Fitz’ 2016 Sprinter 4x4 RB 150S Build

[Fitz]

See the pictures below for an example of driver error (me) when backing up on a solo trip. I knew I had some fairly large brush (limbs up to 6" in diameter) to back over because I got out of the van and saw them when I did a walkaround. What I didn't do was look up and see the low-hanging oak limb.... When I encountered resistance, I assumed it was on the ground. Wrong, it was the limb caught against the Thule rail 8'-10" above the ground. BTW, shown is one side only, the damage was consistent to the rails on both sides of the van.




The repair was actually fairly easy, but it did require help from my friend Dan. I quickly realized that there was no way to straighten the roof rails in place, thus I removed the through bolts holding them down, cleaned off the butyl tape residue, and then took them to the vice in my workshop to straighten them.




Reinstallation was simply the reverse of removal, with the added step of straightening the aluminum angle that holds the rear of the solar panel. New butyl tape, a few new bolts, and Dan on the outside on top of a 10' ladder with me inside putting the nuts on the bottom of the bolts (with the penthouse up to provide access).




Repairs complete, and only a little bit embarrassed because these things happen when out using our vans!

[N147JK]

I have found that any kind backing is treacherous, even with a good backup camera. Distances and sizes are impossible to judge accurately. I've even sideswiped fenceposts.. moving forward.. with 3 spotters!

[marret]

Ouch, glad you were able to resolve/repair. Yeah, backing…often by myself and potentially multiple times checking…

[Charliesmom]

You’re not the only one…
Within the first 2-3 months owning the van.
1. Before: I backed “slowly” into an overhang.
2. After: a trip to Dent Busters and a little touch-up paint

[Fitz]

The stories this group could tell about mishaps......

There is a reason why the "Spare Bumper" rides in the rear hitch receiver, its job is to protect the Aluminess box just inboard of it.

BTW, this picture is Spare Bumper #2. The first one met its match when we didn't "Stop For Rocks" quite soon enough, resulting in the need for replacement. But it did its job!

[Fitz]

Back in Post #744 I described the addition of wheel spacers to Flint. There have been no issues with the install EXCEPT for the fact that it caused the inside of the sliding door to contact the exterior of the rear tire when the door is about ¾’s open. And yes, this did mark up the upholstered inner surface of the door, fortunately it is hidden on the inside when the door is closed.

I put some plastic penthouse tape on the upholstered door surface to provide some temporary protection, but spacing the door out was obviously the solution. Terrawagen makes a “Track Wedge” and Agile makes a “Door Spacer” (which includes a new modified hinge), ultimately I chose the Agile Door Spacer. Note that Agile lists the spacer as fitting 2019+ Sprinters and I have a 2016, but a conversation with the Agile sales team assured me that it would fit (I find it interesting that Agile hasn’t changed the 2019+ listing info on their website) so I ordered and installed the spacer. It has been in place for two months and all works as advertised, so count me as a happy customer.

You can get detailed pictures of the spacer on Agile’s website, here is the old and new side-by-side, old on the left, new on the right. I probably should have taken individual pictures to provide better clarity, but I aligned them this way to illustrate the difference in the mounting holes on the brackets. The old bracket has four mounting bolts, the new has two, thus you are giving up two bolts doing this install. I used Loctite blue and lock washers on the two bolts and as I said earlier, the new bracket has been installed for two months with zero issues.



Here are a couple of installation pictures, one showing how I supported the door from the bottom, and the other showing how I used rope to prevent the door from shifting outward during the installation. Was the rope bracing necessary? Everything seemed stable during the install but I felt much better adding the temporary support while working alone.




Here is what the spacer and new hinge look like installed:



And here is what the final door-to-tire clearance looks like:



It was a pretty simple install that accomplished the desired result. I had to clean out the inside of one of the new bracket mounting holes with a rat tail file, but that was an extremely minor issue to allow for alignment.

[Fitz]

2023 Year-In-Review Stats…three years retired as of December 18th. If I keep practicing, eventually I just might get this retirement thing down! I worked a one-week consulting gig this past year, and my attitude is that I’m glad my work life is in the rear-view mirror.

88,332 – 77,003 = 11,329 miles and 84 nights spent in the van in 2023 (vs. 9,755 miles and 43 nights in 2022). Other than our trip to Chicago, most of our trips this year have been short with quite a few nights spent at either my older brother’s place (roof and solar projects) or one of the (four) daughter’s places combining projects with visiting the grandkids. As a mobile apartment the van works great and it really facilitates easily getting together with the family.

2024 is the year the extended warranty expires on the van, hopefully saying so won’t jinx anything! Looking back, I have no complaints on the reliability or dependability of the vehicle, hopefully I will be able to say that well into the future. Yes, it has its nuances, but all vehicles do.

Wishing everyone a safe and happy 2024!

Flint on the sand on a recent post-Thanksgiving pre-Christmas Pismo Beach/Oceano Dunes SVRA family trip, thankfully prior to the issues that the recent storms have brought. The spot shown in the picture is just north of the Arroyo Grande creek crossing, recently made famous with pictures of vehicles in distress when they failed to negotiate the water running high in the creek.

[Fitz]

Post 761 of this thread describes a repair I recently made to the rear roof rails of the van following a close encounter with an overhanging tree limb. This post describes a repair made at the other end of the roof when the antenna recently suffered a similar fate.

The Sprinter antenna is a swept-back design mounted on the roof just behind the center of the windshield.


It has a plastic base that has revealed itself to be the weak point of the design, most likely weakened further by a few years in the sun. Here is what the base looked like after its recent encounter, most likely which occurred while backing up the van during another tree encounter. And no, the roof rail and the antenna damage did not occur at the same time, these were two separate events, which begs the question – does bad luck come in threes?

Shown below is the original antenna base in the foreground and the new base in the background. Note that with the antenna broken off this way it created a direct leak path through the light console and into the interior of the van below.


Removal of the antenna base was fairly straightforward, it involved scraping off the adhesive that glued the base to the roof and removing the overhead light console located directly below it to gain access to the attachment nut.




Post #641 on page 65 of this thread speaks to preventative maintenance of the antenna base. Because I had the base off this time I decided to go with a different approach. Instead of sealing the exterior of the base to the roof as I did previously, this time I cut thin strips of butyl tape and placed them in the v-groove channel located on the bottom of the base. Tightening the attachment nut compresses the channel and the butyl tape strip, thus creating a leak-free attachment.



All-in-all, not a difficult repair (after getting over the shock of the cost of the OEM antenna and base). Removal of the old adhesive was the most tedious part of the job, removal of the light covers and the light console the most head-scratching.