Our Mercedes Sprinter conversion for the ultimate travel experience
You know that tingling feeling in your stomach when you're getting ready for a big adventure? That's exactly the feeling that accompanied us when we took the step of buying a Mercedes Sprinter and converting it into our very own dream home on wheels. Our goal? To reach the most remote areas, explore the world and experience the pure feeling of freedom. We would love to take you with us on the journey of our conversion.
To prepare for the removal of our Mercedes Sprinter, we first started by removing the panels on the walls and floor of the load compartment. Due to rust in the rear area of the load compartment, we sanded it down thoroughly, treated it with rust remover and then repainted it.
Once the rear wall had been removed, we turned our attention to soundproofing the cargo area. We then fitted the roof windows: a small DOMETIC Mini HEKI STYLE 400 x 400 at the front and a slightly larger DOMETIC Midi HEKI STYLE 700 x 500 at the back above the bed. We bought most of our built-in parts from https://www.waerchzueg.ch, including the aluminum butyl that we used throughout the van. After insulating with Armaflex XG 20mm, we can only say one thing: Armaflex really sticks everywhere! 😉 We also fitted the grille and attached it to the bodywork with self-tapping screws. We also fitted the waste water tank at the back and laid the waste water hoses in the bus, one to the shower and one to the sink.
Installing the sliding window turned out to be a bit of a challenge. First, we cut a large hole in the side of our car. Then it was a case of filing, gluing and fixing everything well with adhesive tape so that the window didn't fly out again and end up on the floor before the adhesive had fully hardened.
We had the gas system installed by a specialist who pulled the pipe to the exact location we wanted. We then installed the cladding, first the walls and then the ceiling.
The next step was to build the furniture, for which we used 15 mm plywood panels. We also installed the electricity in the rear garage, laying all the cables in pipes.
Our power sources are three solar panels on the roof and charging from the car's alternator, the battery being a 200 Ah lithium battery.
We got the freezer from www.waerchzueg.ch it is a WEMO B75 DX and we are very happy with our refrigerator. We also cut the cushions out of foam mats ourselves and had them covered later. We had the mattress in the rear area perfectly cut to size and fitted by Fanello, a Swiss supplier. We are super happy to have found such a supplier.
We also hid the Autotherm 2D (parking heater) in a piece of furniture, and I had to do the wiring under the car.
After we had already completed more than 80% of the renovation, we came across a new app called "FindPenguins". From then on, we started documenting our construction progress in the app. You can find more details in the following link.
