A New Sprinter 4x4 170, DRW, GVWR 11030 Has Been Ordered

[TomH]

EmMay, If you get a chance, look in the back of a Sprinter, measure with a tape measure, and lay down in it. Don't forget that when someone lays down the feet often pirouette (that fancy thing ballet people do on their toes) out making you longer than you are when standing. My wife is 5" 6" standing, but head and toes touched both walls when she laid in one that measured 69" across. Also, don't forget that the walls arch in toward the center. If you can, figure the height of the mattress top from the floor, then measure across the back at that elevation. Don't forget to subtract insulation and wall paneling. Then you might want to stretch out at home and measure each other's length in the longest position you sometimes wind up in when sleeping. Just a thought.

[EmMay]

Good Call TomH. Comfortable sleep is vital; our trips are usually based around climbing and hiking in the Sierras; when the day ends feeling pretty beaten, good sleep is mandatory. And, for all those other adventures that are cruiser style- Good Sleep Is Mandatory there too!

One of the aspects of this build is the amount of open window space we're shooting for; the rear windows are 40x25 awning style for each side. We've got a low cabinet plan, with only uppers that ring the sides but those don't obscure any viewing. Our e350 is all windows and we dig kicking it in the rig and watching the world from our nest when it's adverse weather and sheltering is the call.

FlareSpace doesn't look like they offer that large of a window option. We're going to send them an email requesting info on the largest window they can offer for the flare spaces.

[TomH]

I'm glad you said that. I was thinking that SMB installed their own slider in the Flarespace. I'll have to check with Flarespace on that too. I wonder if SMB is able to install a bigger window than Flarespace provides? I'll have to check with Brian. Please post anything you find out!

[EmMay]

Will do. Let's see what we can find out...

Enjoy the weekend, we're on our way for a day drip to Idyllwild, CA for a full day climbing adventure. Nothing planned with the e350 until next week end: three days in the southern sierra, Sequoia National Park, annual family camp and climb at Dome Rock.

[EmMay]

TomH:
Letter re; FlareSpace-

'Eme,
Thank you for contacting us. The window opening in the Flarespace panel is made to fit a specific 10x36 sliding window and will not accommodate any other window, sorry. Sportsmobile can paint and install the flares and install the correct sliding window for you as well.

Please let us know if you have any questions.
Thank you,

Sonja Scheler
Flarespace"

[TomH]

Thanks, EmMay.

I used to climb when I was young. In fact I used to work as a guide, taking people backpacking, climbing, and paddling, both whitewater up to low Class IV as well as canoe camping on Class I and II.

[EmMay]

TomH, we'll being heading to the Southern Sierra this weekend to climb at Dome Rock. It'll be a family trip with parents, still camping and hiking in there late seventies, our gaggle of buddies and one daughter. She's a tough kid and a budding trad climber.
We'll be coming in from the western side of hwy 190, north of Bakersfield, and may come back out that direction as opposed to traveling back south through Johnsondale and Kernville to the eventual hwy 395.
We'd love to stop into the Fresno SMB shop but it'll be sunday afternoon so another trip there will wait until later in the summer or early fall. It's a blast to check out the builds going on and to keep our buddy Brian F. fresh with our questions.
The last four years we've climbed in the western sierraas in an expansive area dubbed the Shut Eye Ridge Complex, it's a spread out mecca of awesome granite domes, sport and trad climbing: again it puts us close to SMB, as we pass through Fresno and head west on hwy 41.
This upcoming year, we are hoping that we have word of this Sprinter platform being on the horizon!

[EmMay]

Terranaut and our unnamed van will be within a month of each other on the build line. When that window is finally open we should stay in touch to update and document progress.
We took a lot of pictures when we remodeled our house to move our parents in and have had to refer to those shots more than once to make sure we could solve a maintenance issue and/or improve a pre planned improvement based on where we had 'hidden' wires plumbing etc. ...
We followed a thread from Austin where a couple had a student show up each week to snap some shots for them!

[EmMay]

TomH,
What's the SITREP with y'alls rig?
We're catching your commentary here and there on these threads, but I musta spaced how things are progressing.
We expect that by late fall we may hear from Fresno, van was ordered last, late February.
Another query, your daughters graduating from SLO in May? Did I read that? If so, we'll be around there then; our nephew will graduate in May and we plan on getting ourselves and Grandma up there from Imperial Beach (southern San Diego county).
Maybe you'll be touring our new rig then...

[TomH]

Hoping to go down for a meeting with Brian soon. We're moving from Sac to Vancouver, WA late Oct. or early Nov. House construction is behind schedule.

Our daughter finishes in March, 2 quarters behind due to an extra minor. The wife says she has to walk in May, so maybe we can compare rigs during commencement.