About 4 years ago, I bought some photo equipment in Montana.  My neighbor who owns a large chain of clothing stores offered to loan me his sprinter van to pick up and haul the machine back to Utah.  I was amazed at how well it handled and how good of gas mileage it got.  Ever since then, I’ve been obsessed with sprinters.  For me, they are the perfect biking adventure vehicle.  I’ve been pricing them for years, dreaming about how I would customize MY van.  They’re tall enough that I could put the bikes under a bed in the back and there would still be room for a bench seat and a small kitchenette with burners, a sink and a fridge.

Two months ago, my dreams became reality as I entered the market to purchase a van.  I kept a search going for vans in my price range, and I would get 2 or 3 new listings each day.  Most were located on the east coast and all were older with lots of miles.  Although the Mercedes diesel motors are said to last for 3ook plus miles, it’s hard to find older vans that won’t be prone to lots of additional expenses.  Three weeks ago, an 07 van with under 9000 miles came up in my search emails.  It was priced the same as vans that I was looking at with 90,000 miles.  I called that day and put money down.  Heather and I got tickets and flew to San Luis Obisbo the very next day and drove it home.

sprinter

It’s a 144″ wheelbase cargo.

We packed an air mattress on the plane and slept in it on the way home.  We’ve only had it for a few weeks, and we’ve already camped in it 6 or 7 nights.  I put a futon in the back and strapped an old counter from my store to the side, and we have an instant camper van.  It easily made it to the gooseberry, little creek and guacamole trail heads… twice.

Here is what I’ve done to it so far.

Side windows so I won’t be mistaken for a child molester.

a back up camera

a rearview stereo

and a tattoo.

-k