Sportsmobile Customization #2 - The safe (TBD)

Sportsmobile Customization #1 - The Stereo (TBD)

Good and Bad with Sportsmobile and Mercedes Sprinter Van

Good & Bad w/ the Mercedes Sprinter

The sprinter is a great van. Ford and Chevy really are not in the same league imho. Here are some thoughts that might be useful for anyone considering a 2006 or prior year sprinter van.

Good:

+ Engine/drivetrain: Amazing really. The I5 turbo diesel has plenty of pickup and power under all the circumstances we’ve given it. Its very quiet except on steep hills and at idle. The transmission shifts extremely smooth and the tiptronic is nice on hilly roads and as a brake assist. All this power and still gets over 20mpg loaded with ‘RV stuff’.

+ Transmission/driving in snow: I tried to make the wheels spin several times and it really sticks to the ground well. The deepest was about 5” of snow. I didn’t hit super icy roads but I bet that it handles amongst the best of 2wd vehicles.

Bad:

+/- Bus like driving position/lack of tilt steering wheel: I almost didn’t want to even look at this vehicle because of the lack of tilt wheel. Its crazy that a car in 2006 doesn’t have it. I read a few newsgroup postings on this and a number of people said ‘you learn to like it’. I found a posting about how to manually change the position. It turns out, you really don’t need a tilt wheel. The wheel itself is in a ‘bus’ like position but you can adjust the seat around it. It really works well for cruising so it works out fine. I guess tilt would be better, but you really do learn to like it.

- Door locks: Horrible. I hate European ‘central locking’. Give me a simple lock/unlock button any day. Quite often the remote doesn’t even work. Very frustrating for what should be such a simple thing.

- Anti-sway bar: We need to get one. It handles front to back bumps just fine, but if you hit any bump that rocks it sideways get prepared to wait for 20 seconds for it to stop rocking.

Other:

* Rear view camera: A must have as an after market accessory.

Good and Bad w/ the Sportsmobile RV conversion

Overall I am kind of disappointed in sportsmobile. There were (are) a lot of design issues that could have been easily mitigated or designed better. I was surprised when I read the BadgerTrek Blog and the author commented something to the effect: “We’ve pretty much torn apart and replaced everything that sportsmobile built, for our next vehicle we will build it ourselves.” This came from someone who had no RV building experience. Now I understand why he was saying that. A lot of what they do is very solid, but a lot of it isn’t. Would I buy another SMB? I would, but I would be very involved w/ the build – visiting it in progress and really understanding the design/layout and perhaps set aside a budget to have them re-work a few things during the build. One advantage of SMB is they are a custom shop and they cater to each customer individually. Note: This vehicle was built at the Texas plant.

Good:

+ The layout was one of the biggest attractions, so I will give kudos to SMB for a design that allows for both a single bed up front and a queen+ bed in the back.

+ It looks and feels like a camper, not too fancy like other manufacturers. If it was too fancy you would feel sorry for it when you get it dirty, scratched etc. When you are travelling across the country you’ll be in rich areas and poor – having a luxury liner in the later areas just doesn’t feel right and probable attracts unnecessary attention.

+ Support: You can call up SMB and they are very helpful with resolving issues.

Bad:

- Plumbing poorly done: Spent two days during the trip taking apart the bathroom to fix a hot water leak. Several of the screws were stripped making disassembly very difficult. The way the pipes were run made one pipe rub against another until it basically rubbed a hole in it. Other pipes had kinks in them which prevented proper draining. It only had 12k miles on it when this happened.

- Documentation/user manual: Out of date, a lot of irrelevant and confusing information

- Lack of miscellaneous storage areas where you need them. Eg Lack of storage in bathroom (soap dispenser, toilet paper, tooth brush holder etc)

- Sink faucet is too short causing water to leak behind the sink top (potential mold issue)

- The single bed is difficult to make, the storage area for it is too tight making it difficult to get the pieces out.

- The heater is really loud. Not really a SMB issue, but maybe they could use a quieter model? Same goes for Water pump which I did replace with a slightly quieter model.

- LACK OF TANK LEVEL INDICATORS. Crazy. You have no idea what your waste, water, or propane levels are. I spent $1200 and had a unit installed. The installers told me it would have cost $300 if they installed it when the vehicle was being built. Maybe this was an option that the prior owner didn’t opt for, but I find it hard to believe that they would build a vehicle this nice w/o this.

- WASTE DUMPING VERY DIFFICULT. The location of the waste system is very difficult to operate. I had the fairings cut to allow better access – cost me $100 and it still is very difficult. You need to be pretty flexible and strong to dump your waste – this vehicle isn’t really suitable for retiree’s as it is.

- Rear bed difficult to operate. We pretty much just leave it setup as a bed at this point. Just takes a lot of energy to switch it between two couches and a bed. Other manufacturers have electric beds which I think is overkill but it should be easier to do.

- Beds pretty hard. This would have been easy to do right. The Roadtreks just use a bit of memory foam a the top of the cushion and it’s a lot more comfortable.

- NO ON/OFF SWITCH FOR WATER HEATER. This was killing our batteries. There was an off/on switch but it was in such an impossible place to see/access that we would leave it on. We had a switch installed. Again, such an easy thing to do at build time.

- NO EASY ACCESS TO WATER VALVE SWITCH: Other RVs don’t have this, not sure why it is necessary for SMB but you have to flip a valve to add water to your water tank – only problem is it is deep under the bed and very difficult to get to.

- Fridge works really well – its one of the bright spots of the vehicle. We always seem to have enough juice to keep our food cold. Its listed here as a negative because its very squeaky during normal driving.

- Shades don’t got down all the way. Weird. Again annoyingly simple problem.

- Plumbing ran right dangerously close to exhaust pipe. Fortunately and RV service center found this and put some heat resistant tape around the plumbing before it melted.

- Pantry doesn’t open all the way. Stupid. They built the rear bed in such a way that when its open you can’t open the pantry all the way.

- Electrical: Next problem to fix: Something is wrong – our batteries just aren’t charging. Not sure what the issue is.

-Swivel seat posts rattle on non-smooth roads

In terms of other manufacturers, we looked at Pleasureway but didn’t like the idea of driving around in a luxury mobile. Its covered in leather, fancy cabinets etc.. Just didn’t seem right for a camper van. Other than that, I think the build quality is a lot higher than SMB but I would need to own one to be sure.

Initial Considerations - Picking your RV

I've been thinking about getting a sportsmobile for years, initially as a weekend warrior for ski and desert trips then to be used later as a full time rig. When the time came to actually buy one I was actually unprepared, not knowing exactly what I wanted. You can’t really do too much homework on these things.

The initial biggest decision was 2wd vs 4x4. I really struggled with this. I wanted the freedom to go off the beaten path and perhaps equally - the freedom from snow chains. I did a lot of research and found that 2wd Sprinters (Mercedes cargo van) handle really well in the snow and started to alleviate my concern of sliding off the road or smashing into something on an icy road. The other factor, 4x4ing was more of an unknown. I actually don't have any experience in 'serious' off roading and I started to debate weather we would actually be comfortable taking an RV off road.

Dogs don’t like 4x4ing. Especially ours – yet another reason to stick to roads.

Gas mileage also really pushed me towards 2wd since the Mercedes sprinter van gets an incredible 20+ mpg. Its nearly 25' tall and 10' high and gets amazing mileage, albeit on diesel. So for this RV; this trip, we are going to stick to the roads.

One day I would like to do an equivalent 4x4 trip and this trip is good preparation. To do a long distance 4x4 trip the vehicle would have a few differences:

- Popup top instead of fixed top. I really prefer the fixed ‘high’ top over popups because they are warmer in the winter, quicker to setup (aka instant), easier to walk around in and help with boon docking (aka camping where you are not supposed to camp). For a 4x4 trip I would go with a popup top to lower the center of gravity (less roly poly) and make it easier to get under branches etc..

- Shorter vehicle for better manuverability

- Much more hardened than this vehicle. This one is fine for the road, but off roading really puts a beating on an RV and everything needs to be bullet proof or you are going to worry about things breaking (and they will break)

If you are interested in a good blog about a couple that bought a sportsmobile for a long distance 4x4 trip, visit the Badgertrek blog here: http://s94153639.onlinehome.us/index.html

It turns out the Sprinter does handle great in snow. Modern chains aren't that bad to deal with and in an RV its easy to change into some snow clothes, take care of business and be on your way in no time. For those with similar concerns you can beef up to snow tires. Internet research seems to conclude these two options:

1. Bridgestone Bizzak's

2. Nokian Hakkapelitta CQ

Our van has Michelin LT A/S and they work great in snow and as an all around tire. If we were to have started our trip at the beginning of winter I would have gotten one of those two brands for the rear tires (Mercedes says rear tires only). I thought about getting a rear tire carrier and having 2 spare tires and making those snow tires, but our trip started late enough in spring that having snow tires was unnecessary.

I wanted an older model sprinter (2006) because in 2007+ they switched to a V6 ultra low sulfer diesel that would not work S. of the border. While we don't have immediate plans to go south it was nice to have the option. The older model can run biodiesel as well and gets 2-3 mpg better economy with the same horsepower. Our 2006 has the I5 turbodiesel that has plenty of power and a very smooth transmission. The newer V6s are quieter, but the advantages of the older model outweigh the new. Ironically I think the new V6s are worse for the environment because of their lower MPG even though they meet the more modern environmental rules.

In the 2wd van market, ford and chevy weren't even considerations because of their relatively poor economy. The sprinter is also just a lot more modern vehicle. When you drive ford and chevy's its a bit like going back in time.