China’s Answer To Giant Motorhomes Is A Silly $158,000 Diesel Double Decker Ford Transit Camper

There’s a bit of a wild trend going on in the RV world right now. Some of the most bombastic designs of recent memory add space not just with slides, but with a second deck. These campers are silly, but China doesn’t want to be left out. Meet the Qixing RV Star Milk River Motorhome Villa Ford. This $158,000 Ford Transit-based motorhome is nominally a compact Class C coach, but when it parks, a slide pops open and the roof raises to create a hilariously excessive place to lay your head for a night.

I’ve written about a handful of motorhomes that incorporate an observation deck of some kind. There was that school bus RV that had an observation deck and a rooftop fire pit. There was also that huge Pangea Sky Lounge expedition truck with a whole roof deck. The most bombastic truck bed campers of the 1970s also had rooftop observation decks. You’ll find rooftop decks attached to all sorts of motorhomes parked at racetracks, too.

The luxury side of the RV industry also sometimes likes playing with pumping out rigs with multiple levels. You’ll find long, expensive destination trailers with upper lofts, and celebrities love ordering coaches large enough to put a nice two-bedroom apartment to shame.

China has also been playing around with these sorts of concepts, and some of them are just as silly and excessive as what Americans and Europeans buy. One of them is the Qixing RV Star Milk River Motorhome Villa Ford. This motorhome is currently going viral on social media, and it’s easy to see why. The darn thing practically doubles in size when it’s parked. I had to know more about it.

From Parking Structures To RVs

Annoyingly, the Instagram post (below) that I saw this coach on didn’t mention the RV’s name. But I did see something that I was able to start with, and it’s that the coach has “Oiding RV” branding on the base of the observation deck.

That Oiding branding traces to the Hubei Qixing Group. Qixing is a Chinese state-owned corporation that builds a shockingly huge number of products, from parking structures and dies to chemical tanks and trucks. What’s interesting is that one large source of business for Qixing is the manufacturer of truck cabs, and the company says it builds and exports 100,000 truck cabs a year, including to the United States and Canada. It exports another 50,000 electric truck chassis a year, too.

 

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Qixing says it started an RV division in 2004, with its first RV product launching in 2006, a travel trailer. That was followed up in 2007 with the company’s first Class C motorhome, which rode on an IVECO van platform. Qixing has continued expanding the lineup since then, including an off-road RV in 2009 and tiny houses in 2011. By 2023, Qixing claims it became one of the largest manufacturers of pop-top campers in the world.

The Star Milk River Motorhome Villa Ford was introduced in late 2023 as the firm’s so-called “double-floor motorhome.” While this concept was new for Qixing, it wasn’t new in China.

In 2021, SAIC announced the Maxus Life Home V90 Villa Edition. That outrageous motorhome, which had a projected starting cost of a whopping $413,000, featured a roof that raised itself to create an entire second room. SAIC said that this second room, which was accessed using an onboard elevator, was supposed to be a Zen tea room or a study. The upper deck was filled with furniture and was enclosed in dimmable windows. It also had a balcony for the upper level.

The wild part about the SAIC Maxus Life Home V90 Villa Edition was its price. It’s not known if this rig even went into series production, but it was slated for sales in China. Yet, it had the price of something that you’ll find at an American RV show.

Such A Long Name

The Qixing Star Milk River Motorhome Villa Ford borrows the basic idea of the SAIC, but Qixing found clever ways to dramatically lower the price.

The Qixing Star Milk River Motorhome Villa Ford starts off as a Ford Transit T8 cutaway. Power comes from a 2.3-liter Ford Duratorq diesel making 171 HP and 317 lb-ft of torque. That’s connected to a nine-speed automatic transmission. Qixing says that the RV’s body is made out of aluminum and fiberglass.

The trick feature of the Qixing RV is its roof. When the roof is closed, it overlaps the RV’s outer walls, like a giant cap. This is a simpler design than SAIC’s, which called for the roof to sprout up from within the body. This sort of weird “forehead lift,” as Qixing calls it, has an interesting artifact. When the roof is closed, some of the coach’s lower-level windows are covered by the roof. The windows that aren’t obscured end up with a second layer of windows from the roof.

The upper deck itself is very simple. You get a patio with thin cushions, an inflatable chair, lights, outlets, and air-conditioning vents. The Star Milk’s second floor is accessed through a stairway, and unlike the SAIC, the room is not sealed off from the outside. Your only form of privacy is just a curtain to slide over the open portion of the upper deck. That’s right, the upper deck remains exposed to the outside at all times.

It’s perhaps because of this that Qixing describes the upper deck as being a terrace to enjoy scenic views. It’s not so much doubling the floor space of the RV as it’s just giving you a built-in roof gazebo.

Equipment onboard includes a Daikin air-conditioner, heater, king bed, 400 Ah lithium battery, 300W solar, toilet, shower, and a functional kitchen. In terms of holding tanks, the Star Milk River Motorhome Villa Ford comes with a 31.7-gallon fresh tank, a 15.8-gallon hot water tank, and an 18.5-gallon gray tank. Qixing offers a few options, including an 800 Ah battery, 1.6 kW of solar, and even a custom interior. A number of beds isn’t specified, but Qixing says that there’s seating for up to six people.

The Star Milk River Motorhome Villa Ford motorhome is pretty loaded, and what’s neat is that it measures only 19.6 feet long, so it’s no longer than a camper van. Its empty weight of 10,472 pounds isn’t too bad, either.

A price in China isn’t specified, but a Qixing distributor is selling them for between $128,000 and $158,000 per unit. Of course, none of these are going to be making it over to America. America doesn’t even get the diesel version of the Ford Transit.

But there you have it. That’s the weird RV you might have seen circulating around social media. It’s a compact Class C coach that has a built-in terrace. This motorhome technically doubles its space, but the upper deck probably wouldn’t be the greatest place to sleep since it doesn’t seal off from the outside. Even a tent has better weather protection. Still, I can’t help but giggle at this thing. Like the Dongfeng Warrior MS600, I can’t help but see at least just a little bit of American-style excess in this thing. I can’t wait to see China come up with a Prevost.