About the car

After having used our Mitsubishi L300 4 WD(Delica) for 12 years for our travels to different countries, it had now become time for a new vehicle. We chose a Mercedes Iglhaut Sprinter 4WD. For us it was very important that the new car would have a complete 4 –wheel drive with low gearing. Another important point was that the car had to be a bit larger than the L300, because we are going to be travelling for longer periods. On the other hand the new car should not be too large, because of the handling in difficult terrain. But also if you have ever driven through a small village in Greece you will understand why your car should not be too large. After we had looked at different models such as Iveco, Unimog, Landrover and different types of Toyota Landcruiser we chose the Mercedes Iglhaut Sprinter.

This car meets our needs the best. It’s a standard Sprinter, which was completely rebuilt in a real 4WD by Iglhaut, a specialist company in Germany. The car is also fitted out with cooking facilities, a fridge, cupboard space, several watertanks, a boiler, stove, extra batteries, solar panel, inverter 12v.-220v., waterfilters, GPS and an aircompressor.

Technical data car:

Mercedes–Benz Sprinter 316 CDI.
Wheelbase: 3000mm.

Engine:
5-cylinder Common Rail Diesel
Cyl. Capacity: 2688cc.
Max. Torque: 330NM.at 1400-2400 r.p.m.
Max. power:115 KW./156HP. at 3800 r.p.m.
Direct injection,4 valves per cylinder, VTG turbo and intercooler.

4WD.part:
Permanent 4WD.
Differential locks.
High and low gearing.

 

The interior:

For our cooking we chose a 2 ring Wallas hot plate, which runs on diesel and looks like a ceramic hot plate. However it is a closed system with the exhaust gas vented to the outside through a chimney. These hotplates were originally designed for yachts. The big advantage of this hotplate is that in the first instance you don’t need to install an ( explosive) gas installation and secondly you don’t have problems when you want to exchange your empty gas cylinder, in many countries that is a problem. What is also very interesting ,there is a type of lid available which you can put on the hotplate which then acts as a heater. The fridge is a Waeco compressor type, these work very well on 12V.,also when the car is tilting they remain working very well. For this fridge you don’t need any gas, and this model also has a so called cold buffer. This is a type of energy storage, which takes place while driving. If you then stop somewhere, this stored energy is used for cooling without any electricity being used. This can last for a max. of 12 hours. The boiler has a capacity of 40 litres and is heated by the cooling water system of the engine during driving. The contents remains warm for at least 2 days. The boiler can also be heated by the stove. The stove is built in as standard in the Sprinter, but has been extended with a control panel. This stove also runs on diesel and can pre heat the engine to prevent a cold start, it also can heat the interior. The solar panel has to keep the batteries charged up when the car is stationary. The inverter is intended for all the 220V. stuff, like a computer, battery chargers etc. The waterfilter consists of a ceramic and a carbon filter to keep us healthy , made by Katadyn. The GPS is a Garmin Streetpilot ,you can download pre planned routes from your laptop to the Streetpilot. Also routes which have been driven can be downloaded onto the laptop. You can also use the Streetpilot outside the car, during walks for instance. The aircompressor is mainly meant to pump up tyres after a drive through sandy areas. But you can also make the inside of the car dust free and use tools with it.