I know it's all in jest, but I find it
funny when someone says 'one less Sprinter' when they are building/driving an E-series van (and there are
so many more E-series vans than Sprinters) ?
Hope your van build goes well and you get the vehicle YOU want out of it.?
Thoughts (insights) on RWD with a locker, though my experience was not a E-series - I installed a Syncro transmission in my 2wd '85 Westy Weekender (previous van). This brought a low gear and a locking diff to the party.
The low gear was awesome! And super useful for crawling around trails. The limited travel of the vanagon meant that it would lift a tire at the slightest undulation, so the locker really came in handy as well.
But while I'd say that the rear-only locker in the 2wd was great when on high traction surfaces, it failed me in snow/ice. I'm not sure how the PowerTrax functions, but the locked diff scenario is not something you drive up the mnt with (duh) as you would with 4x4 or AWD.
The next year I completed the whole Syncro swap, so I had '4x4' with the locker in the rear, a decoupler, and an open diff in the front (I wanted to get it to a 3-knob setup, but....) The Syncro swap was initiated after being stuck in front of my house in ~1ft of snow, both rear tires spinning (BFG TA's) on flat ground, and being rescued by my wife in her Forester.... The Syncro was almost unstoppable in snow.
