Expedition Vehicle - Vantaggio VDS

[Giovanni]

Hi guys, I’ve been following this forum since years but I haven’t introduce myself so first of all I’m going to make a brief introduction.
My name is Giovanni Barbieri, I’m an architect 38 years old, I’m Chilean with an Italian background, and as you probably already notice, my english is far from good but I’m gonna try my best to explain this project.

Since forever I’ve been related to the off-road world thank’s to my father who has been an enthusiast before I was born, I’ve been a traveler by myself having spend more time and money than I can actually afford on experiences around the world. I have always dream about designing and building my ideal Expedition Vehicle, now im getting closer to make that vision a reality and I would like to share it with you.

As an architect I have been in the business of designing and building houses for almost a decade and a half, but in the last years, we have also been designing and building “mobile solutions” for the agricultural, forestry, minery and gastronomic industry in Chile. We have learn a few things about frames, cabins, mechanisms, and different solutions that has help me a lot designing the “Vantaggio VDS”.

Vantaggio is my company and VDS means “Veicoli Di Spedizione”, The VDS is designed as a commercial Expedition Camper with flexibility and customization in mind. Everything was projected to be as customizable as possible in terms of dimensions, equipment, accessories, aesthetics and it has the flexibility to be mounted on different platforms new or used, from mid size pick-ups to trucks. This case study in particular is designed on a used Ram 2500 (Cummins 6.7lts) mainly because is a very popular truck down here in Chile and was designed for a customer which probably is gonna be the first proud (hope so) owner of a Vantaggio VDS. The design is approved and now we are working on quoting the whole project, if the price is correct, maybe we will start the production of the first VDS prototype in a few weeks.

The wheelbase in this particular case is 199” and the frame stretch is going to be performed by us in our facilities. The subframe is 3 point pivot torsion free and the cabin is also made by us out of a continuous steel coil sheet with a high density EPS nucleus. The mold we have developed to make this cabin, is modular so we have the flexibility to stretch the body to whatever size each different customer wants. This Cabin in particular is 6.250mm. long, 2.400mm. width and 2.200mm. tall.

In terms off design I wanted to make a contrast between the rugged exterior and a warmer interior, we want to offer different interior and exterior configurations as well as different optional equipment. For example, this first case of study have our unique rear tire design that offer multiple configurations and the slider with 700mm. of displacement and a toilet with separate shower.

The 3D renders of the project are very clear and they speak for themselves, I’m not going to give you a boring speech in a poor English. That’s why Im going to upload as many pictures as necessary to explain the VDS, please feel free to share them and I cannot wait to have some feedback from you about your impressions on the project, The last weeks I have been very focused on it and I haven’t had the chance to share with almost nobody, so any comments or or suggestions will be highly appreciated.



If you want to know more about this . project, on this facebook link you can see more images and information about the VDS, the description is in english, but auto translation works preety good.

Vantaggio Spa

www.facebook.com

HI-RES IMAGES DOWNLOAD LINKS
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1wcBXuCO-XqZ7UrK-5ITePTqnWNU54epU

 

[Giovanni]

Here you can see some 3D rendering of the inside layout concept and design of the VDS.

 

[ChuckB]

Amazing project! You’re english is perfect!!

Looking forward to seeing the build.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[RAM5500 CAMPERTHING]

This is freaking ************ and look forward to following along.

One question though... Why not start off with the Cab and Chassis ram at whatever wheelbase is desired, and enjoy the factory dual tank option, etc...

Seems like it would a lot easier to just choose the CC size to your liking, and start there instead of extending the frame after the fact, etc... Would save a lot of man hours, and $

Other than that, gorgeous idea

 

[llamalander]

Beautiful drawings! The dining table pop-out looks very well thought out, useable in both configurations. The bike/tire lift and table is pretty great too.
I think you might have a problem sourcing solar panels that can function under a protective rack, that much shading will reduce the output to zero even if you don't put anything on top.
Do you know what the camper will weigh? In the model you show, how much clean water and waste water can it hold and what are you thinking for the mechanicals, heat and battery power? Please keep us updated with your progress.

 

[Giovanni]

Amazing project! You’re english is perfect!!

Looking forward to seeing the build.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thanks ChuckB!

This is freaking ************ and look forward to following along.

One question though... Why not start off with the Cab and Chassis ram at whatever wheelbase is desired, and enjoy the factory dual tank option, etc...

Seems like it would a lot easier to just choose the CC size to your liking, and start there instead of extending the frame after the fact, etc... Would save a lot of man hours, and $

Other than that, gorgeous idea

Thanks Boston Mangler!

This project need to be affordable for the chilean market, I would love to make many VDS mounted on new platforms and ship them all over the world. To be honest, I would love even more to move out of Chile and build them in the States... But I need to keep my feet on the ground and in order to make them affordable for the local market, is a must the we have to use as a platform vehicle pick up trucks that customer already have, we need to offer a solution for almost any year truck with any configuration. There are already 4 potencial customers, all off them want to modify their own used pick up trucks, (Ram 2500 crew cab 2011, Ram 2500 crew cab 2009, Ram 3500 regular cab 2012, Ford F250 crew cab 2011) My family has been in the forestry industry since long time ago, we have extended countless forestry truck frames without issues for years, I really don't think is such a big issue to stretch our customers truck frames (I hope to be right).
For each customer, we offer a unique solution that suit their own needs in terms of dimensions, interior and exterior equipment, trim and we evaluate the viability of developing whatever comes to their mind. Each costumer project begin with a highly accurate 3D model like the one I upload in the first 2 posts and there we evaluate the ideal wheelbase for each VDS.

Beautiful drawings! The dining table pop-out looks very well thought out, useable in both configurations. The bike/tire lift and table is pretty great too.
I think you might have a problem sourcing solar panels that can function under a protective rack, that much shading will reduce the output to zero even if you don't put anything on top.
Do you know what the camper will weigh? In the model you show, how much clean water and waste water can it hold and what are you thinking for the mechanicals, heat and battery power? Please keep us updated with your progress.

Thanks llamalander!

I know that the configuration of solar panels and roof rack is far from good, this is a show model, I need it to show to the public as many accesories and configurations as possible. We need to discuss with each client the need of the roof rack, and how much roof rack is necessary, also we need to discuss about the solar energy needs and balance out those two things, theres definitely room for improvement in this 3D model, as soon as I start executing the VDS many things will likely suffer alterations.

According to the model weight estimation, It will be around 800kgs the subframe with empty drawers, and the camper shell (finished with all the bells and whistles) That 800kgs is just the beginning, we need to add the interior project, tanks, accessories, rear tire carrier, roof rack, batteries, bathroom, slide out equipment, etc.

Right know we are working on quoting the whole project, which is a titanic assignment. And we are also working on an estimate weight, I already been thinking about some weight reduction measures to take if the total weight skyrocket at the end.

There is room for at least 200liter clean water tank beneath the slide out mechanism an if we want to trespass in the closet area, we can easily end up with a 350lt fresh water tank. I need to be able to store at least the same amount of waste water, under the kitchen and the rear section of the truck chassis are the places designated for the waste water tanks.

In this link there is a explanation (in spanish, google translation will do the work better tan me) about the designed electrics of the VDS. (similar to the Earthroamer XV-LTs)

The problem is that not many customers are willing to pay that much for that item, so I will probable end up modifying the system with a much cheaper solution. In order to do that, I was forced to find room for a couple of 11litter propane tanks to feed the kitchen and the heater.