The platform for our bed and cabinet storage is 68” wide, of which we decided to use 50” for the bed, and the remaining 18” for storage compartments. To decide on these dimensions we laid down to see what is comfortable. The width of a queen size bed is 60”, so while ours is a […]
The most important consideration for our van build was, of course, the layout of the floor plan. We chose a Sprinter with a 144” wheelbase and high roof because its length allows you to park in regular parking spots, while its height allows both of us to stand up, even though Jakob is 6’2”. The […]
In this post we’ll cover some of the initial steps in our Sprinter conversion, from back in March when we were struggling with freezing conditions that made it difficult to want to be outside. This post covers sound dampening, insulation and windows. Sound Dampening: When driving an empty Sprinter van, you can get quite a […]
Since we might be encountering diesel of dubious quality south of the border (or perhaps better, who knows), it’s a good idea to know how to change your fuel filter. We buy OEM filters at the Mercedes dealerships and carry a few spares, just in case. They’re about $50 and probably a bit cheaper online. […]
Nikki and I have been debating on the Sprinter’s capabilities as a vehicle for our South America trip since we started thinking about the trip in the first place. Most other people seem to be doing this in 4×4 vehicles (Land Rovers, 4Runners etc.). We know that it’s possible to do the trip with pretty […]
First, we got a new name. SprinterCanDiaries. Joking. But seriously, Outside Magazine Online recently featured us as one of their 24 Favorite Camper Vans! Even though our name was misspelled, we were very excited and thankful to be recognized. We had put a lot of time and effort into designing and building this van and […]
Our 2008 Sprinter came with the factory radio installed, a Sound 5 model, which is a pretty basic radio with an in-dash CD player. We have been debating to get a new radio, but decided to stick with the standard model but retrofit an aux-in headphone cable. We wanted to avoid Apple earphones for this […]
As some of you may know, we adopted a dog (Leika) in January. Part way through Canada we realized that while Canada’s National Parks are incredibly dog-friendly, US National Parks are not, at all. While disappointed, we figured that when it came time to spending time in the national parks, we’d have to put Leika […]
Since eastern Washington State, the temperatures during the day have hung around mid-90 degrees, and the roads have been hilly. This isn’t conducive to keeping the engine at it’s ideal operating temperature of 188 to 192 degrees. We have a ScanGauge (Amazon) for monitoring some engine stats while driving, which showed that our engine started […]
The day before we left on this trip, we were finalizing the kitchen sink plumbing, the modern bathroom sinks and decided we really didn’t like the set-up, so decided to abandon our original plan. And for several weeks it had been all too easy to put it off since there were plenty of other things that […]