VAN CONVERSION | Sprinter 144 VS 170 Comparison | Which is right for you?

what's up guys hey guys my name is megan and this is chris and we are activan conversions we're here in our shop we have a completed 144 behind us and a completed 170 here in front of us this is a pretty special opportunity to be able to show you guys two completed vans at the same time and show you the pros and cons of a 144 or the tried and true 170. yeah and we can share some tips and things that we've learned and compare and contrast and find out what's right for you let's check it out [Music] all right so we have a completed 170 behind us and a completed 144 this video is just to help you guys visualize the space the length of each what you can fit in so if you're building your own or if you get one from us this will help guide you through all right let's show you inside this is a mercedes sprinter 170 this is our newport 170 floor plan so let's just get a feel for the space we have 14 feet of buildable area here we have a ceiling that's six foot two i'm five nine so plenty of room we can do a shower full indoor shower full indoor shower with a toilet 32 by 24 interior shower pan so the pros of this is you can put a toilet inside the shower and have an enclosed bathroom kitchen over here one row of drawers sink microwave overhead cabinet the bed is lengthwise front to back so this is a queen size bed 80 inches in length so that is really nice with the extra room that you can get from 170 is for all those tall people out there you can sleep lengthwise this bench seat also tons of room here really nice and long you can fit a dometic cfx 95 refrigerator and a freezer both the same size so really nice large freezer or two refrigerators or two freezers then you can fit an extra storage in here for whatever you would like nice little hideaway for all your loose things keep it nice and tidy so this could also you could extend it out this could sleep another person all right so that is a quick overview of this 170. let's head over to the 144 and see what we're working with 144. all right so first things first there's no indoor shower here this is a shorter wheelbase this is the 144 there's about ten and a half feet of buildable space so from 14 to 10 and a half you do lose that large shower with the enclosed toilet enclosed bathroom situation but you gain a bigger kitchen induction cooktop built in same sink same microwave extra row of drawers and then a shorter bench seat so as you can see really room for one can't exactly sleep on that yeah you can't exactly build it out to sleep on it the 170 has that bench seat so you can do dining for two this is dining for one maybe two if you're really good yeah if you like each other a lot this is the cfx 55 liter dometic this is a fridge only there is an ice maker getting a feel for this space it's very open very livable a little bit more compact the kitchen is here the bench seat is here and the bed is here so this bed is sideways this van has the option of adding the flare space flares so that you can fit a queen size bed sideways on the farthest side it's 79 inches long the flares taper along with the curve of the van so it's so it's shorter on this side longer on this side so 79 inches but mostly a queen size bed i would suggest just whatever your comfort level is if you're determining if you want the bed sideways or lengthwise maybe put some tape on the floor and lay in it and see what works for you and kind of what your comfort level is because this is a really great alternate way of maximizing your space is turning the bed sideways but if you are pretty tall you might want to kind of weigh your options and how you sleep with that all right so we are here in back of the 170 model this one has the 80 inch lengthwise queen size bed so that transfers directly to the length of the garage space since the garage is right under the bed platform electrical setup we do this all enclosed in one box you have 300 amp hours of battleborn batteries the 170 can fit a little bit larger of a power bank than the 144 there's just more interior real estate a lot of the the room under that garage wall there that's um the wheel well and if you wanted to you could put more batteries over there that's just kind of how we like to do this fresh water tank so this is 42 gallons of fresh it does take up a little bit more space here you'll see when we go to the 144 it's a little bit more narrow increasing your width of the garage but overall nice amount of space here in the 170. let's get over to the 144. so 144 kind of the same design concept very open um this bed is sideways like megan just said uh but the length of the bed platform that way is 64 inches versus 80. so you have a little bit shorter of a garage space but you can fit most things that you need this side here holds the water this will have a over the wheel well 20 gallon agile off-road fresh water tank versus the 42 outdoor shower here on a quick connect gravity fill for your fresh water and the outdoor shower mixer the way that we do the outdoor shower is on a suction cup mount put that up and then you can connect your shower like so and then electrical setup is on this side so we don't put the batteries inside the electrical box on the 144. um there's just not a lot of room in back of the wheel well to accommodate a decent sized battery bank this particular van has 400 amp hours of battleborn lithium batteries and those are located just over the wheel well there on on that wall so you can't actually see them right now but yeah it's a it's a nice little garage space they're pretty similar um and i honestly i don't i don't see the garage space being a huge limiting factor in either size of the build i'll show them the roots on the roof let's talk about roof real estate fair warning these roofs might be a little bit dirty our shop can get dusty at times so obviously you have less space on the 144 than the 170. on the 170 we put 300 watts of solar so you can see one two three panels the ac is in the middle and the fantastic fans up front got the rear roof rack as well uh 144 we did 200 watts of solar one two and left this backspace open for you know if you want to put a deck or whatever you want we could put another uh solar panel here if needed but honestly the battery isolator charges up everything for the most part yeah so a little bit less room but still very very efficient all right so those are the two so for us as a couple kind of being in both of the spaces and thinking about traveling some things that came to our mind is that the this would be really awesome for shorter trips in the summer time we've got that really great outdoor shower when the weather's nice and warm really nice and open feel there's shorter bench seats so for us kind of sitting together on the bench seat might be like a little more compact the bed sideways since we're both a taller couple i think we personally would prefer the lengthwise bed also if you're doing longer trips and all seasons i think having the enclosed shower might provide more versatility also some more privacy with the ability to close the door for the toilet it all really depends on your usage of these vans like obviously the shorter wheelbases can be better off-road are you a fair weather traveler are you an all season traveler really like both of these can work for a bunch of situations it's just depends on what your comfort level requirements are and what ultimately your usage is going to be with the room i have found that driving around having the shorter wheelbase in terms of like grocery store parking lots or like tighter city parking more busier areas this is easier to maneuver around the 170 still fits in the parking spot but it's barely like you're gonna want to park away it's definitely more mass to move around where this is a little bit more easier to maneuver yeah like the overall physical footprint of the 144 is you know obviously a lot smaller so like if you're stealth camping you're not going to stick out as much whereas the 170 it's like oh it's a big vehicle and it's it's pretty noticeable but if you're going to be spending a really long period of time in the van having some more interior livable space the 170 might be a better option for you if we were closed up in here living in it it might feel a little small for two taller people yeah yeah i agree yeah so it's good i mean they're both great honestly it just depends on your use and uh what you want out of your van life yeah so hopefully you guys like this video if you haven't already click that subscribe button for more videos we'll be doing van tours of all of our builds hopefully give you guys some inspiration on your own build or give you some insight on a build from us yeah stay tuned

Channel: ActiVan

Views: 257,579

Keywords: van tour, sprinter van, 144 vs 170, van conversion, comparison

Id: qKBinBbSwMw

Length: 12min 45sec (765 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 06 2021