Adventure Van -> Truck Camper -> DIY.Roamer

they probably use bigger "C" clips. well, one would hope

I decided that knowing how many gallons it would take when the light comes on is more worthy information than how far I can go with the light on (since I always carry DEF with me).

So I went to the car wash (so I could rinse off any potential spillage...) and filled it up to the rim.



5 gallons of Def. $28 after tax @ my local autoparts store.
It took ~4 gallons to fill it.

8553miles/4 gallons = 2138 miles/gallon.
$28/5 = $5.60 gallon

Conclusion: The consumption of DEF over 1000 miles costs less than a gallon of diesel.

Average fuel fillup: $80.
Average fuel range: 400 miles
8553 / 400 = 21 tanks of fuel used over 8553 miles.
21 tanks of fuel costs: $1710.60

So for every $1700 I spend on Diesel I spend less than $28 on DEF which is waaaaaay less than I spend on RedBull over the same amount of driving

i.e. non-issue.

I just realized.. the other thing I lose if I trade the van for a 4x4 is the ceiling fan.

With the amount of work I put into that thing.... I'm not trading this van in.

So it's probably a 5 gallon tank, and nominally goes 10,000 miles between refills. You could pre-emptively put 2.5 gallons in at every 5k on the odometer and never have to see the Add DEF message.

Almost what I'm going to do...
DEF has a shelf life... I'll keep a single box in the truck (2.5 gallons $13) and when the light comes on poor it in and buy another box. Repeat.

Long trips.. carry two boxes just to have a buffer (like the 5500 miles we drove over the holidays).

The boxes fit in my "van supplies cabinet" onboard nicely. s

I probably would not carry any extra DEF around ever if I was you. If I had a long trip planned, I would fill it up and not worry about it. It doesn't seem that hard to come by on the road. Most truck stops should have it if you really needed it.

I snuck out to the garage for a little while this afternoon to start mockup on the first 8 foot overhead cabinet.

I've kept some of the more interesting pieces of wood for the overheads as they are visually dominent.

In a perfect world the cabinet will be "3 boards deep by 2 boards tall" .. or not.
This is definitely going to be a "that looks about right" building technique.. and if I get lucky one of the dimensions will look right at an actual board width multiplier so I don't have to cut every board its entire length for fitment

This one piece of wood is crazy dark compared to the others.. I think I'll put it in the center facing downward on the bottom of the cabinet.. should look pretty cool that way.



...with my buggered up ankle the hobbling around is slow going. I actually worked up a sweat just doing this. Time to go elevate it above my head again

that's what i was aluding. we all spend pleasurable hours working on whatever modification, but those hours are never recompensable

Ed, if you ever get tired of the high-tech world, you can always convert your Sprinter into a Mobile Doggie Wash/Grooming station like this guy...



Ironically, I was out on my daily morning walk with my pooch when we walked past it in our neighborhood.

Don't sweat the 4x4 conversion too much. I've been pulling with a 2WD van for years. 99.9% of the time you don't need 4x4.

Options to increase your utility:

Spare rear wheels with agressive studded snow tires.

Limited slip differential. My old van had one of these. It did surprisingly well.

Air locker rear differential. A little more xpensive, but will work even better than limited slip.

Always carry chains. All year long. I barely made it out of the swell pulling a 8k # trailer in the mud without chains a year ago. We then drove into another mud-fest around Moab and I came to a spinning stop. Putting on full truck chains got me unstuck and into camp. I've also had to chain up to make it over the Divide once.

Ideally, I would like to carry two sets of chains. Cable chains for highway use, and full lug chains for really knarly stuff.

'Twas good to see you and Paul @ the party last night Jeff

Unfortunately I don't know of a limited slip or locking diff that's available for Sprinter.
As our getting stuck showed me, the computerized "brake pulsing" is not an acceptable substitute.

What's a "full lug chain" ?

Ever think of an axle transplant? Quite a few company's make custom, made to fit axles with every possible gear ratio & LSD imaginable.

Big steel chain with bars made of twisted links with straight cross bars. Rattles like hell on the road and can't be driven much above 30mph. You must have grown up with these in Canadia, eh?

For added benefit, get chains with welded & hardened cross bars.



Chains with cross bars mounted at a diagonal might be a good compromise.



For momentary stuck-ness on ice, I always carry a coffee can of kitty litter, and a small folding shovel.

Much like the automatic chains, maybe you could install an automatic sanding system, like those used on trains?

Just don't adopt the system they recently employed on Top Gear

In december we had a tour of Schroyer's private truck collection in Ohio. Many of their trucks had sander boxes built in (Phil's looking at them in the photo) but I didn't get a photo of the actual boxes at the time. Basically a box in front of the rear dually wheels that would pour sand in front of the wheels when needed.
I don't know if they were a factory option or something they added afterward?





Amazingly I never used chains the entire time I lived in Canada.

The last set of chains I had didn't have the crossbars in the links, but they sure came in handy on my old Impala wagon. I had to use them on pure ice one night on a trip from Wichita to Lawrence. Took me 7-1/2 hours to make the trip at 30 mph, stopping periodically to check on people in the ditches and then stopping at pay phones along the way to report the mile markers. That was 19 years ago, before most folks had cell phones.

Dude! Check. out. this. sprinter.

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The trailer they're pulling is awesome.. wouldn't you love to have that combo.

I ordered an astro pneumatic rivnut tool today (with tips for 6 different sizes) and 50 Knurled, Zinc, 5/16-18x0.72 rivnuts.

This will let me get started on the ceiling/upper cabinets. by going with the 5/15-18 rivnuts my rivnut sizes match the 80/20 bolts I'm using so I should be able to use the same fasteners for everything and bolt the 8020 straight to them

Those VWs were nice, too. And, we get stuck with rebadged Chryslers.

You notice that the Sprinter/hauler was a manual?

M