Mercedes Sprinter

[Ron Werner]

I've a couple movies of this. We were testing the Sprinters in their handling and fuel efficiency. Very nice vehicles. Box needs to be a little wider.
This pic was taken as the van swerved around some pylons. I'll post other pics when I get them downloaded. It has 3 50gal barrells of water mounted high in the back, with all the steel, about 2000lbs they figure. They turned off the computer assist for this test, the van would have flipped. With the adaptive stabilization program turned on, none of the tires leave the pavement. Videos to follow

 

[Bob Foster]

I'm assuming you accepted the invitation from the local Mercedes dealer to their demonstration day yesterday because you were seriously considering buying a new Sprinter van from them. It's really compelling to look at those trucks for a lot of reasons. I know you need to look at replacing your truck in the future.

Your particular equipment was custom designed and fabricated to fit in a box van and will not properly fit into a Mercedes Sprinter, even a 3500 170'' one. You would have to have a different waste tank and quite a few other modifications to your systems and even then you would not have the functionality you have now. You of course can choose to ignore this advice and defy gravity and tape measure reality. Yeah, it will fit, but will it be optimized for access and function? The answer is unequivocably NO WAY.

And lets not forget about the $60,000 + (by the time they are done with you PLUS the 12% HST tax) to buy a bare shell dual wheel 170" 3500 Sprinter (that your equipment will not properly fit in). The lease would be north of $1300 per month for 5 or 6 years. Plus you still will have installation costs.

Nice trucks though...

Your best possible choice for your equipment would be a 13' -14' (but absolutely no longer) van body Isuzu 4500 cab-over. You could buy a beautiful two or three-year old Isuzu with the new style nose all day long for under $30,000 equipment installed and wrapped. Make sure the GVWR is right as they are not all the same and some are too light for your payload.

This reality check brought to you by Bob.

 

[Ron K]

It has 3 50gal barrells of water mounted high in the back, with all the steel, about 2000lbs they figure.

I'm sure it says in the Owners Manual to load your Van that way. Damm Krauts!!

 

[SMRBAP]

Bob - not knocking your post/opinion, very few TM systems that are in box vans won't fit in a sprinter, the monster reels you see on the v's and the like, you can make it work, but it wastes too much space leaving little remaining functional room, otherwise it's just planning old gear for a new layout, or replacing a few things, like the reel or some monster water tank.

I have apex d's with 100 gal waste tank, console fresh water tank, softener, 3 tier chem shelf, 4 custom shelves on the wall, 300' reel, block/tab/towel holders mounted, carry 2 wands, stair & uph tool, spinner, rotovac, steamer, repair bags, pad and tackless, dye kits, tool kit, and with all of that, could still have a dj and a 5 person dance party in my 170"ers. I still have room to put a porty if needed, cimex, and then some, a lot of some too.

I don't need to dot cert anyone, I get about 19ish fully loaded on average, unreal turning radius, easier to (well for employees anyway) and you can easily fetch a lightly used one for $30-35k with between 40k and 70k miles on them. Given that these vans will be still be going at 400k+, you'd have to be crazy to buy a new one imho.

Payments on a 30-35k note, $590 to $690 - gas I have saved per van per month going from box to sprinters, on the low end $380, the high $520, My cost of that van is now less than half of it's actual payment.

Sunday I pulled off a few of the non-water loss items, and fit 2 dehu's and 30 airmovers in one of my 170's, plus an extreme xtractor, 2 bins of resty tools, demo tools, and an air scrubber, neatly, organized, and still had more room if I really needed it.

I'm probably going to do one more box van, but it will be a sprinter box - solely for fire resty and packouts.

Everyone has their reasons for their van of choice, and I'm not bashing yours, just stating the reasons for mine, for me there is only one reason for a box, and it's fire resty, board ups, roof temps, and packouts. The regular sprinters fill every other need cleaning and water resty wise for me, (and maybe carrying the band gear...lol)

 

[Bob Foster]

What you maybe not be aware of is I designed and built Ron's truck and spec'ed all the components that went into it. I know it won't work out with his equipment.

With different configurations of things I think a dual wheel 170" 3500 Sprinter is a real nice van. Unfortunately for whatever reasons, in Canada the Sprinter sells for 15 to 20 thousand dollars more for the same van in the US.

 

[Walt]

Is that a waste tank in the last picture? How big is that?

 

[Bob Foster]

Yes. 225+ Truck was designed to handle high flow commercial work.

 

[Bob Foster]

If I didn't prefer a box van, I'd have a Sprinter in a heartbeat. I hear they are heavy on maintenance costs but if its owner driven I figure that cost would drop.

 

[Zee]

Unfortunately for whatever reasons, in Canada the Sprinter sells for 15 to 20 thousand dollars more for the same van in the US.








Bob in your other thread (nose scratching auction thread) you said its a very easy thing for you to take a vehicle over to canada.. So why would getting a "15 thousand cheaper" Sprinter be any different? Can't one just buy it down here and take it back up there?

I kinda sense that you are defending "your product" that you designed and built in Ron's truck- I understand that! But I believe a big Sprinter would be just fine for Ron even if the equipment would need to be redesigned to fit the new vehicle.

 

[Bob Foster]

First, it wasn't me who showed up at this special event that by his attendance showed serious intentions of buying a brand new Sprinter from the local Mercedes dealer, it was Ron. I personally would not go to a local dealer and take up their time unless I was buying one from them. It's really inconsiderate of someone elses time and money.

So assuming Ron was following that principle too, he was intending on buying a Sprinter from the local Canadian Mercedes dealer and yes they are way more expensive up here.

If I wanted to buy a Mercedes, and I was researching the possiblity, I found a new body style 2008 3500 dually 170 with 19000 miles on it that was on eBay around three weeks ago and it was a decent deal.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... 2355525785

I like Mercedes vans and my only concern with them is a possible issue around maintenance costs, but I prefer at this time to run box vans. I could also see myself owning a Sprinter in the future.

The irony of this is Ron rarely uses the capacities of water and waste holding built into his truck and I frequently do on mine. I wish I had his capacities and he would be better suited to mine which are almost half of his.

 

[Out of Character - 0]

Doesn't that Judson sit on a waste tank? Ron, are you running both?

 

[Ron Werner]

2]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAPFmLXkY9E2]

Yes, I was looking at these vans. They have good mileage, drive like a car, great safety performance which was shown to us at this demonstration.

They loaded 1500lbs (150gallons) of water high in the box giving it an unstable load. Then they put in in a driving situation where it would normally flip a van. This is what you were always talking about Bob, keep the weight low so the van won't flip. They have an Adaptive Electronic Stability Program which prevents the van from rolling. Dramatic difference!

I might be able to mount my box on their chassis. I definitely can't fit everything in their box, its 18inches too narrow. The CanAm and hose reel would never fit side by side. I'd have to drastically reduce my recovery tank size, but with their van's abilitites, I could mount narrower tanks higher and the truck would still be very stable.

My Judson sits on a fresh water tank which I don't use because of weight restrictions. I put in a larger fw tank so I would have the capacity for highflow work, ie larger jobs, tile and grout. One day I'll make a tool box or storage box out of that tank

 

[SMRBAP]

There are some aftermarket guys building some pretty sweet sprinter boxes, something to look at.

Honestly the are not really much more to maintain IMO, a few items, yes - but at 350k miles, can you really complain that replacing injectors might run you $1800 at that point, or the fuel pump is $1000 at that point? Your likely at two domestic vans (plus all the parts they'd haver gone through too at 350k).

There are a few great places online to get used consumables at half the dealer price (it's oem stuff too) - and for the bigger ticket items quality sprinter sells gently used parts of wrecked vans for stooooopid cheap prices. I bought a turbo w 60k on it for $150, it's still on the van 50k later.

Taking it to the dealer, you will get WHOMPED, just find a good secondary shop with a sprinter certified tech and you'll save bundles.

My ford e 350 went through 3 sets worth of $600 front end parts in 100k - I think between all 6 Sprinters and half a million miles total, I have replaced 2 tie rod ends total, at about $200-250 a pop.

 

[The Great Oz]

Bob,
If the Merc dealer didn't set up this demo just for Ron, only Ron's time was in danger of being wasted.

Maybe Ron has figured out that he doesn't use the capacity of his truck. Time to move on to a better fit and let the high capacity unit go to someone that can better use it?

He'll need some cash for the down payment on the Merc, make him an offer.

Or maybe Ron will hire a tech to do commercial work. He can just deliver a Sprinter full of Roombas to the jobsite an hour before his tech gets there.

 

[Bob Foster]

A van full of Roombas....

No doubt it was a travelling roadshow. I appreciate that Ron was thoughtful enough to give them my name as possible prospect. I got the phone invite from Three Point Mercedes and graciously declined.

 

[Ron Werner]

The other benefit was learning some driving habits that will save me some fuel and maybe help me avoid an accident.

 

[joeynbgky]

My grand parents have a freightliner sprinter that's a road trex motor home.. I sent them to the dodge dealer here cause no one would change it but them,cause they sell them $279 bucks for an oil change. This year went to the benz dealer. $95 bucks. I assumed dodge would be chaper but so not true.

Sent from my g2 using tapatalk. Whofat

 

[Dolly Llama]

He can just deliver a Sprinter full of Roombas to the jobsite an hour before his tech gets there.

..L.T.A.