Mikey's Sprinter Expedition Camper: Cab and Interior

jammyauto

Adventurer
Mike, You've really done a nice job on this camper. Inside the back is that a box for the propane tank(s)? I always thought that propane inside the cabin was a no-no. I really like the pull out toilet and shower design. I'm just finishing up my own conversion on an sportsmobile that I bought empty and I'm allready planning my next camper. I've used you as an example to my very understading wife that 3 expedition vechicles are not to many!! You're my hero. One thing that I won't deviate from is a bed that will comfortably sleep 2 adults side by side. As you know this is a challenge. My next built may be a sprinter if 4x4 is an option. If so I was thinking about a smaller version of this on one side of the body to make the bed a little bigger when in use
2867303224_d3c2f71ebf.jpg

Keep up the good work
 

mhiscox

Expedition Leader
jammyauto said:
Inside the back is that a box for the propane tank(s)? I always thought that propane inside the cabin was a no-no.
Thanks for the compliments, Seth.

You're right about the propane in the cabin being "against the rules," but that box the propane is in is a fiberglass Trident marine propane locker designed for just such use. It's part of a system that includes detectors, alarms and shutoff solenoids, and the compartment is vented only though the bottom of the truck floor to the exterior of the van (propane is heavier than air). So, all in all, it's all been done in a proper manner and we feel perfectly safe. (Not a cheap setup, though; the locker alone is about $800, IIRC.)

My next built may be a sprinter if 4x4 is an option.
You might give John Bendit a call to see if there's an ETA for a conversion of the new model. His contact information is in the Sprinter 4x4 trail run thread I started at:

http://expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20766.

If so I was thinking about a smaller version of this on one side of the body to make the bed a little bigger when in use
2867303224_d3c2f71ebf.jpg
Along the same lines, if I'm remembering correctly, the G24 floorplan for the Gulf Stream Vista Cruiser had plastic "pods" attached at the head and foot of the crosswise rear bed to make the bed longer. I gave thought to trying to track down those pieces for mine, but decided I'd rather have the windows. But you might want to google images of a G24 GSVC to see them.

FWIW, at 5'10 I can almost lie straight out because the curve of the windows gives a couple of extra inches. Note that the NCV3 Sprinter is a few inches wider; if I had one of them, the rear bed would probably be perfect for me. As it is, I sleep fine on it, but I sleep on my side with a little bend.
 

mhiscox

Expedition Leader
I've really been lame finishing up the Sprinter build thread, but the weather turned better, the holidays are over, my new camera with the wider angle lens arrived . . . ummm . . . so no excuses left, I don’t guess.

This post covers some interior loose ends and finishes up the Cab and Interior thread. I'll start Real Soon Now on the systems thread.

About a third of the available interior storage space is in the overhead cabinets. The driver's side cabinets start behind the driver's seat and continue to the edge of the crosswise bed. They weren't continued farther so someone in the bed wouldn’t thump their head on them, which essentially defines the driver's side as the "head" of that bed.

P1000032.jpg


In the picture, you can see the thermostat that regulates the AC-powered convection heater, the remote for the Sharp air conditioner and a Weems and Plath Commercial Grade 12V Chartlite. This light, sold primarily for ship navigation rooms is fully dimmable, allows a focus change from spot to flood, and has a lever to switch from white light to red. It's fully adjustable in both vertical and horizontal planes so that, placing it carefully as we did, it can serve as a reading light for someone either in the bed or on the sofa. Also visible is a four-switch Vimar panel; Vimar switches and outlets are used throughout. They are very classy equipment, often used on yachts, and they were a nice touch CMI picked out. The four switches on this panel include the main rear ceiling lamp (which is dimmable), the side door "porch" light, the rear bed reading light and the "ambiance" light in the surround of the skylight.

On the passenger's side, the cabinets run from the wall on the aft side of the refrigerator to the rear wall. The overhead cabinets and all of the cabinet doors have positive-locking press/pop latches on them. This sort of latch has the benefit of visually confirming that it is latched, so before driving, you just have to look quickly at all the cabinets to make sure no latches are popped out.

P1000033.jpg


One problem with the Sprinter is that the van has significant curvature to the upper sides as it heads toward the roof--what I believe an auto or marine designer would call "tumblehome”—and that causes some awkwardness to the overheads. So at their base, the overheads are about twice as deep as they are at the top. This means that the cabinets aren't nearly as efficient as they are when the cabinet cross section is rectangular (as, say, in the “box” cabin of my Unimog). Storing something as simple as a small box of cereal or snack crackers requires putting the package on its side. Nothing to be done about this; it's just a problem inherent in using the Sprinter shell.

While showing it in the "hidden" position in previous posts, I need to show a picture of the "dining table" deployed. The table is located between the sofa and the single seat and pulls out using a handle under the table. The table has a laminate edge but a top surface of quarter-inch white Corian.

P1000034.jpg


The table is fine for two, but you can accommodate three if you seat two on the sofa, which gives the forward-most person just enough space to manage. It's also possible, using something like a folding stool, to seat the third person in the aisle. If you have four people, someone is relegated to the swiveling passenger seat.

One thing interesting about a Sprinter conversion is that the area is so small that even materials like Corian are affordable because you don't need hardly any of it. This applies especially to the floor, which is made of top-grade solid teak. The boards are heavy and expensive, and would not be practical were in not for the fact that this Sprinter only has a few square feet of floor area.

P1000037.jpg


The teak has proven to be a very good choice. I originally worried a lot about scratching the surface, but the scratches don't show up much in the boards. Maintenance is very easy. Just sweep it and then wipe with a damp rag. Once every few months, I wipe on fifty cents worth of the teak oil I bought at West Marine and that makes the floor nice and semi-shiny. Here’s a close up of the floor with a bright flash; remember it's about three years old.

P1000038.jpg


The bottom line is that while it’d be impractical to use solid wood—especially a very dense wood like teak--for a bigger area, it’s been a dandy choice for the little bit needed for the “aisle” and the shower pan.

One of the niftier things about the Sprinter is the installation of a full-width pull down screen that extends from the ceiling to the top edge of the crosswise bed. It attaches there with a magnet. This is the view from the rear:

P1000039.jpg


The door is made from a cut-down patio door screen operating up-to-down instead of left-to-right. The installation across the back is very sanitary and it doesn’t get in the way of anything. The screen material is a dark grey intended to cut some sunlight, which serves to make it feel a little cooler insider.

P1000041.jpg


We have rear opening windows on the van, which is good, but if the weather is good enough to have the rear doors open, the screen is really nice, particularly if you’re napping or reading in the crosswise bed. (Incidentally, there is, by accident more than plan, just enough space to get a hand in next to the bedframe to open the rear doors from the inside, and you can, if you’re not too klutzy, also pull the rear doors shut from the inside bed.)

Probably my best invention on a per-minute-spent-installing-it basis was putting this grab handle on the passenger’s seat to make it much easier to climb in through the sliding door. It’s nothing more than a motorcycle handlebar tie-down loop; you wrap it around the handlebars and then put the hook of the big ratchet strap through the loops so you don’t damage your lines and levers. Costs maybe seven bucks.

P1000043.jpg


Installation couldn’t be easier . . . push the release and pull the headrest out, put one end of the strap around each headrest support and stick it back in.. The best sub-$10 improvement possible to a Sprinter, I believe. :)

If you’re going to be in a location for a while, it’s worth setting out the $15 Camping World folding step. It’s the perfect height to make getting in through the side door easy. The interesting thing is that when you fold it up, it stores securely and out-of-the-way between the driver’s seat and the hand brake lever. (I added the piece of grey non-slip tread to the step; it's a 3M product with adhesive on the back that's readily available in marine stores.)

P1000042.jpg


That wraps up the interior. I’ll get started soon on how all of the van’s systems were designed and installed. If any of my posts to date have raised questions, post them up here and I’ll be glad to answer them.
 

suntinez

Explorer
:Wow1:

Great build, absolutely beautiful. I'll bet it's as comfy as it is functional. Thanks for taking the time to share it ....

Never heard of those innerspring thingys, I'll be digging for more info now!
 

milo12

Adventurer
One of the best builds I have seen. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

Where did you get the shower curtain and the rail it slides on? Was the rail that shape or did you bend it? I want to do the same thing in my box.
 

mhiscox

Expedition Leader
Thanks for the compliments, guys. Glad you like it.

milo12 said:
Where did you get the shower curtain and the rail it slides on? Was the rail that shape or did you bend it? I want to do the same thing in my box.

It's sold as a straight length of track which you then carefully bend by hand. The stufff works pretty well, but the radius of my bends is about as tight as you'd want to have. You can find the stuff in several places, including Curtain Fair at:

http://www.curtainfair.com/shwrtrac/shower_curtain_tracks.htm

suntinez said:
Never heard of those innerspring thingys, I'll be digging for more info now!

The Froli "springs" are made in Europe, I believe, but handled by at least two companies in the U.S., Comfort Marine and RV,

http://www.comfortmarineandrv.com/faq, and

Nickle Atlantic,

http://www.nickleatlantic.com/.
 

jlrray

New member
Your van is extremely well thought out. I love the teak floors - it definitely has a nautical flare to it. Even though my van was pre-built, I'm formulating ideas to improve my design based on yours! I love the rear screen idea. I've been fussing with this process. Ingenious. It looks ideal, especially with how wide the sprinter's rear doors can open! The flexible storage was nice. Do they sell it in various sizes?

Joe
 
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mhiscox

Expedition Leader
The flexible storage was nice. Do they sell it in various sizes?

Joe
Thanks for the compliments, Joe.

The flexible bins come from Kelty, though I also know Mountainsmith has some as well. Google is your friend here. There are a handful of sizes, but not many, and you'll end up building the shelving to fit the bins rather than finding bins that closely fit pre-existing shelves.
 

elysium

Observer
Hi Mike,

Great sprinter. I had a few questions.

1) how big is your fresh water tank and where is it located? I may have missed it. It is also under the microwave on the driver's side or is that grey only?

2) the description of the exterior showed the jerry can for your generator, but I didn't see a generator in the rig. Is the generator inside or is carried on the outside somewhere?

Thanks!
 

mhiscox

Expedition Leader
Hi Mike,

Great sprinter. I had a few questions.

1) how big is your fresh water tank and where is it located? I may have missed it. It is also under the microwave on the driver's side or is that grey only?

2) the description of the exterior showed the jerry can for your generator, but I didn't see a generator in the rig. Is the generator inside or is carried on the outside somewhere?

Thanks!
I appreciate your interest, and if I'd gotten my rear in gear and posted the next set of pictures, I could have saved you the effort of inquiring. Oh well, any day now.

The fresh water tank is fifty gallons (in retrospect, maybe a third bigger than it needed to be) and custom made of poly-whatever plastic. It's about 18" wide and 18" high and something over four feet long. It lives along the rear driver's side wall. About two-thirds of it is in the "mechanical room" space under the crosswise bed, with the rest taking up part of the space under the "sofa."

The tank filler is at the rear, and you fill it by simply opening the rear door and sticking a hose in the tank. The tank is translucent so you can watch it fill and carry just as much water as you think you need. There's also a digital readout of the percent of water remaining in the kitchen area. The tank is in the lower left of this shot from the rear, with the filler at the top just right of the tank vent/overflow.

P1000123.jpg


The 27-gallon grey water tank (again, probably a third bigger than it needed to be) is, as you noted, under the microwave, which was about the only place for it. Things get pretty tight trying to squeeze everything two people would want for a week-long boondock into the 60 square feet the smaller Sprinter allows.

The generator gets stored on the right side of the mechanical room, toward the front of the vehicle adjacent to the passenger's side rear wheel wheel. In use, it just gets pulled out and connected with a 15-amp cord to the shore power inlet aft of the driver's side rear tire.

P1000130.jpg


As I've often said before, one of the advantages of this type of generator is that you needn't carry it when you know you won't need it. If you'll be driving the truck enough to charge the batteries (and won't require cabin air conditioning), you can leave it behind and have either more storage or less weight. Similarly, if you'll be parking in Mom's driveway with an extension cord available, you don't need to haul it either.

Thanks for the questions. I'll get more posted soon.
 

elysium

Observer
Thanks Mike for the photos and description. That helps clarify things (and of course, raise a few more follow-up questions).

1) is the fresh water tank shaped to go over the wheel well bump or is there enough space behind the wheel well for a regular rectangular tank?

2) I see the propane container next to your fresh water tank. Would it have been possible to go with all diesel appliances (and forego the propane) or was there anything specific that would make it a challenge to go the diesel appliance route?
 

mhiscox

Expedition Leader
Thanks Mike for the photos and description. That helps clarify things (and of course, raise a few more follow-up questions).

1) is the fresh water tank shaped to go over the wheel well bump or is there enough space behind the wheel well for a regular rectangular tank?

2) I see the propane container next to your fresh water tank. Would it have been possible to go with all diesel appliances (and forego the propane) or was there anything specific that would make it a challenge to go the diesel appliance route?
The water tank is shaped to go around the wheel wheel. That is, it looks like a reversed "L" viewed from the rear door. I found a construction picture that shows how the wheel well intrudes; the black tape in the lower left shows the rearmost and passenger-sidemost dimensions of the tank.

IMG_3215.jpg


As for the issue with diesel versus liquid gas (propane) appliances . . . well, there, my friend, you are entering an area where passions run high and the people with the opposing viewpoint can't imagine why you're such an idiot. :rolleyes:

For my part, I like propane. I don't travel to countries where it'd be hard to get. My Sprinter's not being shipped anywhere where the bottled gas would be prohibited during transit. Propane systems are quite safe when installed correctly, and mine is. Propane doesn't stink when burned. Propane appliances are cheaper, less finicky and more efficient, and they are hugely simplier to install and maintain.

But others whose opinions I respect think propane is a ridiculous thing to use. Why carry an additional fuel (a highly explosive one, to their minds) when you're already carrying nice safe diesel? All the appliance fuel can come out of the main fuel tank, eliminating separate fuel hassles. And diesel is inarguably a better choice for fueling a generator than propane (whereas I have to carry a third fuel--petrol--for the Honda eu2000i). And diesel is more "expedition upscale" while propane smacks of cheap Winnebagos.

So you have to make up your own mind. My Sprinter has a propane cooktop and propane on-demand hot water heater. Both are very good, marine-quality units and I believe them superior to their diesel equivalents. The Dickinson cooktop, for example, will heat things much faster than a most diesel cooktops and imparts no smell to the food. I also have a propane catalytic heater--a device which I am totally sold on while others consider using one to be the safety equivalent of rewiring the underwater pool lights with the power on and the pool still full. But I consider myself competent to leave a small amount of ventilation and, besides, diesel heaters have their own issues and some (like me) find them noisy, slow to heat and hard to control.

I personally underappreciated one of the benefits of propane . . . it lasts forever. I sized the propane locker for two ten pound tanks, but since one tank lasts many months, I've hooked a one pound disposable cylinder up to the changeover valve and now use the bulk of the right side of the locker for storage.

Anyway, there'd have been no problem in using diesel appliances, and given my Sprinter's 50 gallon tank, I was better suited than most regarding fuel supply. But based on my experiences with the Unimog and my other campers, I decided on propane in spite of knowing that many others would have thought diesel obviously superior.
 

ersatzknarf

lost, but making time
Hi Mike,
Thank you for so kindly sharing details about your vehicles.
I have very much enjoyed reading about your Sprinter, many, many times.
My wife wants a microwave oven incorporated in our design and from reading John Speed's 'Travel Vans,' powering one seems a concern. Other than running a generator or going with a very low powered 12V version, I am not sure what direction to take. How is yours powered, may I ask ?
 

mhiscox

Expedition Leader
My wife wants a microwave oven incorporated in our design and from reading John Speed's 'Travel Vans,' powering one seems a concern. Other than running a generator or going with a very low powered 12V version, I am not sure what direction to take. How is yours powered, may I ask ?
There are people who will refuse to run a microwave off of a battery bank/inverter setup because the withdrawal rate from the batteries is higher than can be sustained without affecting battery life. 700 to 1000 watts of AC power represents roughly 6 to 9 amps of AC power, which is 60 to 90 amps coming out of your battery (rule of thumb for conversion is 10-1 due to inefficencies), which is no small amount.

However, if you don't agnonize over this unknown and perhaps (on an AGM; much bigger issue with flooded cell batteries) not-too-significant reduction in eventual life, then it's just a simple amp-hour calculation. Let's say your battery bank is a couple of 105 amp-hour AGMs. You don't want to discharge them below 50%, so you have about 100 amp hours (6000 amp-minutes) to use. That means that every minute you microwave something, you cut your battery capacity by one or two percent. Microwaving something for ten minutes could use up close to a fifth of the available power of full-capacity batteries and about finish off batteries that started at 60% or so.

The saving grace is that microwaves (unlike air conditioners, which have similar current draws) don't usually run for very long. As a result, I've been able to successfully run them for years. In the Sprinter, the 615 amp-hour battery bank feeds a 2800 watt Outback inverter, so there's power out the wazoo and the only guilt comes from the somewhat-too-quick withdrawal rate. However, I also successsfully ran a good-sized microwave off of Camper Mog's 170 amp-hour battery bank with an 1800-watt ProSine inverter/charger. If you got down to, say, a 1000-watt inverter, you'll need to make sure any other electrical loads at the time are minimal (as in, "turn off the televsion; I'm going to microwave").

One thing you may not be able to do is to run a microwave off a cheap inverter. Microwaves, along with computers (though sometimes less for those with separate power supply bricks), are the two things you might have that are least likely to run off cheap inverters. My experience is that while pricey pure since wave inverters don't have trouble, modified sine wave inverters sometimes won't work. I know this isn't real helpful, but there can be a five-fold or better cost difference between inverters calling themselves modified sine wave inverters. If you are buying a credible brand for something better than half the price of the sine wave inverter of equivalent power, it might work well, but don't be shocked if something like a 1000-watt inverter for $99 gives the microwave problems.
 

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