This is a quick post about installing an RV style charger inlet to the Sprinter Van to plug in to a 110V power connection when we’re camping where electricity is available. Very easy installation but it requires to drill a hole in your van. On the difficulty scale perhaps a 2 out of 10.
I was not very happy with my first attempt to route the wires from the solar panels to the inside of the van but I found a very good and also very cheap alternative by using a plastic watertight junction box from the local Home Improvement Store. The only difficulty in this job is drilling holes in your roof to mount the box but in total this is not even a 2 on the difficulty scale.
In this post I’ll explain who to build some heavy duty drawers for the rear storage area of your Sprinter to maximize storage space. If you have some woodworking experience this should be easy for you but you’ll need to know how to operate a dado blade and table saw (or know someone who does). On the difficulty scale I would rate this project a solid four.
Caprock Canyon is a great State Park in the Panhandle of Texas. We only stayed there for one night on our way north so we couldn’t hike the trails (over 90 miles!) but at least we could check out the official Bison herd of Texas.
Probably the maintenance item you’ll need to do most as a Sprinter owner (besides a car wash) is to change the engine oil. Mercedes recommends oil changes every 10.000 miles. It’s an easy task and if you want to save a bit of money you can do it yourself. If you ever used a wrench this is a simple two on the difficulty scale.
Tyler State Park is a nice park for an overnight stay if you’re travelling on Interstate 20 through Dallas, TX which is about 90 minutes away. You can spend a morning hiking on 10 miles of trails or in summer enjoy swimming in the lake. The facilities are very clean and the staff is friendly.
To remind you to bring your Van to the friendly Mercedes dealer and spend some money on having them do the required maintenance or change the oil, the engineers at Mercedes added ASSYST. A fancy name for a countdown clock that counts miles and days and lets you know when you’re due for the next service. This post is about resetting this clock once you’re done the maintenance items yourself. An absolute easy 1 on the difficulty scale.
If you have a little rust spot on your passenger side A pillar, you either have the wrong size wiper blades installed or your wiper arms are not adjusted correctly. This post describes how to adjust the wiper arms and how which blade size you need to install. This job is a 1 on the difficulty scale – might become a 3 if your wiper arms are stuck.
Two videos about the sprinter assembly line in Dusseldorf, Germany with details about the body shop, paint shop and the final assembly where they mate the body with the drive train.
Mercedes didn’t think that a Cargo Van needs a good audio system and they clearly didn’t spend too much money with the standard audio system they put in our vans. But since you’re using it as an RV, you want decent sound when driving long distances or when camping. This post is about some options to upgrade your Sprinter loudspeakers.