Geo.Lander
Well-known member
Can you explain a little the Neither comment? They are freestanding.
1120 AF Build in Norway
- Thread starter Geo.Lander
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Can you explain a little the Neither comment? They are freestanding.
Geo.Lander
Well-known member
We dont actually have the garage locker in that position anymore. But I see your point
tanuki.himself
Active member
rear facing - that size of step facing out from the camper will become an obstacle that you are always having to walk around, especially if you have an awning on that side, plus you can use the side of the camper to steady yourself rather than needing a handrail on the steps
Geo.Lander
Well-known member
Nice point about the awning, we will be fitting one for sure.
Joe917
Explorer
I have a strong dislike of "freestanding" stairs. They stick out way too far. They are inconvenient to deploy. They require level ground to rest on. They cannot be used when parked next to a sidewalk without blocking a lot of space, and more...
An entry that has two steps inside the footprint of the habitat and one or two steps that deploy electrically or pneumatically is far better. The only issue is you cannot place the door over a wheel, but with a blank sheet for the design that should not be a problem.
Geo.Lander
Well-known member
Fair points, but we wanted a "porch" and preferred not to have the stairs receding into the box. Our door is exactly over our rear wheel due to the layout we have chosen (as below, old sketchup drawing, we have now moved to autodesk and still working on those details).
The stair will be self supporting and will not rest on the ground, there will be 1.5 steps to the first one so maybe just 3-steps in total plus the platform.
It is a fair point about blocking space which is why we went for this design in the end and not straight up pull out stairs or scissor style ones, wither way, you still need space for your electrically deployed steps and enough to be able to access them.
We have/are spending a lot of time (a lot) in the design phase due to delays with our window, door and hatch supplier and now GRP panel supplier too, we have yet to start building the box (the subframe is starting this month). Every choice is a comprise of one feature over another and our rear facing U-Shaped seating is one of them as well as the large bathroom/drying room (1300*800) dictating the door placement. We must have gone through 10-15 layouts taking all the designs into account from this forum and the professional large builders (unicat, bimobil, etc). I suppose there is a lot of comprise, upside:downside and with every choice made one has to weight this in accordance with requirements and desires.
Joe917
Explorer
Think about how you will live with this truck. Parked at a great site with the stairs set up will be great. Sadly much of the time you will be traveling or staying at less than perfect locations. When traveling you will have to stow the stairs before you drive off. Lunch time stairs out, stairs in (no easy cab cabin access). Stop for the night stairs out again. Stop to use the bathroom, or load up with groceries, stairs out, stairs in. The convenience of a button to deploy and retract is hard to overstate ( but I am trying!).
All the best with the build.
All the best with the build.
Sitec
Adventurer
Take the delays as a positive. It gives you the time to plan and lock in a layout that will give you all you need with no compromise... A few things I see... First up, can you make your bathroom smaller? We all spend very little time in the bathroom... Secondly, as you are limited on length, you should consider setting up a perminant bed that drops down over the seating area, and lifts up out of the way when not in use. That'd give you a lot more usable space... Thirdly, Joe 917 makes valid points about cab access. Lastly, it's worth seriously considering getting the door away from above a wheel and adding a stair well. You can always have a flip down cover for the well if needed... Good luck!
Geo.Lander
Well-known member
Hi @Sitec !
Thanks for the words of encouragement!
We are actually really happy with the design and layout we have already and think we have a really good solution to the stairs/over wheel problem. I'll present that when we have that dialled in CAD because we also want high wheel arches to match the lift and front arches (I think you originally mentioned that to us). Basically this will be built into the subframe and rear top toolbox. More to come later.
Currently working on the aluminium framing for the kitchen, seating units but I'm considering using the same framing for the upper storage area's too...
Geo.Lander
Well-known member
Yea, I see your point, but we really need this area to second as a large drying area for the ski touring gear/ /alpine climbing/wetsuits/MTB... We a
Have decided on a full sized bathtub style pan with 2 drains, the toilet will sit onto this pan (we're going with the separett tiny with urine plugged directly into the grey water.
We also eventually want to install a wall mounted washing machine there..
"Separett - Urine diverting toilet Separett Tiny® with urine extraction" https://separett.com/en/urine-diverting-toilet-separett-tiny-with-urine-tube
VerMonsterRV
Gotta Be Nuts
I think yours design is coming along nicely and should be pretty comfortable. You will get a heap of dust on the rear window, but it sure looks like a nice place to hang out. For us, the only time a sunken set of entry steps would be nice is when we have visitors. I do plan though to revise our design a bit to widen the treads and have a third step that retracts from the bottom. This will allow us to not use the 2 step, step ladder (which we only use sometimes). One thing about the steps protruding perpendicular is we can use them with the platform not extended, so easy and quick to swing out. Your step design looks good, how do they store? I am assuming there is a slot above the rear storage box?
As far as a cab pass thru, I can say I really don't miss or wish we had one. One thing with the LN2 trucks is the cab is smaller, plus with the 1120 the hump over the engine is higher than non intercooled trucks (I think the air plumbing is taller). With @Joe917 's truck I think his cab roof is also taller and so it makes the door probably larger and more usable. We could do a pass thru but it would definitely be a crawl thru.
So, for all the fun gear you mentioned. We have full back packing gear, MTB's, wetsuits, motorcycle helmets, 2 person inflatable kayak etc. One thing you might want to do is collect this stuff (if you have it already) and plan your rear under bed storage for it. Ours is a bit of a jumbled mess and I need to get back in there to build some organization shelves. In addition to those fun things you will also probably want an outdoor table and chairs, so even more space...
For your gray water, will it be outside? If so have you planned on a heating source for it (knowing what I know now I would have had in internal pipe built into our gray tank to allow our hydronic furnace to directly keep it from freezing)? Also, I know some people plumb the pee tanks to the gray water tank but I am not sure I would do that. For us a good portion of our time has been camping in remote spots with friends. Most of the time we all just leave our gray water drain valves open. One of the trucks we traveled with had a external under truck pee tank, it looked to be about 3 gallons and they could remove it as needed to drain it (though it might have had a direct drain valve also, but I never saw them use it like that).
As far as a cab pass thru, I can say I really don't miss or wish we had one. One thing with the LN2 trucks is the cab is smaller, plus with the 1120 the hump over the engine is higher than non intercooled trucks (I think the air plumbing is taller). With @Joe917 's truck I think his cab roof is also taller and so it makes the door probably larger and more usable. We could do a pass thru but it would definitely be a crawl thru.
So, for all the fun gear you mentioned. We have full back packing gear, MTB's, wetsuits, motorcycle helmets, 2 person inflatable kayak etc. One thing you might want to do is collect this stuff (if you have it already) and plan your rear under bed storage for it. Ours is a bit of a jumbled mess and I need to get back in there to build some organization shelves. In addition to those fun things you will also probably want an outdoor table and chairs, so even more space...
For your gray water, will it be outside? If so have you planned on a heating source for it (knowing what I know now I would have had in internal pipe built into our gray tank to allow our hydronic furnace to directly keep it from freezing)? Also, I know some people plumb the pee tanks to the gray water tank but I am not sure I would do that. For us a good portion of our time has been camping in remote spots with friends. Most of the time we all just leave our gray water drain valves open. One of the trucks we traveled with had a external under truck pee tank, it looked to be about 3 gallons and they could remove it as needed to drain it (though it might have had a direct drain valve also, but I never saw them use it like that).
Geo.Lander
Well-known member
Thanks for the feedback Jon!
We actually measured our truck up for a crawl hatch over the bed, but then we would have to remove the bench seat in the rear of the cab which we really want to keep. And it also massively complicates things with our re-registration process for the truck here if we mess with anything in the drivers cab (including seats, etc).
Good point, I especially in winter up here. The Outbound windows have options for hardcovers, i might look into that
Yea, we have it all then some, we have GAS (Gear acquisition syndrome) pretty bad. We are planning on the rear toolboxes going full internal width, and hoping to keep skis, kite boards and larger items in the drivers side full length box, never enough storage, not sure what we will be doing with the kites etc yet..
Another valid point, we have spec'd a heavily insulated grey tank but not heated. My heating plans a still a little up in the air right now going back and forth between the hydronic furnace in the engine "room" and the Truma combi diesel. I expect we will go the hydronic furnace route and install additional webasto air blower for the bathroom. I have been mulling installing a low profile underfloor system (PEX pipes)... I need to spend more time on this subject for sure.
We actually measured our truck up for a crawl hatch over the bed, but then we would have to remove the bench seat in the rear of the cab which we really want to keep. And it also massively complicates things with our re-registration process for the truck here if we mess with anything in the drivers cab (including seats, etc).
Good point, I especially in winter up here. The Outbound windows have options for hardcovers, i might look into that
Yea, we have it all then some, we have GAS (Gear acquisition syndrome) pretty bad. We are planning on the rear toolboxes going full internal width, and hoping to keep skis, kite boards and larger items in the drivers side full length box, never enough storage, not sure what we will be doing with the kites etc yet..
Another valid point, we have spec'd a heavily insulated grey tank but not heated. My heating plans a still a little up in the air right now going back and forth between the hydronic furnace in the engine "room" and the Truma combi diesel. I expect we will go the hydronic furnace route and install additional webasto air blower for the bathroom. I have been mulling installing a low profile underfloor system (PEX pipes)... I need to spend more time on this subject for sure.
Alloy
Well-known member
Forward - we often have the back over a slope or drop off.
Alloy
Well-known member
Thanks for the feedback Jon!
We actually measured our truck up for a crawl hatch over the bed, but then we would have to remove the bench seat in the rear of the cab which we really want to keep. And it also massively complicates things with our re-registration process for the truck here if we mess with anything in the drivers cab (including seats, etc).
Good point, I especially in winter up here. The Outbound windows have options for hardcovers, i might look into that
Yea, we have it all then some, we have GAS (Gear acquisition syndrome) pretty bad. We are planning on the rear toolboxes going full internal width, and hoping to keep skis, kite boards and larger items in the drivers side full length box, never enough storage, not sure what we will be doing with the kites etc yet..
Another valid point, we have spec'd a heavily insulated grey tank but not heated. My heating plans a still a little up in the air right now going back and forth between the hydronic furnace in the engine "room" and the Truma combi diesel. I expect we will go the hydronic furnace route and install additional webasto air blower for the bathroom. I have been mulling installing a low profile underfloor system (PEX pipes)... I need to spend more time on this subject for sure.
Our back (glass) window gets layered with mud/dirt in the winter and off road. I need a ladder to clean it properly so it only gets hosed off.
A hydronic towel rack for drying clothes works great and a blower set up with hoses works for boots......but.....make sure to have LOTS of venting (in and out) otherwise you'll have too much condensation and boots smell.....storage compartment might be a better drying area
If possible add a hydronic loop to the grey tank/valves so it can be connected later. My tanks and valves are insulated with 2" XPS. Below -10C (much depends on the wind chill) I start to heat (forced air duct) the tank compartment to protect the valves.
I'd do hydronic (never electric) floors in an instant. We don't have hydronic but our forced air heating ducts run under the floor. It takes about an hour for the floor to heat up before we can walk around in our socks. We also have duct that blows warm air under our bed.