In a 40-foot motorhome, most floorplans are composed within an area of roughly 320 square feet. Depending on the number of slideouts for each individual floorplan, you can add around 12 to 80 more. Inside those rectangular dimensions, the designers fit everything from cockpit equipment to storage space to furniture, plus all the amenities of an upscale home.

Every once in awhile, some space saving technology or the addition of a new slideout will change the overall feel of motorhome interiors in a significant way. At Holiday Rambler, the next perspective changer is here. Right on the heels of the quad slide revolution, comes the PANAsuite™ full-wall slide, an enormous slideout that completely alters the way the inside of the motorhome looks, feels and functions.

“The PANAsuite full-wall slide is the largest slide we make, and it allows us to create more space in the conventional motorhome box,” said Holiday Rambler National Sales Manager Pat Terveer. “With the push of a button, it increases hallway size and bedroom space. It also creates uniformity by eliminating the bottleneck feel of a traditional floorplan.”

Always seeking cutting edge technology and product improvement, Monaco Coach Corporation engineers and product developers worked together to bring the full-wall slide to fruition. They went to Lippert, a leading company in slide room technology to provide the all-electric power slideout mechanism, and relied on in-house computer modeling to engineer a structurally superior support system. A third support arm was designed to bear the extra long slide.

“The beauty of the Lippert system is a hydraulic fluid flow divider, which moves both ends of the slideout in near perfect unison, within 1/16 of an inch,” said Pat Carroll, vice president of product development. “For others without this technology, it’s a big slideout, so if the room isn’t just right when it’s being retracted, then one side comes in early or late, putting a dangerous strain on the entire slideout.”

Holiday Rambler has an exclusive one-year contract with Lippert to use their patented technology, which provides a tremendous edge over full-wall slides from other manufacturers.

“It’s a great example of why Holiday Rambler is always at the front of the industry,” Carroll said. “The strength of our engineering allows our product developers to have much more freedom to work with fresh concepts like this.”

In the case of the full-wall slide, Holiday Rambler product development immediately went to work on how to best use the new technology. “It opens up the floorplan in more than one way,” Carroll said. “It provides more space physically and visually, and allows our designers to bring in unique features.”

For example, the floorplan made its debut in the 2006 Ambassador 40 DFD, where the 24-foot monster slideout encompasses both the living, dining and sleeping area. In the bedroom, this arrangement is coupled with a curbside bedroom slideout, and a queen bed mounted crosswise. Perhaps the most unique feature is the bath and a half.

“The full master bath in the rear is not broken up by a hallway,” said Product Manager Melanie Hoover Marsh. “The wardrobe with sliding glass doors provides a lot of storage, the shower/tub is extra large and the sink counter has a flip-up extension. It’s a luxurious space.”

The half-bath just aft of the kitchen provides a guest wash closet that is easily accessible and spares the bedroom from a parade of people.

In addition, the full-wall slide floorplan has a big impact on the motorcoach exterior, specifically the patio area. “The smaller curbside slideout for the bedroom combines with the patio awning to create a natural and useable enclave for the patio,” Marsh said. “You couldn’t ask for a better space for barbecuing or any sort of entertaining.”

And while this specific floorplan is spacious, open and well balanced, there are sure to be other incarnations using the full-wall slide in the future.

“We’re working on having a PANAsuite full-wall slide floorplan for many of our models in the near future,” Terveer said.

In fact, Holiday Rambler will be one of the first manufacturers to offer the full-wall slide in every price point offered.

“We seek to provide a diverse offering of floorplans that suit a wide variety of preferences,” Terveer said. “This is a great tool to help us do that.”

The PANAsuite full-wall slide was first introduced to dealers in November at the annual Dealer Congress. “There was a great response,” Terveer said. “Our dealers are jumping at the opportunity to sell this to customers looking for more space and function.”

The general public has only seen the full-wall slide featured on the 2006 Ambassador, which debuted at the FMCA

“With the push of a button, the PANAsuite full-wall slide increases hallway size and bedroom space. it also creates uniformity by eliminating the bottleneck feel of a traditional floorplan.”

pre-rally in Indio, California, however, Terveer said the initial reaction has been very positive. “It’s unique in the industry, and it’s also a really intelligent design,” he said. “It stands up on many merits.”

Holiday Rambler continues to pursue new ways to create space where it once didn’t exist, and the full-wall slide is a step in that evolution.