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Camping in a Mercedes Sprinter RV is far from roughing it
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The 2025 Mercedes Sprinter has all-wheel-drive, not four-wheel drive
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The 2025 Mercedes Sprinter costs $53,125
“We have a hotel room for you in case you decide to bail on this idea.”
That was the last thing I was told before closing the sliding door to the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter RV van at 10:30 pm at night. I was volun-told that I’d be sleeping here as a part of my assignment that included driving the Mercedes E 53 AMG plug-in hybrid—cool—and seeing its new Manufaktur line of custom options. Also cool.
Sleeping in a van? Not just cool. Downright cold.
Spoiler alert: Not only did I not bail on sleeping in the RV, I offered to do it a second night instead of sleeping in a hotel room. Apparently that wasn’t on the table.
So, tucked in my four-wheeled hotel suite, I spent the night in a Euro-spec Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van RV conversion on the side of a mountain in the Austrian Alps. When I woke up the next morning in a winter wonderland I wasn’t sure if this was heaven for skiers and van dwellers, or just the Alps in December. Maybe it was both.
Either way, this isn’t the #VanLife as seen on YouTube. To the guy that bought a Toyota Sienna and modified it for #VanLife, eat your heart out.
Mercedes-Benz Sprinter RV conversion
Mercedes-Benz Sprinter RV conversions: Your configuration may vary
I should start with the disclaimer that the Sprinter RV conversion I stayed in was a Euro-spec Grand Canyon S 700 built by Hymer. It doesn’t exist in the U.S., but something similar is built by Thor. You can’t replicate this, but it’ll be similar enough.
The Grand Canyon has all the amenities. A full-size bed in the back that would easily fit my wife and I comfortably with a thick mattress. It has a bathroom with toilet, shower, sink, and even a swiveling wall to contain the water during shower time. The kitchen has a two-burner gas stove, sink, fridge, and four drawers for storage.
Mercedes-Benz Sprinter RV conversion
Mercedes-Benz Sprinter RV conversion
Mercedes-Benz Sprinter RV conversion
The storage. Oh, is there storage. The entire back half of the RV from the above the cooktop has all kinds of niches and nacelles, that wrap around the sleeping area, and back to the bathroom, which had roof-mounted storage separated with internal walls and locking doors so as to not fly open while driving. More storage tucked under the bed. It wouldn’t be hard to keep and stay organized if you lived here.
The laminate woof flooring paired with the cabinetry’s neutral beiges, (presumably fake or laminated) wood, silver metal bits for the cabinet locks with leather pull straps giving it an Ikea vibe, but without the Ikea build-it-yourself quality. Every latch opened with a click, every door and panel swung open and then closed with a thunk. It felt solid.
A U.S.-spec build would differ in the details, but the RV I slept in had fresh water and waste water tanks, heater, inverter, lots of LED lighting, and a touchscreen control system. The entire thing looked pretty similar to a lot of #VanLife Sprinter RV conversions on Instagram in America.
Mercedes-Benz Sprinter RV conversion
The Sprinter RV conversion is sized for two
At least the one I slept in was. Yes, there were four seats with seat belts–two up front in the cabin and two seat belts at the bench seat at the “kitchen table”–but four people would be very close, probably too close, inside. Instead, imagine working remotely while someone drove the RV to a new natural wonder. I’m getting empty-nester ideas already.
There are compromises, though. Immediately after shutting the sliding door I noted two things: the walkway isn’t wide and I needed to use the lock and unlock button on the driver’s door or key fob to lock that sliding door. You know, in case some random person celebrating Krampus tried to come visit me in the middle of the night’s snow storm on the mountain. I locked the door with the key fob to a satisfying mechanical locking sound.
Mercedes-Benz Sprinter RV conversion
Unpacking wasn’t a chore, but not living in this RV beyond one night proved interesting. The front passenger seat ended up serving as my suitcase storage while the front driver seat and steering wheel were my clothes rack. All the windows already had their accordion blinds drawn so no one could judge my sloppy living situation.
Before bed it was time to get some work done on my Mercedes-Benz Maufaktur story. The leather-covered bench seat at the kitchen table looked like it had a backrest that was too upright, but was really comfortable. The table and bench for two were just the right size for a computer bag, me, and my computer, external hard drive, DSLR camera gear, and associated cords. An outlet sat conveniently just to the left of the table.
Mercedes-Benz Sprinter RV conversion
Getting ready for bed proved the bathroom uses space wisely. We’ll get to the shower bit in the morning, but the sink itself folds up and down to save space when not in use. The faucet sits low above the sink, but then can be raised up for shower time.
Knowing it would be cold and not realizing just how piping hot the camper’s heater would get, I brought joggers to sleep in. Turns out the heater in the camper is like a sauna. I turned the heat down to 19.0 degrees C (66.2 degrees F) to sleep with a bit of a chill in the air. Or so I thought.
Turning off the lights proved to be an adventure itself as the switches, which were labeled with graphics that weren’t terribly indicative of which lights they controlled, worked when they wanted and sometimes not at all. Lots of clicking, but eventually suddenly the entire RV was dark. I later realized there’s another set back by the bed. If I’d known that, I wouldn’t have had to walk the galley in the dark.
At two in the morning, I woke in a sweat—not out of fear of Krampus, not to the wind–the RV’s shockingly well insulated against outside noise–and not to snow swirling against the RV’s body. I woke to the entire RV roasting me like a sauna despite turning the heater down before bed. In the dark using my phone’s flashlight I climbed out of bed, woke the roof-mounted touchscreen in the cab, and turned the heater down now to 16 degrees C (60 degrees F) in hopes things would cool off. Opening a window seemed ballsy given the weather.
Mercedes-Benz Sprinter RV conversion
My alarm went off at 4:50 a.m., and I then found the light switch controls by the bed, finally. Time for coffee—only to find the RV’s stove grates aren’t sized for a Moka pot. The pot was going to fall over, so I improvised and used a pan as a base to hold the Moka pot. Coffee in hand, I slid into the bench at the table to get some work done. The heat pumped out of the vent near my feet and was definitely warmer than 68 degrees, but it felt nice. Suddenly, while sitting at the table I was accurately aware of a clock-like tick-tock noise. I was never able to figure out where it was coming from or which system was producing it. Some people might find it soothing while others might be driven insane. Your experience may vary.
Mercedes-Benz Sprinter RV conversion
Mercedes-Benz Sprinter RV conversion
Time for a shower in a Sprinter RV
The Mercedes Van team warned me that the cork-like floor panels (there’s two) on the floor of the bathroom need to be pulled up and not in there while showering, as they aren’t meant to get wet. They keep your feet off the actual fiberglass floor to keep them clean, dry, and sanitary when using the bathroom. The two panels pop up and can be placed in the main camper area.
The bathroom itself is not going to be big enough to take your clothes in to change once it’s all wet in there, but there’s a hook in the back by the toilet where you can bring your towel. A small storage cubby near the roof above the toilet will hold undergarments if you feel the need. A neat slate-like door that locks up against the outside wall can be unlatched. It swings beyond the sink and out to the bathroom door. Then a plastic partition on the other wall can be unlocked and it slides to hold that slate-like partition open. This creates a wall that blocks off the toilet and towel hanging area in the back of the bathroom to keep it all dry. Slick. With the sink folded and the shower head moved up, taking a shower was no big deal. At 5-foot-10 with a medium build I had room to wash without issue, but a super-sized American or tall Swede might feel constrained in there.
Mercedes people had warned me the Eco setting for the water heater would probably be fine, but that there was a Warm setting via the touchscreen. Not one to leave things to chance I slid the controls to Warm before hopping in the shower. I could’ve probably legitimately burned myself as I couldn’t turn the water temp past the three-quarter mark, and I took a hot shower.
Suddenly it’s 7:50 a.m. and time to take a ride in the CLA EV prototype, but we can’t talk about that yet. I packed up my suitcase from my makeshift closet up front and opened the blinds on the windshield. The entire windshield was covered in snow. I unlocked the RV, opened the door, and snow was swirling around outside. It was a winter blizzard wonderland. This Minnesota boy was in heaven—or, the Alps, the next best thing.
Mercedes-Benz Sprinter RV conversion
The Mercedes Sprinter RV laughs at winter blizzards
The Euro-spec Sprinter’s 190-hp turbodiesel inline-4 fired right up despite the cold. In the U.S. our Sprinter has a turbodiesel inline-4 as well, but ours has either 168 hp and 295 lb-ft of torque or 208 hp and 332 lb-ft of torque. The former is for rear-wheel drive while the latter is for all-wheel drive.
Yes, the Sprinter vans now have all-wheel drive, not true four-wheel drive. Mercedes-Benz spokesperson Iain Forsyth confirmed the 2-speed transfer case and four-wheel-drive system are gone due to cost, complexity, and use cases. Forsyth noted that even RV conversion buyers in the U.S. weren’t going anywhere near the Sprinter’s true off-road capabilities, so the system was overkill on all fronts.. The all-wheel-drive system can shift the power from 0-100% between the front and rear axles. In normal driving conditions power is routed entirely to the rear wheels, but the multi-plate clutch pack engages and can move power all to the front depending on slip and conditions.
Mercedes-Benz Sprinter RV conversion
Even on BFGoodrich KO2 all-terrain tires, which are absolutely not winter tires, the Sprinter RV had zero issues making it up a mountain pass in near whiteout blizzard conditions. The 8.1 inches of ground clearance didn’t hurt. But the real treat was the system’s stability control, which even let the rear end kick out–not sure I’d advise drifting the Sprinter RV in a blizzard, but you could–while still keeping things under control. The automatic clutch pack is a torque-on-demand system that engages without user intervention seamlessly.
Mercedes-Benz Sprinter RV conversion
Driving through the storm I quickly realized that the way Hymer installed the front window shades on the doors made it somewhat uncomfortable to rest my arm on the door sill. That would be annoying on a road trip, though it’s unclear if this is how Thor sets U.S. models up.
Mercedes-Benz Sprinter RV conversion
For 2025 the Sprinter costs $53,125 including a $2,295 destination charge. It also gets an optional 10.3-inch touchscreen and a bevy of active safety tech including blind-spot monitors, surround-view camera system, rear camera mirror, and active lane control. I also noted an available heated windshield option exists, which would’ve been pretty clutch last week.
#VanLife in a Sprinter is far from roughing it. The latest Sprinter might be a little less capable than before, but it still can get through blizzards, to beaches, and through forest roads—and it’s sleepworthy, to boot. Pack accordingly.
Mercedes-Benz paid for travel, provided the van, but nature provided the mountain and blizzard to bring you this test drive (sleep?) review.
