Charlie’s Sprinter

Van Project
I previously owned three different VW Vanagons and settled into a nice VW Synco Vanagon that I built out including a 2.2l Subaru engine install in 2002. This camper served me well for 15+ years and solidified my love for camper life. Then, out of the blue, someone came along that really wanted it and offered me exactly what I thought is was worth so it was a good time for me to make the jump up to the Sprinter world for the next decades of travel and camping.

We looked at many different layouts being built and realized that we really liked the Vanagon Camper layout just fine but needed just a little more room with a few improvements. We wanted a bed we would have to make each night. We didn’t like carrying our bikes outside on a bumper hitch rack where they where exposed to the weather and in plan site of everyone when we went for a hike or in a restaurant. We also wanted it to carry at least 4 people in seatbelts for our cycle sag wagon trips, and also wanted the ability to raise and lower the bed so that we had the options of storing the bikes underneath with all the wheels on or with the front wheels off depending on the trip.

With this criteria I decided the Sprinter 170 passage van was the right size for us with windows all around for the wonderful views in our wild camp spots, giving us the extra length for the bike storage under the bed, four person rear seating which now allowed us to have 6 people in seatbelts, and still a 6 foot long kitchen. I also liked the idea of anti-sway in vans of 2015 and newer, the 2-wheel drive, 2.1l engine for good diesel mileage as well as the smoother 7 speed transmission, and silver. I found our 2016 Sprinter on cargurus.com still under warranty, drove it back from Texas and started the buildout.

I did my measurements after removing the rear seats and had the the seat bracket re-welded to move the 4 person seat forward 5 inches to give us a little more room for our bed and bike storage. Then it took a bit of planning and measuring to install the Unistrut tracks that the bed would ride up and down on. Five Plus Nuts into the window columns secure these tightly. Then I had, master welder Eddy, build the aluminum bed frame and solar rack for the roof. I trimmed an Ikea bed frame to fit the aluminum frame, had a foam shop cut some bed foam to fit and we had a bed.

I installed my ceiling fan and ran marine grade electric wire everywhere I though I might need power, installed a house battery in the engine compartment with battery to battery charge controller and the solar panels on the roof before starting on the wall coverings.

As far as wall coverings I decide I liked the wood look I was seeing other use on line, so insulated with 3M Ensolite, covered with aluminum backed foam, and then screwed 14 foot clear grained Doug Fur directly to the ceiling and wall beams.

I also have included some photos of my factory AC water leak problem that seams to plague these vehicle. Mine started leaking water at 35,800 miles just before the warranty was up. I called my dealer and Mercedes Corporate to inform them of the problem and that I would be diving it down to my dealer in Albuquerque and It would over 36k when I got there. They said OK. In the end they would not cover it under warranty, Corporate old me I should have had it towed not to exceed the warranty mileage, wanted $1,200 to fix it, and then charged me $185 to confirm I had a leak!

So the photos show me fixing the leak with $10 of butyl tape and about 4 hours of my own labor. You can see where the thin double sided tape they used to seal and shrunk back from being heated in the sun on top of the van.