Rearviewmirror's Updated Build

This will be a very long post for a lot of reasons you'll understand.

I figured I'd update my build page since it hasn't been updated in quite a long time. I've owned two Tacomas in the past. The first was a 2011 DCSB TRD Offroad and the last was a 2013 DCSB TRD Offroad.

This was my 13 Tacoma. I built it out for Colorado (which we will be moving to at the end of May 2023) to run the trails in the San Juan Mountains in Southwestern Colorado. I ended up selling it to a guy that wouldn't leave me alone about buying the truck after him hounding me for over 6 months. I had no intention of selling it but he finally came up with a price that I couldn't refuse. At some point, everything I have is for sale for a price.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvfVMN5tdCk

Fast forward to Nov. of 22 and I bought a 2023 4WD Mercedes Benz Conversion Van. It is built on a 2022 chassis since in 2023 Mercedes Benz has switched to an AWD and new powertrain. We needed a true 4WD with a true low range. AWD would not work for us.







To be quite honest, this was never on our radar. My wife is huge into the tiny house phase and there is no way I could do that. I've always told her: "I love you girl but I don't love you that much". The plan has always been to move to Colorado this year and that will happen at the end of May once my daughter graduates HS. She will be attending University of Colorado in the fall.

We have always taken a couple trips out West each year and they almost always start in Colorado. In June of last year we took our daughter to the Grand Canyon, Vegas, Zion NP, Bryce Canyon NP, and back into Durango Colorado for her Senior trip. We were gone for two weeks and while we were out West we kept on seeing these Mercedes Benz Conversion vans. It wasn't until we were in Utah that I finally got an up close look at one and realized that people were actually living in these things. So it was my wife that actually started doing research into these and I got completely invested. So we ended up buying one that is fully customized with every option available.

I'd like to say that it has been great since we bought it but it has been far from it. From almost the day we bought it, it had one issue after another. I won't go into every issue we've had out of it as it would take up the entire forum. I will say that the dealer we bought it from has been one of the worst experiences I've ever had with a service department. We most likely have the only 4WD Mercedes Benz conversion van in this state. They are just not popular here as there really isn't any place you can take it around here. But the dealership wouldn't even touch it even with all of the warranty issues we had with it.

In the middle of all the warranty issues of the build, we found a leak coming from the A/C compressor. The closest Mercedes Benz Dealership that deals with Sprinter Vans is over 200 miles away. I had an appointment at 8am on a Tuesday. There was an ice storm forecasted for that day so I had planned on leaving on Monday to beat the storm. The storm got pushed forward that I ended up leaving at 10:30pm on a Sunday night. Ended up getting caught in the mountains on a solid sheet of ice for over 60 miles. I "white knuckled" it all the way through the mountains and luckily it never lost traction. But it was the most harrowing drive of my life (especially in something this expensive). I didn't get to the dealership until 4:30am.

This will give you an idea how pissed I was that nothing was showing on the radar or any ice on the road before I left.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOdLJkG5umM

While the van was being worked on this is what it sounded like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhvhrGt2P8g

Luckily, @TenBeers was nice enough to allow me to stay at his house since he lives close by. Ended up staying there for 4 days and I can't thank him and his family enough.

Here is the drive to his house. I will say, the 4WD on this van is amazing. I couldn't make it spin a tire.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s48cm8UOHVU

Was finally able to get it back home only to find out that the A/C compressor was leaking worse than when I took it up there. I "should" have crawled under the van and checked it before I left but it was solid ice and I just "assumed" it was repaired. Ended up having to have it towed back to the same dealership because if the A/C compressor locked up, it would shred the serpentine belt and would have caused all kinds of engine damage.



It set up there for almost a week and we ended up having to rent a car to go pick it up. But, at least (so far) it is repaired and hasn't leaked since.

I ended up getting in contact with the person that is 3rd in charge at Entegra since Mercedes Benz nor the dealership would help me whatsoever. I must say that she was unbelievably great. Entegra has been absolutely amazing with their customer service. The only downside was I had to drive it 1600 miles round trip up to Lake Michigan to have all of the warranty issues repaired at the factory. But, they paid for the rental car that we used to go pick the van up from the Mercedes Benz dealership, paid for my mileage up and back, paid for my fuel, and added the extra miles to the extended warranty that we purchased when we bought the van.

Ended up staying in a Cracker Barrel in Effingham IL on the way up and back.



Was at the factory for a week while they repaired the van. While I was there I got to take a tour of the factory where they create the vans and that was probably the most informative part of the trip as I now know exactly how everything is laid out in the van what to do if something should go wrong in the future.

Small fish in a big pond





If you read this far then first: I'm surprised. I now understand why you never buy a new RV. Let someone else work out all of the issues and buy one used. But... So far, everything is working as intended and they not only fixed everything that needed to be fixed, they added quite a lot of items that weren't originally included in the build. So now I have the only van out of the factory with all of the extra items that no one else has. IE: Braided Steel lines piped to all four corners of the van running off the twin ARB Air Compressor under the hood instead of the plastic lines that came with the van.

All of that said, why did we decide to buy something like this? Believe it or not, there are some sound reasons of why we bought it.

1: I was able to retire from the FD at 48 yrs old. This will also allow my wife to retire at 48 and we can travel when and where we want without any timeframe or worrying about going back to work. We can travel 2 miles or 200 miles and it doesn't matter. The scenery will always change.

2: We have to remain mobile. Surprisingly, it is impossible to completely disappear off grid. And although we will be moving to Colorado, we will keep our residency in this state for the time being. There are a few reasons for this. We will use my parents address as our home address while we are away. But, my parents are in moderate to poor health so it doesn't make much sense to buy a place in Colorado only to have to come back and take care of one of my parents for maybe months at a time all while paying for a home in Colorado. The second reason is I don't pay State Income Tax in this state due to my retirement. I would have to pay State Income Tax in Colorado. So the only tax that I pay is Federal Income Tax. And since my wife will no longer be working, we will be living off of my pension. The rest of our money is heavily invested.

Now... After boring everyone with all that information, here are the specs of the van.

Everything in the van is run off of a 10.5KW Lithium Ion Phosphate 48V battery. The roof mounted A/C will run approx. 12 hrs without draining the battery down to 30%. The diesel heater will pretty much run indefinitely off of a charge as it draws little to no power from the battery. The diesel heater takes fuel from the fuel tank and uses it to heat the inside of the van. It works just like a furnace at home. It is completely self contained and the only limiting factor is how long can you make 21 gals. of on board water last. Considering we will only use the on board water for washing dishes, taking a shower, or flushing the toilet... We can stay off grid for pretty much as long as we want. It has 300W's of Solar on the roof but in reality, all the solar will do is keep the battery topped off while "maybe" putting a small amount of charge back into the battery. It has a dual high output alternator that will charge the Lithium battery from 30% to 100% in less than an hour of driving. And you can hook it up to 30 amp shore power for unlimited power.

Inside the van.

Loaded with every option available from Mercedes Benz



Everything in the van is controlled from this screen. Diesel heater is controlled by the screen on the right.



Diesel heater set to 71 degrees. The on demand hot water is also controlled from this screen



All of the battery information is on this screen



Pantry next to the sink and cooking area



Bed is 3" narrower than a queen size bed. Bed raises up or down creating a garage space or a living space under the bed as it is raised.



Inside / Outside Bluetooth stereo system



We will be removing these two seats as we have no use for them. We'll end up creating a lounge area in the van in this area. Lagun Table folded out



Fridge



Plenty of drawer space



Wetbath





On demand hot water. When the blue dot turns white you have immediate hot water without wasting any water waiting for it to warm up.



Extendable Kitchen Counter



Dimmable LED Lights throughout the van



Both front seats swivel toward the rear



LED Reading Lights above the bed



Sink



Van as it sits right now is lifted 5" but the next item on the list is a new Van Compass 4.3 Suspension which has 3 position adjustable shocks depending on the Terrain.



Speaking of list of items still left to do to the van... This is the rest of the items left to do to the van.



Only thing left is getting the entire van wrapped, changing out the table on the Lagun stand, and adding bench storage from California Adventure Vans in the rear. After that it will be done. Stay tuned.

 

Nice write up! Nice van!

 

Thank you

 

This made me think of a product you might like.

A company out of Montana called planetary design. They sell coffee things. French press mugs and such, very high quality but not cheap.

Ehh, looks like the particular thing I was thinking of is discontinued. They had some French press mugs with van life on them.

Anyhow it’s a very nice rig. Congratulations on your retirement, enjoy it!

 

Thank you. Yes, a french press would be nice. But I think we are going to go the lazy route and buy a small Keurig that fits into one of the shelves in the pantry. I didn't show it but the van also comes with an induction cooktop (it's actually in one of the pantry cabinets right now). The issue with the cooktop is using power off of your house battery. The induction cooktop is 1500 W's so with 30 mins of use, depending on the temp and setting, it could be up to 5% SOC off the battery. As you can imagine, battery charge is a premium depending on how long you plan on boon docking. So I think we are going to go with a JetBoil Stove to do the vast majority of our cooking on along with a small Instapot for shorter trips in the backcountry. Since the van doesn't have a black tank, I can store the 1lb propane containers in the sewer hose compartment (up to 6 of them) under the van. The only thing a sewer hose is used for is emptying the grey water tank and that will fit above the cassette toilet that you remove from the drivers side of the van.

In that build sheet that I posted, that is literally everything that I can do to the van on the outside. There is nothing more to add. One of those items is the OwlVans Sherpa Carrier with a Backwoods Adventure Mods Aluminum Cabinet mounted to the rear of the van. In that box will be our recovery gear for the winch, tire chains, and on the bottom shelf a small 30 amp Honda Generator. Since the Honda Generator is 30 amp, it will charge the van in the same amount of time that it would if it were connected to a 30 amp shore power connection. The only thing that needs to be added is a "floating neutral". So, "theoretically" we can stay off grid as long as our fuel and water supply lasts. Now... Obviously we won't be doing that. But it will be nice to have a backup for power in case we happen to run low. The dual alternator will charge the battery but the engine has to be in high idle at a minimum of 1500 RPM's. They make a high idle kit for the Mercedes but it is not recommended to idle a Mercedes diesel for long periods of time. Especially if the engine is getting ready to go into regen mode to clear out the DPF.

 

Along with power consumption I also have to figure that we have a 3500W inverter. So that limits us to how many items can be plugged in and running at a given time. Anything above 3500W's and it will trip the breaker.

 

Was finally able to carve out some time to get the windows tinted. Tinted the front passenger side, drivers side, and the entire windshield with Ceramic tint. Passenger and drivers side are tinted at 20%. I really wanted to go with 5% as every vehicle I've owned I've tinted at 5%. But I use my mirrors to back up and don't rely on the camera (even though the 360 camera is great). I'm just so used to using my mirrors and the reverse lights just aren't bright enough until I get the rear bumper installed with the led reverse lights. 20% is illegal anyway and tinting the entire windshield is definitely illegal. But the windshield is 50% so it's like not having tint at all.

Ceramic tint blocks 99% of UV light from entering the vehicle and it was well worth it. Normally when I get home I put the shades up on the driver and passenger side windows along with the shade that covers the windshield. It set out in the sun all day today without the shades and the temp in the van never raised above 85 degrees. The dash was cool to the touch and the leather seats up front were the same. No more hot black leather seats.

Ceramic certainly isn't cheap but it is worth it.







Not sure if you can tell from this picture but if you've ever seen certain Mercedes Benz sedans driving down the road and the windshield looks to be a different color? This is the same thing. This is the reflective properties of the tint that blocks all the UV rays.

 

Finally made the move to Colorado. This is now our new home.

 

Congrats on making it out here. Saw your post about time you spent exploring CO and thought I would share this little nugget a buddy found a decade ago. I never hear anyone talking about this place. You can head over Marshal pass and take the back way into Gunnison.

https://www.uncovercolorado.com/ghost-towns/bonanza/

 

Weather cooperated.
This is where we are camping tonight. On the back side of Pikes Peak. Best thing about Colorado. Plenty of dispersed camping that doesn't cost a dime and you get million dollar views. The Mercedes Benz 4WD (so far) will take us most anywhere.

63 degrees on top of the mountain we are on right now with lows in the low 40's

 

I’m curious about your inverter. What brand you chose & why. I’ve been halfhearted shopping. They all seem cheaply made, made in China, make unrealistic claims, expensive for what you get.

 

Everything in the van as far as power goes is Renogy with the exception of the Timberline diesel heater. Solar charger is Renogy, inverter is Renogy, battery is a 10.5 lithium ion phosphate 48V Renogy battery. Considering everything in the van runs off of DC power other than the 110 outlets, Rarely do I ever use the 110 outlets. The A/C on top is a 48V system so since it isn't a 110V it will run for up to 18 -20 hours depending on the temp. And since it is a DC A/C it draws much less power than a 110 obviously. The only time I really use the 110 outlets is when I'm driving down the road and I'll charge my cameras, laptops, iPads, iPhones, etc...

There are many good brands out there. Battleborn probably being one of the best known for their reliability. The thing is, to get as much power as I'm getting out of the Renogy I'd have to have an entire bank of Battleborn batteries and there just isn't enough room in the van for that many batteries. The Renogy battery is about 3' long and weighs well over 200lbs. But it has the power and is integrated into the entire system without having to mix and match pieces. "So far".... Battery anxiety hasn't been an issue.

There are some cheaper batteries but I've always been of the opinion you get what you pay for. You can't go wrong with Battleborn batteries. They are solid. They just don't make them in the power capacity that Renogy does without lining them up in series which then takes up space.

As far as the inverter goes.... I chose it because it is 3500W's. Anything bigger than that you don't need in a van. Maybe in a Class A RV but definitely not in a van. I'll be quite honest... it would take a lot to trip the breaker on the inverter.

 

Thanks. I’ve heard of both those brands. If I go with an inverter, I’ll keep it in mind.

 

Ah man, last year we dropped down from Marshall (camped above the lake off of 204) but took a left to hit 285 rather than a right, totally missed Bonanza. We're going the other way this year, so depending on what time we hit Villa Grove, we might take the route through Bonanza. Trying to make it to a spot on the west side of the pass for the night.

 

My recommendation is if you go with a certain power supply (batteries, solar charger, inverter, etc....), stick with the same brand throughout. Yes... some components will work fine with each other. But more often than not, if there is a problem with one piece of equipment, it makes it harder to diagnose the problem. It could be an issue between the communication from one unit to another. So whether you chose to use Renogy, Battleborn, or any of the other quality components out there, make sure they all match as it will make your life so much easier. Not sure if you are going to build out your own van or not? But if you are thinking of going this route, just try to make all the components match. I've got a 144 so space is limited. You have to get creative with how you store things. If you decide to buy a 170 you have more room to work with (albeit not a lot). But you could put a bank of Battleborn batteries in there that would equal the Renogy output.

I've upgraded my solar panels to 400W's since my solar charger will handle 600W's. If it is sunny with no obstructions to the panels, it will put about 10% SOC (state of charge) back into the battery. The only thing that never turns off in the van is the refrigerator. The fridge uses 1 amp when it runs. So the battery will not run down due to the solar recharging the battery. I can even run the MaxAir fan since it only draws 1 amp also. So the battery can be sitting at 100% during the day. By the time the sun goes down and comes up the next morning it "generally" uses 3% of the SOC. But the sun (assuming it's out) will take the battery back up to 100% without having to plug it into shore power or driving for the dual alternator charging the battery.

I got stuck up in Northern part of AR. back in Jan. this year because of an ice storm. The A/C compressor was leaking and the closest dealership that would work on a Sprinter was 180 miles away. @TenBeers Rich was nice enough to let me stay at his house due to an ice storm that came through for 4 days. It sat in his driveway with snow and ice on top of the van. By the time I was finally able to leave, the SOC was sitting at 73% and that was also running the diesel heater each night to keep the inside of the van warm and to keep the plumbing from freezing.

 

I will say that it drives in the snow very well

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s48cm8UOHVU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_QNjyptXBs