Shachagra- Family of 5 traveles Europe and Turkey, International 7500

[Entropy]

Very nice! I'm in the research phase planning for a trip similar to yours, also with a family of five. If you don't mind, I've got a few question!

Do you have some stats on your vehicle, like dimensions and weight? I bet you're pretty heavy with all the plywood, batteries and large tanks, but you're on a very good chassis.

From the research I've done, pretty much everyone I've read says to go small in Europe because of the narrower roads, low bridges, tight town centers, etc. You're rig is a very efficient use of space, but not small - how did that impact your trip? What are your thoughts on the tradeoffs between size and mobility?

Does your engine require Ultra-low-sulfur diesel and if so, were there any problems finding it on your trip?

The staterooms are what really make your rig stand out in my opinion. Very unique and it's not something that's easy to design in an RV given the space constraints. As I'm researching options for our own trip to Europe the most I'm coming up with is bunkbeds with the wife and I in a cab-over. I've also been looking at the new US navy style berths (see here for an example). Your stateroom are a cut above that. The only problem I see with your design is that there doesn't appear to be an emergency egress besides the main entrance to each stateroom.

Also, your solar system is very impressive. Do you know about how much power you used daily? With no propane, I assume the fridge and reefer are electric?

Thanks!

[shachagra]

She weighed 31K with full water tanks and and fuel, which is less than I calculated by 2K but I went very conservative in those weight and balance calculations. I might have been able to get away with a single rear axle, but I am very glad we went double- we unloaded her two days ago after a year living full time and it took 8 hours! She must have been up around 35K. The chassis will handle 52K so she is still way under weight. Some numbers
8' 4" wide, 36' long, 12' 9" tall. 400 gallons water full (including the soaking tub and hot water heater) 270 gal diesel including a rear 70 gal tank for just the household services. Reefer and fridge are 12v. Reefer is a drop in 9 cubic foot which was really handy.
It was a large truck for Europe but I wouldn't go any smaller. Once you get bigger than a camper van and a standard parking spot it really didn't make a big difference. The roads are narrow in Western Europe, off the highways, but we had no problem even on single lane roads up in the Scottish Highlands, trucks go everywhere, and we can go wherever a truck can. You just can not trust the GPS and we never entered the cities without a specific route planned and checked on google earth. That was after we got stuck in Toulouse France and had to have the police back out traffic so we could back out! (they were super nice about it) The height limit for Europe is 4 meters and we are 3.9 so we fit on all ferries and under all bridges, there were some lower but they are well marked before the turn onto them and always an alternate route. Overall I think we were a good size- going tall vice long was good.
Europe has been on Ultra-Low sulfer fuel for years, you can't find anything else, even in the remote spots like Turkey, Albania and Bulgaria. We went with 200 gallons because I just wasn't sure, but we could have easily gone with 100 gal total.
I love those navy racks- having done 6 deployments on aircraft carriers I can attest to how tightly we pack people in. The emergency egress issue is actually easily solved- I was going to put an exit door from each room, they are near ground level but didn't due to security and time, we we on a tight build schedule and doors take time to make. My initial plan had access only from the outside because of initial interior access problems, but that would have been to hard, leave the RV to go to bed. We had extinguishers in every room, actually in every bed, and we had 6 fire alarms. Every compartment had one.
We used about 300AH a day and the panels will easily produce that much on all but the worst days. I think we could have had less battery capacity, but it was nice when we needed it and lower discharge cycles will keep the batteries heathly exponentially longer. Once the batteries are full the Outback system will divert the extra to high loads such as the electrical element of the hot water heater.
Don't hesitate to ask any more questions, its nice to find someone not bored by my Shachagra talk (I hope)

[Riptide]

I would say this is easily one of the most innovative camper designs I've seen in a long, long time. I did a stint on submarines, so I can vouch for compact sleeping arrangements. The convenience of not having to set up and tear down sleeping quarters cannot be underestimated. You managed to accomplish that and still leave the day spaces basically untouched. Remarkable!!

I don't think you'll find any of us here getting bored with "shachagra talk".

More, please!!

[shachagra]

I warned you........Thanks- I had planned to have 3 slide outs and it really bothered me, the complication, difficulty to build and potential for problems. On a long flight I was doodling, trying to figure a way to use all the space below the floor without accessing it through the outside or through the floor. We had under floor storage when we lived in Japan and it was so hard to get at stuff. I lamented that I couldn't just stick the beds under the floor with the batteries and water tanks and then it hit me. It would never be a commercial success because you have to climb a ladder to get into the rooms, great for children, not so good for Grandma.
The lack of slide-outs was great- pull into a truck stop or the side of the road outside an attraction, pull the shades and off to bed, ready to tour the next day.
The name is not a Zen meditation technique or anything so deep, it the first 3 of each child's name Shannon, Charles and Grace.

Here's an article that does a better job than I do at a concise summary. Note the picture of us parked in town North Shields England, couldn't do that with a slide out.
http://www.cnic.navy.mil/navycni/gro...cp_a192573.pdf

[Entropy]

I would say this is easily one of the most innovative camper designs I've seen in a long, long time. I did a stint on submarines, so I can vouch for compact sleeping arrangements. The convenience of not having to set up and tear down sleeping quarters cannot be underestimated. You managed to accomplish that and still leave the day spaces basically untouched. Remarkable!!

I don't think you'll find any of us here getting bored with "shachagra talk".

More, please!!

X2! Would be interested in hearing more!

Thanks also for the information. We've tried to figure out how to stay short (less than 26 feet) with five and I just can't make it work for us. Not that it can't be done, of course!

Now that you've lived in it for more than a year, is there anything you wish you'd done differently on the build?

[Overland Hadley]

I don't think you'll find any of us here getting bored with "shachagra talk".

More, please!!

Yes, more please!

Thanks for sharing with us.

Any more photos you have would be great.

[shachagra]

Let me start this build from the beginning. I was completing my last tour in the Navy, oversea in Italy with my family. The plan was for me to return to the US and get started on the building and have my family join me when the children finished school. I spent 18 months planning, built 3 models and started building some of the cabinetry while I was still in Italy. There's a picture of the soaking tub, and my front porch workshop in Naples where I am building the cabinets. At the same time a friend is building me a workshop on my Dad's property in Ohio. I had the luxury of buying a chassis from the factory, so I was able to specify wheelbase and capacity- there were lots of decisions to be made there. There is a picture of the truck waiting for me when I arrived in March 2010 to get started.

[shachagra]

X2! Would be interested in hearing more!

Thanks also for the information. We've tried to figure out how to stay short (less than 26 feet) with five and I just can't make it work for us. Not that it can't be done, of course!

Now that you've lived in it for more than a year, is there anything you wish you'd done differently on the build?

Not much. We didn't use the washer/dryer as much as I thought, but it was so nice to have I'd still include it. The biggest problem with the truck is the suspension. It has not surprisingly, a truck suspension. I don't know what I could do differently. Maybe because she is so light (for that chassis) I could lighten it a bit somehow, maybe someone can give a hint.
We got bogged down in mud in Sicily, so a 6X6 vice a 4X6 might have helped but I doubt it- that mud was soft and we were buried. We got pulled out by a concrete truck, very nice people! 8 of our 10 tires are live, the weight is well distributed and the 6X6 wouldn't come with the air ride suspension which would have made the big problem worst.
Honestly there's not much I would change.

Thanks for that link- what an amazing trip! I wish it was in English, I'd buy the book. We are also planning to do South America in the future-

[Entropy]

Part of the site is in English - one of the boys wrote his trip diary in English, but there's always google translate. The mother, Anne-Marie, also speaks some english - I've been asking her about homeschooling and such via email. She's been a great help.

How did you attach the camper portion to the frame and the cab?

[shachagra]

Part of the site is in English - one of the boys wrote his trip diary in English, but there's always google translate. The mother, Anne-Marie, also speaks some english - I've been asking her about homeschooling and such via email. She's been a great help.

How did you attach the camper portion to the frame and the cab?

It was homeschooling that drove us to a big rig- without reliable internet we needed to bring books, lots of them. Traveling in a smaller truck is doable with smaller children, but not with 13-18 year old mixed gender kids. Younger is easier, but I think older ones get so much out of travel.

The body is bolted to the frame with custom U-bolts, 12 of them. They are pretty easy to get - I bought mine from Stengel Brothers.