2019 Sprinter Crew Build

The expansion tank fill is just behind the headlight socket on the back of the head light housing and about 3” underneath the headlight socket. It will require a funnel to fill neatly, but could be done without in a pinch.
I chose to skip the electric heating option because I wil never ever be in a position to use it. If shore power is available you will never find me there! All of our use will be primitive, and I will have no shore power wiring to support it. I will however have the engine coolant heat exchanger in play as a back up the d5 furnace.

Finished my little “control panel” under the passenger seat base tonight. Holds a 150 amp breaker which also serves as a battery disconnect, rixen code reader, 110 plug to charge house batteries, and fuse block.

I have the Rixen system 98% in! The system is up and running. I have some cool ideas for the wiring, but I need to source some dash switches first. Which brings me to the curse (and one of the cool things) about this system. Because the components can be placed anywhere, and system flexibility so great the install begs for customization. If it’s all under a cabinet it would be pretty straight forward. Since I won’t have cabinets permanently installed everything has been hidden under the van or in the seat based. I personally have a hard time with heater hose passing through the body without bulkhead fittings, and wire connections with crimp connectors. I did mine with number 12 AN’s and made all the wiring harnesses terminate with weather pack connectors. Probably over kill, but will make service easy when and if that time comes.

I also finished putting in roof fans today. My knees will never be the same!

Any issues with the bigger tires messing with the cruise control or MBUX system?

I don’t have a ton of miles yet, but so far I have not had any issues some have reported with larger tires.

Finished getting the engine coolant loop tied into the Rixen heat exchanger tonight.
Tapped into the heater core line at the top of the fire wall. Was able to get everything connected so that no oem hoses were cut and if I were to have a leak or problem I could just reconnect at factory hardline and the engine coolant loop would bypass all the Rixen stuff.
I have a running van again! Stoked!!

I can finally put a done stamp on my passenger seat base.
There is A LOT going on under that thing...
All power distribution, battery disconnect,main fuses, fuse block, negative bus bars, Rixen wiring harness, Rixen heater core, battery charge port, Rixen code reader, and more.

Nothing is really on top of each other and everything is accessible individually for service. It took thee full mock ups to get this right, but I’m stoked on how it came out. I reserved some room for a stereo amp and pre wired for it in case I can’t figure out out to get the stock amp going under the driver seat base. (I think I am close to a solution on that topic however)

Last step was to add some thinsulate, which made a significant reduction in fan noise.

Small update..
Finished up closing up all the wiring today and getting the front floor reassembled.

Pros: The cable chase has plenty of room to run whatever you would like.

Cons: The factory harness is a MESS. They use some type of zip ty gun I'm sure, and it WAY over tightens them. In fact, one of the small 22awg wires coming off of a sensor on the chassis battery had been completely cut. I'm not sure what the sensors function is but is, but i reconnected it and all seems to be functioning ok. I drove almost 100 miles before reassembly. No check engine lights or otherwise..


The removal of the cable chase cover is tough and requires the driver seat base to be completely unbolted so you can raise it slightly and remove the translucent plastic cover. I trimmed the tabs locking it under the seat so that I would not need to mess with the seat base should it need to come apart again.

Overdue update:
Adventure Wagon 2.0 kit is in!!
I will have a more detailed photos up soon, along with some opinions on the kit.
I’m just pumped to have an assembled van for a minute or two before water system stuff goes in.

Looks great! I got the kit in December but I am quite a way behind compared to you. Did the A frame (S1-S4) in your kit come with the “kicks” at the bottom where you line up with the OEM hole and you have to use the index tool to get it aligned? Mine didn’t.


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wquek said:

Looks great! I got the kit in December but I am quite a way behind compared to you. Did the A frame (S1-S4) in your kit come with the “kicks” at the bottom where you line up with the OEM hole and you have to use the index tool to get it aligned? Mine didn’t.


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No kicks on my kit either..

Alrighty then.. I have a few weeks of daily driving on the van now with all electronics, Rixen kit, and Adventure wagon kit in.
Everything has been working great, and I have been over using all the systems of the van at a level I would considered, abusive. I just want to make sure failures happen in my driveway and not when my 4 year old is freezing at 3AM hours away from home.

It's been super cold here in Albuquerque and I'm happy with my decision to stay away from lithium batteries at this point. The Full River AGM's have been discharged and charged at the quickest rates I could possibly come up with and have been flawless.(they are stored in a Hein under van box) I have 2, 250ah batteries and capacity has been adequate for my weekender usage that I am planning for. I have prewired and built for an additional 2, 250ah batteries and don't see the need for them now.

The Rixen system has been great, and I have run it hard as well. The system is complicated to install, but most of that comes from component placement. The system itself is pretty simple once the components have been placed and connected. The Rixen people might not be a fan, but I took apart their circuit board and wired the control switches up to the dash. Now when its cold I just flip a switch next to the 4x4 low range switch and the system turns on my last thermostat setting and fires right up. Much easier that having to walk to the back and activate system.

Finally the Adventure wagon kit. First up is rattles.. I was deathly afraid of chasing down rattles and squeaks, and I'm happy to report the kit is QUITE. Rattles is the dominate reason I will never have another traditional motorhome. The quality of the kit also exceeded my expectations. The fit and finish of even the hidden components is fantastic. You can clearly see the amount of R&D in the kit as almost nothing required "massaging" for correct fitment.
Considering the amount of interfacing between, bracing, l-track, wall panels, factory mounting points, factory panels, etc. I have to take my hat off to those guys. Tolerances of all the components coming together is pretty amazing. The workmanship on the upholstery is also top notch.
Of special note was the Reflectix insulation installed on the back of the panels. The edges were cleanly trimmed out to the very very very edge so that the l-track would have a tight squeeze on the panel for a very tight fit.
Best of all I did this install in two days with only the help of my wife. The time element for me has a large value and I do most van work at night after work. This was a TON of progress in two Sundays.

Finally, an action shot!
Also, here is some early water system photos. The water system is actually much farther along, but I want to get some usage under my belt so I know it works well enough to share on the forum.

Hat's off to all of you DIY folks. I'm pretty much a dumba** who can't fathom doing even a fraction of this stuff. Kudos!

Long gap to this update but a ton has been done and the van is at a point were it is very useable. That excitement has prompted some use which has distracted from my end goal. I'll be honest too, it came at a good time. I was getting burnt out on this thing. The last few projects have been doozies.
First up was the coin flooring. On the surface this does not seem like a hard job, but like most flooring jobs in a home or otherwise they come out to be extremely labor intensive. In my case I bought the floor and glue from RB Components, and used some floor plugs from Hein to smooth things out.
I sanded down the entire floor to get a good surface for the glue to bond to. Then there is the glue, which comes in a one gallon pail and ended up being the perfect amount for a 144. The glue has ended up providing a great bond but was a absolute bear to get keep things glued together. The main issue comes from the stuff taking FOREVER to dry. If I had to do it over again I would still use the glue for its great bond, but I would be prepared with something to weight the floor down with for a good week. I ended up having to scramble to find items to put on the floor for a week.

Next up was the water tank cabinet. I ended up building three drafts until I got the fitment I wanted and hand enough room to fit all the valves and gear needed to make everything work.
I'm really proud of this one!
I have a 20 gallon tank mounted inside the van and another 20 gallon tank under the van in the spare tire location. I've gotten a couple strange looks when I tell van people I have 40 gallons of water storage, but when you have three small kids they get dirty A LOT.
There are two blue valve handles accessible on the cabinet. One valve diverts the fill water flow to the top or bottom tank, and the other valve controls the pull flow from the top or bottom tank. The Rixen system provides near instant hot water. I have also plumbed accommodations for a future interior sink with 5 gallon grey tank. (just another thing to build)
The tank cabinet is mounted very similarly to the Adventure Wagon "a frame" with 1/8th cold rolled plate and rivets into the van structure, and also into l-track studs along the rear of the van. It's very very solid and I have no fear of it coming loose in a crash and becoming a deadly projectile. I've gotten a couple of questions as well about why I didn't use PEX. The short answer is I feel like 1/2 hose would be way easier to service in the field if needed. No PEX clamps to jack with, no problems sourcing parts, no proprietary stuff. Just 1/2" hose and regular old hose clamps.
I wrapped the tank cabinet in coin as well. For this application I used loctite 3000 series high temp spray adhesive. The edges are all mechanically attached and the material was really stretched over the cabinet under heat so I was not as worried about adhesion as much as the floor.
The last thing on this portion of the build is to fab up a top for the cabinet. I wanted to do it in bamboo to match the van headliner, but finding bamboo in dimensional lumber sizes is hard unless you live in Portland. Everything seems to be warehoused there and shipping 96" boards is like brain damage expensive. I finally found some close to home however and will be doing that next week.
Wrapping this portion of the build up is really exciting, because not only is the van in a useable state (I could go camping tomorrow if I wanted) but it completes my idea that I could have big battery power, lots of water, hot water, and heat while only taking up very minimal floor space. I can fit three dirt bikes, three kids, two adults and all the crap I need to be comfortable for a weekend away. SO PUMPED!!

Looks great!

That looks great! Nice job keeping a good aesthetic while working with a lot of components.

Did you make your water tank that goes in the spare tire location? Or buy it? I'm looking for such a beast.

AndyMAC said:

Nice Van! Love the wheels. I have have the same Methods in Bronze.

Here is my solution for a family of five in a 144. My kids are 15, 14, and 12. It can be done successfully.

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Hey AndyMAC, do you have any more pictures of your bed setup? I’m looking to do something similar.

dbedy said:

Finally, an action shot!
Also, here is some early water system photos. The water system is actually much farther along, but I want to get some usage under my belt so I know it works well enough to share on the forum.

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Love seeing pics of dads and sons and motorcycles!!! Reminds me of the good old days racing around north Scottsdale! Don't miss all the broken clutch and front brake levers but that's part of it. Enjoy your van. What great family experiences you will have!!! The great thing about motorcycles, and I imagine other hobbies, is they keep your kids close to you for a long time. My step kids heard many times we're heading out at 6:30 am so don't be out all night partying, and they weren't. They wanted to ride!!!

Nice work on your van.... great to see it all come together. Smart idea connecting the engine heat exchanger the way you did.

Question on the engine coolant flow direction. Where you tied into the silver OEM coolant pipe with a 'U' hose back to the heat exchanger >> Is coolant flowing towards the heat exchanger from the U ? Or is coolant coming from the heat exchanger to the U ?

I'm at that spot on my Rixen install (..love the Rixen system) and am trying to determine which way the engine coolant is flowing.

thanks!

onlinesd said:

Nice work on your van.... great to see it all come together. Smart idea connecting the engine heat exchanger the way you did.

Question on the engine coolant flow direction. Where you tied into the silver OEM coolant pipe with a 'U' hose back to the heat exchanger >> Is coolant flowing towards the heat exchanger from the U ? Or is coolant coming from the heat exchanger to the U ?

I'm at that spot on my Rixen install (..love the Rixen system) and am trying to determine which way the engine coolant is flowing.

thanks!

Click to expand...

I'm interested how much more work was involved adding the engine coolant loop, and if I should include it in my Rixens order.