Steady State

In June 2013 I paid a visit to the Sportsmobile factory and liked everything I learned about them and their products. Aspects of my design that I expected to be problematic turned out to not trouble their designer at all. But my design was overweight: it exceeded the cargo capacity of the Sprinter van. Their designer had pointed out that possibility, and by diligently working to prove him wrong, I had proven him right. The alternative was to use a Sprinter with dual rear wheels, but that hurt fuel efficiency and intruded on my interior space. So, I set to work cutting weight out of a design that I had regarded as perfect.

Here's the design I showed to Sportsmobile, the one I had developed a protective attachment to:

Now I had to start ripping pieces out. It hurt, it really hurt. Well, the rear bed/couch was overly complicated. When would I ever need to seat more than five? So a much simpler platform bed would do. While I was at it, the wall dividing the shower from the bed could be replaced with a shower curtain. And the cabinet behind the shower was just a luxury. I could make up for lost storage space by expanding the upper cabinet over the bed. What about the lavatory in front of the shower? Did I really need a second sink in such a confined space? Gone. While I was on a roll, was it necessary to surround hanging clothes with wood? No, so the closet across from the fridge was out. Deletions in the forward part of the design were harder to find. I got rid of a swing-up counter extension on the forward end of the galley - heavier than it looked since it was made from solid surface countertop. Subtotaling weights for various fixtures showed that the slide out pantry with all its internal shelves and structure was unduly heavy. Out with it! An extra shelf over the galley was an needless frill.

To make up for lost storage and features, I found the The Container Store was my new best friend. Drawers that were lost with the deleted closet could be replaced with a lightweight set of plastic drawers. Food storage space lost with the pantry and galley shelf could be regained by placing mesh baskets above and below the counter. I also found great solutions for a spice rack, a garbage basket under the stove, and hanging shelves for the closet. The new, slimmed-down design emerged:

I anxiously tallied up the weights in the new design and I had saved a grand total of... 200 lbs? That didn't seem like much for all the cutting I'd done. But viewed another way, I'd doubled the safety margin for my weight calculations. And to be fair, I'd allowed myself to add new, lighter weight items to compensate for some losses. Significantly, the new design should roll out of the Sportsmobile factory - before adding possessions and passengers - 1200 lbs below the weight limit for the ( single rear wheeled! ) Sprinter van. I can live with that.

Even more importantly, I found that rather than losing functionality with the cuts, I'd actually gained it. The storage space under the platform bed had much more volume than the bed/couch combo had allowed. With the rear cabinet gone, I could extend the shower pan back to the rear doors, eliminating a clumsy need to slide the portapotti over its threshold for use. With the shower curtain that could be pushed out of the way, I now had the option of adding a 12" extension to the width of the platform bed when two people used it. Eliminating the walls of the closet and the lavatory almost doubled my closet space. And removing the pantry and galley shelf made for more flexible storage and improved the view from the front couch. I liked the new design better than the old one! I was glad the weight issue had pushed me to these changes.

So with that, my design has reached a steady state. I've put down the deposit on the van itself, but, special ordered from Germany, it won't arrive until April or May. The Sportsmobile designer wants to go over my finalized plans in early April. I'll definitely make another trip up to Fresno at that time to make sure we see eye-to-eye, and make my materials selections with samples in front of me. In future blog posts, I'll report any news as it develops, and I'll also go into the details that make this final design so special to me.