Back in the 70s and 80s, the status vehicle of choice was a Mercedes sedan, and quite often a diesel at that. And they were wickedly expensive, considerably more so than now. Well times have changed, and now there’s a new Mercedes diesel status-mobile, at least out here: the Sprinter 4×4 conversion van. Here’s a used 2016 that someone in outdoorsy-chic Bend, OR. (which probably has the highest concentration of these in the world) is selling, and asking a mere $110k. What a deal! A comparable new 2018 Sprinter costs about $55k. So how much did they spend on that conversion? If I needed a new business, that’s what I would go into.
I was assuming this was a genuine camper conversion, the kind a couple could spend some extended time on on the road. But it’s not; it’s a passenger van with a little miniature “galley” cabinet added.
It’s got a sink and fridge, but no cooking appliance. That’s ok; the fridge is stuffed full of energy bars and drinks. Who cooks anyway anymore?
There’s an almost identical Sprinter a few blocks from my house like this (above), and a few others in my general neighborhood, driven by upscale (“cannabis-millionaire”) mommies driving their kids around town in Eugene. It’s the ultimate vehicle for pulling up to the Waldorf School or Oak Hill Academy. Yes, vans are hot, and this is the hottest kind.
Will it ever get used for camping? Who knows.
Here’s the details from the ad (note the “100% recyclable aluminum paneling”). We love the planet…
Interior Conversion Features
o Insulation and Soundproofing
o 100% recyclable aluminum paneling (walls and ceiling), finished with custom powder coat
o Custom hand built galley:
Large Dometic fold-flat sink with on-demand water pump
4.3 cu/ft Novakool refrigerator
100% recyclable custom countertop cook/prep surface
o Custom overhead cabinet storage,
o 10 gallons water storage
o 5 gallons grey water storage
o 200amp hours of Lithionics lithium (LiFePO4) batteries
o Zamp Solar 30amp charge controller
o 1000watt Magnum charger/inverter with 120v plug for charging
o 4-USB 3.1amp charging ports
o 2 zone machined aluminum LED lighting, with dimmer switches
o Under cabinet/bed LED strip lighting
o 3-panel removable bed with custom powder coating
o Driver and passenger seat swivels
o 3 passenger Sprinter factory bench seat
o Espar D2 Diesel Heater – tapped into vehicle fuel tank
o COREtec waterproof vinyl flooringExterior Conversion Features
o Thule roof rails, and bars
o Rhino Rack cargo basket
o 240watts of Zamp Solar panels (3 x 80w)
o Driver and passenger side t-vent windows
o 10 speed Maxxair fan, with remote
o Aluminess light bar/grill guard
o 32″ curved LED light bar
o Aluminess driver side ladder
o Wheel and tire upgrade to BFG KO2!
Does that sound like it’s worth some $65k in goodies (assuming the 2016 van is worth some $45k). No. A fraction, at best.
Well, there you have it. A used $110k diesel van.
Meanwhile, closer to home, I finally the plunge (literally) and cut holes in my van for the windows (here the inner wood frame is being glued to the steel body). It feels really good to get going at last, although I still have to finish up another project. But I’ve started ordering a few things, one of which will be a…pleasant surprise, especially for Stephanie. A cheap luxury; stay tuned.
Speaking of cheap, my budget for parts and materials is one-tenth or less of that $65k I’m assuming for the Sprinter conversion. But then I’m not using 100% recyclable aluminum paneling; just 100% recyclable wood. 🙂
The windows made a big difference, in opening up the feeling on the inside, and making the van look less like a plumber’s van on the outside. A vision of possibilities.
And the one on this side has opened up a huge blind spot, visibility-wise. I keep thinking my side door is open!
I don’t know if I could bring myself to take a sawzall to a brand-new vehicle like that. Looks good, though!
The utility of a window in the passenger side rear door is simply huge. I spent a summer driving a windowless Chevy van and recall certain angled intersections where I would actually have to put the shifter in park, get out of the seat and walk to the passenger side to get a decent view to see if the way was clear. I am sure decent power mirrors might be able to do the same thing, but that van did not have those either.
Nice job, looking forward to seeing the next update.
Panel vans were regularly optioned with a window in the sliding door. I think it was probably a factory option.
Never heard of cannabis millionaire mommies, but there you go.
Glad to hear you’ve started. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a sawzall.
Speaking of Westfalias, my 15 year old daughter is stalking one that’s been sitting in town. I highly doubt it’s for sale at a reasonable price but if you think all kids sit around with their phones here’s one that’s not. I already told her not to worry if it doesn’t pan out, because what she’s doing is the most fun part anyway 🙂
“because what she’s doing is the most fun part anyway”
. . . and the least expensive. 🙂
Never heard of cannabis millionaire mommies, but there you go.
That’s because they’re producing the stuff that folks your way are consuming. 🙂
The money is flowing from the rest of the country to Oregon and Northern California. Times are good here…for now. But if the rest of the country legalizes cannabis, then the party’s over.
If Virginia is any indication, your good times are going to on for quite awhile. 2018 House of Delegates session had the Republican majority (was 64-36, now 51-49 only because one district was a tie vote that was decided by the equivalent of a flip of a coin, honest!) shoot down every bill designed to decriminalize marijuana no matter how small a step. Concepts like medical marijuana currently don’t have a chance here.
The serious party didn’t last too long in WA as the number of producers, processors and retailers quickly expanded driving the prices and profit margins down. When the first stores opened the reported average retail price of a gram was $25 and within a year or so it was down to half that with many retailers touting even lower prices. I know when I traveled to Spokane last year there were a number of billboards adverting $100 ounces and a competitor undercutting them with $99 ounces. In the town where my kids go to school there are stores that tout themselves as the home of the $10 gram, home of the $9 gram and even home of the $8 gram. Certainly those aren’t their best products.
The amount leaving our state probably doesn’t account for too much of the total volume. My state does a good job of following the product from seed to retail. So most of what leaves the state is small guys who will go around and pick up the maximum of 1 ounce from a number of stores and then take it to their home state, either for personal use, select friends or as a business where they can easily double their money.
The black market quickly dried up in WA as I found numerous former grow houses in my work in RE, ranging from elaborate set ups in barns/steel buildings in rural areas to garages, basements, and entire houses in quite upscale and expensive neighborhoods. In fact I bought two former grow houses. In the case of one the neighbor across the street definitely knew as he came out and talked to me while I was inspecting the house, intrigued by my retired police car. He asked if I was going to buy it and when I replied “it has some issues” he replied that he knew “the former tenant had modified the electrical system for his ……….. umm ………….. umm………………….business”. The water and power bill histories more than confirmed that they had a lot of the house lit up.
That is the reason that everyone should vote for legalization no matter what your thoughts on the use of it is, to get the grow houses out of your neighborhood and down the street from your kid’s school.
The industry is going through a huge upheaval and eventual consolidation. And yes, prices are dropping big time. But the Oregon Liquor Commission (which regulates legal cannabis) and the State Attorney General just came out and said “we know for a fact that there’s at least four times as much legal pot being grown than being sold (legally). And we know where it’s going (out of state). It’s a shot over the bow.
But that doesn’t even begin to account for the huge number of illegal grows. Southern Oregon (and parts of Central Oregon) have vast numbers of grows. And there’s not nearly enough folks in the enforcement to begin to know which are what, or even really care.
But unless a black market grower has connections to sell out of state, the prices locally on the black market are too low to make it work anymore.
The “cannabis millionaires” are the ones that grew illegally in the past, and are sitting on huge amounts of cash in their back yards, or wherever. They’re retiring now; selling out. The Gold Rush is over.
There was a place out here where they had taken a standard small factory unit, excavated the floor past the 20 feet and built a multi-level mezzanine (I think 4 levels, can’t remember now) to cram as much floor space in the shell. When the place was busted it was quite a problem as to what to do with it, being impractical for most uses. The local council purchased it to store all their archives, as it was perfect for that!
At another council I saw a list of addresses that the environmental enforcement guys were not to just go and knock on the door (regarding waste being discharged into drains or creeks) because they were associated with various organised crime types, and they might disappear!
Paul, my understanding is that “the stuff” grown in Oregon and Northern California is the best there is.
Call Doug Demuro To Have Review On This.
That is an expensive asking price for a used home built conversion that doesn’t look that useful. IE the galley seems to render one of the rear seats useless for most.
I don’t understand why the primer grey color is so popular on these conversions, I don’t find it attractive at all and would rather have plain old white but most of the ones I see around here with the big (completely empty) baskets on top and two ladders, not just one, are in that primer grey.
However you don’t see them at the private school drop offs around here or being used as family haulers, they are mostly driven by childless hipsters. SUVs, the larger the better, are still the vehicles to be seen in the private and public school drop off lanes around here.
I had one van that didn’t have a window in the side doors and never again. It made for huge blind spots the most annoying being when you come to an intersection that isn’t close to a 90 degree angle and the narrow part of that angle is on the passenger side. I quickly learned to swing the van to a near 90 degree angle to the street I’m approaching to have any hope of being able to safely pull out. My last two vans have had full windows despite them being used as a cargo van/work truck and since the display van with a full complement of windows on the passenger side and none on the driver’s side fell out of popularity I’ll stick with the full set of windows. Of course my vans are not for camping they are purely for working.
I purposely got a windowless van because I wanted fully-opening windows for camping. These are Euro-style awning windows that do that. And have a few clever details. More on that later.
That primer gray color is not only popular on semi-custom vehicles now, but it’s also become popular on houses. Here in Va., there’s quite a few (formerly nice-looking) houses that have been painted monotone dark gray. I don’t get it.
Regarding the van’s equipment, I actually like the concept of a minimalist camper van — when camping, we prefer to cook outdoors, and also most campgrounds we stay at have showers, but it’s hard to find campers that aren’t loaded with full kitchens and showers, etc. However, at $110k… well, no thanks!
Yeah flip a house by painting it grey with a red door is quite popular around here and seems to work in some cases. On the other hand the actual colors I picked for a couple of clients helped seal the deal because it wasn’t Grey like all the other houses that were given a freshening before sale.
Maybe the cannabis millionaire mommie demanded the sale of the camper, so it’s priced not to sell because the cannabis daddie really likes it but need’s to be able to tell her “I tried, no one wants it and I’m not gonna give it away”!
I like the window design you put in the van, no problem leaving them open in the rain for ventilation and they look great.
One of the Mercedes dealers in Edmonton has converted a few Sprinter 2500 models. The mods inside and underneath are impressive but these are big dollar conversions.
Perhaps in some neighbourhoods these are the latest camping, family transport vehicles. If you had the urge to go off-road during a long road trip, these rigs would certainly be capable.
Well, at least a camper-van Sprinter craze makes more sense than the G-wagon craze of, well, a few years ago. ( It was just a few years ago, right? ).
The seller can ask the world for that van; doesn’t mean he’ll get it, or even anything close to it.
It’s not your vehicle until you cut or drill into it!
I’m really liking how that Promaster is coming out. Ironically, I think VW was onto the right idea with the T4 Camper. At the time it was deemed too expensive. Now… different times.
Copy this:
I might, to some extent or another, if it was the kind of floor plan and other details that I’m looking for. But it’s not. Ours is tailored to our specific needs and from our experience of 15 years using our ’77 Dodge Chinook.
This is well-thought out, but not for me.
And at $135k, this is $100k more than ours is going to cost, in total ($30k for the van; $5-6k for the parts and materials). You get what you pay for, or not.
Paul, remind me, what brand of van did you finally buy? I thought it was a Pro Master, but the shots here look more Ford Transit to me.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/auto-biography/my-new-future-campsite-classic-2017-ram-promaster-2500-im-going-to-build-my-own-new-chinook-camper/
The Winnebago Revel is great. I’m leaning more towards a Safari Condo 18′ Promaster. Modern day Westfalia with more room and amenities:
https://safaricondo.com/en/motorises-serie-promaster-m18-mx/
Recreational vans have had a resurgence within the last 5 to 10 years, both gear hauler‘s and campers. In my MTB and Moto crowd they are the thing to have.
I know a guy in Bozeman who bought one a couple of years ago to haul his mountain bikes to races & his family out and about.
Must be the CC effect, the other day one of the news/current affairs shows had a little feature on a guy who started a business doing low-buck camper fitouts to vans (plus some big-buck ones including a 40′ bus conversion), starting with a sleeping platform with roll-out kitchen.
It’s like the “Weekender” package that they offered on some Vanagon’s instead of the full Westfalia – As I recall it had a sink and that was about it. Or maybe it was the stove. But not nearly the same as the full camper.
My mother and her partner own a Sprinter 4×4 Sportsmobile Camper Rig, as I recall the price wasn’t too much more than this one and it was new with a full warranty and is much more “camper”-able.
So far around here we have one mom with a Sprinter 4×4. She actually can claim the need since she has six kids and a husband. Her Yukon Denali went away when kid #6 arrived. She also picks up several more kids in the neighborhood for quite the school carpool.
But hey, someone might buy the featured vehicle. If so, it might be time to get into the Sprinter conversion biz. Where there’s one sucker with too much money, there are likely to be more.
My familie’s ’70 Westy weekender had the sink, a futon in the back, a fold-up picnic table, crank-style side windows, a hammock over the front seats and a plug-in on the side. That was it. No stove and no pop-top.
Paul,
Following your build and thanks for the update. Type windows? And are you stay with rear entry?
I’ll do a more thorough update when I get a bit further along. These are European-style Seitz imitation windows which are now available through a new distributor, Tern Overland. because there was a major screw up on the delivery times on one window, I only got charged for 2 of the 3. And as it turned out, I didn’t need them last summer anyway.
https://www.ternoverland.com/eurovision-windows
And yes, I’m saying with the rear entry floor plan. The more I’ve refined it, the better I like it.
Santa Cruz has these in droves. Same demographic.
Maybe it’s the angle of the shot, but that rear bench appears to have very limited headroom to say the least, or is the platform above a fold out for sleeping etc?
It seems to me that the availability of long, high-roof vans from the factory is blurring the lines between Class B and Class C RVs. Although technically Class B, these enormous ProMaster and Transit and Sprinter vans are bigger than some Class C models from the past, without having to go through nearly as much of the conversion process, leaving a lot more dough to fit out the interior.
I watch a lot of YouTube videos featuring folks who live in vans like this, and I fantasize about it, but I’m pretty sure I’d be bored to tears.