[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Sprinter vans (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 8/10/2013 2:43:44 PM EDT
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Anyone here have experience with Sprinter vans/campers? |
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My company recently transitioned me to a Sprinter.
I fucking love it. I mean I love it to the point I am really wanting one for myself. Smooth, quiet, very fuel efficient, powerful, and well designed/engineered. Not to mention they don't look like a kidnapper van. 
I drive the 170"WB EXT high roof model. For a 24' long, 7' wide, 9' high, 8,000lb van, the thing drives like a car. Of course, I don't have to pay for it, I don't have to work on it, or pay to maintain it. For those reasons, I probably won't own one (as much as I want to) but those are the only reasons. 
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I drive one for work all of the time. It's a pain in the ass for me, but it's also convenient I guess. Lots of storage room inside. That's all I've got, have fun with your Sprinter. What do you not like about the Sprinter? As I mentioned above, my company has me driving one now and I love it. What do you not like about them? |
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I'd like to take a Mercedes version and turn it into a camper. Roof rack with kayaks, rear bumper and rack for bikes. Plus would carry both of my dags comfortably. They already make then into campers you need $128,000 |
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I drove one from northern Germany to Naples Italy and back one week a couple years ago. And I hated that thing.  Very fast, smooth flying down the Autostrada and handled awesome through the hills of Trento. But, I needed a good 10~12 inches of leg room on both the drivers or passenger side. And I was in so much pain by the end of that trip. |
Have drove them for work for 3 years. Unreliable, parts are hard to get and you are lucky to find a shop that works on them. I have found out on the road that even if the dealer sells it "cough..Freightliner"...many places cant or wont service them. We just got a bunch of the Nissan van trucks and so far so good, run on gasoline instead of diesel, and better power. Many better options than some piece of crap Mercedes engine/tranny combo....unless you like to wait for up to a week for parts 
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I'd like to take a Mercedes version and turn it into a camper. Roof rack with kayaks, rear bumper and rack for bikes. Plus would carry both of my dags comfortably. They already make then into campers you need $128,000 That's some pretty boy and retired people shit right there. I prefer 2x4 cots and rubbermaid action packers for storage. This is my planned build. 
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Quoted: Check out the Nissan RV2500/3500. Later this year you can get the European Ford full size Transit, which I guarantee will be better than the Sprinter. Ford has been selling the shit out of these overseas since the 60's. I hear they have a 5 cyl diesel that gets 30mpg, that I would buy if it isn't 50-60k. Right now I have the small Transit and it is great. Yeah they look funky but I just drove 500 miles and got 27.5mpg. Great mpg, if you are driving a truck to work you can literally save enough coin on gas where the little van ends up free. All the smart businesses that do service work are getting these here, they sell faster than pancakes. You can reach anything inside is with ease compared to the big vans. The rear doors fold 270deg so you can get them out of the way if needed. Payload is 1700lbs.
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| My dad has a class B motorhome based on the Sprinter. It's the older one, so I'm not sure how it compares to the new one, but it's been reliable and he gets about 23-25mpg on the highway. It's definitely not fast, but it has no problem maintaining highway speeds in the mountains. |
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Pictures are deceiving, these things are huge fucking misshapen eyesores in real life. |
| They get great fuel mileage. When they break your screwed.Parts are a pain in the ass to get.crash one and find out how long it sits in a shop waiting for parts. They brakes were an issue. seemed like we were always replacing them. We quit selling them at freightliner years back when Dodge thought they could do better with them. They had the same issues freightliner did. There's other options you'd be better off with. |
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Quoted: I'm thinking a used one with the 5cyl diesel would make a great conversion camper. We have a 2004 model 2500 with the 144" wb, and it's setup to be a 10-passenger van. When we got it in 2010 it only had 46K miles on it, which was insanely low for a 6-year old Sprinter. I did have to do some work to it as the carrier bearing and driveshaft u-joints were all screwed up, so I ordered a complete setup from Carolina Driveline for $500 (delivered). It has replaceable u-joints, unlike the Mercedes driveshaft assembly (less carrier bearing) that was $1300, which has non-serviceable joints. I had to replace the right rear caliper last summer as it screwed up and wouldn't slide correctly to release from the rotor, thus overheating the brake. It looked like some ham-handed moron broke the plastic cover off the "slider" that it rode on, thus allowing it to get rusty and lock up. I also put a new 3" exhaust system on it last year when the pipe rusted through in the area above the rear axle. I picked up a little over 1 mpg with that change. Currently it has 71K on it and is running just fine. It has some rust spots on it, as the vans from that era were bad about getting random rust spots on them, even without the paint being damaged, but it gets 22 mpg on the highway with the A/C on. I did recharge the A/C a couple months ago as it wasn't cooling as effectively as it should have been, and now it blows out nice cold air again. Overall, we've been happy with it. It doesn't have a ton of power, but it rides well, gets the kids and wife back and forth, and has enough room in it to pack a small apartment up inside. It's very nice to be able to walk around inside it without having to stoop over, also. |
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Two guys I've asked both say they're absolute dogs on the highway. Foot to floor just to keep up. These guys are both fleet mechanics so their vehicles are packed with tools and parts. I bet they're not so bad when used as a "regular" vehicle. This. We bought one and it was more underpowered than our 1/2 ton v6 pickups that have loaded utility beds. For us it just didn't work, only got 15 mpg loaded with tools. We were money ahead to keep converting our 1/2 ton pickups to propane and beef up the suspension a bit. Very cheap to drive. We used to use cutaway vans. Very useful, worst fucking mileage you can fathom. I'm talking 6 mpg after it's loaded with tools. If you don't load a sprinter expect 23 or higher mpg and a pretty decent vehicle. The newer ones have less problems breaking down than the older ones. |
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Quoted: I'm thinking a used one with the 5cyl diesel would make a great conversion camper. Problem is only Sprinter dealers carry parts for Sprinters and sometimes they can be hard to find. They eat turbo resonators like candy so you need to change to the $200 billet resonator. Ours ate so many of the OEM resonators that I can change on in 5 minutes. Even with that changed they have this annoying habit of blowing off the turbo hose so all boost is lost and when this happens they are gutless to the point of being dangerous. They eat harmonic balancers as well and it's not a cheap fix. We had one blow up and luckily not take out the engine and crank and now just have it replaced every 80,000 miles at right around a $1000 a pop installed. It's a common issue for the 1st Gen vans and all the fleet guys replace them as above. Our second balancer was fractured and ready to fail when we replaced it at 80,000. Eats belts for the second AC unit and no one can seem to stop it. Glow plugs and glow plug modules seem to fail right around 150,000 not just ours but many others and sometimes they don't like to come out so the maintenance can become expensive on this job. Ours has not done this but several others in the paddock have, they have a module that blows and will not allow the trans to shift out of park. Pull in for fuel, put it in park, shut it off, fuel up, restart, and no shift. As a result we are the only ones still running them. Many traded in for the newer models with the v6 engine and they don't seem to have near as many problems. |
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Any particular advantages or disadvantages to the models with dual rear wheels? Pro: More weight capacity 3500 is rated at 9990 GVWR Con: Weight is spread out over 2 more tires; fucking horrible in snow/ice. The 3500's have 6 lug, 15" rims that have limited options for tires. Most of the 2500s have 16" rims and more clearance and tire options. I'm about to have to drop $1k on 195/70/R15 which look ridiculously small. I've had an 03 3500 for 3 years. Bought with 183,000 miles and had been converted to a camper, now has 210,000. At the time I had a Chevy 3500 with the big utility box on the back and getting 9-10 mpg. The Sprinter came up at the right price, right time. I figure with what I saved in fuel, it paid for itself in the first year. I just couldn't find a way to keep and utilize the camper stuff. There is about 14' from the back of the driver's seat to the back door. They had a bulkhead at 7' which doesn't work out when I work with 10' piping. Found some Adrian metal shelving on Craigslist and moved the bulkhead up to 10'. They're turbo diesels, so they are dogs from a stop, but once the turbo kicks in it's fast. For a 5 speed, the top gear just isn't right for flat highway speeds. 3000rpm for 65-75 mph. Loaded with tools, I've been running up the first 2 big hills west of Denver for the last 2 weeks, Genessee and Floyd hill and I can pretty much get it to 60-65 and set the cruise. Been averaging 20 mpg vs. 22 in town. The issues I've found with mine is that you can't just hook up any OBD II code reader. The first few American years work of the DRB III interface. There isn't a fuel pump in the tank, just the tiny cam driven one on the front of the engine. Last week it was drawing bubbles up from the filter. Finally took it to a shop. The water sensor on the bottom of the filter was allowing air in and the pump couldn't compensate. New belt, new filter, few misc parts and 6 hours shop time came to $800. Overall, for a 1 ton van, it's worked for me. When it was in the shop, I started shopping and I think my next will be the box version. |
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Pro: More weight capacity 3500 is rated at 9990 GVWR Con: Weight is spread out over 2 more tires; fucking horrible in snow/ice. The 3500's have 6 lug, 15" rims that have limited options for tires. Most of the 2500s have 16" rims and more clearance and tire options. I'm about to have to drop $1k on 195/70/R15 which look ridiculously small. Quoted:
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Any particular advantages or disadvantages to the models with dual rear wheels? Pro: More weight capacity 3500 is rated at 9990 GVWR Con: Weight is spread out over 2 more tires; fucking horrible in snow/ice. The 3500's have 6 lug, 15" rims that have limited options for tires. Most of the 2500s have 16" rims and more clearance and tire options. I'm about to have to drop $1k on 195/70/R15 which look ridiculously small. Thanks, that told me exactly what I need to know (never thought about dual rear wheels from a snow standpoint, will avoid) 
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Tagged for more Sprinter discussion.
Employer may be investing in a couple of fleet vehicles in the near future. Since I am the only "car guy" at the company, they are asking me for opinions on vans. I have experience with Ford Econolines. The E150 I drove for a horrid, underpowered POS. V6 in a fullsize van = fail. Also have had a later Chevy van for work. Great engine, looked decent, shitty transmissions and the worlds most squeaky, rattley dashboard and interior. Nissan is out for no other reason then it is the ugliest damn thing I have ever seen. Ack. Ford transit connect is too small. Given our clientele, I would love a short wheelbase MB sprinter. Black, diesel, chrome wheels, subtle graphics/company logo. My tools and supplies don't weigh that much (I currently drive a Tacoma). Cargo wouldn't be that heavy either (we do home automation, not masonry). Used to see a custom furniture builder/restorer that had one of the big ass Sprinters (long wheelbase, high roof, dual rear wheels). In dark green with gold leaf lettering/logos. Thing looked really sharp. He loved that van, had 250,000 on it with very few mechanical issues. I wish Toyota made a fullsize van.
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Pictures are deceiving, these things are huge fucking misshapen eyesores in real life. Quoted:
Pictures are deceiving, these things are huge fucking misshapen eyesores in real life. I disagree They are huge fucking misshapen eyesores in the pics too
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Thanks, that told me exactly what I need to know (never thought about dual rear wheels from a snow standpoint, will avoid) Quoted:
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Any particular advantages or disadvantages to the models with dual rear wheels? Pro: More weight capacity 3500 is rated at 9990 GVWR Con: Weight is spread out over 2 more tires; fucking horrible in snow/ice. The 3500's have 6 lug, 15" rims that have limited options for tires. Most of the 2500s have 16" rims and more clearance and tire options. I'm about to have to drop $1k on 195/70/R15 which look ridiculously small. Thanks, that told me exactly what I need to know (never thought about dual rear wheels from a snow standpoint, will avoid) They have some kind of traction control, the ASR. Something like a limited slip differential as I understand, but basically my experience is that all it does is throttle down the engine to get the wheels to stop spinning. I've had a few instances where I just couldn't make it up a hill or 3. Especially if the snow has been driven over or gone through a thaw/refreeze. |
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Drove some Ambulance versions for about a year. They took a lot of punishment running day in and day out. Only a couple were in the shop all that often. Loved driving them, quiet smooth, easy to stand in and drive like a car. I'm used to turbo lag as I drive a turbo car but it's not really that bad.
Before I left the boss bought a handful of brand new ones so I guess they weren't all that bad. The new Fords we got were terrible in comparison. |
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Tagged for more Sprinter discussion. Employer may be investing in a couple of fleet vehicles in the near future. Since I am the only "car guy" at the company, they are asking me for opinions on vans. I have experience with Ford Econolines. The E150 I drove for a horrid, underpowered POS. V6 in a fullsize van = fail. Also have had a later Chevy van for work. Great engine, looked decent, shitty transmissions and the worlds most squeaky, rattley dashboard and interior. Nissan is out for no other reason then it is the ugliest damn thing I have ever seen. Ack. Ford transit connect is too small. Given our clientele, I would love a short wheelbase MB sprinter. Black, diesel, chrome wheels, subtle graphics/company logo. My tools and supplies don't weigh that much (I currently drive a Tacoma). Cargo wouldn't be that heavy either (we do home automation, not masonry). Used to see a custom furniture builder/restorer that had one of the big ass Sprinters (long wheelbase, high roof, dual rear wheels). In dark green with gold leaf lettering/logos. Thing looked really sharp. He loved that van, had 250,000 on it with very few mechanical issues. I wish Toyota made a fullsize van. I have been considering most of the vans you have mentioned to replace a aging cargo van. Until reccently I had my mind made up on a 2013 ford e250 but after looking into the newer body styles and motors coming out soon I have decided to wait abit. Dodge pro master and a larger ford connect are supposed to be out shortly from what I have read. I think the new dodge pro masters look interesting,front wheel drive,diesel option and supposedly better mileage with the gas motors,vertical side walls. It may be a good time to get a new "old style" van once the new body styles are out. |
| My old business partner built a mobile service shop in the back of ours. It was epic, and as long as you didn't push that diesel too fast it was thrifty. Solid construction, great design and just about perfect for a low speed work truck in our business. Expensive though, and it was HARD to get the worthless freightliner fucks to stand by the body work "their" contractor fucked up in Baltimore after a tree fell on it. |
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<snip> I wish Toyota made a imported their fullsize van. The Toyota HiAce is an excellent van. The diesels get good gas mileage and they still do fine at highway speeds. You see them all over the place in Asia where they're used hard. Australian Toyota site |
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I disagree They are huge fucking misshapen eyesores in the pics too Quoted:
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Pictures are deceiving, these things are huge fucking misshapen eyesores in real life. They are huge fucking misshapen eyesores in the pics too I can deal with the ugliness for $12,000 dollars less on the sticker price plus cheaper maintenance. |
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Quoted: Pictures are deceiving, these things are huge fucking misshapen eyesores in real life. Quoted: Pictures are deceiving, these things are huge fucking misshapen eyesores in real life. |
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I've seen them on the road here. Basically a Titan front end grafted to a van. I'd buy one. Plus one comment I read made sense. The engine is out front, meaning more rom in the cab, and a large engine bay is easier to work on instead of having the engine buried in the dash. Quoted:
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Pictures are deceiving, these things are huge fucking misshapen eyesores in real life. It is too bad they missed the styling mark. The concept is great. I loathed working on the E150, the engine was completely under the dash. Chevy was a tad better. Taking the doghouse off on the ford got you to the bellhousing, thats about it. Having the engine in the front is a cool idea. Perhaps a revised version will be a home run. Bones are good from what I have heard, just sooo damn ugly. |
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Pictures are deceiving, these things are huge fucking misshapen eyesores in real life. Quoted:
Pictures are deceiving, these things are huge fucking misshapen eyesores in real life. Actually, the pictures convey their barfitude quite nicely. 
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