New to Forum -- couple of quick questions

[jage]

Originally Posted by windguy

Side question to the group - Does anyone know if an EB would have a smoother ride than an RB?
I was having an email discussion with another poster who said his wife had some back problems develop from riding in the Sprinter RB. Was just curious if the longer wheel base dampens out the ride some how.

I believe longer wheelbase makes for a more stable ride (certainly better for towing), however there are other things you can change to make for a smoother ride, including how you drive. I do think the Sprinters ride very different from Fords, but both are over the front wheels so any advantage to ride quality by being longer is probably lessened.

Personally I don't find the Sprinter seats comfortable for my back problems, and I think that is way more relevant than if it's an RB or EB.

[windguy]

Originally Posted by jage

I believe longer wheelbase makes for a more stable ride (certainly better for towing), however there are other things you can change to make for a smoother ride, including how you drive. I do think the Sprinters ride very different from Fords, but both are over the front wheels so any advantage to ride quality by being longer is probably lessened.

Personally I don't find the Sprinter seats comfortable for my back problems, and I think that is way more relevant than if it's an RB or EB.

thanks for the reply and info Jage.
I wonder how other Sprinter users feel about the comfort of the seats.

Another side topic, I crawled under a Sprinter last week at a local dealer to see the location of the spare tire mount and noticed that the drive shaft for an EB van is frick'n long. That thing must weigh a lot. Next dumb question for the week, how come they don't make this vehicle front wheel drive? If you're running single wheels in the back (2500 model), would it matter much for traction? The Ford Transit Connect is front wheel drive and they can lower the cargo area creating a lower step up and more room. Seems like it would be more stable with a lower center of gravity. Of course that's okay for highway miles but not so good for light duty offroad clearance underneath. Sorry to hijack the thread with this but was just curious, as always. Thanks

[rescuerobert]

I wonder how other Sprinter users feel about the comfort of the seats.

I also wonder about that. Also how many seat options are there?
Seems that there might be the standard seat and two options?
The deluxe seat and the seat that has the air ride. Confused about
this.

Thanks,
Robert

[windguy]

Robert,

One thing you might be interested in checking out is a 2011 Dealer Ordering Guide for the Sprinter.
K9 has turned me on to this dealer in Texas (Sales Rep is Dave Graham) who has a blog that has PDF link for this guide. I finally checked it out late last night. Slept really well so it might be the new cure for insomnia

link to dealer http://mbgtown.wordpress.com/m-b-sprint ... e-2011-my/
link to the ordering guide (PDF takes a while to load - 38 pages) http://mbgtown.files.wordpress.com/2010 ... go-van.pdf

This may be a separate thread topic but I would like to hear what options other Sprinter owner have installed. Looks like most Sprinters that are pre-ordered only have a few basic options. You can see the inventory that this dealer has http://mbgtown.wordpress.com/current-me ... inventory/ and what options are installed. Ordering from the factory lets you add more options and I wonder if any of the options can be installed by the dealer or field installable by the owner later.
So much to learn

[windguy]

Originally Posted by rescuerobert

I also wonder about that. Also how many seat options are there?
Seems that there might be the standard seat and two options?
The deluxe seat and the seat that has the air ride. Confused about
this.

Thanks,
Robert

I thought I read somewhere that if you get the suspension seat option then you can't make it a swivel seat. Not positive.

SMBW told me that you can't order a passenger only swivel, which is what we want to do. Sold in pairs only now and that MBenz isn't allowing SMB to install the swivels, that it's a factory or dealer only option now. Sounds like MBenz can be real pricks with their restrictions. The owner can still install a single swivel themselves, which is probably what we'll end up doing. I want to leave the driver seat as non-swivel since it can't rotate that much around based on our design and I want to leave that seat always ready in case I need to make a quick getaway. In order to get the seat to swivel you need to change the adjustments so it clears the side of the door.

Not sure what SMB does to the seat upholstery when they mod the van. I think they recover it. Not sure if that's a standard mod or an upgrade.

[rescuerobert]

Originally Posted by windguy

Robert,

One thing you might be interested in checking out is a 2011 Dealer Ordering Guide for the Sprinter.
K9 has turned me on to this dealer in Texas (Sales Rep is Dave Graham) who has a blog that has PDF link for this guide. I finally checked it out late last night. Slept really well so it might be the new cure for insomnia

link to dealer http://mbgtown.wordpress.com/m-b-sprint ... e-2011-my/
link to the ordering guide (PDF takes a while to load - 38 pages) http://mbgtown.files.wordpress.com/2010 ... go-van.pdf

This may be a separate thread topic but I would like to hear what options other Sprinter owner have installed. Looks like most Sprinters that are pre-ordered only have a few basic options. You can see the inventory that this dealer has http://mbgtown.wordpress.com/current-me ... inventory/ and what options are installed. Ordering from the factory lets you add more options and I wonder if any of the options can be installed by the dealer or field installable by the owner later.
So much to learn

Thanks for info -- guess its time to dig into the options pdf.

Robert

[rescuerobert]

Originally Posted by windguy

I thought I read somewhere that if you get the suspension seat option then you can't make it a swivel seat. Not positive.

SMBW told me that you can't order a passenger only swivel, which is what we want to do. Sold in pairs only now and that MBenz isn't allowing SMB to install the swivels, that it's a factory or dealer only option now. Sounds like MBenz can be real pricks with their restrictions. The owner can still install a single swivel themselves, which is probably what we'll end up doing. I want to leave the driver seat as non-swivel since it can't rotate that much around based on our design and I want to leave that seat always ready in case I need to make a quick getaway. In order to get the seat to swivel you need to change the adjustments so it clears the side of the door.

Not sure what SMB does to the seat upholstery when they mod the van. I think they recover it. Not sure if that's a standard mod or an upgrade.

Thought the same thing about suspension seat but saw a pic somewhere with suspension seat facing the rear of the van.
Agree with you on seat swivels, don't need one for the driver, just the passenger.

Thanks,
Robert

[Bigduke6]

We have a few sprinters at work and the stock seats are the worst things I've ever sat in. The geometry isn't that bad but the cushions feel like they're made of cement. One German engineer couldn't sleep and made adjustable height armrests, though. Maybe have the seats
upholstered to match the rest
of the interior and add some foam at the same time.

[rescuerobert]

Originally Posted by Bigduke6

We have a few sprinters at work and the stock seats are the worst things I've ever sat in. The geometry isn't that bad but the cushions feel like they're made of cement. One German engineer couldn't sleep and made adjustable height armrests, though. Maybe have the seats
upholstered to match the rest
of the interior and add some foam at the same time.

That is the same feeling we had about the stock sprinter seats (hard as a rock).
We had sat in a 2008 pleasure-way sprinter and the seats were quite comfortable.
Understand that they recover them and at the same time add more padding.
Wonder if SMB will do the same thing?

Thanks,
Robert

[k9sprinter]

Originally Posted by windguy

I thought I read somewhere that if you get the suspension seat option then you can't make it a swivel seat. Not positive.

SMBW told me that you can't order a passenger only swivel, which is what we want to do. Sold in pairs only now and that MBenz isn't allowing SMB to install the swivels, that it's a factory or dealer only option now. Sounds like MBenz can be real pricks with their restrictions. The owner can still install a single swivel themselves, which is probably what we'll end up doing. I want to leave the driver seat as non-swivel since it can't rotate that much around based on our design and I want to leave that seat always ready in case I need to make a quick getaway. In order to get the seat to swivel you need to change the adjustments so it clears the side of the door.

Not sure what SMB does to the seat upholstery when they mod the van. I think they recover it. Not sure if that's a standard mod or an upgrade.

I have heated suspenision seats as a factory option.They are fantastic. Now I have heated suspension SWIVEL (passenger ONLY) seat, and yes, sportsmobile did the swivel!!!