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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.)
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.
