In a 40-foot motorhome, most floorplans are composed within an area of roughly 320 square feet. Depending on the number of slideouts for each individual floorplan, you can add around 12 to 80 more.
Inside those rectangular dimensions, the designers fit everything from cockpit equipment to storage space to furniture, plus all the amenities of an upscale home.
Every once in awhile, some space saving technology or the addition of a new slideout will change the overall feel of motorhome interiors in a significant way. At Monaco Coach Corporation, the next perspective changer is here. Right on the heels of the quad slide revolution, comes the PANAsuiteT full-wall slide, an enormous slideout that completely alters the way the inside of the motorhome looks, feels and functions.
"The full-wall slide is the largest slide we make, and it creates more livable space inside the conventional motorhome box," said Safari Sales Manager Shannon Thatcher. "There are a lot of implications for new floorplans."
Always seeking cutting edge technology and product improvement, Safari engineers and product developers worked together to bring the full-wall slide to fruition. They went to Lippert, a leading company in slide room technology to provide the all-electric power slideout mechanism, and relied on in-house computer modeling to engineer a structurally superior support system. A third support arm was designed to bear the extra long slide.
"The beauty of the Lippert system is a hydraulic fluid flow divider, which moves both ends of the slideout in near perfect unison, within 1/16 of an inch," said Pat Carroll, vice president of product development. "For others without this technology, it's a big slideout, so if the room isn't just right when it's being retracted, then one side comes in early or late, putting a dangerous strain on the entire slideout."
Monaco Coach Corporation has an exclusive one-year contract with Lippert to use their patented technology, which provides a tremendous edge over full-wall slides from other manufacturers.
"It's a great example of why Safari is always at the front of the industry," Carroll said. "The strength of our engineering allows our product developers to have much more freedom to work with fresh concepts like this."
In the case of the PANAsuite full-wall slide, Safari product development immediately went to work on how to best use the new technology. "It opens up the floorplan in more than one way," Carroll said. "It provides more space physically and visually, and allows our designers to bring in unique features."
The floorplan made its debut in the 2006 Cheetah 40SFD, where the 23-foot slideout creates large amounts of space in the living room and kitchen area.
In the bedroom, this arrangement is coupled with a curbside bedroom slideout, and a queen bed mounted lengthwise. This makes space for a large shower room with sink, and a separate compartment housing the toilet and another sink. There is also plenty of walkaround space in the bedroom.
"The shower and bathroom are accessible from the bedroom or the kitchen," said Cheetah Product Manager Gary Stanton. "It's ideal because it means couples don't have to share one sink or dressing area."
In addition, Thatcher points out the overall gain in interior storage and the longer galley than any other 40-foot floorplan.
"Eliminating the bulkhead between two separate slideouts means we can turn that into overhead storage with two very long rows of cabinets," he said. "When you add that to the large galley, you've got an ideal floorplan for owners who like to cook and entertain."
Another benefit of the 40SFD floorplan is the location of the optional washer/dryer: up front near the kitchen, not restricted to a tight hallway passage.
And while this specific floorplan is spacious, open and well balanced, there are sure to be other incarnations using the full-wall slide in the future.
"I'm sure that we'll be able to use customer feedback to create better and better floorplans that feature a full-wall slideout," Thatcher said. "That's what we have always done with owner advice as a brand and as a company."
In fact, Monaco Coach Corporation will be one of the first manufacturers to offer the full-wall slide in every price point available.
"We intend to offer diverse floorplans that suit a wide variety of preferences," Thatcher said. "This is a great tool to help us do that."
The full-wall slide was first introduced to dealers in November at the annual Dealer Congress.
"There was a tremendously positive response," Thatcher said. "Our dealers see this new slide innovation as very livable and are jumping at the opportunity to sell it to customers looking for more space and function."
The general public has only seen the full-wall slide featured on the 2006 Cheetah, which debuted at the Easter Homecoming Rally in Orlando, and the initial reaction has been very positive.
"With the enclosed bathroom, large shower area and the great capacity for entertaining, it's bound to generate a lot of interest," Thatcher said. "It's a really unique design." |
