2019 White 144 Build

[Daniel]

With the opening of our new shop we welcomed in a white 144 Wheel Base Sprinter. After going over the basics of the build once more with our client she left her van in our hands to build out her dream weekend explorer. She also plans to use it on longer trips as well in the future so we are adding in a few things that will make those longer trips better.

 

[Daniel]

The first thing I did is remove the seats to access the two areas we will be adding the auxiliary battery and components.

Important: Before removing the seats you MUST disconnect the power to the vehicle. If you do not do this first you take a chance of throwing an code and you would have to use an OBD to clear it or take it to dealer and pay to clear the code.

There is a power disconnect post located behind the lower dash panel. Remove the front floor pieces to access the screws holding lower dash. You can then depress the connector to disconnect the power.

Note: Remove fuse #32 from the fuse panel located in the driver seat base as it will continue to power ignition by the emergency backup battery.

You can now disconnect the power to the seats.

Each seat has four bolts, use a torx bit to remove them.

The drivers side seat has the power distribution and other wiring under it. We will connect to an empty slot on the power buss for the Victron Energy Orion-Tr Smart DC/DC charger.

 

[Daniel]

To have the 100 amp hour Battle Born lithium battery under the passenger seat I wanted to make a battery tray that was super secure and would not allow battery movement. I used some aluminum sheet metal to fabricate a base using our metal brake.

I then used a 1/4"-20 NC tap and drill bit and handle to make a threaded hole for some stainless steel hardware.

Battleborn 100 amp hour Lithium Battery

A bit of Anti-Seize on the bolts. Thanks Hodakaguy for the tip!

 

[Daniel]

Now that the battery tray was fabricated I could mount it under the seat. I add some thick felt to keep in from wearing against the battery.

Next I fabricated a couple of tabs and covered those in felt as well to hold the battery down in place. Much better than a strap and looks clean as well.

Battle Born battery all secure!

 

[Daniel]

Fitting some of the main components under the passenger team really takes some thought on functionality. The Victron Phoenix 12/1200 is pretty large so we will create a base mount with an open channel under it for better air flow/cooling.

 

[Daniel]

I want our client to quickly be able to switch all power off if needed so next is fabricating some other mounts for the Blue Sea battery on/off switch and creating access to the auxiliary fuse panel.

I fabricated up an aluminum plate for the seat base that will allow the access to the Blue Sea battery on/off switch. I will clean this up and paint it in a matte black paint.

I fabricated a cover that will only expose the on/off switch. Once removed you can then access more parts of the system. I will paint this cover a rough matte black.

With the panel open you can access the auxiliary fuse panel.

 

[Daniel]

This build will have some of the nicest low profile seat swivels on the market by Alpine Mechanisms. They come boxed in a wood crate perfectly packaged.

 

[Daniel]

More electrical today, I pretty much finished building mounts and a wire chase for the wiring that will be under the passenger and driver seats.

I mounted the Victron Orion Dc/Dc charger and Victron MPPT solar charge controller under the drivers seat base.

I decided to make a small tray to hold the Blue sea Buss Bars, Buss Bar covers and 100 amp circuit breakers.

 

[Daniel]

Time to get the interior panels out and get some things on the roof installed.

One thing about the van wiring is that Mercedes puts the wiring to the rear tail lights, interior lights and backup camera just attached to the outside of the interior walls with little protection for the wiring. I will pull the full rear wiring harness and add wire loom to it and relocate into the interior of the walls to give it a bit more protection before putting the walls up. We will be doing birch walls for this interior.

First fan roof hole cut, the client later decided to add two fans so we will cut a second one as well.

We source our solar panel cross bars from Impact products and love how clean and easy their parts for the panels install. Everything labeled and even a sample is sent assembled.

I installed a set of factory OEM Sprinter roof rails to mount the crossbars which will support the solar panels. See article and video for how we do this.

Installed the Maxxair 7500 Roof Fan, see video of how we do it here.

 

[Daniel]

Next up I will make some mounts for some exterior Rigid Scene lights that the client can turn on to light up her camp spot.

Testing the light mount and angle, after the initial look I decided to make the mounts a bit taller.

Next up is the bed platform made from steel bed rails and aluminum cross members to save a bit of weight.

I used a piece of wood the same thickness as the wall panels to make sure there is enough clearance once installed.

The locations for the rails are spaced so that two sections of 3/4" birch can be used and spaced accordingly.

Rails and crossmembers are installed using plus nuts put in with a pneumatic tool.

I use rivnuts for basic mounts but I choose to use Plus Nuts for things that need to hold more weight.

Test fitting of all the rails and making sure it is level.

I made the rear most bed panel top angled to follow the curve of the rear doors and corners of the van to get the most out of the space possible.

Another test fit and level to double check.

All good so now I will disassemble and get the pieces painted.

A couple of shots of the second fan installed. Once the camp light mounts are painted I will re-install them on the roof rails.

The Sprinter comes with some factory sound deadening so I apply the killmat sound material to the spaces that are not already covered from the factory.

Next up are the Titan Van overhead storage units. These will be stained with a very natural color stain.

I really like the cnc woodwork on these storage units.

 

[Daniel]

Next up is wiring which we only use all marine grade duplex pretinned wiring. Yes it cost more for the good stuff but the van is our brand and I want it to last for years and years.

Everything is wire loomed to give a bit of extra protection.

 

[Daniel]

Shore power will ne mounted on the rear passenger side of the bumper. Although it is easier to just cut a hole in the side of the van I like this method as it is a bit more stealth than a plug sticking out of the side of the van. I also like the fact that it is less holes drilled through the metal body. Here is a quick video of how this is done on the opposite side of the van.

I really like how the connection blends into the rear plastic panel.

In most campgrounds the shore power will be on the right side so when you back into the spot the drivers side shore power hook up will be perfect. This van will not need shore power in most cases because of the solar charging and dc charging off of the alternator when driving, but it is always nice to have the option.

 

[Mindy]

Shore power will ne mounted on the rear passenger side of the bumper. Although it is easier to just cut a hole in the side of the van I like this method as it is a bit more stealth than a plug sticking out of the side of the van. I also like the fact that it is less holes drilled through the metal body. Here is a quick video of how this is done on the opposite side of the van.
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I really like how the connection blends into the rear plastic panel.

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In most campgrounds the shore power will be on the right side so when you back into the spot the drivers side shore power hook up will be perfect. This van will not need shore power in most cases because of the solar charging and dc charging off of the alternator when driving, but it is always nice to have the option.

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I’m all excited and can’t wait to see my white Zorro!

 

[Daniel]

We are currently in the stages of putting all of the paneling back into the van. Before we started doing this final stage we pulled the floor and laid down a layer of killmat sound deadening.

Next we laid some 3M thinsulate insulation down.

Finally we put the stock floor back over it.

 

[Daniel]

We can now start putting the upgraded wood interior back into the van.

 

[Daniel]

Next up it is time to add the Fiamma awning and led lighting package

The led kit does a great job lighting up the awning even when awning is not extended out. Very cool

A quick video of the camp kitchen build

 

[Daniel]

More pictures of the interior as we start putting in the final trim and touches.

A quick video as we finish up some final details.

 

[Daniel]

Friday delivery day arrives so we head to Austin, TX to deliver the van to our client! So excited!! We stop on the way and take some pictures on a country road.

 

[Daniel]

A few more..

 

[Daniel]

We drop off the van and go over the build with our lovely client Mindy before taking a quick picture before heading back home to Houston. Looking forward to a campout soon!