2019 170 WB 4x4 Sprinter - Our First Build in 2019

Daniel

Staff Member
Sept 26, 2019 - This post was from years ago our original 4x4 Sprinter built in the driveway before we had a shop.

Just finished our west coast family vacation and left our 2016 Sprinter in storage out in Washington. We got back to Texas and our 2019 4x4 had arrived at the dealer. I can't wait to build it out and get it out on some adventures. We love having a van out west but wanted my daily driver Sprinter back again so traded in my car for this new Sprinter.
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Started building out the bed platform. I will use the rails I purchased from Overland Sprinters. I set the rails at 30" high and used some of the factory holes in the same location as a guide.

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I had some 11 gauge 1” steel square tubing cut to 69 1/4” for the cross members. Just doing some test fitting and then I will paint it all black.
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This same setup has worked great for us in our other Sprinter build so we will do it again. It is a bit overkill but I am a big guy.
 
Painted the bed rails black using a textured black paint.

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Cleaned the 1" square steel tubing cross members with lacquer thinner and then painted those as well.
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Spaced the first 6 cross members evenly across 48" so that I can lay my full plywood up to that point. I will have a smaller plywood board for the remaining of the 76" length.
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In order to bolt the cross members I drilled the holes in the marked spots I measured and then added rivnuts to secure them to the bed rails. I have learned that using blue loctite really helps keep things from shaking loose.

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Next I added the birch plywood cut to dimensions 48"x69 1/2" to the top of the cross members. I then drilled holes to get through the wood and into the metal crossbars before finally securing it with screws.
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Next I used a piece of insulation board from a previous project to figure out the area I needed to cut from the final piece of plywood. I wanted the plywood to be as close as possible to the doors when shut.
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Once I cut the first side out I used the drop from the cut as the template for the opposite side.
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After a bit of sanding to clean it up we tested it with an air mattress. We will purchase a king size memory foam bed and cut it to size to fit.
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Here is a video I made of my bed install.

 
I decided a laser scan of the van would be a good idea. By profession I use laser scans for design work that I do. The scan is of my bare sprinter before I added the bed. I am laying out how I want my shower and galley now.

Bare interior facing the front

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From the back and doors removed

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A shot of the interior without the outside of the van included.

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I added the bed platform and the thickness of the mattress I plan to purchase. Inserted the shower stall I plan to build with a 32"x24" shower pan.

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View from front of van looking into drivers side

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I plan on using a 22 gallon water tank I found online at Agile Offroad. Added the weight so I can try to track and keep weight even in van.

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View looking toward where I plan to add a galley.

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Came across a 2 person bench seat in Austin, TX. Decided to use it instead of building a bench for my work station.
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Used grade 8 flanged bolts and nuts with large washers. This is not for a passenger to ride in but I want it super secure anyways.

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Here is a short video about my thoughts on the seat install.

 
I took the Sprinter to get the bfg K02s from my 2wd Sprinter swapped onto the 4x4 Sprinter.
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Then we took it to do some fishing!

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Wanted to share a quick video I did on an easy route to get the shore power connection routed from outside the the van to inside the van.
 
Built the shower out. Took video along the way.

 
First I designed a custom shower pan 32"x42" made out of aluminum with a corner drain.

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I then used 1.5" metal wall studs to frame up a shower enclosure.

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One thing to note is that since none of the Sprinter walls are straight you just have to take your time and frame slowly.
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I located a spot in the corner that I wanted my shower head to be positioned. I also pulled all the factory wiring all the way back to the rear tail lights and back up camera and relocated the wires into the another area of the wall so that they would not be pinched by the Wedi Board that would be going over the framing.

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I installed the Wedi board as a waterproof backing board for the inside of the shower.

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Next thing was to add the redgard waterproof membrane to the top of the wediboard. Yes overkill but I want it to last.
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When it is dry it turns a bright red.

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This process took multiple days because each step needs to fully dry.

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Next up I purchased FRP fiberglass shower paneling and a metal shear to make cutting it easy.

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Since the back wall has a curve I decided to screw it to the framing and I would cover the screws with a piece of Ltrack that could be used to hang shower things like towels, soap, etc. After the FRP adhesive dried I taped off the edges with painters tape to reduce the amount of caulking mess.

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I then hung the Ltrack.

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