2011 Great West Van Legend

[Davydd]

Bill,

We just got back from a 39 day trip from Minnesota to mostly Arizona today. Totally trouble free and totally satisfied.

[Charlie]

Nice job on the photos. Thanks.

Now that you have a serious trip under your belt, I'd be interested in your opinion on the overhead storage over the cab area. I'm working on the design of the upper cabinets for my conversion and am torn between the extra storage (can there ever be enough?) and the possible interference when moving in and out of the cab.

My height is 5-10.

Charlie

[Davydd]

Originally Posted by aljimenez

Very innovative design ideas, and it appears to fill your needs well. While that couch design is awesome, I'm afraid the payment is a not too good bed. I recall one of these three part sofa beds in an earlier B of ours that was pretty uncomfortable. I tried so much to make that sofa lie down flat, and all sorts of remedies and none worked. I would need to try sleeping on one before I would agree to this sofa. However I like most everything else about this design. Have you tried sleeping in this sofa yet?

Update. I have now slept in the GWV Legend some 40 times. The bed still does not flatten out on its own but immediately flattens out when you lie on it. It may lie flat on its own in time. It seems to be loosening up and getting flatter in that direction. I can attest the bed is much more comfortable than my previous 2005 Pleasure-Way Plateau TS. The dry cold desert nights in the Southwest might have been a contributor but I slept very well. My pressure points of shoulders and hips fall on the fat of the cushion part. We did not have to resort to a foam topper as my wife did with the P-W.

You can sleep with your feet under the suspended cablnet and lavatory with no problem. There is enough room. I found though that I migrated to a slight angle to avoid doing so or I went into a slight fetal curl out of habit. The bed is big enough to do so.

Making up the bed by just pushing a button and not have to fit ottoman cushions on infill boards and vice versa putting away by just pushing a button was a big plus in my mind and much faster to do so.

We are using insulated sleeping bags with removable zippered in flannel sheet liners that are rated good down to 20F. They can also be zippered together like a Travasak if desired. They are 36" wide Coleman brand we bought from Costco for about $30 each. We needed them as the temps fell to a low of 20F one night in Grand Canyon and most nights in the Southwest desert got below 40F. We sleep with no heat. Unfortunately someone has to jump out of bed in the morning and turn on the propane furnace. It would be nice to be able to flip the switch from the bed and stay covered until the van heats up. :)

[Davydd]

Charlie,

The overhead cabinets in the cab area are great. You can bump your head on them if you are not careful but that usually happens only when are standing up and trying to reach something on the dashboard. Getting in and out of the cab seats with those overhead cabinets is not a problem. BTW, the new model Sprinters have a lot more dashboard cubbies in which to store stuff compared to the old Sprinters. Also there are shelves above the visors. With that and those overhead cabinets you can store a library of travel literature and maps. Even the door panel storage works better than the old Sprinter for archiving maps.

We also use the storage area above the armorie gap under the upper cabinet extensively. We bought some storage trays at Target with rubber bottoms so we each have a junk tray to dump miscellaneous stuff.

There are plenty of places to place a coffee cup or water bottle but we bought some lip over plastic cupholders at Walmart that can be found in the RV section that work with the doors. They did not work with the older model Sprinter.

[Davydd]

Here are some photos of our Great West Van Legend from our recent trip this spring through the Southwestern states.

Great Sand Dunes National Park


Rocky Mountain National Park


Hoosier Pass at 11,551 Feet in Colorado


Joshua Tree National Park


Cholla National Forest Campground Lake Roosevelt Arizona


Parking in Downtown Bisbee, Arizona


Petrified Forest National Park


Route 66 at the Petrified Forest


Screens side and back ventilation in Arizona desert


Overnight Free Parking in a Walmart parking lot in North Platte, Nebraska

[LEZM3]

we purchased our 2011 GW Legend Mar 13th and absolutely think it is the greatest ever! Our interior color and design is as yours; however, our lay-out is slightly different in that we have a 6.3cf two-door (top freezer/bottom reefer) refrigerator......wow is that fantastic. It is so nice being able to carry more fresh produce, fruit, and cold drinks. as our coach was a custom project that fell-through for original buyer, we have only two items that would have been engineered differently (1 - water heater would be 110v or LP......currently only LP; 2 - refrig is only 2-way model....preference would be 3-way......although we do have benefit of 1750W house inverter to run while driving). we left NW Fla couple days ago for our 4-month adventure via Georgia seeing family. heading to Great West factory next week, followed by trip west to Glacier Natl; Yellowstone; Black Hills and then meander to northeast for remainder of summer. The GW Factory are fantastic. Our conversations with Ken Donaldson in the factory and Mike Ellis the General Manager, reinforce our decision to choose Great West over the other Class B models. We previously owned a roadtrek and never experienced such support and relationship. looking for you on the roads.

[DaveR]

Davydd - thanks for the photos! I am SO ready to get on the road, but have several weeks before we have our current house ready for sale or lease. Did GW provide the screen on your back doors ? We have a PW 2011 Plateau TS and we're still outfitting.

[DaveR]

My wife and I have come up with an idea to cover the side door, having to do with 36" wide strips of fiberglass screen material (doesn't fray and give off that nasty needles) with magnets for attachments and marbles to keep closed. I'm still interested if the back door was made by GW though.

I'm receiving a cargo net sometime this next week and I'm going to try to set up a sleeping gear storage area in my overhead of forward seats. If it works, I'll photograph and put on PW thread. (for those of us without a storage area in this location )

One thing I'm REALLY disappointed about with my new vehicle is the length of the storage tube for the black/gray water hose. A 15' Rhino won't fit by about 9 inches. I'm now looking for a solution to lengthen the storage tube, as there was another two feet not being utilized before it got to the rear wheels.

[Davydd]

Great West offers a rear door screen with a zipper down the middle that snaps in but you have to take it down and store it away. Our dealer, Lake Region RVs in Minnesota came up with a custom screen that snaps in but also zips up both sides so you can roll it up and leave it in place. Either way it is an add on item and probably could be added to any Sprinter. You could leave a screen in place and with the zipper down the middle like GWV offers you would still have access to the window curtains to open and close. So either way could work I think.

Our slinky type waste hose stores away in a tube next to the drain outlet and seems to be sufficiently long enough. I know it will stretch 12 ft. I thought it was rated for 20 ft. but have not had to stretch it that far to find out.

[Davydd]

LEZM3,

GWV seems to do a lot of custom efforts. They are small enough they can get away with doing it. They have a new Legend at the B8 RV.net Rally here in Springfield, IL (where I am right now) that is significantly different from mine made in February. Some things I like about it and some things I don't, but I should be able to retrofit some of the new ideas into my B that I like.