I'm getting in on this a little late as you can see from my post count, but I have a few questions:
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What is the height above the cab when the body is raised completely? Do you think the added complexity of the lifting body is worth the slight gain in MPG? I understand that you also reduce the height for clearance of trees, rocks, etc on the trail.
-I was thinking of your side door layout. I personally like a rear door layout as a safety exit feature. I know it is rare but if the camper were to ever be rolled on it side due to wind, washout, falling tree, etc, during the night you could still exit out the back. I know this may never happen and you could of course jump out a window but it's just a thought. I also find a rear door to be easier and quicker to get to from the driver's seat. I suppose the side door is better if you can just tell your wife to jump out and get a cold drink for you as it will be quicker for her than you. A rear door also allows for both sides of the unit to be uninterrupted in relation to the layout of the interior components.
-Do you ever wish it was about a foot longer or six inches wider? What were your driving factors for setting the width and length?
All this being said, I fully understand that everything is a tradeoff when it comes to designing and building a rig as nice as yours. I'm sure you are proud of it, as much as I would if it were mine.
Paul
URY914,
sorry for the late reply but I was on vacation. But to answer some questions; the height of the camper unit is around 20" above the cab when raised, and obviously I feel that the effort to have a lifting roof was worth the effort to me, I previously had a westy, so if you look at a picture of my rig with your eyes squinted and all fuzzy like , doesnt it look like a westy?? Ok maybe not, but alot of the things I liked about westies is incorporated into my design. The fuel saving are much greater than "a slight gain in MPG", the drag from the roof extended is very noticeable, I was late getting to the ferry from Salt Spring Island early one morning, and as a result, forgot to lower my roof, and drove at about 50mph for twenty minutes, well during the drive I started to notice that the performance was off, thats when I realised that I had not lowered the roof. The drag was significant enough to be noticeable, and can only imagine what extra fuel used can add up to. Right now I average about 15mpg US. So to me the effort is and was mandatory in the design. Also I was happy to notice that even with the roof up I can drive around. And like you stated, going into the bush with it is much easier, just get the cab through and the rest is sure to get through.
Now the side door issue: That was the most important design requirement! As with the westy with a side door, it allows me to:
1) Have an outside living area once the awning is extended, this is a must for us! I make sure I park the rig with the wind on the drivers side, this allows us to have the awning out even when windy, and keeps us dry, no wind entering the camper and extends our living space, also there will be an outside kitchen area once complete. The areas that we camp in are mostly alpine lakes, and with that are almost always wind, with this setup we have no worries, although a few times the winds shifted 180 degrees, when that happens, I easily turn the truck around to keep the wind on the drivers side, had to move three times one trip. Oh and by the way, I live in British Columbia, where if you didnt know it sometimes rains here!Also worked well in Death valley during a wind/sand storm.
2) Side door allows me to load all sorts of stuff on the back, like this picture shows
I normally have a couple of bikes back there, and whatever else that doesnt fit inside or in the boxes, I plan on having a small dual sport on the back too, what this does is it keeps everything in the trucks slipstream.
Having a door back there is just a pain, ask anyone who has a slide in camper, I know I still have two slide in campers, and a rear door is just not a good design, exits are easy to make if that is the worry, but having to design a complex hinge contraption for a spare, bikes, boxes etc. or any thing else is just too troublesome to me. In my experience, for example, say you had a bike on a rack that was difficult to get unloaded, human nature(lazy) will keep you from using the bike, if its easy to unload, then easy to use, and you will use it. the bike example could be many items, I just chose that one because it is an item that tends to fall into that catagory.
The last question you posed was about size, again coming from a westy, well this thing is already way bigger than my old westy! But keeping the size down was again very important to me, the width of the camper is approximately the width of the cab,I wanted to be able to sleep width wise, so that was worked into the design, height is also close to cab height, that one was a little more difficult to achieve, I did want to maintain at least a five foot inside height when the roof is down, and with a complex flat deck mount I couldnt keep the height to the cab. As it is it sits about 4-5 inches above cab height when down. Length was the only variable that I could have extended, and keeping in mind departure angle with all my stuff on the back, well this is waht I came up with, I just dont like big huge rigs for where I go, using the side area as living area was always the plan, so internal size was not so important. With all that being said, everything was a compromise, take your most important needs and incorporate them and fit as much as you can into what you have.
