Don Horner
2012 Unity IB
Howdy; I'm Don and my lovely wife is Betsy. I just joined this forum; I've lurked on some Yahoo groups but never participated much because I'm not keen on the format. I'm glad to see this forum.
We bought a 2005 LTV Free Spirit LSS model in November, 2005 from the original owner, who had it about 10 months and put about 7,500 miles on it. He was about to take an assignment in Europe and didn't want the van to sit for 6 months or more. It's based on a 2004 Freightliner chassis.
We had just returned from a trip to Florida's only LTV dealer. They handle most of the Sprinter conversion vans, and we had decided the LTV was the one we wanted. However, I didn't care for the salesman. So, when we returned home (the dealer is about 150 miles away), I looked for some other place to buy a LTV. I stumbled across the ad from the seller of our van, discovering that he lived only about 40 miles away. A quick phone call, a look-see the next morning, and we were the proud owners at a decent savings.
It's equipped with the rear electric sofa/bed, a swivel passenger seat (that seems pretty useless, as the passger door has to be opened to turn it), the Firestone Ride Right rear air bags, standard steel wheels, and most of the other more-or-less normal stuff -- generator, awning, etc.
I sold an older 28' Class A Pace Arrow and got rid of both my Windstar and my Dakota pickup, and use the Sprinter as my daily driver as well as an RV. Three insurance/registration bills replaced with one! My wife would not drive the Pace Arrow or any other RV, even a class C, but she'll drive the Sprinter. This is kind of handy since I have a pesky heart problem and she may have to drive it home, some day.
We now have close to 20,000 miles with few problems (the worst was my awning collapse which I discussed in another thread). I had the first service done at a Dodge dealer; I'm about to go back to the selling dealer for the first time for my next service. I have a couple of very minor issues to have resolved, such as a leak around the shaft of the TV antenna.
We love it. It suits us perfectly, and we get a little smug when traveling with our friends in their huge Class A machines. We go places they can't, spend a heck of a lot less money, and seem to have far fewer problems. The best mileage I've seen was 23.3, and that was holding it at 60 MPH. I guess I have a heavy foot, because I usually average about 20 MPG.
As time goes on, most of my questions will probably sound a little stupid because I'm surely not as familiar with the vans, the people at LTV, electronics, etc. as many of the rest of you. But, I'm sure hoping to learn.
We bought a 2005 LTV Free Spirit LSS model in November, 2005 from the original owner, who had it about 10 months and put about 7,500 miles on it. He was about to take an assignment in Europe and didn't want the van to sit for 6 months or more. It's based on a 2004 Freightliner chassis.
We had just returned from a trip to Florida's only LTV dealer. They handle most of the Sprinter conversion vans, and we had decided the LTV was the one we wanted. However, I didn't care for the salesman. So, when we returned home (the dealer is about 150 miles away), I looked for some other place to buy a LTV. I stumbled across the ad from the seller of our van, discovering that he lived only about 40 miles away. A quick phone call, a look-see the next morning, and we were the proud owners at a decent savings.
It's equipped with the rear electric sofa/bed, a swivel passenger seat (that seems pretty useless, as the passger door has to be opened to turn it), the Firestone Ride Right rear air bags, standard steel wheels, and most of the other more-or-less normal stuff -- generator, awning, etc.
I sold an older 28' Class A Pace Arrow and got rid of both my Windstar and my Dakota pickup, and use the Sprinter as my daily driver as well as an RV. Three insurance/registration bills replaced with one! My wife would not drive the Pace Arrow or any other RV, even a class C, but she'll drive the Sprinter. This is kind of handy since I have a pesky heart problem and she may have to drive it home, some day.
We now have close to 20,000 miles with few problems (the worst was my awning collapse which I discussed in another thread). I had the first service done at a Dodge dealer; I'm about to go back to the selling dealer for the first time for my next service. I have a couple of very minor issues to have resolved, such as a leak around the shaft of the TV antenna.
We love it. It suits us perfectly, and we get a little smug when traveling with our friends in their huge Class A machines. We go places they can't, spend a heck of a lot less money, and seem to have far fewer problems. The best mileage I've seen was 23.3, and that was holding it at 60 MPH. I guess I have a heavy foot, because I usually average about 20 MPG.
As time goes on, most of my questions will probably sound a little stupid because I'm surely not as familiar with the vans, the people at LTV, electronics, etc. as many of the rest of you. But, I'm sure hoping to learn.