Show me your campers!

Holy ! That's a nice trailer setup!

 

Nicer than some apartment in Chicago, that's for sure.

 

Thanks for the in depth response. I'm sorry to hear about the Gel Coat problem. My wife and I went to the factory a few weeks ago and I didn't realize how expensive they had gotten. I had one price in my mind as I was watching some outdated Youtube videos that pre-dated the huge demand and their price increases. I'm guessing if we go the "Premium" route or even outfit it as we want we will be close to $40K after tax which is more than I was hoping to spend. Like you I would also like the larger fridge and a lower profile AC like the older ones have. There was a 2017 Spirit up for sale close to me that was in the 17K-18K range and if I had been further along in my research I probably would have snapped it up. It sold in just over a week. I have seen ones that are 5-6 years old at $27K lately.

As far as the mold did you ever ask Casita about issues with mold or is that something you've experienced? Thanks again.

 

Actually, Casita canceled my June 28th visit said they had no one to work on my trailer due to the 4th of July holiday. Now July 17th Monday I'm heading down.

As far as the mold apparently it is a well know issue with RV's. I have all my windows and vents closed and run a electric Dehumidifier in the trailer along with a big damprid bucket in the potty area and another smaller one in the back of the cabin. The electric sits in the sink and I have to empty it once a week about a quart of water.

So, if you go looking for a trailer no matter what kind open the cabinets look for mold, I mean shit happens if you see some its not the end of the world but do the best to look for it.

As far as the gel coat repair I probably should have just done it myself but the unit only has a few hours of actual use. I want Casita to inspect the entire outside surface.
Yeah, for the money we pay for Casitas, you can buy a 30ft toy hauler or better add another 10K to your 40k and look for an Oliver. We paid over 35k, and ours has everything. Crazy money, but the wife had to have an enclosed potty, all I wanted was a teardrop so I compromised.

 

I'm no camper expert, but would it be better to just buy a used enclosed trailer and build it out as you like? Assuming you have the time and ability to do the work. I'm interested in a camper, not in the near future, granted, but I am looking casually. And the more I look, the more I lean toward my own build.

 

I’ve thought about doing that for a while. It’s a good way to see what works and doesn’t work for you in your build.

 

Thanks for the advice on the moisture/mold. There's still a lot I have to learn about travel trailers. I was thinking fiberglass was better off due to the small number of seams compared to a stick trailer. I guess that only applies to points of entry for moisture and not just general humidity and condensation problems. I kind of looked at Oliver and they seem really nice but with the double shell and weight I've been under the impression a Tacoma would have a hard time towing them. Not to mention the price. With all the money I've got sunk into the Taco I want to hold onto it for a good while as opposed to considering a new tow vehicle.

 

I have neither the expertise or more importantly time to invest in a building project unfortunately but I admire anybody with the wherewithal to take on a project like that.

 

Well I just looked at the Oliver's. It looks like their smallest trailer starts at $65,500 base. They have the Legacy Elite 2 for sale at $91,000!

 

Had a pop up once. It was fine but as someone else mentioned it was just a stepping stone to something bigger. Got a 27' travel trailer and we had it about 3 years and used it year round. Loved that thing but then my daughter was born so we sold all our stuff to buy a bigger house. She graduated in May. We moved to Colorado Springs at the end of May and we are now going to travel the West in this once she gets settled in.

Loaded 2022 4WD Mercedes Benz Converted Sprinter Van.







Queen size bed in back that raises up to the ceiling, full wet bath with sink, cassette toilet, and shower, kitchen, Timberline diesel heater, 48v 10.KW Lithium Ion Phosphate battery, 400 Watts of solar on top, 48v A/C, 24 gals of on board water, and plenty of storage.

 

Dude.
Duuuuuuuuude.

If I owned one of these I'd be like.... "Honey I'm going out for a pack of smokes"....
Years later wife would be like... "He went out for a pack of smokes one day and never came back".....

 

Lol... To be quite honest? This was actually my wife's idea. We took a long trip last year out West for my daughters senior vacation and we kept seeing these Mercedes Conversion Vans. I finally got a close look at one of them sitting in a parking lot in Utah. Then it hit me that people are actually living in these things. It's a 2022 Mercedes Benz chassis built out with a 2023 Conversion. In 2023, Mercedes ditched the 4WD for an AWD 4cyl turbo diesel. We couldn't make that work. We need true 4WD for some of the places we go. Plus the 6cyl turbo diesel has been around for years so most of the bugs are worked out of that drivetrain.

The only limiting factor on how long you can stay off grid is how long can you make 24 gals of on board water last. Since it has a 48v 210 amp hour lithium house battery, it will run the 48v A/C for a very long time in needed. I ran a test before we moved and in full sun, outside temp in the high 80's, and the thermostat set at 75 degrees inside. Started at 11:45 in the morning and shut it off at 6:45 in the evening. It used 33% of the house battery all while sitting in full sun. So I don't have power anxiety. I had to drive it up to lake Michigan back in Feb. this year and the diesel heater doesn't take hardly any power to keep the interior warm. In fact, it will run you out if not careful. It uses fuel from the fuel tank but uses very little to keep the van warm. The thing I really like about it is you do not have to turn on the 3500w inverter to run the A/C or diesel heater. The only thing the inverter is used for is powering the 110 outlets.

I retired from the FD at 48 and this van was a vehicle that also allowed my wife to retire at 48. I want to see and do the things we want to do before we are too old to enjoy it. I've no idea how long we will actually keep it. But we will get our use out of it and then settle down in Colorado Springs where we are currently.


*EDIT* There is a downside to owning this. It is a Mercedes Benz. When things work they work great. But the cost of ownership is high. Just for a schedule A service is $1200. That is an oil change, changing all the filters, topping off all the fluids, and rotating the tires. The tech in it is great. It's almost like sitting in an S Class up front and it is loaded with every option available. But, it's also a Mercedes Benz. So the upfront cost is high.

 

For emergency power needs I just bought a Jackery 1000 Pro and some 200W Grecell Solar Panels. I tested my Dometic 35, notes are somewhere, but I was darn impressed with it. I dropped it to 65% and then I hooked up the solar panels took about 2 hours to top out to 96%. Went from 0 to 99% in 1.5 hours plugging into electricity. We'll bring this stuff on our trips with the Teardrop.

I'd do basic maintenance myself on that Mercedes, or take it to an independent shop for a lot less than $1200.

24 Gallons is a lot of water - like, a lot.
For clean water in worst case scenarios, buy a Berkey water filtration system. If the SHTFan you'll want one nearby.

Still, I'd sell my mother to the Taliban for that Mercedes....

 

I "would" do all the basic service to it with no problem. The issue is, when we get ready to sell it? I want all the paperwork that all maintenance was performed at a Mercedes dealer. I know that I could provide proof by keeping the receipts but I want to get as much out of this thing as I can when we are finished with it. We have a 10 year 150,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty on the Mercedes portion of the van and a 7 year warranty on the build.

What I've noticed about the solar on the roof is if there is full sunshine on it, it will put about 10% SOC back into the battery. But, it's a large battery so I'm happy with that. The issue with solar is you are extremely dependent on clouds, dirt, hell... even one of the crossbars on the roof rack if it blocks one of the panels. So any blockage of the panels at all will diminish the charge the battery gets. It has a 3500w inverter so I can run quite a few things without popping the breaker. The really nice thing is the dual high output alternator. It will charge the van from 30% to 100% in about 45 mins of driving. Shore power is the same way. Saying that. I have about $20,000 more to put into the van. Spare tire carrier on the drivers side rear door and a large box on the passenger side rear door. I'm going to buy a 30 amp Honda generator to act as shore power when we are off grid. I'll have to create a floating ground to use the generator but that's pretty easy.

As far as the water system goes. 24 gals will take us a long way. We don't drink the water out of the tank which sits over the passenger side rear wheel. We just put bottled water in the fridge supplemented with a collapsable 5gal water tank just for drinking water. The really nice thing about the water system in this van is the hot water system. It has a showermiser built into the shower. You turn on the diesel heater and just select hot water on the screen. The diesel heater heats up the water going through the system which takes about 15 mins after you turn it on. There is a on / off nob in the shower and below that there is an indicator to let you know when the water is hot. From that point on, you turn the nob and it will allow hot water to flow. So you are really only limited by how long you can make 24 gals of on board water last. Since we aren't drinking it, it will last quite a while since all we use it for is to take a quick shower or washing dishes, hands, flushing the toilet, etc... As far as the shower goes, you can turn it on and off at the shower head so you can soap up and then rinse off without wasting water. It also has a heated 24 gal grey water tank under the drivers side of the van. All of the plumbing is inside the van so the diesel heater will keep all the lines from freezing.

I've been looking into Jackery unit like you have or a Bluetti. Anything to save battery power.

Here is what is going on the back of the van. I'll have the side ladder put on also to make it easier to reach the solar panels.

 

That thing is nice! Are they like most German vehicles, ie. difficult/expensive to work on, need special tools, etc.?

 

Unfortunately yes. We have a 10 year 150,000 mile extended warranty on it just for that reason. But everything on the van is Torx. Very few bolts are standard metric.

Service maintenance is not cheap by any means. But, if I want to get as much money out of it when we finally sell it, then I pretty much have to have it serviced at Mercedes. That generally runs around $1000 - $1200. The service interval is 20,000 miles but I just can't make myself do that. So every 10,000 miles (which still seems too long to me) I'll have it serviced at the dealership just for the paper trail. About 2 months after we bought it I was crawling around underneath it and found the A/C compressor was leaking. The real disadvantage to owning a Mercedes Sprinter is not all Mercedes dealerships work on them. We had a Mercedes dealership that was about 15 miles away from us but I had to drive 250 miles one way to have it repaired (twice). That is what sucks about owning a Mercedes like this.

We looked at converting a Ford Transit because there are Ford dealerships everywhere that will work on those. But after sitting in the cab of the Transit? There was no way. It was horrible. Mercedes just has everyone beat when it comes to ergonomics. And we ordered this one loaded with every single option from the factory. The only option we opted out of is the electronic sliding door. But the cab portion has all of the Mercedes S Class tech and it is amazing. We got the upgraded LED headlights and they are impressive to say the least. When you start it up at night they go through this dance where they move up and down and side to side. There are 3 LED lights in each light. When you are on a dark road they automatically angle themselves upward. If there are no other vehicles coming in the opposite direction the 3rd LED lights up and then it really throws light down the road. But the cool part is when you turn a corner the headlights move in the direction you turn the steering wheel so you can see around the corner. The downside to this is when they break which they will eventually because... well... it's a Mercedes.

 

I concur with your assessment of the Transit. Wife was wanting to trick one out custom for us, she could do it too and it would be very well done but I looked at them and they just seemed cheap. Plus they wanted some 40k for the thing and it would have taken us a year to do it. We have a small teardrop that suits us fine for now. If I win the lottery this weekend I'll pick up one of those Mercedes and be done with it. Other than that I won't be going first-class anytime soon.

I've grown into photography and really itch to get out and go in style and do some shooting, but right now it's just not in the cards to get away like I want to.

 

I certainly understand what you are saying.

This is something that my wife and I came to the same conclusion. If I was going to do this? I need to do it now before we are too old. I got to retire when I finished my 28 years as a Captain on the FD at 48. My wife is also 48 and I didn't want to be laying on my deathbed thinking "I sure wish I would have done this when I had the chance". While everyone on the FD was trying to outbuy each other, I was putting as much into my pension system and investments as I could. I was buying my future. And I'll never complain about what the FD paid. It paid well. We sold our house in May and put all the money from that sale into our existing investments. Having your money make money for you and you not actively working for it is the ultimate goal. And it has paid off. It's not like we ever wanted for anything. We always had nice cars and a house that was way to big for three of us. I've always lived by the rule "if I can't afford it? I don't buy it" (mortgage aside). We have no debt. My daughters car is paid for, her college is paid for, and we hold no credit card debt. What this has allowed is for my wife to retire at 48. Now neither of us have any obligation to anyone other than our daughter. We can do what we want when we want without any timeframe of having go back for work.

This was not a cheap investment by any means. In fact it is a depreciating asset. But I'm okay with that as it is a vehicle that will allow us to go to all the places we've always wanted to go with no timeframe. We are currently in Colorado Springs. We got our daughter a 2 bedroom apartment out here. She is starting college next month at the University of Colorado. Once she gets settled in, we will be on the road. The only states that I've not been to out West is Oregon and Washington. My bucket list used to be very long. Now? If I can drive the PCH from Seattle down to San Francisco and see the Redwoods and Yosemite I'll die happy. We will eventually sell it and settle down back in Colorado Springs. My wife and I were married right outside of Durango CO. 23 years ago. But we have always started our trips through Colorado in Colorado Springs. So this feels like home.

I have also been into photography for a very long time. And I look forward to many pictures along the way.

 

I never looked much into it, but the high-top Nissan NV vans may have been good, but they didnt come stock 4wd. Now they stopped selling them.

 

I've seen a few of them. Never sat in one so I've no idea what they are like inside. Kind of the same thing with the Ram Promaster. Neither made my list. Really the only two that were considerations was the Ford Transit and the Mercedes Sprinter. And I just couldn't make the Ford work.