I am not an RV’er.
I am a sailor, a retired Navy Pilot with a passion for building, years of experience sailing offshore cruisers and a degree in naval Architecture.
When our family decided to tour Europe and Asia by RV, I began my search with some seemingly unattainable criteria in mind. I wanted a Bristol Channel Cutter on wheels. They don’t make them. So I did.
Walk into an RV dealer and gave him the following wish list. Motor home, full time residence for five, Mom, Dad, girls 12 and 18, and a boy 16. Needs to be outfitted for self-sufficient travel throughout Europe and Asia. Needs enough off road capability to get off that beach in Turkey and ease maneuvering on and off third world ferries. This mobile home and school will travel where a US license plate can draw a crowd, where water and electricity are luxuries. The Convee, from the cartoon “Wild Thornberries. Add to that list the basic luxuries we as Americans have grown accustom to, ample water, full time electricity and maybe a Japanese soaking tub?
A great salesman won’t miss a beat and will lead you directly to a completely inadequate vehicle on the lot and proceed to sell you a dream, one that fits what he has to sell, in place of what you want you’ll get a television in every room. “You don’t want to go there.” “Why not leave the children,
An honest salesman will tell you that there is nothing available that will satisfy that criteria.
I spent six months looking for our “Convee” before deciding to built Shachagra (SHAnnon, CHArles GRAce) our home for the last 16 months.
We had options other than building and I’ll discuss those first.
Custom built
After months of trying to find an RV builder that could turn my dreams and ideas into reality, I was very discouraged. The builders that I spoke with thought it too big a project and only told me what I couldn't do. It was after explaining boat monocoque construction with honeycomb panels to a builder that I realized I should just build it myself.
The decision to built Shachagra was liberating. After months of frustrating search and discussion with builders who were unenthusiastic at best, my list of design desires ceased to be a checklist of the
ible, and became pieces of a puzzle, I just had to make them fit. As an avid sailor and aspiring boat builder with 26 years in the Navy and a degree in Naval Architecture, I am a student of long distance cruisers, and have spent much of my life sailing offshore.
We had planned to complete our trip from the reletive comfort of a large cruising sailboat
Our design philosophy was “comfortable self-sufficiency,” the ability to travel long distances, over extended periods, without provisioning. Sounds like a cruising boat. Thus my approach to RV design may be different, but Shachagra is basically a boat.
Shachagra grew on paper and in models with an iterative design method that took 18 month to complete. Her outward form remained basically the same, only dimensions, construction method and interior arrangement changed. After numerous changes, I would have to go back to the beginning and starting over, making sure everything still fit. I intended for her to be built by a professional, but it was just too difficult and the risks of never getting it done, or not being able to afford it when done were greater than the risk of my messing it up.
To live comfortably, at peace, and require only infrequent stops for food, water and diesel required some major “pieces to the puzzle,” such as 4 distinct staterooms, water capacity for 14 days, diesel capacity for 2000 mile range and a drop in freezer for, solar power for all electrical requirements
We wanted to be “off the grid” in rugged areas, yet retreat to comfort, all in as small a package as possible.
The greatest design challenge was where to put the three rugrats, the reasons for the voyage.
/I have read of families that have used a bunk bed and the garage as a separate room. Great idea, for the boy in the garage, what man wouldn’t love to live in a garage, but two bunks for the girls 12, and 18 might not be enough. My parents breed Mastiffs and despite the commotion of 10 huge dogs running chaos, I would be amazed at the calm my father could achieve by yelling “Crates” within a minute they would all be in their happy place and peace would rein. I wanted that power, in moments of chaos and strife I wanted to yell “Crates” and see my world clear of chaos.
We needed 4 staterooms.
I had a few ideas. Modify a toy hauler with two slide-out, each holding two bunks- that would be good for an additional friend to ride along (figure 1). Buy an off road RV built for two and build a trailer with 3 rooms, opening to the outside.
In the end I just didn’t want either slide-outs or a trailer.
The only solution was to move the children into the basement. The heavy items, batteries and water tanks were below the “main deck” but there was still large volumes of space below deck that I was having a difficult time using. I didn’t want access panels from the outside- for both security and structure, which left access through the floor above which was cumbersome.
I remember the moment the idea for the basement rooms came to me. I was on a flight thinking about ways to use that excess space. If only I could put the beds below, have the children enter their coffins at night and shut the lids, little copies of Barnaby Collin from Dark Shadows. If I could shove the beds that were taking up so much real estate on the main deck, I could open the area with windows.
Size Limiting Factor
Ht 12’ 9” 43” headroom in Bed above cab
/L 35”
Staterooms
We needed 4 separate staterooms, one each for Grace (12) Charles (15) Shannon (17) and one for the parents. There was no way to get through the year without them. This created arguably the most unique design feature on Shachagra, three basement staterooms entered through the cabinets in the galley. Imagine entering the cabin of a sailboat, climbing down a ladder 4 feet to a closet sized room. Set in each wall of the room are; a twin size bed, desk and closet, shelf and sink, and two portholes. The rooms are very comfortable, allow for privacy while changing, and help reduce crowding as the children spent much time there. The initial design had 3 large slide outs, two would be staterooms, each with bunk beds. The center area between the two would serve as closet space and storage. With the slides out, floor space for changing etc was created. There were two major problems. First, I didn’t want slide outs, I wasn’t confident of building them to be trouble free, and second, underway, or if we couldn’t extend one , the children would not have access to their clothing. It came to me on a long flight while struggling with the best way to use the expanse of space under the main floor, that I though of moving the beds to “the basement.” I would avoid external access hatches and floor hatches needed if it was storage space and it would open the “main deck” up completely for communal living. Designing access to the beds resulted in the small staterooms.
The forward 5 feet of the motorhome contain the parents stateroom and washer/Dryer with a king size bed over the cab.
We wanted to carry 400 gallons of water (we got 380). Finding water may prove to be the greatest challenge in some areas of our travels, and 400 gallons would last 14 days if we conserve. After pricing custom tanks we decided to build our own to be fitted just above the chassis rails. Two 90 gallon reserve tanks feed into a 180 gallon main. Hot water is provided by a 20 gallon Isotemp stainless steel heater with dual coils, one gains heat from the Diesel boiler, the second provides heat to the ofuro, or soaking tub.
We lived in Japan three years, where my son was born, and I developed my love for soaking in a hot bath. It is not only a very calming luxury, it is a great way to save water. The tub isn’t for cleaning, that’s accomplished before you get in, sitting on a stool next to the tub. This gets you clean and ready for the very hot water of the tub (US tubs are normally 104 Deg, ours is at 110.) The water in the tub is retained, reused and only replaced when we fill the water tanks. It is designed to have a thermostat turn on the circulation pump when the temp drops below 105 Deg, keeping it hot all the time, when I finally install it, for now it works great manually. (not yet installed, manual now.)
We use the 180 gallons of water directly under the galley floor in the heart of the RV as a “heat sink” like a radiant heat floor, to store heat from the boiler for slow release on cold winter mornings. The tub water, before returning to the boiler dumps its remaining heat as it runs through the main water tank, which is well insulated.
Living with an RV toilet was the aspect of the trip my wife dread the most. She knew she could do it, she’d lived on a Montana ranch that didn’t get an indoor WC until she was 7, but the closer to a household toilet we could get the better life would be. Also, the toilet is directly above my daughters bed, and the holding tank directly below same bed. A simple gravity system would not work. The Vacuflush system, by Dometic, common on boats, but not in RVs was the perfect, though costly solution. It uses a vacuum generator to suck the waste out of the commode around the bed and into the 55 gallon dometic holding tank. The pump out arrangement is also unusual as it uses a 1.5” discharge hose.
RV Hull
Built like a boat, Shachagra has a hull. The lower 4 feet of the shell is a single box beam built upside down and clothed in fiberglass, that fits the chassis rails to serve as the foundation for the cabin. The water tanks, batteries and all utilities reside inside the hull. This was the most critical part of the design, as it would marry with the truck and carry the load of the entire structure. I built 3 models of the hull, improving on each one, until I was confident I could build it with plywood sheets 4X8 feet, not just 4X8 inches. The joints in the hull were overdesigned with epoxy fillets and 3 layers of biaxial cloth. These ¾ inch marine grade plywood would crack and break before these joints fail. I am confident that if I drove Shachagra into a lake, she would float.
Chassis Selection
I was inspired by the Americat off road RV, based on an International 7400 4X4, but the accommodations were simply too spartan, small and costly. I loved the truck, and the more I learned the better I liked it, but it was really big! These are custom chassis that I could fit to the design, vice fitting the design to the chassis. The 7400 4X4 at 32K GVWR was just under my design requirement of 34K, and my confidence in my calculations was not absolute, it was far better to be light and nimble than dangerously heavy. The 6X6 option provided 16K pounds more capacity than needed, increased floatation (tire in contact with road) and most of all looked great. I worked with John Mackey at Lake truck for 6 months before buying and it pays to keep a discussion going. I was convinced that the 4X6 option was better than the 6X6 which had a stiffer ride, and provided only a slight increase in floatation (8/10 tires live vice 10/10) with significantly increased cost and complexity. I selected a 7500 with set back axles for a tighter turning radius. Mileage isn’t good, 8.6 mpg, but we wouldn’t be making long trips to and from a destination, we were always home.
Building the RV put the entire trip at risk
This section might have been placed in chronological order but I prefer to list in later as it isn’t as important as the trip. Since our return I have found that there is more specify interest in the truck than in the trip so I address that here. Again, not a how, but a how I did it .
Utilities
Water and energy. Consumables that are essential and looked at with a systems view are very connected. Shachagra used two sources of energy, diesel and electricity. Electricity came from 3 primary sources, the sun, the truck alternator and an umbilical cord that tied us to RV parks. Only twice did we have to plug in for power, and both those times we still had 50% of our battery capacity remaining. Despite our efforts at self- sufficiency, and success in that area with electricity we could only get our diesel from filling stations and
/
The system is much less complicated than the picture makes it look. The heart of the system is an Isotemp Stainless steel 20 gallon Marine water heater with dual heating coils. The water is heated from either an internal 110V element or a Webasto diesel coolant heater. The top coil depicted in the picture provides heat to the water heater and I could have also used the trucks coolant system if I had gotten around to making the connections. Someday…..
The water heater gets domestic water from a 180-gallon main tank. There are two additional 90-gallon tanks that gravity feed the main when opened. The domestic water system is fairly standard, a Shurflo “Smart Sensor” water and two cartridge filters.
The second coil in the water tank heats the soaking tub and when selected, the entire RV. Water grabs heat while passing through the water heater and heads directly to the hot tub. That water is really hot. The tub water, 104-110 degrees is then pulled through another cartridge filter by a much smaller pump and through pex tubing laid in the bottom of the main water tank. Tank water absorbs what is left of that 104 degree water, bringing down to about 80 degrees and holding that heat. The water tanks are well insulated on the lower 5 sides but release radiant heat into the cabin. This arrangement allows me to run the boiler for short periods of time (bath time), which will heat the RV throughout a cold night in the Scottish Highlands. We also have a Dickinson diesel fireplace in the dinette that I would light in the mornings when needed. We loved the warmth, both physically and visually that little fireplace gave us. If I didn’t need heat I would open one valve, close another, and the water went directly from the hot tub back to the water heater. I loved sitting in the tub, hot water flowing over my right leg as I listened to the soft click of the boiler below the providing me heat. I consumed many glasses of wine in the many hours I spent soaking in that tub.
The plumbing and heating systems are so interconnected that they really need to be described as one system.
There are 5 sinks in Shachgra, the galley sink, the bath sink and each children’s stateroom has its own sink. Water for the system comes from either an external pressurized system through a fitting in the side of the truck or a 180 gallon central water tank that sits below the galley. There are two more tanks, 90 gallons to either side of the main tank, which gravity feed into the main tank as its level falls. The secondary tanks can be isolated from the main tank to act as reserve tanks, eliminating a surprise lack of water far from a source.
Following the cold water supply from tank to the galley sink is simple. Sucked out the bottom of the tank and through two household type cartridge filters, one paper, the second charcoal, by a 12V pressure sensitive Shurflo pump, and then pushed through a manifold that distributes the water throughout the RV, and then out the faucet into the sink. Drinking water comes out a separate faucet and is forced through a micron filter before it enters your drinking glass.,
I am a sailor, a retired Navy Pilot with a passion for building, years of experience sailing offshore cruisers and a degree in naval Architecture.
When our family decided to tour Europe and Asia by RV, I began my search with some seemingly unattainable criteria in mind. I wanted a Bristol Channel Cutter on wheels. They don’t make them. So I did.
Walk into an RV dealer and gave him the following wish list. Motor home, full time residence for five, Mom, Dad, girls 12 and 18, and a boy 16. Needs to be outfitted for self-sufficient travel throughout Europe and Asia. Needs enough off road capability to get off that beach in Turkey and ease maneuvering on and off third world ferries. This mobile home and school will travel where a US license plate can draw a crowd, where water and electricity are luxuries. The Convee, from the cartoon “Wild Thornberries. Add to that list the basic luxuries we as Americans have grown accustom to, ample water, full time electricity and maybe a Japanese soaking tub?
A great salesman won’t miss a beat and will lead you directly to a completely inadequate vehicle on the lot and proceed to sell you a dream, one that fits what he has to sell, in place of what you want you’ll get a television in every room. “You don’t want to go there.” “Why not leave the children,
An honest salesman will tell you that there is nothing available that will satisfy that criteria.
I spent six months looking for our “Convee” before deciding to built Shachagra (SHAnnon, CHArles GRAce) our home for the last 16 months.
We had options other than building and I’ll discuss those first.
Custom built
After months of trying to find an RV builder that could turn my dreams and ideas into reality, I was very discouraged. The builders that I spoke with thought it too big a project and only told me what I couldn't do. It was after explaining boat monocoque construction with honeycomb panels to a builder that I realized I should just build it myself.
The decision to built Shachagra was liberating. After months of frustrating search and discussion with builders who were unenthusiastic at best, my list of design desires ceased to be a checklist of the
ible, and became pieces of a puzzle, I just had to make them fit. As an avid sailor and aspiring boat builder with 26 years in the Navy and a degree in Naval Architecture, I am a student of long distance cruisers, and have spent much of my life sailing offshore.
We had planned to complete our trip from the reletive comfort of a large cruising sailboat
Our design philosophy was “comfortable self-sufficiency,” the ability to travel long distances, over extended periods, without provisioning. Sounds like a cruising boat. Thus my approach to RV design may be different, but Shachagra is basically a boat.
Shachagra grew on paper and in models with an iterative design method that took 18 month to complete. Her outward form remained basically the same, only dimensions, construction method and interior arrangement changed. After numerous changes, I would have to go back to the beginning and starting over, making sure everything still fit. I intended for her to be built by a professional, but it was just too difficult and the risks of never getting it done, or not being able to afford it when done were greater than the risk of my messing it up.
To live comfortably, at peace, and require only infrequent stops for food, water and diesel required some major “pieces to the puzzle,” such as 4 distinct staterooms, water capacity for 14 days, diesel capacity for 2000 mile range and a drop in freezer for, solar power for all electrical requirements
We wanted to be “off the grid” in rugged areas, yet retreat to comfort, all in as small a package as possible.
The greatest design challenge was where to put the three rugrats, the reasons for the voyage.
/I have read of families that have used a bunk bed and the garage as a separate room. Great idea, for the boy in the garage, what man wouldn’t love to live in a garage, but two bunks for the girls 12, and 18 might not be enough. My parents breed Mastiffs and despite the commotion of 10 huge dogs running chaos, I would be amazed at the calm my father could achieve by yelling “Crates” within a minute they would all be in their happy place and peace would rein. I wanted that power, in moments of chaos and strife I wanted to yell “Crates” and see my world clear of chaos.
We needed 4 staterooms.
I had a few ideas. Modify a toy hauler with two slide-out, each holding two bunks- that would be good for an additional friend to ride along (figure 1). Buy an off road RV built for two and build a trailer with 3 rooms, opening to the outside.
In the end I just didn’t want either slide-outs or a trailer.
The only solution was to move the children into the basement. The heavy items, batteries and water tanks were below the “main deck” but there was still large volumes of space below deck that I was having a difficult time using. I didn’t want access panels from the outside- for both security and structure, which left access through the floor above which was cumbersome.
I remember the moment the idea for the basement rooms came to me. I was on a flight thinking about ways to use that excess space. If only I could put the beds below, have the children enter their coffins at night and shut the lids, little copies of Barnaby Collin from Dark Shadows. If I could shove the beds that were taking up so much real estate on the main deck, I could open the area with windows.
Size Limiting Factor
Ht 12’ 9” 43” headroom in Bed above cab
/L 35”
Staterooms
We needed 4 separate staterooms, one each for Grace (12) Charles (15) Shannon (17) and one for the parents. There was no way to get through the year without them. This created arguably the most unique design feature on Shachagra, three basement staterooms entered through the cabinets in the galley. Imagine entering the cabin of a sailboat, climbing down a ladder 4 feet to a closet sized room. Set in each wall of the room are; a twin size bed, desk and closet, shelf and sink, and two portholes. The rooms are very comfortable, allow for privacy while changing, and help reduce crowding as the children spent much time there. The initial design had 3 large slide outs, two would be staterooms, each with bunk beds. The center area between the two would serve as closet space and storage. With the slides out, floor space for changing etc was created. There were two major problems. First, I didn’t want slide outs, I wasn’t confident of building them to be trouble free, and second, underway, or if we couldn’t extend one , the children would not have access to their clothing. It came to me on a long flight while struggling with the best way to use the expanse of space under the main floor, that I though of moving the beds to “the basement.” I would avoid external access hatches and floor hatches needed if it was storage space and it would open the “main deck” up completely for communal living. Designing access to the beds resulted in the small staterooms.
The forward 5 feet of the motorhome contain the parents stateroom and washer/Dryer with a king size bed over the cab.
We wanted to carry 400 gallons of water (we got 380). Finding water may prove to be the greatest challenge in some areas of our travels, and 400 gallons would last 14 days if we conserve. After pricing custom tanks we decided to build our own to be fitted just above the chassis rails. Two 90 gallon reserve tanks feed into a 180 gallon main. Hot water is provided by a 20 gallon Isotemp stainless steel heater with dual coils, one gains heat from the Diesel boiler, the second provides heat to the ofuro, or soaking tub.
We lived in Japan three years, where my son was born, and I developed my love for soaking in a hot bath. It is not only a very calming luxury, it is a great way to save water. The tub isn’t for cleaning, that’s accomplished before you get in, sitting on a stool next to the tub. This gets you clean and ready for the very hot water of the tub (US tubs are normally 104 Deg, ours is at 110.) The water in the tub is retained, reused and only replaced when we fill the water tanks. It is designed to have a thermostat turn on the circulation pump when the temp drops below 105 Deg, keeping it hot all the time, when I finally install it, for now it works great manually. (not yet installed, manual now.)
We use the 180 gallons of water directly under the galley floor in the heart of the RV as a “heat sink” like a radiant heat floor, to store heat from the boiler for slow release on cold winter mornings. The tub water, before returning to the boiler dumps its remaining heat as it runs through the main water tank, which is well insulated.
Living with an RV toilet was the aspect of the trip my wife dread the most. She knew she could do it, she’d lived on a Montana ranch that didn’t get an indoor WC until she was 7, but the closer to a household toilet we could get the better life would be. Also, the toilet is directly above my daughters bed, and the holding tank directly below same bed. A simple gravity system would not work. The Vacuflush system, by Dometic, common on boats, but not in RVs was the perfect, though costly solution. It uses a vacuum generator to suck the waste out of the commode around the bed and into the 55 gallon dometic holding tank. The pump out arrangement is also unusual as it uses a 1.5” discharge hose.
RV Hull
Built like a boat, Shachagra has a hull. The lower 4 feet of the shell is a single box beam built upside down and clothed in fiberglass, that fits the chassis rails to serve as the foundation for the cabin. The water tanks, batteries and all utilities reside inside the hull. This was the most critical part of the design, as it would marry with the truck and carry the load of the entire structure. I built 3 models of the hull, improving on each one, until I was confident I could build it with plywood sheets 4X8 feet, not just 4X8 inches. The joints in the hull were overdesigned with epoxy fillets and 3 layers of biaxial cloth. These ¾ inch marine grade plywood would crack and break before these joints fail. I am confident that if I drove Shachagra into a lake, she would float.
Chassis Selection
I was inspired by the Americat off road RV, based on an International 7400 4X4, but the accommodations were simply too spartan, small and costly. I loved the truck, and the more I learned the better I liked it, but it was really big! These are custom chassis that I could fit to the design, vice fitting the design to the chassis. The 7400 4X4 at 32K GVWR was just under my design requirement of 34K, and my confidence in my calculations was not absolute, it was far better to be light and nimble than dangerously heavy. The 6X6 option provided 16K pounds more capacity than needed, increased floatation (tire in contact with road) and most of all looked great. I worked with John Mackey at Lake truck for 6 months before buying and it pays to keep a discussion going. I was convinced that the 4X6 option was better than the 6X6 which had a stiffer ride, and provided only a slight increase in floatation (8/10 tires live vice 10/10) with significantly increased cost and complexity. I selected a 7500 with set back axles for a tighter turning radius. Mileage isn’t good, 8.6 mpg, but we wouldn’t be making long trips to and from a destination, we were always home.
Building the RV put the entire trip at risk
This section might have been placed in chronological order but I prefer to list in later as it isn’t as important as the trip. Since our return I have found that there is more specify interest in the truck than in the trip so I address that here. Again, not a how, but a how I did it .
Utilities
Water and energy. Consumables that are essential and looked at with a systems view are very connected. Shachagra used two sources of energy, diesel and electricity. Electricity came from 3 primary sources, the sun, the truck alternator and an umbilical cord that tied us to RV parks. Only twice did we have to plug in for power, and both those times we still had 50% of our battery capacity remaining. Despite our efforts at self- sufficiency, and success in that area with electricity we could only get our diesel from filling stations and
/
The system is much less complicated than the picture makes it look. The heart of the system is an Isotemp Stainless steel 20 gallon Marine water heater with dual heating coils. The water is heated from either an internal 110V element or a Webasto diesel coolant heater. The top coil depicted in the picture provides heat to the water heater and I could have also used the trucks coolant system if I had gotten around to making the connections. Someday…..
The water heater gets domestic water from a 180-gallon main tank. There are two additional 90-gallon tanks that gravity feed the main when opened. The domestic water system is fairly standard, a Shurflo “Smart Sensor” water and two cartridge filters.
The second coil in the water tank heats the soaking tub and when selected, the entire RV. Water grabs heat while passing through the water heater and heads directly to the hot tub. That water is really hot. The tub water, 104-110 degrees is then pulled through another cartridge filter by a much smaller pump and through pex tubing laid in the bottom of the main water tank. Tank water absorbs what is left of that 104 degree water, bringing down to about 80 degrees and holding that heat. The water tanks are well insulated on the lower 5 sides but release radiant heat into the cabin. This arrangement allows me to run the boiler for short periods of time (bath time), which will heat the RV throughout a cold night in the Scottish Highlands. We also have a Dickinson diesel fireplace in the dinette that I would light in the mornings when needed. We loved the warmth, both physically and visually that little fireplace gave us. If I didn’t need heat I would open one valve, close another, and the water went directly from the hot tub back to the water heater. I loved sitting in the tub, hot water flowing over my right leg as I listened to the soft click of the boiler below the providing me heat. I consumed many glasses of wine in the many hours I spent soaking in that tub.
The plumbing and heating systems are so interconnected that they really need to be described as one system.
There are 5 sinks in Shachgra, the galley sink, the bath sink and each children’s stateroom has its own sink. Water for the system comes from either an external pressurized system through a fitting in the side of the truck or a 180 gallon central water tank that sits below the galley. There are two more tanks, 90 gallons to either side of the main tank, which gravity feed into the main tank as its level falls. The secondary tanks can be isolated from the main tank to act as reserve tanks, eliminating a surprise lack of water far from a source.
Following the cold water supply from tank to the galley sink is simple. Sucked out the bottom of the tank and through two household type cartridge filters, one paper, the second charcoal, by a 12V pressure sensitive Shurflo pump, and then pushed through a manifold that distributes the water throughout the RV, and then out the faucet into the sink. Drinking water comes out a separate faucet and is forced through a micron filter before it enters your drinking glass.,
