At the Florida RV SuperShow this year there was an RV that stopped people in their tracks more than most others. It wasn’t the new Westfalia vans and few people bothered to look at those cheap Colemans. Instead, it was a giant 54-foot-long semi-trailer built to be an RV for full-timers. This is a SpaceCraft, and it’s a fabulous $600,000 RV meant to be your home wherever you want to drag it.
The SpaceCraft parked at the Florida RV SuperShow is owned by Todd and Sheila Konitzer. As the couple explained, they each lost a parent due to health complications in 2019. Those parents were only in their 60s and were going to spend their retirement living full-time in an RV and traveling the country. Sadly, they never got to do that, but Todd and Sheila began their own conversations about downsizing and hitting the road.
Like many Americans, the Konitzer couple hit the road during the pandemic, living out of an RV and starting a YouTube channel. Along the way, they discovered that full-time RVing can be lonely, so they founded Switch It Up, a community of RV enthusiasts. The SpaceCraft at the show isn’t just the Konitzer couple’s new home, but a mobile command center for the Switch It Up operation complete with a giant LED sign and a rooftop party deck.
The Todd and Sheila trailer is just one example of what SpaceCraft, a company specializing in completely custom RVs, can do.
Blast Off
The vast majority of RVs out there are units where what you see is what you get. A brand from Thor Industries or Forest River isn’t going to give you many customization options. Sure, maybe you might have a small selection of interior colors or a list of optional equipment, but that’s it. You’re not going to walk into a Dutchmen RV dealer and start a build from scratch.
That’s where SpaceCraft comes in. Mother and son team Marsha and Wyatt Trautman founded Spacecraft Manufacturing in 1962. At first, the company existed to combine the comforts and amenities of a home with the portability of an RV. By 1970, the Trautmans discovered an untapped niche. The owners of carnivals and circuses wanted large trailers with two bedrooms. This pushed the young SpaceCraft Manufacturing into the custom-built fifth-wheel arena. By the mid-1990s, SpaceCraft expanded on this idea even further by starting production of totally custom semi-trailers.
The company has been passed down through different owners. As of 2018, businessman Greg Wallman owns the company. I was most surprised by the fact that even though SpaceCraft has been around for 62 years, it’s not a name you hear about often, or really at all. This appears to be because SpaceCraft doesn’t advertise. Instead, the company seems to get most of its customers through word of mouth.
What makes SpaceCraft different is the fact that the RVs, which range from large travel trailers to 57-foot semi-trailers, are custom from start to finish. By “custom,” I don’t mean you get a layout and get to play around with it. This is even more custom than what you get with Grounded RV’s vans.
SpaceCraft says your design starts with a blank piece of paper. You tell SpaceCraft what you want and you will get it. Want a 40-foot garage for your cars and motorcycles and 17 feet for living space? SpaceCraft can do that. Want to live like Will Smith in a trailer so lavish most people couldn’t comprehend the luxury? Sure, SpaceCraft can do that, too. Maybe you just want a giant party capsule for Burning Man or King of the Hammers? SpaceCraft says a difficult part of its business is just communicating the fact that SpaceCraft’s trailers are whatever your dreams are and what your wallet can take. SpaceCraft says so long as your dreams obey regulations and the laws of physics, they could probably be achieved.
SpaceCraft’s Massive Semi-Trailers
The SpaceCraft put on display by the Konitzers is an example of SpaceCraft’s gigantic semi-trailer RVs. Let’s start with how large the thing is. The trailer is 54 feet long and weighs roughly 35,100 pounds empty.
A trailer with this much heft requires an equally girthy tow rig, and the Konitzers haul it with a Mack Anthem Class 8 semi modified by Hall Fabrication out of Auburndale, Florida. It’s a semi that, depending on configuration, puts out 415 HP to 505 HP and 1,260 lb-ft of torque to 1,900 lb-ft of torque using either Mack MP diesels or a Cummins natural gas engine. The Konitzers didn’t specify what’s under the hood.
Hall Fabrication turned the work truck semi into what’s called a Heavy Duty Truck (HDT). An HDT is more or less what it sounds like, a semi converted into something more for recreation duty. It’s common for HDT owners to configure their trucks to haul Smart Fortwos behind the truck cab and in front of the RV trailer, but Todd went a different direction. He had Hall Fabrication create a garage and lift for his Indian Chieftain motorcycle, which is pretty sweet. I bet driving that rig is a load of fun.
Behind the Mack and behind the motorcycle is the couple’s new SpaceCraft. Todd told me the process to design and build the trailer took a year. Five months of that year was just designing what they wanted. It took another three months to construct the trailer, and about a year to get it where it was at the Florida RV SuperShow. The trailer was about 70 percent complete at the show and part of what the Konitzers wanted to do was get feedback on how to finish the build. For example, the trailer still needs a paint scheme. What you’re looking at is the bare trailer before the paint!
SpaceCraft says that while its trailers are totally custom, buyers do get a platform to build on. The company’s semi-trailer RV platform starts with a welded steel chassis, tandem air ride axles, and 22.5” truck tires. In addition to that air suspension, you’re getting air brakes plus hydraulic jacks. SpaceCraft says it uses a “possum-style” basement, which is said to offer 60 percent more storage space than a typical fifth wheel trailer. The company also says that 22.5″ truck tires were a conscious choice. That way, tire problems could be resolved at just about any truck repair shop.
SpaceCraft’s semi-trailers measure between 40 feet and 57 feet long and feature an aluminum sheeted steel box with a composite body. The trailers’ roofs are fiberglass and the whole rig is covered in a gel coat paint. The trailers also get 1.5″ polystyrene insulation.
Standard equipment? Well, everything you’d expect in a $600,000 coach comes with a SpaceCraft semi-trailer build. SpaceCraft says you get a 10 kW generator, 50 Amp electrical service, and a 220 Ah battery. You also get 100 gallons of fresh water, a 50-gallon grey tank just for the kitchen, a 55-gallon grey tank elsewhere, and a 55-gallon waste tank. You get two air-conditioners, two heat pumps, two forced-air furnaces, a full kitchen with residential appliances, a full bathroom with a residential-size shower, and a hefty 19-gallon water heater.
Mind you, those are just the standard features. If you wanted five air-conditioners and 500 gallons of water, I bet SpaceCraft would do it. The Konitzers got sponsors for their build, which allowed them to upgrade the batteries with a set of eight 300 Ah lithium packs from Enduro Power and 3000 W of solar power from RV Solar Connections. Their trailer is also equipped with a sound stage featuring outdoor concert speakers to go along with the aforementioned hinged LED display.
Inside, the Konitzers designed a clever living space. The living room is pretty spacious and features a hidden sound bar, hidden USB ports, and beautiful hardwood finishes. Across from that is Todd’s office, which sits ahead of a dining room. As I said before, the kitchen utilizes residential appliances and is so large that there’s also a sizable island. I like that the wood touches return here as well. And by full kitchen, you even get a dishwasher, too!
Forward of those combined spaces is the private primary room, which has tons of space for a king bed, a dedicated laundry room, and a full bathroom. Toward the rear of the trailer is a mixed-use space. During the day it can be an office or a meeting space and at night, a Murphy bed comes down from the wall. This room also has its own door for privacy, plus a powder room of its own.
Also at the rear of the trailer are three party decks. Two are patios while the third is a rooftop deck. The roof deck is accessed through a hatch in the ceiling and a ladder.
Great, If You Have The Cash
Even at 70 percent finished, the SpaceCraft showed itself to be pretty neat. The trailer has so much space and honestly, I’m a sucker for RV patios and roof decks. I’m pretty sure if I had the kind of money to design one of these, I’d put deployable patios all over the place and a full roof observation deck. Maybe the solar panels would have to swing out or something.
And you do need a lot of money for something like this. Todd tells me that if you were to replicate their trailer, it would be something like $500,000, maybe $600,000 if you copied it exactly. But these are guesses at best because as I noted before, every SpaceCraft is a custom build. Most people aren’t building a trailer as both a full-time RV and also an events space, so you probably won’t have a giant LED screen or concert speakers.
SpaceCraft’s representatives tell me that getting your own custom trailer is only part of what makes the company stand out. SpaceCraft and its customers consider these trailers to be more affordable alternatives to palatial Class A coaches. You could spend a couple of million dollars on a 45-foot Prevost or scoot on over to SpaceCraft and get a 53-foot semi-trailer. The quality is great, too. Everything in the Konitzers’ trailer felt like it belonged in a fancy house because, well, it pretty much is a fancy house built into a semi-trailer.
While it’s unlikely I’ll ever be graced with enough cash to afford something like this, it was fascinating to take a look at what you could do with a blank sheet of paper and your imagination behind the wheel. On one end of the RV spectrum, you have cheap tent campers or those bargain basement Colemans, and on the other end, you have these trailers hauled by semi-tractors where the sky is the limit. I’d love to just spend a week in one of these SpaceCraft monsters and watch some off-road racing and do some stargazing from the roof deck.
If you want to give the Konitzers input on finishing their trailer design or are a full-time RVer wanting to meet other full-timers, visit the couple’s website at Switch It Up.
(Images: Author, unless otherwise noted.)
I always enjoy these RV write-ups. This, though:
Mercedes, I gotta say I admire your sense of fun. Just the idea of driving that HDT with 35,100 lbs hitched to it made my palms start to sweat.
This company only exists because it has enough customers to make the enterprise profitable. Which should tell you everything you need to know about wealth inequity in the USA.
This really pushes the boundaries of what can be classified as an RV. Maybe these folks are going to make it work as a promotional gimmick for their brand, but that’s about it. This is an ultra-mobile home.
I have to say that that for $600K, I’d rather spend that on another house/condo that will actually hold its value. OR… I’d rather spend it on cottage or AirBNB rentals.
It’s not like you’re gonna go travelling across the country in this behemoth on a regular vacation.
And I’m pretty sure you can get a house built for less than $600K
The real market for this would likely be the movie industry where your top-dollar talent would live in this thing and you’d move it to the different filming locations as needed.
I can also see this being useful in the music industry for when a band goes on tour.
I’m surprised you can do a full custom build for half a million, honestly. I’m pretty sure I’ve walked through Class As costing that much with bog standard materials and layouts.
Some bunch of car nerds we are. How has no one mentioned recreating the F.L.A.G. mobile unit from Knight Rider??? Fail, commentariot, fail.
This would be my choice if I was going top of the line. However please tell me these RVs require a true CDL so grandma and grandpa used to driving a PT Cruiser can’t buy it and go on the road with no additional driving training.
None of the RV parks in my area (SWFL) will fit something like this.
I’m echoing everyone else here and asking “where do you even park this thing?” and “what is the use case when you can’t put it anywhere?” The truck alone is enough to put you in jeopardy trying to take it anywhere near “wilderness”.
In the immortal words of Peggy Hill, “it is a monument to man’s arrogance.”
Help me with the use car. A retired couple sells their stuff and buys one of these as a permanent home. So far so good. Where do they take it? (too big for RV parks, can’t stop at attractions along the way). Once they find a place to park it, how long do they stay?
When they need groceries in inclement weather, do they take the tow rig to Walmart instead of the bike?
Post EDIT edit. “use case”
Yeah, exactly why 99% of snowbirds drive class A pushers, so they can have a tow vehicle. Also why Toterhomes make sense, properly sized vehicle to have a giant living quatres on its back, with enough capacity to tow a good sized enclosed trailer.
Ooh a new case for a new Speed movie. Memaw and Puppup driving with snotty grandkids can’t drop below 55 mph, and lament everything they pass a Cracker Barrel without stopping. Keanu Reeves has a caveat as a Walmart Delivery Driver delivered groceries without stopping.
The size of this rig would just give me too much anxiety while towing and setting up to enjoy full time RVing. I’m quite a few years from full timing, but I would want something small. We got a 23′ trailer because we still camp with our teenage kids sometimes, but it seemed like a size we could live with after they were out of the house. It still seems smaller than 90% of the campers in most campgrounds. I can’t see needing more space for a 2-3 week trip. I have a couch, comfy bed, tiny shower/bath, but it’s a dry bath, and a great kitchen space with everything I need to make a great meal. When I go camping, it’s to disconnect a bit and see the sites and attractions in the area. My RV is for sleeping, showering, and making good meals. Otherwise I’m outside if the weather is nice. I don’t need to haul all my extra crap around.
Keep in mind that you can’t possibly compare the cost of this thing to the cost of an actual house, because houses can hold or appreciate in value. This luxury trailer will only depreciate over time. It doesn’t matter if it’s a budget popup or one of these things. It will depreciate sharply, and if you want to live in one you’d better be prepared to take a bath on it when you decide to sell.
I just read an article yesterday that housing and rents are too expensive for 50% of Americans. Some people are paying upwards of 83% of their take home pay on rent? So when I see these RVs, and hear how the couple decided to travel early, I have trouble keeping an open mind. Inside it’s a spec home placed into a rectangle. Give me a Yurt in the mountains, near a river or lake.
Or a shipping cube that you could do the same to on a concrete slab in a forest?
I have a sneaking suspicion that 50% of Americans can’t afford rent/mortgage because of many of the folks who are buying the $600k to $1.5M mobile mansions… but that’s just me.
I didn’t watch (or even see an embedded frame for) whatever video there may have been, so someone please tell me that it has a scene where Todd’s at ground level grillin’ n chillin’ in an ironic apron while Sheila’s up on the party deck whipping her hair to the best music from the late ’80s LA skank metal scene.
This monstrosity would spend most of it’s time in a shop with electrical problems. Or water leaks. Or plumbing issues. Depreciate like a rock thrown off a cliff. Who exactly is the target demographic?
People with more money than discretion?
Pardon me for being nekulturney, but what precisely is a ‘powder room’? Presumably not where munitions are stored; is it the modern version of a pitcher & basin used for ablutions?
An American term for a bathroom with a toilet and sink but not a shower or bathtub. Also know as a half bath.
Danke
🙂
Dank YOU for teaching me the word “nekulturney.”
I’m a word nerd: always happy to share.
As a certain young lady used to say of her West Virginia cousins, “Why, that side of the family didn’t get siding—nor even indoor plumbing—until the late ‘70s, bless their hearts!” She was mighty proud of that word, and I still hear it in her strong Southern twang. It still makes me smile 😉
Bitte
I had visions of a scarface-style cabinet complete with blades, straws and a lot of white powder. This is disapointing.
“but what precisely is a ‘powder room’?”
It’s where you snort your coke.
That’s what glass coffee tables are for!
-uh, my decor decisions may have been influenced by living in various different college towns in the 70s & 80s
Is this still covered under the CDL exemptions for RVs in most states?
I am assuming the cab is configured with the requirements to title it as a motorhome to avoid CDL requirements.
Depends on the state. In California, maybe exempt. In Nevada, definitely not exempt.
But aside from local regulations, as someone sharing the road with something like this, I would want the driver to possess the same skills and knowledge as anyone else driving a semi, including initial CDL testing and semi-annual medical exams.
At first glance I thought the tractor had a sleeper cab, rather than a motorcycle garage.
I guess since it’s a garage in disguise, it’s still a…. Sleeper?
It probably is both sleeper and garage. Sleeper cab is needed to title it as a motorhome to get around CDL requirement.
I can see these maybe selling to F1 drivers and Beyoncé, and not much else.
Honestly the semi makes it quite impractical for regular use (and just a motorcycle as your runabout? I’d rather a Smart), for this kind of money you’re better off renting/buying a second house or getting a penthouse room at a hotel. Makes more sense for the carnival crowd, movie/production studios, etc. A real nomadic type can’t be that tied down if they really want to roam.
OR, spend way more money and do it right, like modding a Airbus/747 into your flying luxury home. Get one of those escape eggs like in Air Force One too!
That kind of money is a steal of a house here in the SF Bay Area.
That’s because of the property values. You would still need property to park this thing in the SF Bay Area and that would cost you just as much.
It reminds me of the European HotelMovil concept from 2006, in which the 53-foot trailer converts into a 2-story, 18-room mobile motel, complete with a small conference room.
That said, I could get five of these and some land outside a major city with the proper utilities infrastructure, and lease them to visitors during football, convention and vacation/reunion seasons. They can practically pay for themselves.
$600k would buy a decent house, truck and normal style camper.. am I missing the appeal here?
An insane amount of mobile living space? I kinda understand wanting to live in total luxury while on the road (especially for the money is no object crowd), but having no car to drive to get groceries makes this set-up tied solely to truck stops.
Couldn’t find anything near here built to this level of finish for that money.
Ummm, it looks like the Manvan which I was in last to get bloodwork done for prostate cancer.
Sterilized, geriatric plastic covered single beds, decor of a medical clinic, and hauled around to test men 50+ in age for cancer.
I think they’ve found their perfect market?
Fun fact, Spacecraft was the first company to offer a 5th wheel with the kitchen in the front of the rig on the goose neck part of the trailer. This rig is nice, but nothing compared to an Italian CMC Caravan fifth wheel. Those rigs can be configured up to 1184 sf. Some models have slide outs on the slide outs, I kid you not. Craziest thing I’d ever seen. They also do a genuine 2 story model. They start out around 1 million, but hey, if you can afford 600k for a rig what’s another measly 400k
So where can you park with this thing? Will it fit in typical camper/RV spots? Seems like the size and heft would prevent you going on some routes, bridges, and mountain passes.
That’s kinda my thing looking at this. “So, you live out of….. truck stops? Why not just be an OTR trucker?”
This is a just a 12v and a Double-Wide for the bourgeoisie.
dang her black heart and her pretty red neck
Can’t believe we’re splitting custody of the Firebird! Only get to see my baby three weekends a month.
LOL
Great, now I won’t be able to get that out of my mind.
“Sir, it’s not a trailer park, it’s a luxury motor coach court.”
“Welcome to the Four Seasons Seaside Luxury Motor Coach Court, where the car rotting into your neighbors yard is a 2019 Maserati Quattroporte.”