Eco-RV thoughts?

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

Go in a Metro; stay in hotels. It'll be cheaper.

With US average hotel prices at around $120/night, that might not be the case, depending on how often you go. Of course if you spend upwards of $100K on something that's parked all but one week a year*, fuel costs are not your primary problem :-) But a bigger problem with this 'solution' is that there are seldom hotels in places many of us want to go.

For the OP, I really think you need to expand on your definition of 'liveable'. Personally, I think a tent & sleeping bag in a backback or on a bike is just fine, and can be carried easily in an Austin-Healey or Insight. Other people have different opinions :-)

*I have neighbors who moved their RV for the first time in at least 5 years this summer - to get it out of the way of another neighbor doing some major tree-trimming.

[leety]

VW Rialta 16 city 20 highway

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[96CX]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

Go in a Metro; stay in hotels. It'll be cheaper.

FWIW, we did a trip from NW WA to Portland area (~5 hr drive) once, and calculated that it would have actually been cheaper to drive our Astro (18mpg) and sleep in it than it was to drive our Civic (40mpg) and stay in a cheap Motel 6.

[freebeard]

Bill Collins, the Vixen's creator summed up the aerodynamics development very simply. He rounded the front end until the drag got no better, then he tapered in the rear all he could.

That's what I intended to do with the panel van I sold, instead.

[leety]

We use a VW Euorvan Camper, it's the best.

The problem with a Hotel is my dog is not welcome and I take her with me wherever I go.

[Frank Lee]

Oddly enough, I've never paid that much for a room.

[a8ksh4]

I've been wondering about doing something like that, Freebeard. If I could find something with about the interior space of an old vw van, but with a slick front and a back that I could chop and taper in the aero profile, then I could slide a bed into the back where the roof is low and maintain usable space with way better economy... Any ideas on what might be a good starting platform for this? Maybe, literally, an old vw van, but I remember the shape of the front of those being really bad for aero...

[bikenfool]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned sprinter, transit, or promaster.

[Hersbird]

Originally Posted by a8ksh4

I've been wondering about doing something like that, Freebeard. If I could find something with about the interior space of an old vw van, but with a slick front and a back that I could chop and taper in the aero profile, then I could slide a bed into the back where the roof is low and maintain usable space with way better economy... Any ideas on what might be a good starting platform for this? Maybe, literally, an old vw van, but I remember the shape of the front of those being really bad for aero...

why not just convert a 3 or 4th generation Grand Caravan? They get well over 20 mpg, are bigger then a VW, and are plentiful, and inexpensive. The same kind of pop top on a westfaila could be built. If you really wanted to go crazy take off the back hatch and build a bed/khamback there.

[ennored]

A Sprinter chassis could be a nice base. My father-in-law's Navion gets about 16 MPG at 60MPH.

OP talked about making his own "box", could be any chassis under it.

Here's where I'm at:



That's a 100" wide (standard RV widebody width), 25' long (random, but reasonable length) box. The front end just needs a little rounding, as little as 4", but I've shown about a 12" radius, a little more than the bare minimum. The back is 50% of an ideal boattail, about 89" long and coming inboard about 15" on each side. 50% tails have been shown to return very close to what full tails do, more just steals interior volume. Think of this as a top view. I'd propose about the same in side view, only the bottom would be a little flatter, probably dictated by the chassis used. Cd should be under .29, maybe as low as .25, about where the Dryden van got to.

Note that the shape in front or rear view would still be close to a rectangle/square. That is, it would have more or less flat sides and roof. I've done that to make it easier to build, and have useable interior space. (Round tube RVs, like an Airstream or GMC motorhome often have cabinets inside that have curved backs/tops. Box of Cheerios doesn't fit.)

Also note that at 100" wide, it's 19% wider than a Vixen. At 25', it also happens to be 19% longer. Relatively speaking, a Vixen has about half of the rear taper I have shown. There's a strong argument to be made to simply copy a Vixen. Bill Collins added taper until a standard bed (75" long) didn't fit anymore. Mine wouldn't fit a bed that way, aero is a higher priority, right?