Since posting the original comment, I've come across more hybrid RV information.

Sprinter Van - Winnebago has come out with a 23 footer based on the Sprinter. It has a slideout - something which IMHO vastly changes and improves RV livability & efficiency. The more slideouts the better is my new motto.

I saw the German Sprinter hybrid - it's based on the 2500 chassis. The best Sprinter chassis for a MH is the 3500 I would think.

The (only) thing I don't like about the Sprinter is the narrow wheelbase. It was designed as a delivery van for the narrow streets of Europe. On a spinning world, we need a wide wheelbase when carrying something heavy.

Another note is that a rebuilder of the 5 cyl diesel in the SF Valley, agrees with everyone that it is a wonderful engine, but that taxing it to its limits as with the RV conversions shortens its life considerably. I would still like to have one anyway, especially combined with hybrid technology.

The Winnebago/Sprinter RV (called a “View” and under their mark Itasca a “Navion”) is stuck in the same tired old RV paradigms in most ways, despite the innovation of the slideout on a small RV. I could list them all and probably will before I'm through, but I think its most exemplified by the bathroom sink. As in all RV’s except the largest, it’s a tiny, useless little paen to Inland Empire minds of mostly retirees with more money than dendrites. A bathroom sink in a 23 foot RV makes as much sense as the unused suburban front lawns of the people who pay 80K for these things.

About as much sense, too, as overstuffed couches and “genuine oak” furniture in a vehicle with limited space and carrying capacity.

What harm you say? Well, I’d like a spacious shower. I like long hot showers sometimes, especially when it’s really cold outside. A coffin-sized fiberglass box wherein you are hitting head and elbows while hastily soaping up and rinsing off with a minimum of water use is not my idea of the pleasant experience a shower should be.

The asinine little sink, all of one step away from the other sink in the RV, takes up space which could be used for a larger shower – a shower that recycles the shower water. Why not recycle all of the gray water? In the design I have in mind, filters take out the particulates & chemicals and an on-demand heater re-heats it. It then cycles back through the nozzle for a shower limited only by the amount of energy you want to spend on re-heating the water which, since the loop is short and it's already been warmed up initially, wouldn't be extravagant.

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My RV will use an electric toilet instead of a black water tank. There are many disadvantages in hauling around sewage. Smells bubbling out of the tank, the weight, the space it takes up, the onerous task of draining/cleaning/maintaining it, etc.

http://www.incinolet.com/easymaint.htm

Their model designed for RV’s used 120V and 15 amps. About the same as a microwave, I think. It costs $1600, mas o menos.

A hybrid RV will have ample electrical capacity thanks to the huge electrical storage inherent in the design, supplemented with roll-up solar panels which can be anchored on the roof or sides or carried 100 feet away to some sunshine (if parked in shade). With this robust electrical capacity, and even without it, an electric toilet is SO much more elegant than a sewage tank.

I just saw that Daimler-Benz, makers of the Sprinter chassis/engine, is producing a fuel-cell aux/generator for vehicles of this size. It’s available for the military and maybe even civilian use by now. I need to know more about this – what a great idea.

I remember a quote from Stewart Brand in one of the early Whole Earth catalogs, something about how the safest place to live in uncertain times is on a ledge. A self-sufficient, creatively designed motorhome gives us a wonderful option for ledge living.

There may be somebody out there using some imagination in RV design, but not that I’ve seen. The most interesting thing I’ve seen lately is a truck camper with two slide-outs and some other design innovations. Host Campers in Oregon I think it is.

The various hybrid busses and light trucks now being sold, with many more soon to come, should surely inspire some interesting motorhome designs.

Mike