Van arrived at SMW finally! Good news, bad news... - Page 2

eddyturn · 04-21-2015, 08:58 PM

Great news! Eager to see the end result and get your thoughts.

hildems · 04-24-2015, 11:55 PM

Question for Sprinters with a back garage area--the pictures of ours shows a box in the back rear driver side corner. Our drawings clearly show nothing in the back area past the wheel wells--the "garage area". We are told this is the where the outside water comes into the van--but our fresh water tank is under the gaucho in the front of the van. Not really happy with the placement of this plumbing as it interferes with where we had planned to store bikes and other things. Does anyone else have a 5.5 inch box in the back of their van with the fresh water tank up front? Can't all of this be hidden in the walls or under the floor? Any suggestions about how to handle this hiccup? We are supposed to get the van Tuesday. Thanks for any help! Panic mode.

DUKCSUN · 05-14-2015, 10:26 AM

Does anyone have solid dimension comparisons between PH Sprinters (low top/reg body) and the space in an EB 350?

The SMB website compares the various euro trash options (Sprinter/Transit/Promaster) but when I'm looking at that it hard to get the relative specs of or EB 350.

I measured the conversion area of our van an I think it was about 126" long.

Anyone have insight on those specs?

hildems · 05-14-2015, 09:02 PM

the Mercedes Sprinter site on the web gives you all the dimensions for each van-
http://www.mbsprinterusa.com/sprinter/c ... 0-wb-ext/8

DUKCSUN · 05-15-2015, 06:13 AM

Thanks, SMB website does also. I'm trying to find a side by side comparison of the old E-Series and Sprinter specs. They took all of that info off the site when the E series was discontinued.

I was hoping that some of the newer Sprinter owners might have been previous E-Series owners and made that comparison. As best I can tell, while taller, the Sprinter is smaller in many ways and just trying to confirm through actual specs.

Did you have an e-series before you got the new rig? (Looks Great BTW)

EDIT: I'm assuming you also got an answer to your original question (I wasn't trying to ignore or hijack). I suspect you found out that little box is not only the fresh water intake but I suspect also where they put the shore power connection as well. At least that's what I've seen on all the Sprinters. Probably difficult to re-locate but maybe could be made smaller?

hildems · 05-16-2015, 09:18 AM

Yes, we did have a 2005 Sprinter before--but not a Ford. If anything, the new one seems a bit bigger side to side and length. Not a lot but it seems that way. We sold the van so I can't measure. Oh, and the bikes do not fit inside because of the box in back so we got a hitch bike rack. Not happy but nothing to do about it at this point. There are a few other build issues but we love the van!

WestyToSMB · 05-16-2015, 11:55 AM

Which hitch rack did you choose for the bikes?

hildems · 05-16-2015, 10:05 PM

The hitch itself is the stock OEM Mercedes one. We use a double 1UPUSA.com bicycle hitch mount carrier and love it. It is easy to use, fairly reasonably light--solid aluminum and basically hand crafted. Kind of like the van. Check them out--you can only order them from the manufacturer in Wisconsin and they ship free, you get them cross country in less than a week and they work. It saved our bikes when a Mercedes sedan hit us from the back in our Subaru!--it can-openered the bumper of the Benz and didn't even bend the rack. The bikes didn't get a scratch. We had to get an extender from 1UP for it to work with the Sprinter and our 29" mt bikes with wide bars--so it does stick out a bit in the back but only a few inches further than when it is on the Subie.

WestyToSMB · 05-17-2015, 07:26 PM

Thanks hildems for the info on the 1upUSA racks - I've hear other favorable opinions too. Are you able to open the Sprinter back doors when bikes are on the rack? We are hoping to install one on the back of our 2015 4x4 Sprinter when it finally arrives.

Hoping all your other issues on your new SMB have now been resolved!

hildems · 05-17-2015, 08:54 PM

We can't open the doors with the bikes in the travel position but the rack has a tilt-down position and I haven't actually tried it yet--next time we have the bikes on I will let you know--I was kind of bummed that the door won't open since in our 05 it would just clear and you could open the doors. With the bikes off and the rack tilted down you can definitely open the doors on the 15 or the 05.--just not sure with the bikes on or not. The rack also tilts up and is flat to the doors when not in use so you don't have two extra feet in back that you have to worry about. You probably need to get the extension because the back of the van is so vertical and the bars will hit the windows without it. Maybe not if you have regular bikes but our mt bikes have really wide bars. If you have questions, the people at 1Up are super helpful and they could suggest what works in terms of bike fit.
Still working on the issues but hopefully we can get it worked out soon-especially the rattles!