2006 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter

Van Camper

2.7L Inline 5 Turbo-diesel

5-speed Automatic

WDYPD644365910373

Clear

Diesel

What is for sale?We are selling our beloved camper van, Rosie. We bought her a little over a year ago as an empty cargo van, spent a few months doing the camper build-out, then left our jobs and hit the road. We have been living in her full time since the end of January. It has been a great adventure! It is now time for us to go back to work, but we would like to see Rosie continue her adventure without us. She needs a new owner to make this happen!The main goals we had for the build were as follows:Stealth! Just in case we needed to sleep sneakyOff grid! We want to be able "satellite," or dispersed camp on National Forest and BLM lands with ease. No hookups, no need to find an RV park every night, just freedomGear storage! We fit a full ensemble of bicycle touring gear, climbing gear AND backpacking gear into her, and still have living spaceLuxury! We can’t really call ourselves ‘dirtbags’ since we have a fancy stove, fridge and home office… We picked out a small sample of pictures for the eBay ad, but you can see additional pictures and videos here:Exterior in Flat LightExterior in Direct SunlightExterior walk-around videoInterior as it will be deliveredInterior with our stuff in it for an exampleInterior video tourShamelessly promotional pictures of Rosie in Beautiful settings from our trip this year Why eBay?We thought about just selling her on Craigslist, but we didn’t know how to set a price. We just built exactly what we wanted for our gap year. We have met a lot of people this year who were interested in the van, and received good feedback on the buildout quality, so we figure that we can let the masses decide what she is worth. We think she is probably worth more than $0 and less than a brand new Sportsmobile that starts at $75,000 Potential problems with eBay…The first problem with eBay is that it relies at the core on trust. From our side, we intend to demonstrate trustworthiness by being very honest with the description, and by putting up as many (maybe too many?) pictures and videos as possible. Some of our pictures and videos show our faces, so you know that we are real, trustworthy people. I don't need to say this, but please do not bid unless you are serious! Thanks :)The second problem with eBay is you see a lot of items that are thousands of miles away, which you couldn't reasonably get to your location after purchase. We are currently in California, and are heading back to work in North Carolina. If you are located reasonably close to either location, or near a reasonably straight line between them, we can probably work out a deal to deliver her to you on the way.Ok, onto the description… Mechanical DescriptionRosie is a 2006 Freightliner Sprinter 2500. These vans came in two different lengths. Rosie is the shorter, 140 inch wheelbase version, so it parks easier than some full-size pickup trucks. Although it says Freightliner on the badge, she is Mercedes-Benz underneath (the same van was also sold with a Dodge badge). This was done to avoid import tariffs, it is a strange story if you are interested in looking it up. If you poke around on google, you will also learn that these vans are known for longevity and excellent fuel consumption. This year we met an older couple with a similar van that was approaching 900,000 miles! (True, but likely not typical). We’ve tracked our fuel consumption since we’ve owned her, and our numbers are as follows: worst tank 20.3 MPG, best tank 26.8 MPG, average 24.5 MPG.The van is in excellent mechanical condition. We drove it just under 30,000 miles this year, and it has been 100% reliable. It drives straight and true and everything works properly. AC is cold. Doors seal tight. Power windows, power locks, power mirrors, cruise control, basic aftermarket stereo with AUX, USB, and SD card input. Maintenance SummaryMileage 139099Bought vanAll five glow plugs replaced newNew glow plug timerNew intercooler resonatorNew starter batteryNew wiper blades Mileage 140599Fresh synthetic engine oil and filter Mileage 142078New fuel filterTwo new tires (Throw rear tires away, new tires on front, old fronts on rear) Mileage 149986Fresh synthetic engine oil and filter Mileage 159528Two new tires (New tires on rear), all 4 tires match now Mileage 161355Two new brake light bulbs Mileage 163357Fresh synthetic engine oil and filterTransmission service, new fluid, filter, and gaskets What’s not perfectRosie is 10 years old and was a fleet cargo vehicle before we bought her. Well maintained but a working vehicle. The body has its fair share of minor dents, dings, etc. The previous owner sealed small nicks in the paint chips with spray paint, which prevented rust, but looks a bit funny when viewed from the just the right angle. Thankfully, white paint matches white paint pretty well. If you are concerned about paint quality, look at the pictures carefully. A few of the little vent fins that aim the heat and air conditioning air are broken inside (again, look in the pictures.) The rear step is a little bit bent, I think someone gently backed into a loading dock once? It is still solid. See pictures. There are two small chips in the windshield, one that won’t grow, and one that looks like it might grow but it hasn’t started to do so. See pictures. The flooring is a little scratched, once again, see pictures. Interior Camper Van BuildNow the fun part! We built out Rosie to be our adventure-mobile for hiking, biking, and climbing. All of our gear stores well inside, there is a comfortable kitchen, desk/table, and folding bed. We built Rosie to “satellite” camp on national forest and BLM land, as well as in highway rest areas, Walmart parking lots, and streets in front of friends houses. Rosie is not built for RV parks. There is nowhere to plug in shore power, and no waste-water storage abilities. There are also full stealth blackout curtains, so you can sleep in privacy wherever you find yourself. All interior wooden parts are made of good quality materials (no particle board!), sealed/painted inside and out, and fully glued with Titebond II. Everything is solid and there are no squeaks or creaks. Everything has held up well to 10 months of full-time living. Main Interior Features:125 amp hour AGM house battery (separate from engine start battery).Sure Power battery isolator (this means that the engine charges the house battery, and once you park you can run the house battery completely dead, and the van will still start).Fantastic Fan Roof vent. 3 speeds and manual crank open and closing.Renogy Solar Panel system. 200W rated output. This charges the house battery.Webasto X100 glasstop cook stove that runs on Diesel from the main fuel tank. No propane to keep full and worry about. All exhaust gases are pumped outside the van, so you can cook with all the doors shut and sealed without worrying about carbon monoxide poisoning of similar issues. Easy push-button start and control.Isotherm 2.3 cubic foot refrigerator. Runs on 12V DC power, again, no propane. This is a real refrigerator, not an “electric cooler”. It reliably holds a stable temperature like a household fridge. It is very quiet and efficient.1500W full sine power inverter. This makes household power for your electronics. Full-sine inverters are more expensive, but produce a clean sine wave so everything works properly. We originally had a cheaper model and our hair clippers wouldn’t work. Two house-style plugs and 4 USB charging ports.Plenty of storage. Cupboards, drawers, shelves, bins, etc. See pictures and videos.Internal bicycle storage on full extension drawer slides. See pictures and video.Folding bed (Queen size width, 5 foot 9 inch length).A little over 13 gallons of fresh water storage.Kitchen sink with foot-pumped spray nozzle. Drains onto the ground behind the right rear tire. You can add a few pots of boiling water and have a hot shower, so long as you don't mind standing outside the sliding door!LED interior lighting. Ambient general lighting on one switch, kitchen task light on second switch. Bike garage and bench box lit on switches at rear of van.Wall mounted bottle opener on the side of sink cabinet, accessible from outside sliding door.Lower walls, sliding door, and rear doors are stuffed with household insulation. Upper walls, ceiling, and floor have one inch of foam insulation. Other Notes:You may want to replace the foam mattress in the back. It is just a thin queen size foam from Ikea. We can provide you with instructions on how to cut it so it fits properly and folds easily.We have three keys for the van, the original 'switchblade" style key, and two flat keys we had made. In pictures.We still have all the manuals and applicable warranty papers (where applicable) for the interior appliances/devices, will include them.We are currently living in Rosie, so mileage is still increasing. Right now we are a little under 167,000.We just hit 'post' and got eyes on the 'autocheck' for the first time. It is flagging the odometer reading as 'potentially tampered with'. It looks to us like somebody epic-failed at typing in a reading at some point....otherwise they went through a lot of (illegal) effort to roll back an odometer by 4000 miles....hardly seems worth the effort? There is a photo of the current digital ODO reading posted. This isn't 'Matilda'....you can't just roll it back with a power drill these days. To the best of our knowledge, nothing has been tampered with. It seems as though the powers that be have just decided to give us a kick in the butt to deal with. We have submitted a correction request. In Closing: We are pretty sad to be selling Rosie after having so much fun with her. A lot of our friends are telling us we are crazy! But in the end it doesn't make sense for us to keep her since we are both going to be working full time again. We hope that Rosie's next family has as much fun with her as we did! Please feel free to reach out to us with any questions, or just to introduce yourself and open a line of communication. We will be checking in at least daily. We are happy to set up an online video or phone meeting if you'd like to discuss something in person. Happy bidding!On Nov-12-15 at 11:55:03 PST, seller added the following information: .On Nov-12-15 at 14:15:19 PST, seller added the following information: The 'AutoCheck' score for Rosie is 91/100 (great!).It is being incorrectly posted on this page as 54/100 (not great!). If you click through to the actual AutoCheck report, ('Vehicle History Report' tab) you will see the true report. Sorry for the gigantic eye-burning text! We are trying to compete visually with the incorrect score displayed above.AutoCheck had an error in their odometer data for the van, which has now been corrected. However, eBay doesn't allow an update to the preview on the main page of the ad. We have been on the phone all morning with eBay trying to fix it (fun!). They admit the mistake is on their end, but apparently the only way to correct the error is to cancel the auction and re-list. We don't want to inconvenience any of you wonderful people by interrupting the auction, so we will have to leave it as is. We are sorry for the long convoluted story, we are just trying to live up to our promise to be as honest as possible. Sorry for any confusion! Oh, also! We forgot to list in the options section that Rosie also has electrically adjustable height for the low-beam headlights. How cool is that?! (We only discovered this relatively recently) On Nov-15-15 at 14:13:10 PST, seller added the following information: Many people have reached out and introduced themselves (with full names/personal details) alongside asking questions. We elected not to share these questions on the main page to maintain privacy for those ebay users. Here is a summary of questions asked in private thus far: Drive and Clearance:Rosie is rear-wheel drive only with excellent ground clearance. She has traversed roads such as the route into Black Velvet Canyon in Red Rock climbing area, the back road up to Gooseberry Mesa in Utah and a couple of ATV/UTV ‘roads’ in Moab area (sometimes climbing areas are a little remote….). She does well off-road as long as you are happy with “Slow and steady” to keep from shaking your house too hard. The Stove: The Stove! This is one of Rosie’s BEST features. This stove is not an open flame, pot-charring, camp stove (we have one of those for backpacking!). This is a glass-top stove that allows for cooking/simmering/preparing things that are more elaborate than classic 1-pot camping meals. We have eaten like kings this year. The stove is awesome. The Fridge: The fridge is efficient and quiet. The solar power is more than sufficient to keep up, even in the winter when the sun is low and it is partially cloudy. We have never come home to a warm fridge. After a four-day Grand Canyon hike, we came back to cold beers =). Why 2006? The 2006 model is the last year (i.e. newest model) that still maintains the old (and more efficient!) inline-5 engine. Could you install a second battery? We considered a second battery while designing, so we tried to ensure it would fit in case we decided to add it retroactively. (This is the battery we used: http://www.amazon.com/Vmaxtanks-Vmaxslr125-rechargeable-Solar-Inverters/dp/B00ACNO2AO/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1447381954&sr=8-3&keywords=AGM+battery) You could slot a second battery under the fridge in parallel to the first. It would be tight to the inverter but would fit. California Emissions Standard: Yes, Rosie meets California emissions standards. We added this picture of a sticker on top of the engine: http://i.imgur.com/vUN0m1o.jpg the key phrase is on the third line "(50-State Certified)"On Nov-17-15 at 15:52:40 PST, seller added the following information: Reserve Price Questions: We have had a lot of questions asking us to disclose the Reserve Price, and we haven’t done so. Today we started questioning why not? There is mixed information and opinions about this, but one thing that stood out is that apparently it is common for sellers to set ridiculous reserve prices that are never reached, which just wastes everybody’s time. That seems crummy. We maybe should have just started the auction at our reserve price? Whoops? We are not eBay pros, remember? This is actually our first time! So, in the interest of straightforwardness, the Reserve price is $20,000. We chose this as it is the absolute minimum to not quite recoup the value of the empty van and the raw materials for the build. We are not trying to get rich here! :) We are looking to get a fair price that considers the design effort, craftsmanship, and over 900 man (and lady!)-hours that went into the build. We are not desperate to sell Rosie, we just think it is the logical thing to do. We know Rosie is unique, so she is hard to price. (This has been our problem since the beginning!) A potential data-point to consider is the ‘conversion package only’ listings on eBay. You supply an empty cargo van, and they charge $25,000 to $45,000 (depending on the build options) just for the conversion. With Rosie, the van is included :) Now we all have the same information and can enjoy the last three days of the auction with no secrets. Once again, Happy Bidding!