How a T-160 can
Accommodate 2 Adults 3 Teenagers BIG Dog
The secret to the versatility and accommodation of the T-160
is that it has been designed so that most adults can still sit up straight (and
thus comfortably) at the dinette and the couch with both overhead bunks in the
down position. In our T-160, for our family of 6 (counting our dog), that's
what we do
In seating configuration, the dinette bunk holds not only our middler's sleeping bag, blankets, and pillow, but also the queen-size egg crate sleeping pad, twin heavy padded/insulated Coleman 36Wx80L sleeping bags (that we used with our Coleman popup), blankets, and pillows that my wife and I (and dog) sleep on. The couch bunk holds our youngest's sleeping bag, custom cut egg crate sleeping pad, blanket, and pillow as well as our oldest's sleeping bag, custom cut egg crate sleeping pad, blankets, and pillow. The couch bunk also holds the kid's clothing duffle bags that are usually stored in the space under the dinette table when the dinette is in the bed configuration for sleeping. This leaves the entire dinette and couch area open for seating. While we can currently squeeze all of us at the dinette, since the kids have grown into adult-size, we find that using a rolling ice chest at the end of the dinette table for seating (folded towels for a cushion) gives us plenty of space and elbow room. While the dinette is similar to the size of a traditional U-shaped (59½Wx82L), the seating is not U-shaped allowing a larger dinette table (30Wx48L). The extra 18” length (over the traditional 30Wx30L or 30Wx36L U-shaped table) makes a big difference.
In sleeping configuration, the rolling ice chest (18Hx16Wx24L) is moved beside the couch to provide our oldest (who is taller and weighs more than I do) with an expanded sleeping surface for his upper body. He has plenty of room to spread his arms out. In the bunk above, our youngest has grown to finally exceed the 115 lb rating, but our middler has taken naps on that bunk and he’s 70 lbs over the bunk rating, so I’m not worried at all when our youngest is up there at night. Our middler uses the dinette bunk and while he's also over the rated bunk capacity on that bunk as well, I napped several times on the bunk during our first year of use without a problem, and at that time I weighed 100 lbs MORE than the 140 lb rated capacity! (After relaying my experience to the folks at Shadow Cruiser, they did some of their own testing and upped the bunk rating to 210 lb without any structural modifications). There's enough room on 38Wx82L dinette bunk for us to store our laundry bags and still have plenty of room for sleeping for our middler. It's so nice that the kids each have their OWN, separate sleeping areas. That's priceless! On the dinette bed, the 59½Wx82L size allows me to sleep in my usual position on my stomach with my arms under/over my head and my feet stretched out as well as enough space for our 100 lb. beloved dog to join my wife and I. If he gets too warm, he jumps down and sleeps on the floor.
Since we don't bring along a TV when camping, we use the open storage area above the wardrobe to hold all our towels (we bring tons along with us camping) and other items. I use a clear cutting board that fits perfectly into the opening to keep the towels from spilling out when traveling. I also use pillows in the wardrobe closet stuffed between the hanging rod and the ceiling of the closet to keep our hangers from coming off the rod when traveling. In the storage area above the fridge, the upper shelf holds all our toiletries, personal care products, and other items. The lower shelf holds my wife's and my small duffle bags (whatever won't fit in the wardrobe closet) and our overnight bags/kits. The 3 cu. ft. fridge is surprisingly roomy as well as how much the under-galley cabinet can hold with creative packing. The rolling ice chest has plenty of space for other cold items and because of the huge aisle, doesn't become a significant hindrance to passage or standing area. In fact, it’s a convenient seat for removing our shoes which we store inside the battery compartment under the wardrobe closet (yes, even with dual batteries, there’s enough space to fit our shoes in). Our large drinking water container (c/o Home Depot) fits nicely in the back counter area between the sink and the stove. We use a cutting board as a stove cover. In the under seat storage areas, I've used up every nook and cranny.
For how our family of 5 survives on just battery power, a single propane (LP) tank, and a 24 gal. fresh water, 12 gal. grey water, and 8 gal. black water holding tanks, see "Conserving Water, Power, and Propane (LP)" and "Minimizing Grey (Gray) and Black Water".
Really, the only big drawback we have with our T-160 is that our campsites back up to lakes, rivers, and scenic mountain views and there's no rear window(s) to allow us to enjoy those scenes, breezes, or monitor activity while we're inside. That's the main reason I designed my proposed rear dinette floorplan, the T-189DD (.doc Word format).