WOW, Born Free is coming out with Mercedes Sprinter Chassis

[Dallas Baillio]

From the Born Free Facebook page. Are those twin beds in the top floor plan?

[stevek]

I would say yes, they look like twin beds to me.
Notice, there is no OH bed.
To me, I would like a OH bed plus the Twins in the rear.
All in all looks pretty good. Thanks for posting.
That first floor plan is my favorite.

[shilohdad]

You may want call the factory. When I talked to Ed Newman at the Hershey RV show a couple of weeks back, this was still very much in the development stage with nothing cast in stone. One of the major obstacles is how to slim down the weight without sacrificing the quality of materials used that Born Free is known for and still get it in the ~11,000 lb GVWR of the Sprinter. And don't expect it to be inexpensive. The cutaway Sprinter chassis is quite a bit more expensive than the Ford E450 or E350.

[stevek]

Regarding the weight, do you think this would be lighter with a 1 piece fiberglass vs "joints"?
And maybe not needing so much interior structural material, would make it lighter?
Or about the same weight wise?

[Roger H]

Steve, having just sold a Bigfoot 25' travel trailer that structurally is essentially two fiberglass bonded together, that can in fact be a lighter weight design. Born Free made a 25' travel trailer a few years ago, and IIRC it's curb weight was around 7200 lbs. My Bigfoot 25' trailer weighed 5200 lbs at the curb.

There are a couple of issues with a single fiberglass tub Born Free tho... first is cost. It's very costly to mold those tubs. Second, Born Free has almost forty years of experience with the building techniques they use and are not set up to do a single-piece molded tub design.

I don't have any inside information, but I'd guess we can conventional Born Free construction with steps to lighten that as much as practical.

[stevek]

Thanks Roger.
These are interesting Sprinter Floorplans.
I like the option of a bedroom in the back.
Now, if you add a overhead bed in front.
The reason I post these, I am hoping someone form the BF factory may be reading our forum and getting our suggestions. Good or Bad.
Maybe they read, maybe they do not?
These would be good floorpans to me on the 350/450 chassis too.