Elkhart / Indiana / United States
Based on that research, together with our own extensive RVing experience, we set out to design what we hoped would be the "perfect" travel trailer for full-time RVing. In doing that, we imposed one strict limitation on ourselves: The coach had to be affordable by the average full-timing couple; therefore, we could not allow our imaginations to run wild but, instead, we had to shoot for creating a trailer that would cost well under $30, 000.Because we wanted complete control over the layout of the trailer, we shunned production lines of the major RV manufacturers and, instead, focused our attention on some of the most successful small custom builders. After months of deliberation, we settled on Travel Units-a low-profile custom manufacturer in Elkhart, Indiana, that turns out an average of 100 trailers each year, no matter how good or bad the nations economy is. Travel Units president, Sam Paolillo, agreed to build the coach for us in his plant with the stipulation that his employees work on it during their slack periods.We met with Sam to begin laying out our trailer in May of 1981-coincidentally, the l0th anniversary of Paolillos company-and together, we tackled the task of putting the design of the coach on paper. We began not with the living room or kitchen, as one might expect, but with the bathroom-for a few very good reasons. We knew that placement and layout of a bathroom will, almost by itself, determine the floorplan of a trailer. Generally, bathrooms are placed in one of two areas-either in the rear or on one side of the coach. Sometimes, trailers are offered with walk-through bathrooms just forward of the rear double bedrooms, but those are nearly always too small to be very practical. Unfortunately, placement of the bathroom in a trailer is affected to a large degree by the existence of wheel wells; therefore, most RV manufacturers offer buyers the choice of a side bath with a tiny, step-type bathtub over the wheelwell or a rear bath that can be as spacious as the customers want it.Full-timers, we had learned in our research, do not like either alternative. They want more space and a larger tub than are possible in the side bath, but they do not like a rear bathroom because it eliminates sleeping area privacy.Obviously, if we wanted our ideal bathroom to be large and roomy, with lots of storage space and a full-size bathtub, we had to place it somewhere other than in the rear or over the wheel wells. So we borrowed an idea from the manufacturers of fifth-wheel trailers, and we ordered our coach built with a front bedroom just forward of a large, walk-through bathroom! That left the rear half of the trailer open for kitchen and living area. It was, we knew, a radically different layout from what RV manufacturers traditionally offer their customers. We even expected our manufacturer friends to hate it, and they did! One friend looked at it after it was finished and exploded: "Its backward! Its too much like a fifth-wheel!" But we werent designing a coach meant to appeal to Americas RV manufacturers; we were designing one that would work for full-timers.We felt there was no good reason why manufacturers dont lay out trailers in the floorplan we designed. Some say the front-bedroom approach causes hitch weights to be too heavy, since the coachs water tank should be stored under the bed, but that argument is full of holes. First of all, full- timers do not tow trailers with sedans, but with heavily sprung vans and trucks, and those vehicles can handle an 800 to 1000-pound hitch load very easily. Secondly, a rear water tank, when full, is more likely to cause handling problems than a front one because it can put too much weight on the rear of the coach and encourage tailwag. Manufacturers also argue that RVers prefer their living areas up front, where they can see what is going on in the campground more easily. There is, we admit, validity to that argument, but an equally solid case can be made for placing a
