I have zero interest in camping, especially doing road trips in a camper. But, this popped up on my FB.

All I can say is wow. It's amazing. The pop-up roof to make the bedroom actually easy to sleep in, the grill that opens onto a "deck".

So well planned.

Maybe I'm overreacting. For those in the know, what do you think about this design?

Wonderful! Wish I had one of those, and was 20 years younger.

Very cool...always intrigued with ingenuity in design. Of course my idea of roughing it is when they don't turn down the bed and leave the chocolate on the pillow!

It is well thought out. And cute.

I love it!

We used to camp a lot, but now that I'm older I'm not as enthused as I was when younger. But, I would so try that. I've always been interested in clever and efficient use of small spaces. I especially like the slide out grill and that it has a full bathroom, including a shower, which is a must in my book.

Now, Bob, as a lover of milk chocolate, I'd feel as though I were roughing it if I found dark chocolate on my pillow... ;-)

Ah, German engineering--very cool! My first thought (after turning off the "music") was that it's so adult. My son and his family are avid campers, but I can't envision my two little grandsons in that sophisticated environment (with an office yet!). Of course, with a new baby coming they'll have better things to spend their money on than a Mercedes-Benz concept vehicle. :-)

Super cool. I can’t imagine how much it costs.

That was my thought 1929spanish...as soon as I saw the Mercedes emblem ;-)

I don't like the idea of something that top heavy going off road. Then.....I don't want to clean it when I get home. I also don't want a dirty BBQ grill or full toilet in the same vehicle "I'm" traveling in. We still go car camping. I would like to be able to sleep in the "car". It's more bear-proof, wind & rain proof. We had beetles eating the pine trees, dropping needles on our tent ALL night once. We have friends with a LARGE Ford SUV. They fold the seats down & sleep in the back. That I would like!

I loved camping when I lived in an area that was more conclusive to sleeping in a tent. It really isn't camping to me to be in a vehicle instead of fresh air and hearing night life.

If you noticed it appeared very bouncy when going off road. I am not certain that as high as it appears to be that in high wind situations it would be stable.

Checking the edit function but I too used to go tent camping using one of those cheap orange pup tents when I was younger. Nothing like waking up and seeing frost on the underside of the tent from your breathing during the night.

Interesting concept camper... But at a quarter million price tag, I think I'll stick to my tent.

My oldest daughter lives in a honda odyssey van, when not house/pet sitting. There is no way in the world, she or most people could afford such a vehicle.

I camp, but my camping is soooo far off this, it's hilarious. :) Honestly, I would not want it, any more than I would want one of those huge homes some people live in.

Moni

Pretty cool. I wonder how my dad would have categorized it though...I doubt 'camping'. When I was little, the only vacations we took other than to see my grandparents were camping vacations. Tent, sleeping bags, leaky air mattresses, 2 burner coleman stove and metal coleman cooler. 5 of us and usually a dog. Often we weren't even in a park, but at some little remote river gravel bar, forest with stream - no facilities or running water.

I don't 'rough it' well any more. I want lights at night, hot water in the mornings....

I'm not big on camping either although when growing up our family would sometimes go on a weekend camping trip. This vehicle would be super nice for sightseeing road trips, festivals, and overnight . Of course after buying it ,maybe not much money left to take it anywhere! :)

DH has been wanting a much less expensive version of this sort of thing for the last couple of years. He loves to camp and knows I am not sleeping on the ground any more and even our pop up Coleman wont do it for me any more. For me? He goes hiking and fishing and fooling around and I get to do everything I usually do at home in some squeeny space dealing with dirt and discomfort. I want a real hot shower and a real bed at the end of the day but I can see my future before me anyway.

I think it still has kinks to work out. I'm not sure about that sliding grill. The bed looks more uncomfortable than the bed in our pop-up camper. This camper doesn't appear to have a heater or air.

The bathroom doesn't appear to be much more usable that what I have now. A lot of people won't allow usage of the bathroom inside a camper. We did, but's that's becuase our kids were little and terrified of falling in camp bathrooms.

Mercedes Sprinter van conversions are all over the Internet, but usually less expensive than this one. I think the expandable shower is a concept I haven't seen before.

My son has a Mercedes Benz sprinter van that is all tricked out for camping, but nothing like this. I wonder what that baby costs? Beautifull design.

I think it’s an awesome design. If we still camped it would be something we would look at.

The Mercedes chassis campers we have looked at, which I think were fitted by Airstream, are quite spendy, well over $130k and that was a few years ago. This looks a little shorter, and more compact, so maybe not quite as pricey, I don’t know. I have no feel for the prices of these things. They seem to be all over the place.

The bathroom and raised sleeping compartment are nice concepts. The raised roof reminds me of the old VW minibus in a way. No worries about the grill being inside, as they are not. Those things are made to fit under the chassis.

Not certain when it will be available but there was a poster on the wall of a dealership when I was looking for a car earlier this year of a proposed VW electric minibus that is supposed to be available soon. The person at the dealership stated it was probably not available until next year although you will see articles stating there is a 2019 model.

Adella, why does the bed look uncomfortable? I was once surprised by a murphy bed we had while on a vacation. It was one of the most comfortable beds!

I like that this model seems smaller than most. I like how the roof lifts.

I like looking at tiny homes. One of the things I could never get used to would be the loft bedroom that all seem to have. I've never seen on that has a pop up option like this camper.

I get the impression that the price is irrelevant because none of them actually exist yet, and while the concept of the expandable shower does look cool, its much easier to build such a thing as a 3D model, than it is to actually build one that stands up to real world use.

A wonderful piece of design, however, price was never mentioned in the video - that may have ruined the effect. I recall that years ago, Volkswagon made a camper based on their 'Vanagon'. It did not have many features of an RV, but was much lower in cost, and did feature an expanding top to create a sleeping space.

It's a very cool motor home but it ain't camping.

Camping is about nature. It's sleeping under the stars or in a tent.

Best kind of camping is cooking over a fire but a small grill or Coleman stove is OK.

I used to go camping with a childhood friend's family. Her dad was a stream fisherman. Way out in the middle of nowhere and often dinner was trout on a stick cooked over the open fire. Sounds like Morz8 an I shared the same great camping experience.

One year a friend and I took a road trip down the coast. Sleeping bags were laid wherever we landed for the night and meals were cooked in a single cast iron skillet over the camp fire.

Also have memories of motorcycle camping. That was really bare bones. Change of undies, swimsuit, basic grooming essentials and often a single sleeping bag for two. This was before baggers and luggage compartments for bikes. LOL The good old days before one had to reserve a site a year in advance or even pay to camp.

IMO, camping is about learning independence and self-reliance. Driving or towing a camper is nothing more than the comfort of materialism.

My boys want to gather firewood, observe nature, poke sticks at snakes, climb trees, whittle with pocket knives and wake up in the morning and pee in the woods.

I think camping is a way of life for some. It definitely is not cheaper than going to motels. Camp sites cost about as much as smaller motels. And then you still cook, clean and Have to put it all away when you get home LOL. I used to love to "visit" campers, but I want to sleep at home or in a clean motel. We have family members that camp all summer long and they love it. I would to if it were like this vehicle, but not more than a couple of nights. Too each their own.

The bathroom reminds me of what I used to find in old trains. When Amtrak took over the trains in the U.S., the U.S. sold its old train cars to Mexico, and so Mexico had beautiful stainless steel trains with sleeping cars. The sleeping room was called a dormitorio, and I would always get one when I would travel overnight on the train in Mexico.

I like that it has solar panels. I wonder if they provide enough electricity to power my CPAP machine overnight. I skipped going to one island in Fiji because the hotel did not have electricity after midnight. I don't camp in tents anymore partly because I have to use my CPAP machine, but I do not miss the bears, and I do prefer staying in motels and eating in restaurants when I travel. I don't need to sleep in the woods any more, but I did enjoy it when I did, but I slept in tents to save money. Campsite are expensive, but I don't remember paying more than $10 a night to stay in a tent. I used to go with a camping group that I belonged to call Great Outdoors L.A. Some members did have a Winnebago.

Tent camping used to be fun. I grew up doing it with Girl Scouts and then as an adult with our friends in the 70’s where is was like watchme described. You could camp out most anywhere in the woods by the lakes around here with no fees And nobody bothered you. We took kids and infants and just had fun.

I started doing tent camping again after my divorce and went on many tent camping trips with my single girl friends and others with a club we belonged to. We would go white water rafting over weekends and have a great time. DH came into the picture and we would take our kids too. Just had to buy more tents.

Now our 2 sons and grandkids are going and DH too on occasional outings to their hunting spot (which one son owns) and to state parks where they go 4wheeling on Park forest roads. Fishing is also involved. Off season tent camping fees aren’t bad. But the fees for camping in some areas are ridiculous.

Eld, I don't like the bed, because those pipes, slats or whatever look like a design that I would have a problem maneuvering. I'm afraid of it not being flat.

You can tent camp with a c-pap machine. Dh did some research and bought a battery you charge before you go. We camped one night with it on in a tent on the beach. It worked fine. We haven't been camping since so haven't used it again. That reminds me that dh needs to check it out again to make sure it works in case we have an emergency.

I need to get that battery. I wonder if I could have recharged it in Fiji.

adella beat me to it. Most of the popular CPAP machines run on 12v normally (the power cord is an AC to DC transformer or whatever the right technical word is) so getting a cord that will connect to a battery is all that's needed.

Compact Ni-Cad or lithium type batteries are typically a few hundred dollars and are the size or slightly smaller than a small laptop or Chromebook. You can also use a small car battery (12 v) with clip connectors to the terminals and then a socket to connect to another cable that will plug into the CPAP machine.

No need to ask me how I know, been there, done that. I've been through a few batteries over the years (they lose their charge holding power) and still have one I use for windy, stormy winter nights when a power outage is possible.

Barbecue that close to the gas tank? Dirty barbecue under the camper in the land of insects and wildlife? Hope the bears don't smell it!

We never paid more that $10 per site to camp at both state parks and private campsites. Most had electricity and water hookups. We never camped in the summer, much too hot.

It is a camper but of course, there are degrees of camping. I was a GS leader and we did tent camping with our scouts. We were at a campsite with a wash house.

One year we had guests from a wilderness type group. They laughed at us for having tents and a wash house as they did the most rugged camping.

My expensive tent spot this summer was $39 and some cents. Outrages... but better than the 150 plus rooms in that area.

Moni

Don't really consider that camping. Camping to me is in a tent or on the ground. Can't imagine spending that much money on something you don't use every day either. It is a neat van, though.

I think it would make a dandy tiny home! On wheels makes it even more appealing. Even when I was young I hated sleeping on the ground when camping. This would be a million times better. Not that I could ever afford such a luxury. I think it's neat.

"Barbecue that close to the gas tank?"

How do you know where the gas tank is located? I didn't notice anything that showed the gas tank's location. And I would think that Mercedes Benz engineers/designers would be smart enough to insulate the area.

"Dirty barbecue under the camper in the land of insects and wildlife? Hope the bears don't smell it!"

I think most folks would know enough to clean the grill before putting it away.

I liked "camping" which is what we did when we went on a trip. But it wasn't real camping I guess. We had travel trailers with all the comforts of home which we pulled behind a pickup truck. I liked it because then I had my own pillows, blankets etc. and my husband was very skilled at driving and maneuvering the rig. after he passed away I had to sell the truck and camper. I do miss traveling that way. We usually tried to stay in state parks which don't cost very much.

I used to really enjoy my version of camping. I went for some comfort and niceties. I'd usually sleep in the back of my pickup, off the ground, who cares if it rained and I'd be up fresh and having coffee while others are wringing their clothes out crawling out of the tents. When in a tent, I'd have a cot. I had a battery TV, not just for entertainment but to check news/weather if there's a weather front coming through. Propane campstoves and lanterns, much better and safer than white gas. Now, I'm more to staying in a hotel.

Oh and Lindsey_ca, if you met some of the people I've met in my years, you wouldn't assume most people would know. Just a couple months ago a 6 year old died from a fire in a Walmart parking lot. Her mother left her and her sister sleeping in the vehicle in the parking lot ("but I was only going to be gone a MINUTE!!!!") and a guy who was sleeping in the parking lot had done some cooking on a grill, put the grill into his van, pulled up next to the van with the children, his vehicle caught fire and spread to several adjoining vehicles. Last I heard the other child was in critical condition, not sure if she survived or not. Sad story but shows stupidity on both mother and the guy who caused the fire.

I suppose that enlarged bathroom would be indicated ...

... for the enlarged people appearing in recent years.

o j

I love it, the way it’s designed is interesting but I don’t see it as a “camper”. IMO, it would be ideal for an individual or a couple who want to sell their home and spend a couple of years traveling the country or something.