We are buying a new Advanced RV Class B Mercedes Benz Sprinter.
Monday, May 5, 2014, Alvar was conceived. Why Alvar? First, Advanced RV has a penchant for naming all of their Class B vans. Secondly, I went with that spirit wanted to do the naming. Alvar was a name I lobbied for my son and my two grandsons with no fruition and total dismissal. And, I thought Alvar Stovall was a alliterative, poetic name.
Alvar is for Alvar Aalto a famous Finnish architect of the 20th Century and probably the architect I most admired in my architectural education. Thirdly, have you looked at the cabinetry of an Advanced RV? See any similarity?
1939 World’s Fair Finnish Pavilion and Advanced RV Upper Cabinets
So, Alvar it is. The first step was to go back to Advanced RV after the Fest to sit down with Advanced RV and choose a Mercedes Benz Sprinter chassis and all the basic and desired options. We had made our decision ahead of time and attended Advanced Fest more as a formality and to continue our social aspects of meeting with other Class B owners. If anything, I was encouraged and reinforced in our decision.
Then we spent an exhaustive day Monday picking the desired color of the B (Graphite Grey Metallic, BTW), the interior finishes and on and on. Our first commitment step was to put down a refundable deposit to get the Sprinter ordered and in the queue. Advanced RV will come back with a package of information from which we will agree on and then make another deposit that will be a firm commitment so more things like ordering of materials and cabinet construction can commence or at least get scheduled.
There will be some design changes to their standard inside layout. I sent a drawing in advance of Advanced Fest to let them know of our desires. After looking at their Bs and seeing what else had been built we started discussing modifications. So those things have yet to be worked out, but we have a pretty good mutual understanding of our goals. The important thing is Advanced RV seems as enthusiastic about our design as we are.
Our best estimate is this may be around an 8 month process. That could change. We know we will have to continue our travels in our Great West Legend this summer and fall, but our goal is to go to Arizona in the 2015 winter/spring time frame with a dry camping B. Ordering for the 2015 Sprinter chassis can begin this coming Monday. We desired that even though supposedly there are no changes. We hope this doesn’t delay too much but there will be a delay over ordering a 2014 chassis.
That’s where we are today. Stay tuned.
Advancing Alvar
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