The Source

In late June of 2013, I took a long-planned trip to the Sportsmobile factory in Fresno, California. This would be my first chance to see for myself some conversions they'd done, and also to present my own conversion plans for their comments. My daughter, Kelcy, home from college, came along. It was only a small detour along the way to see the Lazy Daze factory, too, so we made a stop there. This post recounts that trip, and describes how my discussion with Sportsmobile forced a major revision of my plans. A long post with lots of pictures ahead!

Kelcy and I left San Diego on a Thursday morning. The plan was to swing by the Lazy Daze factory in Los Angeles, spend a few hours, then head on to Fresno, keeping our appointment to tour the Sportsmobile factory on Friday. San Diego to Fresno is about five hours if you drive straight through. The LazyDaze factory is just off the 60 freeway and easy to find. Like their RVs, it has a quaint feel:

It's not an expansive facility; at the time we visited there were two models to tour and a few more under construction. Luckily, one of the two available was the 24' "Twin King" I was interested in and have described in a previous post.

The photos I took of the interior add perhaps a little to the photos available from their website. Looking toward the cab:

The galley, showing the stove with an actual oven:

and the rear, "garden room" lounge that converts into beds.

This in-person visit confirmed the impressions I'd gotten from the website and reading some blogs: tried and true designs, durable materials, and quality workmanship. Kelcy said she liked it a lot. Though I generally agreed with her, the visit also gave me the opportunity to learn that it was next to impossible to get from a cab seat to the living space without going out the cab door and in at the back. The salesman also confirmed that 10 mpg was about the best one could expect. 

Afterward, we got a little lost looking for a lunch place and ended up at a really wonderful neighborhood Mexican restaurant that, unfortunately, I probably couldn't find again if I tried. The drive to Fresno was long and boring. The motel was only decent, but just a couple miles from Sportsmobile.

The next morning we got over to the factory by 9am. Here's a Google Earth shot showing that it's a big place.

but the front entrance is quite unassuming:

We were directed through the office into the showroom. The first thing you notice is one of their earliest models, making the point that they've been in the business for a while.

In a few minutes, we were joined by Jonathan Feld, the young president of Sportsmobile West. His dad, Alan, takes a more behind-the-scenes role. Jonathan took us on a tour of the factory:

We got to see their models in all stages of construction. Here's the "blank canvas" of a Sprinter van:

I'd been curious about the material they use to construct their cabinets, and got a good look at it:

It's a lot like plywood, but has a "strength layer" down the middle, and is supposed to be lighter and less likely to warp than solid wood. I was also interested to see how the edging is attached, not just glued on but notched into the structure.

After the tour, I expressed a preference to have some time on my own with the Sprinter model in the showroom. Jonathan would pop back in from time to time to answer any questions I had. All in all, I have to say they treat prospective customers extremely well. There's never any pressure or hyperbole. They're happy to give you time on your own, but they're always close by when you've got a question. The model on display was their EB 154S.

One nice feature I intend to have on my design is a table that can fold down when the side door is open:

There's plenty of professional-quality photographs on the Sportsmobile website. It's a great sales tool. In fact, it's amazing that they survived as a direct-to-customer business before the age of the internet. My photos tend to focus on the details the website doesn't cover. Here's the interior, looking forward:

This gives an idea of how confining the galley in my first design would have been. Below are the stove and sink that come in the standard galley. The solid surface countertop is an option I'll have.

Here's the freezer compartment of the 7 cu.ft. refrigerator I'll be getting:

and here's the bottom compartment:

I'm comfortable that it can hold at least a week's worth of refrigerated goods. Here's some details of the internal construction of the cabinets:

Nothing fancy, but sturdy. It's interesting that the bottom of the upper cabinets is wrapped in felt. It helps to keep things from rattling, and on the underside protects your head from bumps. The photo below shows some details of the Sprinter dash that I was curious about:

Lots of convenient storage. The radio in this year's model is a considerable upgrade from the one shown. The glovebox and more storage in the doors:

I asked Kelcy what she thought at this point and she said she preferred the roominess of the Lazy Daze.

After I'd seen everything I wanted, it was time to show Jonathan the plans for my conversion, which I've described in a previous post. Here's an overview to refresh your memory:

This was my brainchild and I was apprehensive about what flaws, omissions, and impracticalities might be found, particularly the unorthodox shower stall that had to straddle the wheelwell. Wanting to get it out of the way, this was the first feature I drew to Jonathan's attention. "Not a problem!" he said. "We'll just cover over it in marine vinyl. We've done similar things before." Whew! With that behind us, everything else was fairly standard and straightforward. Jonathan has the experienced eye of someone that converts customer specifications into work instructions for the craftsmen, and he didn't find one thing that couldn't be built. I had literally a hundred questions about various construction details, and he answered them all. When he didn't know about some minutiae that concerned me, he'd excuse himself to ask one of the workmen and come back with the answer. I asked how much a square foot of their cabinet material weighed and he had a workman cut out 1 square foot, weighed it, and let me take the piece home. Every detail that I learned about their process either met or exceeded my expectations. During one of Jonathan's absences, I asked Kelcy what she thought. After seeing all the opportunities for customization, she said she now preferred Sportsmobile to Lazy Daze. 

Things couldn't have been going better. We were wrapping up. Jonathan took another long look at the design and said, "You know, there's a lot of structure in here. You'll probably have to go with dual rear wheels to handle the weight." My heart sank. Dual rear wheels would not only cut off 2 to 4 mpg, but would expand the wheelwell in the shower from an inconvenience into a nearly impassable obstacle. I pointed out the problem, and said I'd seen examples on the website using single rear wheels that had as much internal structure as my design. Jonathan shrugged, "We'll have to wait until we've prepared the working drawings after you've placed your order to know for sure." We both agreed that exceeding Mercedes recommended load capacity for the van wasn't an option.

It had been about four hours since we'd arrived at Sportsmobile, most of which Jonathan had dedicated to showing us around and answering our questions. Not once had he seemed impatient or distracted; he appeared ready for another four hours if that's what we wanted. On the way out, the secretary was very helpful giving us directions for good dinner places in town and sights to see for the afternoon. In the parking lot outside, we got a special treat. Sportsmobile was experimenting with a rugged new model based on a FUSO chassis, and was happy to let us tour it.

For travel, the top portion actually folds down and forward for a compact profile and lower center of gravity.

What man can't relate to something so brutish? MORE POWER! Erghhh! Erghhh! But no, I wasn't tempted. The mpg on this beast is no doubt brutish too.

It had been a great visit, but I was brooding on the way home. I was determined to prove that my design was well within the Sprinter's cargo weight limit. I got right to work. I looked up the weight of all the appliances, the water tanks, the batteries, possessions I'd be taking along, and most importantly, I estimated the square feet of wood in every cabinet ( yes, I was that obsessive ) and used Jonathan's measurement of lbs/sq.ft. to calculate their contributions. I added it all up and... Aha! My design was under the weight limit! But by less than 200 lbs, and I knew there were odds and ends I'd left out because I didn't know their weight. Furthermore, the estimate didn't allow for more than one passenger besides myself, additional possessions I might pick up on my travels, or an auxiliary mode of transportation like a motorcycle or electric bike. I'd set out to prove Jonathan's estimate wrong and had proved it right. I did not want to accept dual rear wheels. So there was no alternative but to go back to the drawing board and come up with yet another, slimmed down, design.