Sprinter Build - Fan Fix

Our van has two Maxxfan Deluxe 7500k ceiling fans that have worked rather well…..until recently. As soon as we replaced our AGM battery to a Lithium battery one of our fans would shut down as soon as you tried to use it. We would get an alarm and a flashing green light from the fan and then it would go dead. After looking online I found others complaining about the “green light of death”. Turns out the fan can’t handle the voltage increase of a lithium which is usually in the high 13 to low 14 range compared to an AGM that is in the 12-13 range. Apparently Maxxfan’s don’t come with a voltage regulator built in and have a very tight tolerance on what voltage it will accept before it simply shuts itself down. This is a poor design choice by Maxxfan since many people are upgrading to Lithium batteries these days.

Some people online say you simply need to order a new control board for the fan which costs about $70. Others say you only need to do that if the board is fried and that many people with the green light of death don’t have a fried control board its just that you need to drop the voltage down. In order to bring the voltage down you need to install a voltage regulator or voltage step down device. A regulator will step up and step down the voltage to keep the output voltage at a set level. A step down simply makes the output no more than a set level. I decided to get a step down as my issue is not having too low of voltage. I was able to find an adjustable DC voltage step down circuit board for the correct amperage (10 amps) on Amazon for around $12.

This board is small enough to install it in the fan housing but I decided to install it by my fuse box as I have an easy space to access it in case I need to adjust it or remove it from my system. This also allows me to have the board in close proximity to the fuse controlling the power to the fan in case there was a short in the step down circuit board (this was bought on Amazon after all do you never know what the quality is). The setup is easy, simply have positive and negative coming out of the fuse box (with a fuse on the positive side) and going into the “input” side of the step down circuit board. Then have a positive and negative coming out of the “output” of the step down circuit board and connect that to your positive and negative of the ceiling fan. To set the voltage you have a voltage reader on the output of the board and then turn a small screw on the board and watch the voltage reading change until you get to the level you want, in my case around 12 volts.

Boom, no green light of death for the fan and I am back in business. I have not noticed any heat build up on the circuit but that is something you should monitor in the beginning. But considering it is dropping down only 1.5-2 volts on a 7-10 amp draw I would not expect much (if any) heat build up.

Sprinter Build - Battery Monitor

When I bought my Trail Kitchens power and water cabinet it came with a very nice Balmar SG200 battery monitor. This uses a shunt to measure all the input and output power consumption to give you various readings on the status of your battery. But over the last 2 years I have made many changes to my electrical system such as a bluetooth controlled lithium battery and a bluetooth controlled DC-DC charger. This meant that I didn’t need many of the features of the Balmar. All I really needed was a simple display showing me the basic info about my battery for those times when I am not using the battery and charger app.

I decided to go with a Renogy 500 amp shunt battery monitor. Its a simple design, easy to install, and doesn’t complicate my system yet it does everything I need it to do. I rarely downgrade my gear but sometimes it is better to have simple gear that does only what you need it to do versus having gear with all the bells and whistles yet falls sort on some of the basics. In the case of the Balmar where it fell sort for me was that to see all of the stats you care about you need to flip through various screens versus the Renogy that shows all the important stats on a single screen.

Sprinter Build - Grille Lights and Switches

A while back I wired up a light bar and area lights to a Trigger Controller (blog post here). At that time I thought I was doing myself a favor to use the Trigger Controller as it would prevent me having to wire in relays and switches…..something I was not overly familiar with at that time. The Trigger Controller is app enabled and comes with a wireless switch block to control the lights. At that time I completed the installation of the light bar and area lights but only mounted the grille lights into position, I didn’t actually wire them in yet (due to time). Everything worked great but over time I noticed some weaknesses of the Trigger Controller.

The first is that it is not easily expandable since you either buy a 4 switch system or a 6 switch system but to expand means buying a whole new system. The second is that their wireless switch block….sucks. The LED lights of the switch are weak, the switch block is not that attractive, and the batteries run down rather quickly. More importantly, once the batteries run down the switch acts odd and on more than one occasion once I turned on the lights I could not turn them off unless I went into the app. But the biggest issue I have found with the Trigger Controller is that the circuits can only handle lower amps. On a 4 Trigger Controller only two circuits can handle 30 amps and the other two circuits can handle only 10 amps. Finding lights that take 10 amps or less is not easy. You can add a relay to a circuit to up the amps but that sort of defeats the whole point of having the Trigger Controller. You might as well have total control and flexibility and wire up relays. More on that in a second as you can guess what I had to do :)

I lived with their wireless switch block for awhile but eventually I was tired of it, so I bought their hard wired switch kit. This is a wire loom that you can add to your Trigger Controller that allows you to then use traditional switches. By doing this you can ditch the wireless switch block all together. Seeing that I like and trust MGI Speedware for my custom wiring needs I went with their 4 aviation style switch panel. I then had the joy of cutting a hole in my headliner to mount the switch panel and to route the wires to the Trigger Controller which I installed under the front driver seat in the electrical box.

While I was deep into this project I decided to finally wire up the grille lights. I went with the Rigid 360 6” lights that have an amber background. I did this for a few different reasons. The first is that these lights can be wired on two circuits (one for the main light and one for the backlight). This means that the amp rating on each circuit is rather low and based on the documentation from Rigid it would be below 10 amps on each circuit (at least that is what I thought). I was also hopeful that the amber backlight could be used as fog lights while the main lights could be used as offroad driving lights. As it turns out the amber is not bright enough to be effective fog lights. The amber looks good but it is not bright enough. The main light is very bright and a wonderful offroad light with a retro style, but the amp rating documented is the nominal load not the startup load. I found that my 10 amp circuit could not handle the load and thus it blew a fuse. The fix for that is…..you guessed it, wire in a 30 amp relay. If I am going to do that I might as well upgrade the grille lights to the Baja Design LP6 or LP9 which are amazing lights.

So all in all I would recommend the Trigger Controller only to those that have limited switch needs, who don’t feel comfortable wiring switches and relays, and who don’t need to power higher load circuits. If I could do it again I would skip it. If you like the idea of a controller that has most of the wiring done for you check out the SPOD system as it is a more powerful system. Given my Defender project I am not comfortable wiring relays and switches so my preference is to buy a custom relay panel from MGI Speedware and have total flexibility. I like the Rigid 360 lights for their retro look but for my needs I like the Baja Design LP9s better. So once I add a relay to my grille wiring loom I will jump over to the BD LP9s and join the many Sprinters who use those. In conclusion I would say you get what you pay for. The Trigger Controller is inexpensive for what it is but has many limitations and overall I spent more time than it was worth making it work for my rig. But with that said it does work great now and their customer support is excellent.

Sprinter Build - Let’s Talk Toilets

I have been surprised how often someone asks me about how we take care of business on our backcountry trips. So this post is to talk about our experience (without too many gross details) and how we ended up finding a solution that worked for our needs.

First off there is a wide range of options you can explore. You can go old school and dig a pit, but that takes time and in many areas this is not allowed. On the other end of the spectrum you can have a black water holding tank and a permanent bathroom built into your van, but this requires maintenance, spending time at dump stations, and winterizing the holding tank. You then have the solutions in the middle like a bucket (not kidding) and the ever popular cassette toilet. These solutions are portable, temporarily hold the waste, inexpensive, and you can dump at a dump station or any permanent toilet. By far the most common solution is the cassette toilet.

Out of all of these options my family was not going to dig a pit every time. I was not willing to deal with the permanent toilet as I didn’t want that feature permanently built into the floor plan. This is because we take lots of different kind of trips and some don’t require a toilet so a permanent bathroom in the van would be a waste of space. I also didn’t want the extra maintenance of the holding take and I especially didn’t want to be driving around with frozen human waste in the winter. The bucket options is just nasty so that left the cassette toilet which we did try. This is a good option as you can do your business in the van or move it outside when you are at camp, everything is contained in one nice package (fresh water to flush and a small holding tank), and it only costs a couple hundred for a nice model. But in the end we hated it. Even with holding tank chemicals to break down the waste and cut down on the smell……the smell was always present. And when you are driving through Utah in summer and its 90+ degrees in the van that smell can be powerful. Also when it is time to dump out the portable holding tank we ran into issues. I will spare you the details but let’s just say it is easy but not the most enjoyable experience. But given all the other options we knew about the cassette toilet was still the best option for us….until a friend of mine told me about the Wrappon Green Toilet.

The Wrappon does not really fall into any of the toilet options I have gone over. This thing has created a new toilet category “heat sealed disposable waste packets”. So what the hell is that? Glad you asked. This is a Japanese electric portable toilet that was originally designed for crane operators. It is a 19x19x19 metal box that you sit on, do your business, drop in some powder that turns your urine into gel, and then press a button to heat seal your waste in an air tight packet which you simply throw away in the trash. The way this works is that in the middle of the metal box is a long plastic bag, a motor to unroll a part of that bag to collect your waste, a heat element to close off and seal part of the bag to create a packet, and then the packet drops out the bottom for you to collect.

Because the packets are air tight there is NO SMELL. We had a family of four in Death Valley for 4 days where we used the Wrappon extensively and simply put the waste packets in our van trash can and we never noticed any smell. No joke this thing works. And since it is portable you can use it in the van or put it outside at a campsite; all you need is a power source. There are three ways to power this bad boy (120v power plug, 12v cigarette lighter plug, or a battery pack). The battery pack they sell for the Wrappon is super expensive but you can rig your own battery pack if you have basic 12v electrical skills, or you can do what we did and simply get a small Goal Zero 150 power station and use the 12v cigarette plug. Doing it this way means we can use the toilet in the van and outside with the Goal Zero with the same power plug to keep things simple.

In my eyes the Wrappon is the best of all worlds. It is portable, it is easy, it does not smell, and the maintenance is low. But it does have two draw backs, the first being price. This thing is over $800 compared to a cassette toilet that ranges from $150-$300. So I would call this a camping luxury item. The second draw back is that there is a possibility for a packet to not get a perfect heat seal. This happens for us about 1 out of every 5 times we use it. I have two theories on why this happens. The first is that the 12v doesn’t provide quite enough consistent power to the heating element to get a perfect seal. The second theory is that as you drive the van is bouncing around and the plastic bag in the Wrappon gets misaligned with the heating element. What ever the reason sometimes the seal will not be perfect and you end up with a small leak of your waste on the floor. But before you freak out keep in the mind we are talking about a small leak (like pin hole). Sounds bad I know but the fix is easy. The Wrappon comes with an align tool so if you are worried about a leak you simply realign the bag when you get to your campsite. For added protection we simply put a small plastic container under the Wrappon where the packets come out just in case there is a small leak. But honestly this is not that big of a deal as it is rare, easy to fix, and the leak is very small when it happens. It’s a small price to pay for the overwhelming benefits (at least in my family’s eyes). I do think Wrappon should address this as I am not the only person this has happened to.

To make this toilet even more useful we built a wooden cabinet around it in the van so that we can sit on it as a stool but easily remove the Wrappon when we want to put it outside. We also got a pop-up bathroom tent that we can setup outside if we are camping near other people and want some privacy but don’t want to do your business in the van. I am the first to say this is a luxury item but honestly after using the Wrappon with the family I can’t imagine ever going back to a cassette toilet.

Sprinter Build - Winch

Not that long ago I told a friend of mine that the winch is the last thing I would do to my van. I was not saying I WOULDN’T put a winch on the van….I was saying it was something I would do when I finished everything else first. So I guess the fact that I just got a winch put on the van means I am coming to an end of this build and yes that is exactly what that means. Thank god. I have really enjoyed this build but its been 16 months working on this van, it has cost a ton of money, countless hours in the garage, and it is time to work on the Defender now.

A winch is not needed for most van owners. They look cool but honestly most people who own a van say something like, “I put it on but I hope to never use it”. When I talk to van owners most never take their van off-road to the degree where they risk getting stuck. Because of that a winch is really not needed for 95% of van owners. We however do like to go miles off-road with the van and we have already had a couple situations where we almost got stuck. We also have aspirations to take out the van plus Defender on trips off-road where the van acts as basecamp and the Defender acts as our runaround. So I feel it is important to be able to self rescue…..thus time to get a winch.

Most people put on a big metal bumper in the front and then mount their winch to that. There are some great ones out there but I don’t really see the point. To me they seem to be mostly about the looks. Also some of these add a lot of weight and disable or complicate the use of MB’s various sensors (parking, lane departure, active cruise control). Also some of these bumpers cost over $2k….for a look. We decided to go with a winch mount from Van Compass. This is a steel mount that you install under the MB plastic bumper that gives the front end added strength to support a winch plus it gives you two recovery points. It doesn’t change the look of the van too much, it is likely stronger than most of the metal bumpers out there, it does not impact ANY of the MB sensors, and it cost less than half of some of the metal bumpers.

We then decided to go with a Warn VR EVO 12-s winch. This is a 12k synthetic rope winch with a lower AMP draw. There are a few other 12k winches from Warn that have a bit more power and features but for the money we felt the VR EVO 12-s was a good fit for our van. Let’s be real, even with all the work we have done to this van it can’t get into too gnarly of a situation as it is just too heavy, too under powered, and too long to do real off-roading.

One last thing. If you plan on adding a winch to your Sprinter go ahead and buy extra long power cables as the ones that come with winches are WAY TOO SHORT. You will need 12-14 feet if you plan on wiring the winch all the way back to the main van battery in the cabin under the driver floor. You should wire the winch directly to the battery without any couplers and you should get large gauge wires (I used 2 gauge but the larger the better). Some people will put a terminal block in the engine bay and run the winch to that. The problem with this is that most terminal blocks are rated to 200 AMPs and a winch can pull up to 400 AMPs. Another thing you will have to deal with is that Sprinters don’t have a dedicated attachment bolt on the negative to connect your cable. What I did was modify the OEM negative cable so that I could sandwich the winch cable between the main mount and bolt. This requires some dremeling but its easy.

Public Service Announcement…..if you plan on owning a winch also plan on taking a recovery class. Don’t think it is as simple as knowing how to turn on the winch. There is some knowledge, skill, and practice needed in order to do a proper and safe recovery. I would also reconsider simply taking a recovery course from your local off-road club. While that might be totally fine it is unclear how knowledgable the club members really are since they are most likely not a professional recovery crew. If you are in the Bay Area consider taking a class from The Driving Company who is a professional organization that trains fire and police departments as well as search and rescue crews on proper off-roading and recovery techniques.

Sprinter Build - Custom Woodwork

We are getting to the end of the build!!!! Now that all the big stuff is done it was time to do some minor clean up by getting some custom woodwork complete. The first was to finally install the Adventure Wagon fuse box in a permanent location, an inset wooden box (in bamboo) in the wall panel behind the driver seat.

Next was to redo our coat hook board in matching bamboo.

We also wanted a permanent place for our Wrappon Green toilet so we built a bamboo box around the toilet that acts as a seat when the lid is closed. It also has a door in the front to access the deposits :) We also ran power to the box so that the Wrappon was on its own circuit. That also meant we could install an Aux USB charging port behind the captain chair.

And while we were at it, we decided to make a trash bin out of bamboo as well to make everything match. It also gives our dog a way to climb up to the bed, sort of like a doggy ladder.

And hell, since the power tools are out….might as well convert this service panel to a door with hinges for easy access to the water system mechanics.

Lastly, and a bit less exciting, I rewired the electrical hot water system to trigger off the camper battery system versus the van system. This has a pro and con. The pro is that we don’t need to turn on the van to run the hot water as it can run off of the camper van. The con is that it takes a ton of power and thus can drain the camper battery quickly (within a few hours) if you forget about it. To prevent that, I have it on its own kill switch plus I wired an indicator light as a reminder for when it is on. When we are using a lot of hot water and getting a bit nervous about our battery levels we can switch over to our propane hot water system. I also installed a water tank monitor system which works pretty well. It does give fault readings if things like wires get too close to the sensors on the tank. But overall it gives us enough of a reading to know if it is time to refill.

A big thank you to Kamper Vans in Reno for getting all the CNC work done with the wood.

Sprinter Build - Captain Chairs

This was the hardest part of the build…..by far. When we started this project we began with a 2019 2500 170 WB crew 4x4. That meant we had some windows, a full wood floor, a ceiling panel with lights, some half wall panels, and the three person bench seat. We got rid of the ceiling and wall panels and replaced them with an Adventure Wagon interior kit. We kept the wood floor as it is a high quality wood floor yet we ended up with some regrets with that decision which we will talk about later. But the bench seat had to go. It is a nice quality bench seat but it is big, heavy, does not slide, and generally is always in the way. It blocks the full use of the side door but it also does not have much leg room for the passengers. Overall it sucks unless you are looking for a people mover van.

In our build we only needed seating for four but we wanted as much usable space as possible while also making it comfortable for LONG road trips (we are talking road trips through 4 states with kids). So we decided we wanted two comfortable captain chairs to replace the bench seat where we could mount them further back in the van to provide more leg room plus a bigger entrance for the side door. We also wanted to put a removable table in front of those chairs so we could turn the driver and front passenger seat around (we installed swivels for those chairs already) so we would end up with a four person dining area.

Here is the problem. It is not easy to find safe, comfortable, captain chairs that easily mount into the Sprinter. Most of the seat options don’t leverage the factory mounting points from the bench and frankly even if they did the seats would be too far forward. So that means you need a mounting system for nearly any seat option you can find for the Sprinter. Some of those mounting options require you to replace the entire floor of the van at a cost of $10k+. These floors give you rails to move around the seats which is perfect for some applications but not for a simple 2 captain chair option like we were trying to create. Other mounting systems seem too light weight and are not tested for safety. And then you have the DIY version which frankly I would not trust unless it was designed and built by an engineer and tested to meet specs and by then they are not DIY. And then if all that didn’t make it hard enough just try to find something in stock. I ended up placing two orders with two different companies both of which had back orders for 4 months and in both cases I had to simply cancel the order because they could not fulfill my order.

But then we found one option that is well designed by pros, tested, purpose built for Sprinters, comfortable, has great features, and readily available…..JMG Systems in Souther California. This small family owned company has been in the seat business for over 40 years and got their start designing, manufacturing, and installing seating solutions for commercial vehicles like luxury shuttles, high end tour buses and VIP coaches. They also supply some of the larger seat resellers with vehicle specific base plate mounting systems. The company was founded and run by engineers who test their seating solutions to verify each one complies with federal motor vehicle safety standards (FMVSS) and therefore DOT compliant. Recently they have branched out to the camper van space and sell and install direct as well as supplying a handful of high end van outfitters.

I was impressed with JMG’s product. For the Sprinter they have three different seat sizes to choose from, a few different upholstery options, and two different types of mounting solutions. The drop in/bolt on seating solution is a custom 1, 2 or 3 person seating solution that uses the OEM Sprinter seat rails. While this is a great solution for a quick and easy upgrade you cannot adjust the seating location because they bolt onto the factory seat rails. So we went with their custom swivel captain chair mounting system which uses the JMG mounting plate that the two chairs bolt to. The mounting plate then bolts down through the floor to brackets that wrap around the chassis rails and anchor the whole seating solution down to the Sprinter frame rails. This seating solution allows for a couple different mounting locations to give you more leg room. It’s also built like a tank. After seeing how they install the base plate I have to think it is stronger than the OEM bench and seat rails.

We went with the 20” wide seats, which are plenty big but still narrow enough to allow easy passage to walk between the seats. They are mounted as far back as we can go, which gives a huge space to enter the van and a ton of leg room. The seats recline back to a 40 degree angle from the upright position, have arm rests, swivel, and can slide forward & back 6”. They have integrated 3 point seat belts and even have child seat anchoring points. JMG Systems follows Mercedes' Body Equipment Guideline (BEG) book and has designed their FMVSS Tested/Certified swivel chair seating solution to avoid drilling through any frame rails or cross members. The seats are upholstered in black leatherette with light grey stitching that really matches our van and the foam is custom formed to provide an incredibly comfortable seat. Also because these are not electric they are lighter and we don’t run the risk of motors breaking down and we don’t have to complicate our van wiring.

mainframe rails in green dashed lines, and the locations of the cross members in red dashed lines, #1 and #2 indicate the two mounting position options

notice the steel U brackets that wrap around the frame rails

massive hardware to mount the base plate to the underside brackets, also the wood floor has been cut around the base plate

then the seats mount to the base plate

huge amount of space, don’t mind the wall I will reinstall the panels later

As for the floor we bought a brand new MB wood floor designed for a cargo van and cut around the mounting plate to have a clean transition. This is where I wish I had done something different. Don’t get me wrong what we have works extremely well. Our plan is to get some marine grade carpet and custom cut and bound it for a perfect flush fit that is also removable for easy cleaning. Once that is done the floor will be better insulated and more comfortable and very practical for 4 season trips. But, if I could do it again I would have removed everything from the van and put in a custom wood floor that is even more flush (example pictures below). We didn’t do this because we didn’t want to remove the cabinets, electrical, and water tanks for such a minimal improvement. My suggestion is that if your build allows (which ours did not) install the seating solution FIRST, as JMG requires installing the mounting plate on the bare metal floor with no compressible material in between them. After the mounting plate is in place you can build up the sub-floor around the mounting plate for a perfectly smooth flat floor. Then you can move onto the interior kit, and then build your cabinets and bed on top of all that. This will allow for a perfect wood, vinyl, or carpet floor without any compromises.

Example of a custom floor that completely hides the mounting plate.

The install was quick. I drove down to Orange County on a Sunday, spent the night with some relatives, and showed up at JMG’s shop at 7:30 am and in less than 3 hours they had installed the base plate, seats, and custom cut the wood floor. I was on the road back to the Bay Area by 10:30. JMG SYSTEMS also works with other Upfitter Partners who can do the install for you. If you are really handy, you can do the installation yourself with a bit of guidance from JMG’s lead design engineer. I am thrilled with how everything turned out. JMG has a fantastic product that more van builders should look into. Reach out to them and have them recommend a certified & tested seating solution that is right for your van.

Sprinter Build - Custom Bed Platform

If the production bed solutions like the Adventure Wagon MOAB or the Flarespace solution work for you then do that as you will save yourself a lot of effort. Unfortunately none of the solutions readily available worked for our needs. We wanted a bed system that would sleep four without someone being jammed up inches from the ceiling, we wanted to sleep sideways to save space, and we wanted it to fit the Trail Kitchen cabinets and Adventure Wagon interior kit. That meant we needed to go fully custom.

At least at the time of our build the Adventure Wagon interior kit did not on its own fit Flarespace pods so we had to modify the interior kit and Flarespace trim rings to get everything to line up. That meant we had to build our Trail Kitchen cabinets to line up as well. That left us with one bed option which was to have Trail Kitchen create a platform that spanned across the driver side and passenger side wheel well cabinets. That allowed the adults to sleep sideways in the Flarespace but to have plenty of headroom and the kids would sleep under the adult bed platform on the floor of the van. Boom….bunk beds in a van.

This floor plan does not interfere with the kitchen area or the seating area so it maximizes space in the van. Also during the day we can store gear in the “garage”, the area under the bed platform where the kids normally sleep. The bed panels from Trail Kitchen were removable by simply unbolting the panels so technically we could remove the bed and use the van as a hauler. One issue we found with this setup was that while unbolting was easy it took some time and you needed to store the panels somewhere.

So we rebuilt the bed panels and put a hinge on one side so they can flip up to convert the van into a hauler, or flip down and enable sleeping for four. Trail Kitchen cut the new panels and installed the hinge and it turned out great. The next problem to solve was to figure out how to secure them in the “up” position. I could have left them leaning against the wall and simply use straps to secure them to the Adventure Wagon L track, but the panels would have rattled and rubbed against the wall. I wanted to see if I could secure the panels when they are standing straight up so it created a cavity behind them where I could store the mattress cushions or other things. That meant finding a way to brace and secure the panels as they floated in air.

Folded In Up Position

Removable Brace

Quick Disconnect Knob

After countless hours thinking about it I came up with an idea where I could use basic hardware to create removable rods that mounted to the Adventure Wagon wall L track and then attached to the panels to hold the panels in place standing up. I used an L track bolt attachment, along with an M8 bolt coupling, an M8 threaded rod, some M8 nuts, and an M8 star knob. I made four of these (2 for each of the 2 panels). Then I drilled holes in the panels where the threaded rod would pass thru and the star knob would secure the panels on the other side. When screwed down the panels are totally secure and give me some storage space behind them. For added safety I also use a strap to secure the panels in the up position but frankly that is not needed. To lower the panels you unscrew the star knob, put the panels in the “down” position, and then remove the support rods by unscrewing them from the L track bolt attachment point. To reduce any rattling when the panels are in the down position I put some foam tape on the support rails. I can now switch between the up and down position within minutes.

To accommodate the new design I also had to cut up my mattress into smaller more easily movable pieces. That gave me the opportunity to also get the mattress upholstered to protect the foam and keep it cleaner while also giving the van a more finished look. I went with a retro 70’s plaid that VW and Porsche used which I felt would fit the van. It is a gray, black, white, and blue plaid that I think will wear well. I had Sidco Custom Upholstery in Mountain View do the work and it turned out amazing. Check out how the pattern flows across all sections. I plan on working with Sidco on a few other projects as they are masters in their craft.

Sprinter Build - Awning

An awning is a great way to give you more space when camping with your van. The two largest awning companies that supply the van life movement are Fiamma and Dometic. Both offer manual and electrical awnings in various sizes and at least Dometic also offers legless models. Many people like an electric awning but for us we didn’t want the extra cost and maintenance of an electric motor that is likely to fail at some point. Not to mention an electric awning also requires drilling a hole in your van to run some electrical wires to power it. The legless versions are nice but considering we have a 170 Sprinter our awning would be 4 meters long and getting a legless version that large became difficult not to mention they weight more. Lastly we wanted to mount the awning to the roof rack not the van itself which allows us to keep a clean look without any damage to the van. After taking all this into consideration the Fiamma F45s in black and 4 meters long was the right awning for us.

The F45s has three mounting plates that clip into and bolt into the back of the awning housing. This model mounts on a flat/flush surface yet you can buy other brackets for different configurations. The install was easy yet you do need two people as the awning is large, heavy (60 lbs), and you will need to hoist it up two ladders. We could not use the factory holes on the mounting plates due to their location in relation to our mounting points on the roof rack. So we had to mark and drill new holes that lined up better to our roof rack mounting points. The mounting plates use carriage bolts which meant we had to turn the circle holes we drilled into square holes. For that we used a special tool to “broach” the hole. How this works is that you lightly hammer the tool into a circle hole and as it passes through the hole it cuts the metal into a square hole. We then bolted the plates to the roof rack using a bunch of washers to fill a gap that was between the plate and the roof rack mounting point. We then placed the awning on the mounting plates and bolted it down to the plates. It took a friend and I 3 hours to do everything, including going to the hardware store, but we were moving slow to get it just right. If I was to do this again it would likely only take 1.5 hours start to finish.

I like the simplicity of the F45s but that simplicity means you have to be a bit careful when you roll it out. They recommend that you roll it out about 1 meter and then pull down the legs to support the weight before you roll out the rest. Not a big deal but I can see the value of having a legless awning. One last comment on awnings, all of them are meant for sun protection. None of the large RV style awnings are meant to protect from wind and rain. So as the weather turns you need to close up the awning. The one advantage of the electric awnings is that some come with a sensor for wind and rain and they will close up automatically to protect the awning. We are looking forward to testing out our awning this summer on a few camping trips we have planned to SoCal and Montana. As nice as the interior of our van is….the whole point is to be outside and having an awning makes that even more pleasant.

Sprinter Build - Solar Panels

We finally got solar panels installed. Our plan was to have the panels a long time ago but we wanted the FreedomVanGo roof rack with a floor to walk on and custom solar panel mounts to angle two large panels up front. This allows for two 160 watt Renogy panels that will clear the front roof vent while still allowing storage space on more than half of the roof. Owl Vans fabricated the solar panel mount and it turned out great, in our opinion.

As for the wiring I initially thought series was the way to go, but quickly found that two panels this large paired together was pushing too many volts to the charge controller and thus throwing errors. So I switched the wiring to parallel which ups the amps but holds the volts steady at around 12. This meant the charge was within spec for the controller and was no longer throwing any errors. For good measure I put an inline 30 amp fuse on the positive line from the panel running to the charge controller.

I should be able to stay charged from the solar without much dependency on the alternator. I will test out the performance on our next road trip to the backcountry and will report back.

Sprinter Build - Coleman Conversion to Propane

While we have a brand new single burner cooktop that runs on butane, we prefer to use my grandfather’s Coleman two burner stove which was manufactured in September of 1973. They run on white gas which is inexpensive and readily available and burns clean. I recently found this stove in my mom’s garage and to my surprise it still had white gas in it that was at least 20 years old and it fired right up without any issues.

There is a hot (see what I did there) debate on what the best camping fuel is….white gas, propane, butane, kerosene, or wood. We don’t want to use wood given the inherent danger of wildfires from sparks. Kerosene is nasty and oily. Butane is fine but can be hard to find in large containers for extended trips. White gas is clean and inexpensive but needs to be pressurized and can leak since it travels in liquid form. Propane is available everywhere, inexpensive, and there are a ton of different container sizes to choose from.

One of our two hot water heaters runs on propane so we carry a 5lb small tank in our outside cargo box. Since we already carry propane it seemed obvious for us to choose propane as a single fuel source for all of our camping needs. But then comes the challenge of figuring out if we can convert our 1973 Coleman stove from white gas to propane. At first I thought this would be easy as I quickly found a conversion kit made by Stansport. Two issues came up. The first is that I found it hard to find someone who would sell me one and ship it to CA. Given CA laws many online stores would not ship it to that state so I had it shipped to a friend in NV and then I picked it up during one of my visits to Tahoe. The second issue is that the conversion kit is made to work with 1lb disposable propane tanks….which sort of defeats the point for us because that would be another fuel tank to carry around. Not to mention those are expensive for what they are and create waste.

So I was on the hunt for a way to connect my 5lb propane tank to the Stansport propane conversion kit. Online was not that much help because most people simply convert their Coleman to work with the 1lb tanks but to hook up the Coleman to a 5lb tank you needed to understand regulators and gas fittings. The solution is to get a propane gas line that does not have a regulator built in, on one end connects to the common propane bulk tank fitting, and on the other end has a fitting for the female end of a 1lb propane tank. Sounds easy but it was actually hard to find the right gas line. In the end this gas line did the trick.

Now we have a single bulk fuel tank that you can hook up to your old Coleman stove as well as our water heater. And while the 5lb propane tank works for us, this solution would work just as easy on a 10lb or 20lb tank. I think my grandpa would be proud seeing this stove get used by his great grandkids.

Sprinter Build - Roof Rack Lights

Roof lights are a nice to have not a must have for a van. I think many people can get away without having these which saves on cost and certainly simplifies the build. Since most of our camping requires some off-road, and often times we are rolling into the area at night, we felt it would be beneficial to have more driving lights.

We had the foresight to add some electrical wires up through the roof when the interior was torn apart. We added one wire set up front for a light bar, one wire set near the back for area lights, and one wire set for solar panel hookups. In hindsight we wish we had installed a wire port near the back that would allow us to easily run more wires up to the roof for future needs. There is a natural place to do this near the rear doors where you can run wires up the door jams to access a pass through you can install.

So with the wiring in place (one set up front and one set in the rear) we installed a light bar in the front and a series of light pods as area lights. There are a ton of options out there ranging from cheap Amazon LED lights from no name companies to extremely expensive lights from companies like Baja Design. We decided to go with a well known name that builds high quality LED lights with a modest amp draw. We also needed to find lights that had a clean look and would easily mount to our roof rack. That led us to Rigid Industries.

For the light bar we went with Rigid’s E-Series Pro, 40”, dual LED row, spot/flood combo. My only complaint on the fit is that I have about 4” on each side of empty space, but the next size up from Rigid is 50” which likely would not have fit. This issue is caused by the roof rack we picked. I think most Sprinter roof racks would fit a 50” light bars, just not mine. This light bar configuration has the following specs: 21 amp draw, 299 watts, max voltage 36, 35680 raw lumens. So it is crazy bright but has a low draw. Most light bars have an amp draw of over 30 which is fine but as you will see this was something I wanted to avoid due to the switch setup I picked (see below).

For the light pods we picked the Rigid D-Series Pro diffused flood. These are 3”x3” cubes that offer a diffused wide area of light which is a good option for area lights. Area lights are meant to light up the sides and rear of the van when navigating dirt roads at night or setting up camp in the dark. Given the size of the van we bought 6 pods (2 on each side and 2 in the back). These pods have the following specs: 2.14 amp draw each, 30 watts each, max voltage 36, 3168 raw lumens each (total amp draw = 12.84).

Now comes the hard part, wiring them up. While wiring lights is not hard conceptually it takes a lot of time and often requires pulling apart many panels of the vehicle. This is especially true if you are installing the light switches on the dash. For this reason we decided to get a Trigger wireless controller. This is a central light controller that you connect to the battery and then all the lights wire back to the Trigger. The Trigger has RF and Bluetooth built-in so you can control the lights with your smartphone using an app or you can mount an RF switch panel that will wirelessly allow you to control the lights. We bought the 4 switch Trigger which works for our needs but in hindsight I wish we had bought the 6 switch version. Not only does the 6 switch version offer you 2 more switches but it has some nice features that don’t come with the 4 switch version. Keep in mind the Trigger can be used to control more than lights. You can wire up an air compressor, winch, or just about anything. The Trigger has solid state relays built-in and it has a dedicated fuse for each switch. This is why I wanted low amp draw lights. With the Trigger 4 you get two switches each with a 30 amp fuse and two switches each with a 10 amp fuse. If you keep each circuit within spec for the Trigger you can ditch the fuses and relays that came with the lights and simply wire directly to the Trigger. If your circuit requires more amp draw than what the Trigger offers you can install a relay between the Trigger and the light but that requires more wiring. So my goal was to keep each circuit within the fuse rating of the Trigger. Mission accomplished.

I wired the Trigger to the van battery so that I would not risk drawing down the house battery system. I mounted the Trigger under the driver seat so I could easily access the ignition control wire and the van’s battery compartment (which is in the floor panel of the driver). While I had everything torn apart I installed a van battery power distribution block (positive and negative) in the van battery compartment so that in the future I could easily wire other devices. In hindsight I should have also installed a power distribution block in the engine bay to make it easy to wire a winch and grille lights in the future. So I will do that in the coming months as prep for those mods.

I am very happy with the results. The light bar is extremely bright but the Trigger allows me to dim it down as needed. The light bar gives off a wide light range due to the flood lenses but also some good distance with the spot lenses. The pod lights offer a good amount of soft diffused light all around the van making setting up camp or navigating dirt roads a snap. And if that wasn’t enough I still plan on installing two Baja Design LP9 amber driving lights on the grille (more on that later).

Sprinter Build - Storage Box and Bike Rack

We learned two things after doing a four state van trip as a family. 1) you need as much storage space as you can get 2) normal bike racks don’t work well on a van if you plan on going off-road to camp. The fix for both…..Owl Vans.

While vans are big, they quickly fill up with four people and their gear. You also learn that not all your gear is created equal. Some you want inside while other gear you want outside. We wanted to move our 5lb propane tank outside for safety reasons (gas leaks in the middle of the night) and we felt stuff like recovery gear, some tools, and straps didn’t need to take up valuable inside storage space. So we decided to get an Owl Vans Large Expedition Cargo Box. I have since learned that the basic box Owl uses is made by Backwoods Adventure Mods but then Owl puts on their own panel to mount gear on. Backwoods also makes these panels. In fact we have since bought two Backwoods side panels to add to our Owl Vans Expedition Box so that we can mount two Rotopax diesel fuel tanks (see updated post below). The box also comes with an adjustable and removable shelf inside which we have found very useful. So in the end you can go with Owl’s box or Backwood’s box to get the same result. What is different between the two companies is how you mount the box to the van. And for our needs Owl wins out. But let’s first talk about bike racks.

At first we took our Kuat four bike hitch rack that has a swing arm and mounted it to the van. This allowed us to travel with four mountain bikes plus still access the rear doors because the rack was on a swing arm. The Kuat system is fantastic and honestly the best bike rack I have ever owned. If your van is going to stay on paved roads and you don’t plan on going on steep driveways the Kuat system is perfect and far cheaper. The Kuat system can also be moved from car to car which is another huge plus. But there is one problem with all hitch mounted systems for vans like ours…..ground clearance. We have the 170 WB van which means we already have a good amount of the van body overhanging the rear tires, then you have a hitch overhanging a bit more, and then a bike rack overhanging a lot more. All that overhang means your approach angle suffers. In fact many times we would scrap getting out of a gas station or modest driveway. And with four bikes behind a 170 WB van just try to find a parking spot that you can fit in.

The fix to all of this is to get the bikes off the hitch and put them somewhere else. So we decided to get Owl Vans B2 Bike Carrier. This thing mounts to the rear door, matches perfectly (look and size) to our Owl Vans tire and ladder, accommodates two 1 Up bike racks and gives you mounting space for a large cargo box or an Owl Vans Sherpa panel. This solves our ground clearance issue as the bikes are up high (very high) and it gives us a place to mount our Owl Vans Expedition cargo box. The obvious downside here is that it only holds 2 bikes not 4. So what we do is put 2 bikes outside on the B2 and 2 bikes on the inside of the van in the cargo area under the platform bed. Problem solved…..well not totally. Our platform bed was just a couple inches too low to accommodate bikes under the bed panels so we are in the process of putting the panels on a hinge that will allow us to flip the panels up (more on that in another post).

When it is all said and done we ended up with a huge amount of storage outside for gear, mounting panels on the cargo box to store our shovel and two fuel tanks, and two bike racks that no longer reduce our ground clearance. You might say we went to an extreme to solve a logistics problem and you are right, but that is what a van conversion is all about…..solving a giant puzzle.

UPDATE 3/36/21

The cargo box also gives you a base to mount thing to. As you can see in the pictures above I mounted a DMOS Stealth shovel to the exoskeleton panel on the front. I also mounted two exoskeleton panels from Backwoods on the sides. On each of these I attached a Rotopax diesel fuel tank. Each tank is 2 gals so with two of them I have about 60 miles of reserve fuel. Finally I needed a permanent place to mount my WeBoost cell antenna and the frame part of the cargo box was perfect as it ensured the top of the antenna was above my roof rack but it was out of the way.

Sprinter Build - Suspension

While the Sprinter is not a true off-road vehicle you can make it a decent people mover on dirt roads. The 4x4 functionality of our van is…..ok. There is only so much you can do when you don’t have true lockers or proper off-road suspension geometry and an extremely long wheelbase. In order to improve what we could we decided to upgrade the suspension, wheels, and tires.

We went with a Van Compass suspension kit, mud flat relocation kit, Black Rino wheels, and BFG KO2 tires. The Van Compass kit we went with is their new 4.3 Falcon kit that has 3 main driving modes and within each mode they have 8 minor adjustments. One mode is firm for street driving and towing. The middle mode is just that, a balanced setting between the two extremes. The last mode is for off-road. The minor adjustments of 1-8 simply make things progressively stiffer or softer within the mode you selected. You change the settings by simply turning two dials on each shock by hand which only takes seconds. Van Compass requires you to get your van corner weighted so that they can tune your system before they ship it out. Everything is bolt on and the quality is fantastic.

front

rear

The drive improvements from the Van Compass system are impressive. In the stiffest setting there was less sway and more control. It also helped cut down on the cross wind pushing. We generally leave it in this setting around town and on highways. When we do mixed driving we drop to the middle setting. Once you know you will be on dirt for a while we go to the softest setting and it really helps the van become a bit more capable off-road. We keep the minor setting at 4 (in the middle) but over time we might play with that setting some. Unlike some of Van Compass’s other suspension kits this setup does not raise the van. I didn’t want to mess with the geometry of the van for this family adventure camper, but if you are looking for more clearance Van Compass does offer raised kits.

Van Compass says that the largest tires you can use without messing up the Sprinter’s electronic systems is 275 (stock tires are 245). We decided to go with 265/70/17 BFG KO2. These tires give us a bit more clearance, are three peak rated, drive well, and perform well off-road. Because the stock wheels are 16 we also had to upgrade the wheels to 17. We went with Black Rino Warlord matte black wheels. These require you to also upgrade the lug nuts/bolts because the stock bolts have a round head versus the standard cone head. It is also recommended you get wheel spacers. For that we went with Agile Off-road 16mm spacers. To fit these tires properly you need to use a Van Compass mud flap relocation kit to give you some proper clearance. This is especially needed if you plan on using chains for the snow.

This is a great modification to make your van more capable and look the part, but keep your expectations in check. A vehicle this large will never be a real rock crawler but these modifications will reduce your risk of getting stuck and make your dirt road and highway travels more pleasant.

Sprinter Build - Accessories

Here are some of my favorite accessories for our Sprinter van. We will keep updating this list as we find amazing products that better our van life.

• Adventure Wagon Mule Bags: These things hold a ton, look great, and are removable in case you need to change your configuration. The new version comes with interior material in a bright orange to make it easier to see and find your gear. We have three large units which holds food and clothes for the 4 of us.

• Overland Gear Guy Organizers: We have kids. Kids are messy. These seat organizers help the kids be less messy. We also have their kitchen organizer which helps store knives and spices above our galley.

• Adventure Van Co Window Coverings: There are literally hundreds of options out there to cover your van windows. We like these because they are insulated and great looking. My one complaint is that the magnets are not really strong enough to hold the weight of the coverings sometimes. We have fixed that my coming up with some semi-permanent holding options.

• Wrappon Dry Seal Toilet: This was so game changing I wrote a dedicated blog posting about it. Rather than a cassette toilet or a holding tank (which both stink) this dry seal toilet from Japan heat seals your waste into individual plastic bags that you simply throw away. No mess and no smell. Game changing when you have 4 people in a van on a 2 week trip.

• RB Components Bug Screens: One of the best things about vans are the huge doors that open up to bring the outside inside. But you don’t want bugs so these screens were the perfect solution. They are easy to install, are removable, function perfect, and look good.

• RB Components Storage Pockets: You can never have too much storage in a van. These fabric storage pockets come in different sizes to accommodate just about any space.

• Air Compressor and MORRFlat Air Lines: We use our van off-road a lot which means deflating your tires becomes a need. But what gets deflated needs inflating. So an air compressor is nice to have. We have a Viair compressor and hardwired it into the van. For quick and easy deflate and inflate of the van tires we bought the MORRFlat dual tire air lines. We also can use our air system for bikes when we do MTB trips.

• Trigger: With a van you can wire up a ton of fun and useful stuff (lights, air compressor, winch, you name it). But all those things need switches which can be a pain to wire. The Trigger4 Plus and Trigger6 is a central switch controller that makes your switches app enabled and you also will have an RF based remote switch panel. We used this to wire up all of our outside lights.

• Rotopax: Our van gets about 15 mpg which is not terrible given the weight but certainly not great. The onboard tank is modest in size so we only get about 350 miles per tank. And then you have the issue that not all gas stations have diesel, so it is nice to have some external reserve fuel tanks just in case. We went with two Rotopax diesel tanks that hold 2 gal each and mounted them to our external cargo box. We also got Rotopax locking mounts to keep the fuel tanks secure.

• PedalBox+: This is a game changer if you ask me. This device will give your van more throttle responsiveness which increases the drivability of the van. It will not increase power but it will change how your electronic throttle communicates to your engine which in turn makes it feel like your van has more power. It is an inexpensive and easy way to make your van more enjoyable.

Sprinter Build - Water and Electrical Cabinets

There are so many configuration options out there, but once you decide to make a van that can comfortably sleep 4 people in 4 seasons your configuration options quickly shrink. One of the biggest choices you need to make is how comfortable are you trying to make the van, what are your water and electrical needs, and how to make your water and electrical needs fit with your sleeping needs. For us it was important that we could take our van anywhere at any time of the year. That meant we wanted the water tanks and water lines all inside the van to reduce the risk of freezing (we have a dedicated cabin heater). We also needed enough water for four people for multiple days. We also wanted the ability to take a shower, have a small fridge, hot and cold running water, and basic cooking. We needed enough electrical capacity to run our gear without shore power or a generator. And lastly all this needed to still allow a family of 4 to sleep comfortably, give us room for gear, and accommodate the Adventure Wagon interior kit and Flarespace pods.

After many hours of research I came across Truckee, CA based Trails Kitchens. Hans and his team hand build a variety of kitchen pods for Jeeps, trucks, and vans. Some of these are removable and some are permanent. They have configurations to accommodate fridges, sinks, water tanks, showers, electrical cabinets, stoves, you name it. All of their stuff is built using aluminum framing and then they finish off the units with aluminum or bamboo panels. They look great, they function well, and they are thoughtfully designed. Because Hans is an electrical engineer he has designed fully contained electrical cabinets with the latest electrical components. Once I saw the options Trails Kitchens offers I knew it was the way to go for our build.

So here is what I ordered. Driver side wheel well cabinet that houses all the water elements, a driver side sink and fridge galley, and a passenger side wheel well cabinet that houses all the electrical components. I also ordered a bed panel that spans across the wheel well cabinets to form the main bed. This lines up perfectly with the Flarespace pods. The bed panels are removable so that you can take the bed out and use the van for hauling. We are in the process of converting the bed panels to be mounted on a hinge versus bolts like they are today. This will allow an even quicker conversion from hauling van to camper van, but that will be a future post. For now let’s dig into the water and electrical system details.

First let’s talk about the water system. For the water wheel well cabinet we have a 20 gal tank, an electric on-demand water heater and a propane on-demand water heater, plus outdoor shower hookups. The reason we wanted both electrical and propane water heaters is because we wanted flexibility on which to use based on our trip needs. For quick and easy hot water the electric heater is perfect but it comes at a cost…..battery draw. If we were doing a short trip this is the way to go, but if we were doing an extended off the grid trip that heavy battery draw would eventually take its toll. That is where the propane water heater comes in. We can simply hook up a small propane tank and get hot water with no power draw. This does make the water system more complex but it also makes it more flexible. The driver side galley also has a water tank that is about 10 gal. The galley also houses the gray water thank, a small fridge, a sink, and two drawers for kitchen items. There are electrical switches to isolate the two water tanks or you can link the two tanks together for around 30 gals of water capacity. Trail Kitchens even provides a four person dish set and a single burner stove. What I like is that the stove is portable so that you can cook inside when the weather is nasty or you can take the stove outside to cook when the weather is nice. This is smart because you will find that cooking outside is WAY better than cooking in your van. I know many other builds have a stove built-in but I honestly don't think that is ideal if you plan on using your van year round. Permanent cook tops takes up valuable counter space and you are stuck cooking inside making your van smell (just wait until you cook fish). One last comment on the water system that I get questions on all the time. “Why have an outside shower versus an inside shower?” The short answer is….space. Inside showers, or wet closets, take a ton of space and create a fixed element in your floor plan design. We have found that we don't need a shower for short trips and for longer trips where you do want to clean up an outdoor shower does the job without taking ANY space in the van. You shower off the back of the van with the rear doors open and we put up an RB Components shower curtain for privacy. Or just give the world a show :)

That brings us to the electrical wheel well cabinet on the passenger side. It took us some time to really dial this in but now its amazing and works perfectly. We ran into some issues due to the Sprinter’s smart alternator. This seems to be an issue mostly with 2019 and 2020 models. What happens is that the smart alternator decides when to engage based on the needs of the van battery which often results in your house battery not getting charged even after driving for hours. I have outlined the solution we used below. The electrical cabinet houses a Renogy 200 amp hour AGM battery, all the electrical components, and most of the wiring. We went with an AGM battery because lithium batteries don’t like the cold and this van sees a lot of snow. But AGM does have a downside in that you don’t want the SOC (state of charge) to drop too low, in our case below 50%. I am sure at some point we will switch to lithium batteries but for now the AGM works just fine for our needs. That battery has a dual charge controller by Renogy (RBC30D1S) which is the solution to the smart alternator issue I mentioned. This controller will monitor the van battery, the smart alternator and the solar panels to determine how best to charge the house battery. It even takes into account the temperature of the house battery to optimize the charge. It can have a bluetooth module added to make it app enabled and you can add a dedicated display panel for the controller if you want.

We also use a Balmar SG200 to monitor the entire system. When wired properly, the Balmar will monitor all the charges and draws on the system to give you a net impact reading along with SOC (state of charge) and SOH (state of health) readings for the house battery. It even calculates the time remaining on the battery at the current net draw level. In order to get a complete view of your system you need to wire all the negatives to the Balmar shunt. The Balmar also has a module to make it app enabled. For solar we installed two Renogy 160w solar panels on the roof. To round out the electrical system we have a Xantrex Freedom XC 1000 inverter that gives us 1000 watts of AC power in the van as well as access to shore power for charging. All of the accessories (lights, fridge, etc) wire into one of two fuse boxes or to a safety hub so that each circuit can be on a dedicated fuse.

When it is all said and done our van can be charged by the alternator, solar, or shore power. We have enough power for the four of us without needing a stinky, loud generator. The only thing we need to top off about once a week for long trips is water….making this a great off-the-grid van for our family.

Sprinter Build - Roof Rack and Ladder

A proper adventure van needs a proper safari rack, at least in my mind. There are some good options out there and after checking them all out we went with the Freedom Van Go roof rack. This rack looks the part and has some great features. It is basically a round bar frame with a ton of mounting points on the side and rear. It also has a mounting plate for a light bar in the front. It does not come with a floor but it does have a TON of attachment points where you can customize a floor based on your needs. The build quality is great and it accommodates an easy mounting solution for a Fiamma F45S awning.

We wanted a floor we could walk on so we worked with Owl Van to fabricate a custom floor that wraps around our ceiling vents and to accommodate solar panel mounts. Owl Van has since gotten out of this custom fab work so if you are looking for a truly custom roof rack I would suggest working with a local metal fabricator or checking out Aluminess who still does custom fab work. Another option is to get Freedom Van Go’s roof floor panels but they don’t wrap around vents or AC units, but they are quick and easy and might do the trick for your needs.

We plan on mounting a KC Gravity Pro6 LED light bar up front and then Rigid D-series Pro light pods on the sides and rear. After doing many nights of off-road driving to find some privacy we have found we need surround lights to avoid cliffs and rocks. What I love about our rack is that I can have two large solar panels, two ceiling vents, an awning, and lights and still have some flat space for storage or just hanging out to watch the sunset.

Now comes the question of how to get up to the roof rack. For that we went with an Owl Van ladder and tire carrier. This serves two purposes. The first is a strong and clean looking ladder to get you up to the roof. The second is to move the spare tire from under t he van to the ladder which also means you can get bigger tires. The Owl Van stuff is extremely well built. I also liked that they are based in the Bay Area as I am trying to work with local businesses as much as I can.

Sprinter Build - Interior Kit

It’s been awhile since I did a write up on the Sprinter build but that doesn’t mean we haven’t made progress on the project. The first major step in the build was to completely strip the interior of the van and install an interior kit. We choose an Adventure Wagon kit. There are others to choose from but AdWag is sort of the premier option out there.

You can go completely custom but that is more expensive, takes longer to do, and you end up having to learn as you go. AdWag has some great options on materials and configuration. We went with the lighter gray fabric, two ceiling vents, L-track everywhere, and the full electrical package. You can get some or all of the panels in bamboo instead of fabric but since this van sees snow a lot we wanted a slightly warmer panel option. We also ordered the insulation for the walls, ceiling, and floor. At first I felt the kit was expensive but once I saw the materials and kit design I quickly realized it was worth every penny.

As usual we wanted to customize things so we decided to also install Flarespace pods. These are fiberglass inserts in the back that pop out the width of the van a bit so that you can sleep sideways versus length wise. It means your bed is sideways which ends up giving you some additional van space for the living area. The Flarespace pods on a Sprinter 144 are much larger than they are for the 170 due to where the support beams are. So if you have a 144 you end up with an even larger area for sleeping sideways. You can order the Flarespace pods with or without windows and they come in two different depths. They also now come with trim rings and electrical kits. We got the deepest ones with windows with the electrical kit on one side. We did order the trim rings but we ended up deciding to cut up the trim rings and fabricate our own. The reason being is that if you are creative and handy you can make the interior space a bit taller and wider if you fab your own trim rings. It took some work but we were able to take their trim rings and make then a few inches wider and taller by cutting their trim rings and creating gap plugs (see pictures). We also did this because we were trying to get the AdWag kit to work with the Flarespace kit and for those to match up to the Trail Kitchen kit (more on that later). In the end it turned out great. We have a large bed that allows two adults to sleep sideways while maximizing our living space. My wife is 5’10” and I am 6’1” and we fit pretty well. If you are a bit taller than 6’1” then you will end up sleeping at a slight angle sideways. If you are a few inches taller you wont fit and you should skip this mod and just sleep lengthwise. The whole reason for doing this was that we wanted to have a large bed for the adults and to put the two kids under our bed platform on mats on the floor of the van. This would allow us to have gear space in the “garage” (the space under the main bed platform) while having comfortable sleeping for 4. Another option is to skip the Flarespace pods and to install two Adventure Wagon’s MOAB bed systems in a stacked formation. But if you do this you can’t have large wheel well cabinets to house water and electrical. So in the end our configuration allowed us to have comfortable sleeping for 4, tons of gear storage during the day, and two large cabinets to house a sophisticated water and electrical system (more on that later).

The electrical kit of the AdWag and Flarespace gives you USB ports in 4-5 locations plus a couple of cigarette lighter ports and LED lights in the ceiling and Flarespace area. The ceiling vents are remote controlled and offer the ability to pull in or push out air. We decided not to get an AC unit on the roof because they take up a huge amount of roof space and draw a ton of power. As much as people claim to have battery systems that can power the AC unit all day the math doesn’t pencil out that well. We figured it was safer to skip the AC unit and conserve the power and go with two vents plus nets on the large doors (more on that later) to cool the van down. We have done summer trips in the Utah and Nevada deserts and while it is hot it is doable without a dedicated AC. Also I prefer to have fewer expensive electrical components that could break or require maintenance.

The AdWag L-track system is amazing. It allows you to attach a ton of things to the walls (storage bags, cabinets, gear, etc.). They are also extremely strong as they are bolted into AdWag’s support braces which are riveted into the van’s support beams. The L-track is strong enough to attach a ceiling hammock for the kids.

One last thought…..if you plan on doing this mod plan out ahead of time where else you will want electrical items. Once the walls are open you have great access to route wires but once the panels are on it will be much harder. It is possible to remove individual panels but might as well run the wires when you can. The AdWag interior kit will give you a 12 slot fuse box on the wall right behind the driver. But I have learned (the hard way) that you should also consider putting a smaller fuse box (6 slots perhaps) on each side of the van in the rear. This will give you plenty of connection options down the road for other electrical gear with short wire runs. I will go into more details in our write up of the electrical system.

Sprinter Build - Side Steps

We have officially installed our first set of mods to the Sprinter. We installed a set of Aluminess nerf bars to make it easier to get in and out given the height of these vans. The fit and finish is great and the design is certainly well thought out. They are made out of aluminum so they are light but they also do flex a bit. So these are really only built to act as side steps….not rock sliders.

If you need true protection for your van from rocks you should pick something else. They simply bolt on with good hardware but they will not stand up to major abuse. For 99% of the van owners out there that is not a problem, especially if you have a 170 or 170 ext Sprinter as you wouldn’t be doing real 4 wheeling in these long wheelbase (top heavy) rigs. If you are just doing fire roads and light 4x4ing I think the Aluminess nerf bars are great and they do make it much easier for the wife and kids to get in and out.

We also installed a full set of Adventure Van Company window covers. These things are amazing. They are insulated, have magnets built-in for a clean attachment to the van, and the fit and finish is excellent. We also bought the ties so we can roll some of them up as needed. They are expensive but they are worth it if you are looking for a perfect fit blackout insulated window covering system. The ties are nice but often come down since they are also simple magnets. In my opinion the ties should come included given the price of this set.

We also picked up a Yeti Goal Zero Power Station 1000. We will ultimately have a robust power setup but if you need something turnkey in a simple package and very portable the Yeti Goal Zero Power Stations are AMAZING. I have heard of other van projects that skip all the complex power setups and simply go with one of these (usually the 1400 or 3000 version). These can be charged with 120, 12, or solar. They handle all the complex switching and optimizations and have multiple outputs. These can even be hooked up to your house with optional power tanks so it can power 4 circuits of your house during blackouts. I could talk for an hour about how great this product is but frankly there is plenty of videos and write-ups about these so simply do a search. We will likely still put this in the van to have truly portable power outside of the van as needed.

We also got a Thetford Porta Potti 365 for our first road trip from CA to UT to CO and back. But let’s face it, you likely don’t want to hear about our Porta Potti so I will skip the review.

We have placed orders on LOTS of other parts and mods which will be installed in late July and into August so be on the look out for more updates.

Sprinter Build - The Plan

We have done a lot of planning in the last week. Our plans have evolved a bit and some of the parts have been ordered. The back order on most of the parts is 4 weeks but some will take 8-10 weeks. Something to think about if you plan on doing a Sprinter build.

Here are the revised plans:

• Phase 1 (July)

  • Elevated Vanworks - Master Builder

  • Adventure Wagon interior kit

  • Flarespace side pods

  • Owl Van roof rack

  • Owl Van ladder and tire holder

  • Aluminess nerf bars

  • Van Compass trunk

  • Trail Kitchen galley

  • Trail Kitchen wheel well cabinets

  • Trail Kitchen bed platform

  • cabin heater

  • solar system

  • awning

  • window covers

• Phase 2 (October)

  • swivel bases for front seats

  • captain chairs to replace OEM bench seat

  • removable table

  • Van Compass stage 4 suspension upgrade

  • BFG K02 265/70/17 tires

  • Black Rino wheels

  • custom bench

  • custom storage box

(UPDATE 3/12/2021)

This plan has taken many turns since I posted this. First off the back order situation for vans has gotten worse. Also we made some minor tweaks to our plan as we went because once we hit the road we learned what was important and what was not. So don’t rely on this post for our plans, rather check out our Sprinter Build page to see a listing of all our decisions and modifications.