2004 Mercedes Sprinter 3500 camper van

What is for sale:

You are bidding on our trusty 2004 Freightliner SHC Sprinter 3500, who we call Migaloo. First, I must say, that I cannot imagine a better vehicle to travel around the country and experience the van life! What a great adventure it has been! This van is the perfect outlet to help you get out on the road reliably! Below is a description of the van and the build. We will be as honest as possible about what is great and what is not so great.

We are selling our camper van on Ebay auction since it is a unique vehicle and difficult to price outright . We built out our van exactly how we had wished and have received good feedback about the buildout quality throughout our trip. We decided the best thing to do is to let the auction decide what it is worth. We think she is probably worth more than $0 and less than a brand new Sportsmobile that starts at $75,000.The reserve on the van would be selling the van at a small loss to us in terms of the money we put it and the 100's of man hours involved in the build. We intend on demonstrating trustworthiness throughout the process and will post as many pictures and video’s as possible. The van is currently in Pittsburgh, PA and we may be heading back to Charlotte, NC soon if that at all helps with your needs. Otherwise the buyer will be responsible for pickup.

Vehicle Details:

Make: Freightliner (but really Mercedes, every part on this van is Mercedes)

Year/Model: 2004 Sprinter 3500 SHC (super high ceiling) 158 inch wheelbase (longest of that year)

Engine: 2.7L inline 5 cylinder automatic Mercedes turbo diesel (has ability to manually shift up or down)

Drive: Rear wheel drive with Dual wheels

Options: Anti-lock brakes, driver/passenger air bag, JVC stereo with Bluetooth aux and USB (no CD player), Cruise control, Power Windows, Power locks, Spare tire, Towing package with brake assist,

Fuel Mileage: Roughly 17 mpg Highway and 13 mpg city measured occasionally

The Camper Build:

The build was completed in September of 2016 with the goal to live in and travel around North America full-time. Our trip has come to an end and all of our build components have held up strong and are working as originally intended. Our main focus was skiing at ski resorts around the country and before that, backpacking the national parks. All inside wooden parts are made with quality wood, painted, glued and screwed. There are no squeaks are creaks while driving. The van has been built for boondock camping so there are no shore power hook ups. The house battery is charged by the solar panels on the roof and the alternator of the van while driving. There is also no gray water storage.

Our goals for the build:

-Internal gear storage, for our purposes skiing and backpacking

-Stealth. We kept a very basic cargo van look on the exterior for occasional camping on the streets and parking lots.

-Off the grid camping (boondocking) no need for hookups and the ability to park anywhere the van can get! An amazing feature!

-A mix of luxury (read: electricity, cold drinks, and a way to cook food easily) while living in a van

Kitchen features:

-12v Norcold NR751BB Marine refrigerator 2.7 cubic feet with freezer section.

-A large full-extension soft-close drawer for a stove and storage is above the refrigerator (stove is not included, but cheap at any outdoor store or Walmart).

-4 full-extension soft-close drawers for storage.

-sink that uses a 3-gallon helio shower with a 7ft hose (included in sale)

-two 5-gallon water storage containers (included in sale)

-extra storage below the sink.

-Overhead storage (used as pantry)

Battery/ electrical features:

-155-amp hour AGM house battery (separate from engine battery), there is also room for more batteries to be added in parallel

-Eaton 100 amp uni-directional battery separator (charging through Van alternator while driving, but house battery will not use energy from the engine battery)

-Sunforce Pro-series pure sine wave 1000W inverter to run AC devices

-Renogy solar panel system 150W output with MPPT charge controller (charges house battery)

-Fan-tastic vent fan model 807350 rain sensing, 10-speed, remote controlled, air-in/air-out (top of the line vent fan)

-6 LED ceiling lights

-Many LED strip lights: sliding door entry way, over-cabin shelf, over kitchen, and underbed

-Two outward facing LED flood lights for when you are outside the van at night

Bed features:

-Slide in and out bed style to make walk-through easy

-easy access under bed storage with netting and lighting

-Ability to make into L couch when having visitors

-Currently we have an 8-inch foam Ikea mattress. It is sectionalized for sliding in and out.

Mattress will be included.

-The mattress is full size and sleeps 2, lengthwise

-All wood was treated with sealant for waterproofing and all joints are glued and screwed.

Gear storage:

-Passenger side rear wall was framed with 1x3’s and covered with peg board for gear storage.

-Option to use peg hangers for lighter stuff or screw into wood frame for heavier gear

-We stored ski’s, bikes, camping chairs, tables, ladders and many other things from the gear wall with great success.

-Other gear storage would go under bed

Passenger side storage area:

-Floor to ceiling cabinet with 4 shelves, mostly used for clothes and shoes

-Thetford 260B Porta Potti stored in cabinet

-Other storage area with 3 shelves

Floor/Wall/Ceiling:

-Walls and ceiling have been insulated with basic house insulation to roughly R15 insulation factor

-Floor is insulated with ¾ inch foamboard

-Walls are paneled with a wood look ¼ inch paneling

-Ceiling is ¼ inch plywood painted and sectioned with stained trim

-Flooring is a wood-look peel and stick vinyl

Cabin features:

-Driver and Passenger swivel seats

-JVC KD-x330BT stereo includes Bluetooth audio and calling, aux port, USB port with ipod/iphone control, remote controller

-Two 6x9 speakers added behind driver and passenger seats.

-Window shades for all windows: double layered reflectex for keeping temperatures controlled and light out

-Blackout curtains separating cabin from living space

Other notes:

-We have two keys, one is the switchblade key fob the other we had made

-All service manuals and current maintenance records will be included

-We have a clean NC title in hand

-Interior head clearance is 5’ 11”-6 ft

- the space between the sink and the bed is the perfect size for a 36Lx24wx24h dog cage folded up

- The space between the kitchen cabinet and the passenger side cabinet is the perfect size to fit a 36Lx24wx24h dog cage opened up in case you have a furry friend!

See migaloo in action here

See our video tour of the van here

See photos of migaloo as sold here

See the process of our build out here

See engine start and daytime walk around here

Mechanical description:

Migaloo is a 2004 Freightliner high roof Sprinter 3500. It is the longer of the two wheel bases at 158 in wheel base, but the van is great to drive! We have driven through cities with ease and over rough high clearance roads with no problem. The ground clearance plus the rugged tires made the van handle great in off the beaten path roads, snow, and all conditions. The badge says Freightliner but the van was built by Mercedes and they sold the van under both freightliner and dodge badges. The 2004-2006 Sprinters are known to be some of the most reliable vehicles with the capability to reach 1 million miles (not common but it happens!). The engine works and sounds great, with no weird sounds or shakes!

The mileage may seem high but the van is in great mechanical condition! We have driven about 30,000 miles on her and it has been extremely reliable. We have kept up with all preventative maintenance opportunities. AC is cold, heat is hot, power locks, power windows, cruise control, after market stereo with added speakers. There is no major body rust! The body and structure are in great shape with the majority of its life in North Carolina! I just

Maintenance summary:

Purchased at 231,305 miles

-Van was owned by a local industrial controls company in the Raleigh, NC area (basically no rust anywhere!).

-I would assume that this means they were not hauling very heavy cargo or towing anything (good for the engine!).

-All maintenance was performed regularly at the dealership that we purchased it from (Nicholas Dodge in Burlington NC).

-From an initial inspection, we were told that the rear half of the drive shaft looked quite new and the turbo was also quite new (both good things!).

Mileage 231,607

-6 new tires: Kumho Road venter AT51 +balance

Mileage 234,000

-Oil changed: full synthetic 0W40 new oil filter

Mileage 238,851

-Preventative maintenance inspection

-Front shocks and struts replaced

-Alignment

-Rear dually valve extenders installed

Mileage 246,585

-Oil changed: full synthetic 0W40 new oil filter

-Tire rotation

-Valve stem extenders removed

Mileage 253,452

-#4 fuel injector replaced

-#1 glow plug replaced

-Glow plug controller replaced

Mileage 258,948

-General preventive maintenance inspection

-Blower motor replaced

-Heater resistor pack replaced

-All rear brake lights replaced

-Headlight replaced

-New air filter

-New cabin air filter

-Transmission service, fluid change, filter change, magnet clean, new gasket

Mileage 259,555

-Oil changed with 0W40 full synthetic replaced filter

-Replaced fuel filter with OEM part

What’s not perfect

Migaloo is 13 years old and does have 260,000 miles on it and was a utility van in the past. The vehicle was well maintained by a single dealership before we bought her and has been kept up while we have been on the road and we believe there are tens of thousands of miles to still be enjoyed in this van. The paint is in fair condition, it has its dents and dings. As you can see in the photos the front hood and above the windshield have some paint peeling off. we are not sure why this happens, it seems as though the primer has separated from the top layer. We think a hood bra would cover that up and look pretty good, also the van could be painted or wrapped. Also, near the rear of the van there are remnants of the previous company’s logo. It was peeled off for us before we bought it but you can still see where it was in the right light. Personally, we don’t have a problem with this because it helps us achieve that “stealthy” “work van” appearance, but again can be covered with a wrap or something. Some of the vent adjusters broke out, this was a poor design as they are easy to pop out, but most of them were missing when we purchased the van, it didn’t bother us much. The windshield does have a few small chips, all have been through temperature cycles as low as -7 F to 80+F and none of them have propagated, I am confident that they won’t. Rear bumper is a little bent but it seems that every sprinter out there has had someone back into something, again, this was like that when we bought it. Power locks work, but sometimes the sliding door lock and the rear door locks are finicky, not the greatest design Mercedes had, all doors do lock securely. The rear passenger door was a little bent when we bought it. It doesn't leak but it isn't a perfect seal. We dealt with this through the winter in the Rockies and it never posed a problem.

Closing statement

We are pretty sad to sell our beloved van. We had such an amazing adventure with her and she treated us great! As we are going back to full time jobs, it just doesn’t make sense for us to keep her. We thought it best to pass Migaloo on to another adventurer and hope that they will have as much fun as we did with her.

Please feel free to reach out to us with any questions. We will be keeping an eye out for questions or concerns. We would be happy to meet with you if you would like to see the van or potentially do a video chat.

feel free to call if you have more questions: 814-341-8418