.........works great and nice to runn all three a/c's off shore power.
Will keep thinking of things mean while feel free to ask questions as you think of them
Ed
just thinking about three airs on the roof, you might want to look into something more like the ducted residential units and mount it under the floor,it would probably use a lot less electricity, you also might be able to set it up to run off of the trucks A/C compresser when running down the road
We had basement air in our pusher which was equivalant to 2 15k units. It was great if the temps wher 85 and under, above that it did not keep up. It was ineffiecient to run the air from the back bottom side of the rig all the way to say the front. Also the cooling fins need to be loated at the side of the rv, so this takes up storage and looks like crap and the unit gets trashed by road spray. It is much more quiet, but to many downsides, I think the roof top units are two easy and inexpensive for mfg's to much much effort to solving the issues with basement air.
BTW we made some changes in the floorplan, next week when I have have internet I will post them.
__________________
2012 Showhauler 28'6" Motorhome on a Columbia w/ 450 Mercedes.
im thinking you'll want the crapper door to open the other way, its gonna be too tight trying to sneak past the closed living room door when you have it closed....also when youre coming out of the "water closet" youll want the shortest path to the sink, not the kitchen (i think youll find w/ the door the way it is, youll always be walking "AROUND" it when you enter or exit the water closet).
why not pocket doors between the bedroom/bath and the bath/living quarters ??
Also i think the "small" couch (w/ the drink holders) is TOO close to the TV to be the primary tv watching location...and we prefer our couches across from each other...better for conversation.
REALLY gonna be a nice coach ! Congrats !
__________________
Don R.
'04 Haulmark (M42386) 42', 2 slide, 10kw - Pictures
'04 F350 CrewCab Longbed 4x4, 50g aux tank & gear vendors dbl over
You might want to look into mini-split heat pumps for your climate control. They have low power needs and especially have lower amp requirements for starting up. Very quiet and a bit easier to install than other basement air. My Dad has these in his Prevost conversion and likes them a lot. Shop around for a good deal.
You might want to look into mini-split heat pumps for your climate control. They have low power needs and especially have lower amp requirements for starting up. Very quiet and a bit easier to install than other basement air. My Dad has these in his Prevost conversion and likes them a lot. Shop around for a good deal.
Finally got to see a Showhauler at the Hershey show.. I was quite impressed with the fit & finish - Every bit as nice as the Kingsley, and better materials than the Haulmark we drove.
I really like how they were totally open to hearing ideas about what we'd like in something... Interesting to hear that the the new Cascadia's were LOTS quieter than the Columbia's they replaced. I heard this from both the Showhauler and the Renegade (IKON) guys I spoke with.
You're definitely in good hands!
__________________
__________________
-Currently window-shopping for a class8 coach conversion...
2012 ShowHauler - Floorplan
Linear Mode
