Keystone RV’s Jeff Kloska Designs Family-Friendly Sprinter

The spacious interior of the Keystone Sprinter 3900DBL fifth-wheel. (Courtesy photos)

Amy and Jeff Kloska with four of their five children.

Who says RV OEMs don’t actually use their products? Keystone RV’s Jeff Kloska is here to prove them wrong. Kloska, product manager for the Sprinter and Outback brands, set out last summer to design a floorplan that would fit the needs of his family of seven. The result is the Sprinter 3900DBL fifth-wheel, unveiled at Open House last fall and entering production earlier this year.

First, a little about Kloska’s family: in addition to his wife, Amy, his clan includes three boys and two girls ranging in ages from 4 through 19.

“As you can imagine,” Kloska says, “with a family like ours, you need a little bit of something for everybody, which is where the rear bunk room shines. The 18- and 19-year-olds like to sit on a sofa, watch TV and play video games when they are not outside. For the littles, they need floor space and a place to relax away from the older kids.”

The rear area is enormous. On a lark, Kloska filled the bunk room with 16 of Keystone Ambassadors’ children during the 2023 Florida RV SuperShow. “I think we could have fit more in, but that’s all the kids we had.”

Of course, bathroom space and functionality are a necessity for a family of seven, too. “I wanted two full baths, including a spacious master bath up near the bedroom and a full bath off the bunk room, for the kids,” explained Kloska. And, to make these two baths practical, the floorplan delivers holding tank capacities of 75 gallons of fresh water, 88 gallons of black tank, and 122 gallons of gray, plus on-demand hot water.

RVing for a family of seven also presents a storage challenge. To address this, Kloska says the 3900DBL utilizes every inch of space Sprinter’s wide-body design allows, such as incorporating hidden storage in the bunk room behind the TV and a floor-to-ceiling cabinet accessible from the living and bunk room. Moreover, this floorplan offers a stacked washer and dryer factory-installed to deal with the volume of dirty clothes five children can produce.

For many, camping is all about the outdoors, so it is for the Kloska family, whom Kloska describes as “very, very active.” This Sprinter incorporates three patio awnings, all told 30 feet of covered space, to provide shade and shelter in inclement weather,

“When you have a larger family, trying to fit them under a 15-foot awning just doesn’t work,” explained Kloska. “Rather than just do two awnings, which is the industry standard, we went with three. So, when it rains, or the sun beats down, you’ve got a large, covered area to get under. What’s more, we included an outside kitchen with a griddle and mini refrigerator. So even though the interior refrigerator is 16 cubic feet, you can always use extra.”

Another difference between the 3900DBL is the location of the interior kitchen. On most other similar floorplans, Kloska says, the kitchen is located door-side. However, on the 3900DBL, it’s off-door side, allowing for the placement of a massive bank of windows looking out to the patio, which enhances the view while bringing in loads of daylight.

To be sure, at over 43 feet in length, this is a large mid-profile fifth-wheel. It’s the largest Sprinter ever offered, which is saying something since Sprinter is Keystone’s original brand and has been building RVs since 1996. Moreover, to accommodate production, the Sprinter factory underwent significant expansion. Nevertheless, Kloska feels the investment is worth it as the recent wave of first-timers and young families creates opportunities as they move up the product ladder.

While the 3900DBL will just be starting the initial production run in February, response to pre-production models at the Cleveland and Tampa shows is encouraging, according to Kloska. “It’s been very popular and well received, and we’ve sold a bunch of them at both shows.”

MSRP for the Sprinter 3900DBL is listed as $98,250, and the shipping weight is around 13,800 pounds.

Source: https://rvbusiness.com/keystone-rvs-jeff-kloska-designs-family-friendly-sprinter/