[Industry] The right and wrong of the expansion cabin of drawing dragons and drawing snakes

Due to restrictions on safety, driving and regulations, the usable space inside the caravan is very limited. How to make the limited space have unlimited possibilities has become an important topic for RVs, and the expansion cabin that allows the space to be folded and expanded has become an inevitable choice. Is the expansion cabin the finishing touch or superfluous to the RV?

Due to the existence of the attribute of a car, the volume and weight of the car body are very limited. For example, the common C driver’s license in China can only drive vehicles with a length of less than 6 meters, and the length and width of a towed car are required to be within 8 meters and 2.5 meters respectively when applying for a license.

As a result, the space inside the RV has become extremely limited, so various brands of RVs have designed folding beds, multi-functional card seat sofas, and storage compartments that fit in every corner, almost utilizing the space inside the RV to the extreme. The expansion cabin can even fold the space outside the caravan into the car, but the expansion cabin brings a series of chain problems at the same time. To understand this problem, we must first look at an Yate Style RV with an expansion cabin installed.

Same old & different

Yate Style RV is a C-type RV refitted on the chassis of Iveco NEWDAILY. In terms of appearance, it has a longer and wider body, a sleeping cabin with a large forehead, etc., which is not significantly different from conventional C-type RVs. But if you come to the right side of the body, you will find that it is obviously different from common models.

On the right side of the exterior of the RV, there are external equipment such as generator compartments, gas tank compartments, and storage compartments. Of course, there is another core equipment that I will talk about today-the expansion cabin. The position of the expansion compartment is on the right front side of the vehicle box body, and it is almost indistinguishable from other parts of the vehicle body when it is closed. After opening the expansion compartment during camping, you can find that a part of the right side of the compartment extends out to a width of nearly 80cm, and the space outside the RV is packed into the car.

Changeable & Spacious

The interior cockpit of the vehicle retains the characteristics of the Iveco NEW DAILY model. The black interior style with LCD screen and metal texture knob is very fashionable. The light-toned decoration style in the carriage is full of family atmosphere, and the layout adopts the layout of the front deck sofa and kitchen, and the rear auxiliary bed and toilet. The left side of the compartment door is a simple kitchen, which can be used to prepare light meals when the weather is not ideal.

Directly opposite the compartment door is a multi-functional card seat sofa, which is different from other RVs in that the card seat area is the expansion cabin area just seen on the outside. After extending 80cm to the outside of the car through the expansion cabin, the space inside the car is much larger than that of models of the same size. At the same time, because the sofa area occupies less space in the car, there is more room for shaping the aisle and auxiliary bed in the car.

Expansion & Disadvantages

The appearance of this Yate Fashion Edition RV can be regarded as quite satisfactory, but because of the existence of the expansion cabin in the cabin, the space is more spacious than similar models, and the layout is also more novel. Why is such a good medicine that breaks the small space of RVs not applied to all RVs?

Let’s first understand what an expansion cabin is. Expansion cabin, English is Slide-outAn, literally translated as slide-out module, Chinese people call it “expansion cabin”, “extension cabin”, “extension cabin” and so on. Usually, a motor pushes a body module located above the slide rail through a reduction gear set, and then uses a reciprocating switch to control the expansion and retraction functions. This configuration is mostly used on North American RVs, and the interior space is increased by expanding the sides and rear outwards. Like camp RVs, five-wheeled RVs, etc., there are usually multiple expansion cabins to increase the use space of the RV.

Just like a coin has two sides, the application of the RV expansion cabin has brought many problems while increasing the space in the RV.

First, the weight of the vehicle increases. Although the manufacturer of the Yate Style RV mentioned above is working hard to reduce the weight of the body, the curb quality has remained high. Secondly, the assembly process requirements are high. The installation of such a large accessory on the vehicle body will greatly change the overall structure and layout of the vehicle. If the equipment process is not up to standard, it is easy to cause problems in use and even safety. Again, the expansion cabin cannot bear too much weight. Due to the external hanging structure, the expansion cabin cannot carry as much weight as the RV chassis. Finally, there is an increase in the price. With the seemingly simple expansion structure of the expansion cabin, its important spare parts are still mainly imported for the time being. The price of imported accessories is naturally high, and the cost of RVs has also increased accordingly. These costs will eventually be passed on to users.

Remedies & Poisons

RVs with a length of less than 6 meters are bound to become mainstream models under the current regulations, and the small space has become the number one problem that many RV manufacturers need to face. The expansion cabin, which can solve the problem of insufficient space, is undoubtedly a good prescription for this situation. However, at the beginning of the design of some domestic RVs, they were greedy for the effective use of space brought by the expansion cabin, but selectively ignored some disadvantages of the expansion cabin belt, so that the end products are rough in workmanship and have many safety hazards.

Regardless of whether the product design is reasonable or not, just look at the appearance. The Yate Fashion Edition RV mentioned above, it can be clearly seen from the appearance that the upper part of the expansion cabin is equipped with a special rain curtain for the expansion cabin. When the expansion cabin is retracted, there is a sealing strip on the contact part with the body. Effectively prevent dust and rain, and prolong the effective life of the expansion cabin.

Conversely, if the assembly process is not up to standard and the quality of materials used is poor, there will be problems such as increased body weight, weakened insulation and sealing, and weakened body safety, while the failure rate, use cost, and service life of the expansion cabin are not so obvious

The defects will be infinitely magnified. At this time, the good prescription for curing diseases and saving lives has become a deadly poison. The configuration of the expansion cabin is believed to be researched by the manufacturers. Whether it is a good medicine or a poison, I believe that each manufacturer also has its own judgment and thinking. In the end, how to use the “double-edged sword” of the expansion cabin to overcome obstacles depends on each company’s own ability.

epilogue

The seemingly simple RV technology such as the expansion cabin tests our fragile RV foundation when it is applied. Seeing the leopard in the spot, through an expansion cabin, we can see that there is still a huge gap between us and the European and American workshops. In RV manufacturing, from the assembly process, material selection to body structure design, body weight reduction, and even the drag coefficient of the body, the fatigue of furniture, etc., which we have hardly touched, are all issues that need to be studied one by one.

It is hoped that RV manufacturers of various brands will not only introduce product production technology, but also introduce thinking modes during production. When solving problems, we should not only rely on the principle of use, but carefully think about why when we use it; when we use it, we will combine with ourselves to form our own technology accumulation, and finally form our own style, which will finally be displayed in the form of products.