When checking out new campers at the RV Show this winter one of the things that stood out to me was that many of the windows in modern campers are also emergency escape hatches. Lots of rigs also have roof escape hatches as well. For our Avion we are thinking of installing a larger hatch in the ceiling over the bed in the cab-over area which can serve as an escape hatch. If we use a clear hatch cover it will also give us a view of the night sky and let a lot more light in to brighten up the interior.
I've been looking at options made for RV's and boats and think that a relatively new model made by Tern Overland is what's right for us. I believe that this hatch will be fit in-between the structural ribs so I won't have to make structural modifications related to the overall integrity of the camper. There are also a few options made by Dometic including the huge Heki 2 which could be quite spectacular, but would involve more structural work than I'd like for this modification. Interestingly, two other Avion truck camper re-builds have recently installed larger roof hatches, so there's some good references to see options and what's invoiced. RoamLab installed the same Arctic Tern hatch that we think is good for us, and 1965 Avion C-10 built his own escape hatch from scratch! I've got some other things to focus on before ripping into this further but I think it's going to be a great feature.
