Advancing Alvar

[Davydd]

The Twin Cities has two condo garage developments. The other one very close to our house is called AutoMotorPlex. It is a bit fancier and upscale. They did post a press release page of links from various publications that talk about condo garage man caves. It is interesting reading.

Press - AutoMotorPlex

I was out at my garage today moving stuff so I can get two cars into our home garage. There were a lot of people there with many garage doors open so I took the opportunity to see what was being stored. It seems it was mostly boats and some RVs. I didn't see any classic cars. We are on the western edge of Lake Minnetonka.

[GeorgeRa]

Congratulation on your move to a single level plus accommodation for the van. We just recently fulfilled the same objectives with move to the single level house with the tall garage, our choice was to be close the city. In Portland OR it was a long search for a single level house ending up with the decision to build. Real estate in Portland is tight so builders tend to go up to gain square footage but building took a good year from our retirement, ouch.

George.

[Davydd]

We sold a heavy timber frame home I designed and built 34 years ago. It was hard to give up but was necessary. This is the erected frame that took me six months to cut all the joinery and two days to erect via good ol' fashion barn raising techniques with volunteers. Young and strong I had no concept at the time what six levels of living would do to an aging body.



Our new house is a builder spec house with no design involvement by me this time. I was buying with the primary objective of single level living and no exterior maintenance, but location, location, location was the clincher with that 3,700 acre 10 lakes backyard park and major recreational trail that goes all the way to downtown Minneapolis.

Storing the RV in a condo garage came up just a few weeks ago. I was unsure exactly what I was going to do and then the opportunity just came up. I was searching for rental opportunities with no thought of actually buying. We had plenty of land at our old house and had a 30A electrical outlet to plug in to. This will be an improvement with inside heated storage in the winter.

[Davydd]

Originally Posted by gregmchugh

For the car enthusiasts there is a new facility with private garages/man caves, an onsite racetrack, and a driving school that just opened on Woodward Avenue (the street for the Woodward Dream Cruise every year), just north of Detroit.

M1 Concourse

Same concept. Since I own the garage I could finish it off many ways including a mezzanine like they show. I doubt I would ever do that. So far while out at our garage and driving by looking in open doors I haven't seen any others that have done that. I guess they like to promote the sizzle over the actual desired need.

It has occurred to me since that I already have a lot of amenities set up like bathroom and kitchen in our RV. The rules are you are not suppose to live in your garage.

I also realized that I probably don't have to winterize since I will be in an above freezing controlled climate. Where to dump was always a problem on returning to Minnesota after October. Dump stations and campgrounds are generally closed. That problem is solved.

Washing the RV turned out to be great. We did that today. The nearest decent size wash bay near our home was a good 20 miles away. The wash bay at our storage facility is super with high-pressure hot water better than any nearby commercial self car wash facility I've tried. Alvar never got so clean for a measly four bucks (one dollar for 5 minutes). I can even climb up the ladder and spray straight down on the top. No more guessing how clean it is on top. Nothing fancy. Just soap and rinse spray. The wash bay is huge.

[Davydd]

The latest Advanced RV video is showing an extreme cold weather van with water lines all inside. We have traveled in below 0 F. non-winterized with water in the fresh water tank so I suspect they want to push the envelope further.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHezfBUNPZM

[Keyne]

Thanks for posting Davydd. Some good ideas there, and it's cool they showed the details.

[B Eventually]

I particularly like this shower idea they posted two days ago. It'd be really useful for a tall guy like myself and easily copied. Keep sharing these great ideas Advanced RV!

https://youtu.be/RAWesvRMeNo

[GeorgeRa]

I was in the Sprinter Fest in Tualatin a couple of weeks ago parking close to folks with the Advance RV van and noticed rather low ground clearance between the left side skirt with doors to access utilities. There was an Espar exhaust behind the driver wheel with a very, a very low ground clearance, 3-4” by gauging with my calibrated eyeball. The owners mentioned about articulated beds so I assume the same model as yours. Dave, do you have any problems with ground clearance or you tend to stay on paved roads only.

[Davydd]

The ground clearance of an Advanced RV fiberglass skirt is about 7-1/2". It is an optical illusion. The 4x4 models are about 3-1/2" to 4" higher.

My one of a kind nerf bars (they subsequently revised them on future models) are about 7" toward to rear and 6" toward to front. That was too low.

Here is another video of an ARV that was somewhat inspired by Alvar built just a year later but with 4x4, the newer nerf bars, 360 degree camera system, deadbolt and touch pad locking, Alcoa black coated wheels, the Roman shades my wife wanted but not perfected yet by ARV among other things. They had the articulated beds I conceived and followed through with the storage drawers at the foot of the bed I designed. They went with the stealth look on the outside. Alvar got the first build of the 800ah lithium ion batteries, the SmartPlug hookup, the matching dashboard trim with the cabinets and of course the articulating beds. But each iteration keeps improving.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjbcSc0J6Jk

[GeorgeRa]

Thank you Dave, yes 7 ½” is good, I gauged the height based on the height of the tire, the rubber height, and it seems as the skirt was lower, definitely the Espar exhaust tip was just a few inches of the ground.

I am not sharing the trendy love affair with the large Li battery bank camp, but the SmartPlug, which I installed in 2013, is a different story. I talked to the designer/owner of the SmartPlug Co. when they were just starting, I think I was either the first one or one of the first ones using their connector on the RV world. Their primary focus was in the marine market. Now they have RV cable, in 2013 I had to modify the marine cable to an RV style plug. https://sprinter-source.com/forum/sh...&postcount=392

[Davydd]

Photobucket just hosed this thread. Screw Photobucket.

[Davydd]

I got my pioneer NEX receiver software updated on Alvar. It now comes with Apple Carplay. The receiver was Carplay compatible but my original software of 2-1/2 years ago didn't support it. You simply plug in your iPhone and an app touch screen comes up on the monitor. Now I can get Apple Maps with directions to show up on the monitor instead of just the iPhone. I can send and receive messages hands free via dictation through Siri. I can make phone calls hands free. I can look up information through Siri. I can listen to my iTunes music with more control. I can listen to my home public radio (MPR-Minnesota Public Radio). I can listen to Podcasts and audible books from many sources. I've just begun to explore the many apps available. It puts a new dimension on the capabilities of my Pioneer NEX AVIC 8200 receiver. This is a fairly decent description of what it does.

https://youtu.be/aE2ozgQJid8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE2o...ature=youtu.be

[Davydd]

The most frustrating thing about Advanced RV is the continuing improvements and features. For instance the first 360 degree camera system came out with the first ARV after mine and I didn't know about it. This video just touches the tip of the iceberg as to what ARV is developing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=rNmX11blPRg

That's why I initiated and started planning "Mies" for hopefully my next RV. Mies is for Mies van der Rohe, another famous 20th century modernist architect who's motto was "Less is more". That's a hint.

[BBQ]

.

Mies is my hero.

I have a few pieces of his furniture.

[Keyne]

Originally Posted by Davydd

The most frustrating thing about Advanced RV is the continuing improvements and features. For instance the first 360 degree camera system came out with the first ARV after mine and I didn't know about it. This video just touches the tip of the iceberg as to what ARV is developing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=rNmX11blPRg

That's why I initiated and started planning "Mies" for hopefully my next RV. Mies is for Mies van der Rohe, another famous 20th century modernist architect who's motto was "Less is more". That's a hint.

Davydd, designing a new van? Cool. Interested to hear some of the design ideas. I would love to build a 144 Sprinter with them, but they are outside my current price range. It would be awesome to have the ARV options and most important the ARV high build quality and engineering (e.g. macerator AND gravity back-up, Silverleaf, 360 camera, split door on the bathroom, etc.). We have a 2017 Roadtrek Agile with nopropane (Diesel heat, induction cooktop, Underhood Generator (2nd alternator)) and like it very much for two people. It has worked well for us but would love an ARV with our interior selection of interior finishings and their quality and service.

[DCHitt]

Originally Posted by Keyne

Davydd, designing a new van? Cool. Interested to hear some of the design ideas. I would love to build a 144 Sprinter with them, but they are outside my current price range. It would be awesome to have the ARV options and most important the ARV high build quality and engineering (e.g. macerator AND gravity back-up, Silverleaf, 360 camera, split door on the bathroom, etc.). We have a 2017 Roadtrek Agile with nopropane (Diesel heat, induction cooktop, Underhood Generator (2nd alternator)) and like it very much for two people. It has worked well for us but would love an ARV with our interior selection of interior finishings and their quality and service.

+1 Except I would like to see a gas engine..

[BBQ]

Originally Posted by DCHitt

+1 Except I would like to see a gas engine..

Rumour has it that the next gen Sprinters will come with gas engine options.

[GeorgeB]

Davydd,
Looking forward to see the details of your new "Mies Van der ROAD" project!

Its always informative to learn about the latest technological developments a company like ARV is willing to implement in future builds.

[Davydd]

We just got back from a 7 week trip beginning August 28 to the Pacific northwest from Vancouver Island down to California wine country. Temperatures ranged from the mid 90s (Montana) to 18 deg. F. (California). For the most part every day was clear and sunny except for about a 4 day rainy stretch in Washington.

We did not run our air conditioner once.

We plugged into shore power about 4 times because of simply opportunity and once deliberately because I wanted to tested our Rixen module for electric heat overnight and decided have the luxury of of electric radiant floor.

We camped mostly in national parks, national forests, state parks and boondocked many times in no campgrounds. Most parks camping was in forested mountain areas with not much sun despite mostly clear skies.

Solar was of no consequence as a percentage of energy contribution considering we had an 800ah lithium battery bank and a second Delco alternator that inputs 280 amps consistently for an hour.

A few times we stayed in one place 3 nights without driving and batteries depleted down to 50%. We brewed about 4 cups of Keurig coffee every day. Used our microwave liberally and cooked on our electric induction burner most days. We baked in the convection over a couple of times. Our 2800w inverter is always on and we have 120AC power throughout. We never worried about electric consumption.

Autogen (Voltstart for you Roadtrekkies) was never used. We invoked idling once for 30 minutes because we thought we would stay a fourth night in one place but I doubt it was necessary. I was just obsessed with keeping it above 50% capacity.

Most one night stays driving less than 1 hour the next day would recharge our batteries to 100%.

This is typical for us with fall and early spring trips. I question the value of solar (we have 420 watts) and definitely those Dometic roof top air conditioners. There has got to be a better solution for air conditioning for the rare times we use it. May can be problematic because of where we annually go (Indiana to Washington DC). In the summer it is mostly in the north woods of the upper Midwest near home and air conditioning is rarely needed. In 2012 we went to Alaska on an 11 week trip in the summer and never used air conditioning.

I'm looking long and hard about air conditioning and solar considering we can look at the roof real estate in a more creative way.

[avanti]

The space of possible A/C solutions is well trodden--very thorough threads are available on Sprinter Source, as you probably know. The answer is pretty clear: The best practical solution is a DC-powered split system, with both the compressor(s) and condenser mounted underneath, and a ducted evaporator mounted inside. Most likely, the best available compressor setup is a dual (or even triple) Danfoss unit.

The IndelB Arctic Plus is nice:

Stationary air conditioners for trucks - SW ARCTIC PLUS



Since you will probably be getting a higher-voltage DC electrical system, you should attend to the DC units designed for remote equipment bays.

I realize that your guru is not enthusiastic about this solution, but if you press him, he will be able to make it work. An ARV-class solution will very likely involve custom-made, weatherproof boxes for the exposed components with closable vents operated by electric linear actuators. Short of that, mounting the condenser parallel to the direction of vehicle travel is helpful.