Intro and Our Mercedes Vario Home -Gen rack pg.5. Ideas on uprating rear suspension?

Anton2k3 · Jan 18, 2012

Intro and Our Mercedes Vario Home -Long overdue update

Hi Guys,

I thought now its nearly finished, it was about time I introduced my self.

I've been a long time lurker on this forum, and picked up ideas from other people (great!) builds. Thanks for all of the inspiration!

We started off by building a ford transit campervan for weekends away. However after getting a dog, it became too small, and didn't have all of the amenities we wanted. Thus, and after getting John Speed's 'Travel Vans' for Christmas, I decided it was time for a step up. The obvious base vehicle was the same as Johns, a 4x4 Vario....something which was good on the road, and could manage limited off road travel. Unfortunately as it always the case, the budget did not allow us to purchase our ideal base vehicle, thus we ended up buying a 2x4 Mercedes Vario 814d. I have to say, its a pleasure to drive, but I still hanker after the 4x4 ability. If anyone knows where I could acquire the bits to convert to 4x4 (transfer box, front axle etc) please do let me know. Failing that, if anyone can help me source a difflock, that would suffice, can't seem to find anything anywhere.

This conversion has all been home built, massive thanks to my dad who did most (pretty much all) of the carpentry work.

As for travel, well we have not done very much yet as we have only just finished building it. Jobs seem to get in the way of extensive travelling at the moment. I'm a way off retirement, so have to rely on the little time off we get fromK work. We get away whenever we can, but mostly just local weekend travel at the moment. We are planning a 3 week trip later in the year as part of our move to (hopefully) Spain with work. One day….we will travel properly!

Campervan Spec:

Mercedes Vario 814d

Water:
400l fresh water tank with gauge
90l waste under slung with gauge
Shurflo Pressurised System
Whale gulper force drainage (switchable)
Nature Pure drinking water system
40l calorifier – 3 way (engine coolant, webasto coolant, electrical immersion)
Mikuni diesel wet system (see above)
Morco Balanced Flu, on demand gas boiler

Heating:
Eberspacher 4kw diesel blown air heating
Aux 2.5kw blower run by Mikuni wet system
Fully insulated
Heatmiser thermostatic controller (also controls mikuni hot water)

Electrical:
420ah battery capacity
Sterling 240v 20a charger
Sterling 24v-12v 30a battery to battery charger
600w Samlex pure sine wave inverter with remote on/off
240v throughout
Nasa NS-1 battery monitor
Remote electric start generator (installed when required)
450 watts Solar panels
Tristar MPPT controller

Kitchen:
Smev grill/hob/oven
Waeco 80l fridge/freezer
Smev sink/drainer
Solid oak worktop

Facilities:
Wet room shower/toilet/sink
Solar vent
Sliding bi-fold shower door

Misc:
Aircon unit
27” Philips TV
HDMI system with wall sockets (xbox!)
Sony DVD radio stereo (linked to tv)
Pioneer Speakers
Gas bottle locker in garage
Seitz windows
Fan-tastic Vent

Layout:
Double Bed across back
Garage under bed
Raised seating area – converts to spare bed
Rear wall opens to form large hatch – includes emergency escape hatch
Entry through cab walk-through
Hatch in roof

Future Plans:
4x4 or diff lock it!
Full respray
Roller Awning

That's a rough spec, and all I can think of at the moment.

Anyway, enough talk, I have a couple of pics, and lots of the build. I'll take some better ones this weekend to include bathroom etc.

Thanks,

Anthony

apexcamper · Jan 18, 2012

Welcome Anthony;
Looks great, cant wait to see more pics of the interior and build.
I am in the early stages of a build myself and would love more details of your water and kitchen systems.

Happy travels

Cade

Anton2k3 · Jan 18, 2012

Hi Cade,

Thanks, i have plenty more pics.

How is the build coming along?

The water system is relatively simple, to give an indication of layout, I knocked this together when I was in the early stages of design:

There is a 'water room' underneath the seating area which houses the water tank, calorifier, water pump, and aux water heater. This 'room' has a sealed fibreglassed and gel coated floor, with a drain hole. This ensures that if there is either a tank failure or water leak, it would be contained and flow out of the van without damaging anything.

To give an indication of watertank size:

Water tank 'wet room'

Bathroom has similar water proof arrangement:

With Calorifier etc:

And as it is now with water tank empying valve extended for access through seatbox (so that tank can be easily emptied on return from trips):

Note that there is also a solenoid valve added there, the white box. I added that when we put gas instant boiler in, so that we could choose where the hot water came from. There is a switch on the control panel that allows us to select for the water to either come from calorifier (if we have been driving and coolant heated it up, or running diesel wet heater, or immersion heater), or if there is no hot water in that tank, from the gas boiler.

As for the kitchen, that was built in situ from ply (thanks dad!). We used standard drawers and drawer front to speed up the build, and give good finish:

The water pipes and cabling all runs through the garage to get to the other side.

Most of it plumbed in 10mm copper for ease, and wastes less hot water when its standing in pipes.

Any more questions or pic requests let me know.

Ta

mhiscox · Jan 18, 2012

Thank you very much for the descriptions and pictures. Lots of us wish we had the Vario in North America, since it makes such a nice-sized camper. Congratulations on your work.

andylod · Jan 18, 2012

Love the camper.... I have one a bit similar although SWB ... i have been looking into the diff lock idea and it seems an atego diff or a diff from another vario is the answer, hard to find though also lots of different gearing to choose from. Ill post some pics as soon as the van gets back from respray ..... only a few days to go

Anton2k3 · Jan 19, 2012

Hi Andy,

I'd be interested to see pics of your conversion. So how big is your load area in the back? I think this was around 4m x 1.9m. The diff problem is a very frustrating one, i've been looking for a while now and managed to find...nothing! Respray? If you wouldn't mind telling me, how much has that set you back? Were looking to get ours done soon. I'm also just toying with the idea of solar panels, it was either that or a generator and I keep going around in circles with it, but I feel solar may have the edge due to no noise, and free once installed. Do you have solar? If so, worth it?

Ta,

alan · Jan 19, 2012

Very nice job!! congradulations!!
What windows did you use??

Alan

Anton2k3 · Jan 19, 2012

Hi Alan,

We used Sietz windows. Although not as robust as some of the units used by unicat etc, they are fairly good value, and parts etc readily available here in Europe.

andylod · Jan 19, 2012

Anton
We have not done any extreme camping in ours yet as only had it a few months but i like the idea of solar... suppose it depends how long you intend to stay in one place and usage. My dad has 2 motorhomes, 1 in usa and 1 in uk. has solar on both but still relies on gene during a long stay. We have Sterling 24/12 charging 220ah, Sterling 240 charger, propex heating, Gaslow lpg, 100litre freshwater, TV, Radio, JBL speakers. Our garage area is very small approx single bed. Respray is about £2500+vat but a far bit of cutting rusty bits out and new steel.

Andy

Anton2k3 · Jan 20, 2012

Respray sounds reasonable, i'll have to start saving the pennies. I was going to install solar some time ago, but now we have finished the back, I was reluctant to pull the roof down again to install the cables...however I had a great idea! Out sterling 24-12v is behind the drivers seat in the cab mounted on the bulk head. So what i'm going to do it bring the cabling through the cab roof, down the bulkhead, and connect the solar system to the posts on the Sterling which do to the leisure battery bank, thus no faffing with wires of pulling anything apart in the back. Ive calculated total cost of job, with 240w of solar, to be roughly £490, not too bad.

Have you installed a waste water tank? DO you have capacity for more fresh water? If you don't have a shower, 100l is probably a good amount. We just find that showering nails the water at quite a rate if your not careful!

VanIsle_Greg · Jan 20, 2012

Wow, looks great inside. VERY large, nice layout too. I could definitely see myself in one of these!

doubleb · Jan 20, 2012

great looking setup!

andylod · Jan 20, 2012

Sound like a good idea for the solar. We don't have toilet or shower facilities in the van so 100 liters is a fair amount for general use. We have toilet tent which doubles up as shower tent when required. Am thinking of installing another water tank along with extra diesel tank, put spare wheel on hinged frame behind the back door then tanks were spare wheel was. Would also help get a bit more weight over behind the back wheels. I think it could be light on the back in slippy conditions. The other option is going down to single wheels on the back, not sure if you need special wheels for this or just remove the inner pair. I have seen it done on a few other vans and the theory is good. Smaller footprint means increase ground pressure means more grip !!!!!!
I tow a 3 ton trailer stage to festivals so wet grass could be a problem.
Andy