I hope to make it down to have a look. It is on display in April somewhere right?
Well, my friend, you're welcome any time, but yes, it will officially be on display on April 12 at Northwest SprinterFest in Tualatin, Oregon. (
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/121567) Independent of the fact this particular Sprinter will be there, there have historically been 30-40 others, so I always tell people that it's a good place to go to see the full spectrum of what people do with their trucks. There's also a fair amount of expertise in attendance, so it's good for learning what works and what doesn't.
Tell me about your thoughts on not having a dedicated bed this time. If I recall you had one in the back of the previous Sprinter right? Space vs the need to collapse the living area for sleeping is always a tough call for me. I would love to hear your thoughts on this.
The previous Sprinter's floor plan, with the dedicated crosswise bed across the back was a good layout, but it was good principally because it enclosed a rear "mechanical/storage" area that was very useful:
But in this one, there's no propane, no Power Tank, the fresh water tank is smaller, the batteries are under the floor, and there might be times that we'd need the aisle free for hauling home ten foot boards . . . all these things suggested we go without the rear storage area and resulting full time rear bed.
Lots of people are willing to sacrifice for a permanent bed. Most European camper cabins have a big permanent bed even when it means they just have enough space for dinette seats for two; seems like everyone is ready to give up a comfy sitting spot for a permanent bed. But I think these are people who can live outside the camper better than we can. If it was used in a place where you got up and started playing around outside, used the cabin just to cook and bathroom in, and did stuff outside until bedtime, that's a good tradeoff. But you know as well as I do that up here it's easy to hit a trip where the weather keeps you in the cabin for days at a time. When that happens, having gone with a bed good only for sleeping instead of one also good for sitting and eating would seem a bad idea.
Plus, there are a lot of campers with crummy sofa beds, but we don't have one . . . the sofa here is more of a bed to begin with, having a five-inch-thick permanent foam mattress with no breaks in it. And it's big, being fully 30 inches wide and 76 inches long. The second bed will be narrower, more like 25 inches, but it'll still have a 3" thick pad. Way better than sleeping on a collection of bottom and backrest cushions. And we tested all of this out in the "prototype" and know that it'll work well for two and be palatial for one. And with the over-cab bedding storage cubby Paul built, it won't take any time at all to get the cocoon-style sheets and sleeping-bag style blankets deployed or put away.
In exchange for going without the permanent bed (and bath), we have an extremely spacious interior--much more so than our last one or any commercial floorplan--that has a lot of room to look out. In fact, having learned from my prototype the excellence of the "sit on the sofa and look out the slider door" experience was probably what got the van designed this way.
Did I miss a pic of the overall floor plan?
You didn't miss it, since I'm not sure we did one, having built it in disposable plywood to show it to Paul instead. Let me know if you want something measured, though.
