VANLIFE TOUR | Custom Advanced RV Mercedes Benz Sprinter Campervan Conversion Libertas

hello this is Patrick with New Jersey's outdoor adventures YouTube channel just the other day I met a gentleman named Edie that is visiting New Jersey travelling through going back home and his really cool Mercedes Sprinter camper van that he's going to tell us about and he's going to give us a tour today hello ed welcome to New Jersey outdoor adventures on YouTube well Patrick my name is ed byron from metro atlanta this is my 2017 Mercedes 170 extended it was converted by advanced IV and will be Ohio they're a fitter that does a hundred percent custom so we've basically designed everything that's in there we obviously start with their own design criteria just hear the door there's a double indent so we have outside cabinets we can get to can be a pass-through if it the weather's bad outside plug screen door that makes it very convenient easy to use [Music] [Applause] [Music] so inside we have a nice quartz countertop with very deep sink and a adjustable faucet this is the inside of the cabin and you'll notice it has curved doors and there's a lot of curved wood working within the van they're very good craftsmen exceeding here so we have two different styles of covering on this Formica and one of the things we've done is we've tried to find things trays that will hold stuff so that it doesn't move once we're driving so here we have our induction cooktop so we set it out on the counter there's a plug right here that operates it simple great silver store this is a very large drawer that we use we can carry other appliances like a portable microwave because we don't have one built-in we use it primarily as food supply back here we have a electric bed that basically comes out to the edge right here it's queen wide King long with the back board very easy to use we keep our bedding up in here clothing in these curtains are basically available and they have reflectix behind them and we actually have a splash guard that we can bring up here to or something that prevents the curtains from getting dirty we have a vent here with a cover over and this is a little bit of unique this is a very low yet conditioning unit that's very quiet it's probably about 15 or 16 bb's less than the normal van I'm snack here we have our electronics so television cabinet with eight plugs Apple TV Wi-Fi Ranger these are hot spots we also have a cell booster over here on the counter that helps boost the signal stereo here that runs off the front as well as the TV in the back cabinet and the curtains will just come up so we can see out these these are the only ones we actually lift up we have multiplex keypads here each one is a little bit unique for whatever it's doing we have four from there's two in the bedroom area there's one up on the counter coming in and one of the drivers area we have extra cabinets back here we have CPAP machines in the back that have been widened originally they were diet wired in for AC we've actually gone and put in DC plug so it runs strict this is the bathroom area we basically have a couple unique things we have a skylight we have a lot of lighting in it this is a pretty unique this pops out spreads out the shower curtain and then once it's out the door splits so you can close it in so the shower curtain stays within the closet you have medicine chest in there as well it's a conventional toilet with black tank just for your information we have 40 gallons of fresh water we have 28 gallons of grey and we have 18 gallons of black so it gives us a pretty good run time we have a shower here shower head comes out of the wall so you can use it however you want weekend I generally sit just because of my height same Corian countertop and we have a small pantry here do we use for various things comes a little more handy than you would normally think very nice isotherm refrigerator it happens to me all the time this last night's dinner and today's lunch have a freezer the hit holds quite a bit of food [Applause] we've only defrosted a couple times that stays running all the time so now this is the controls for all the systems so AC power DC power so show state-of-charge at being 80 and then this is a Silverleaf system the manufacturer shows the voltage for each of the lithium cells this coach has a 48 volt voltage system about 800 amp hours so we can monitor the temperatures in each one and it has cut offs so i can't charge below 32 it actually cuts off I think when the batteries get up to about 117 this is temperature 32 degrees 100 right degrees okay Fahrenheit [Applause] we have genset so we can start the generator if we need to when I say generate it's just a second alternator we have water gauges here and these are actually very accurate so if it says you have zero this pretty much that way so it's unlike some other coaches we have heat here so it has a Rex in a spa system which is diesel the burner is down under the under the cab in the front under the hood we have a two and a half gallon ethanol glycol reservoir that heats up heats the water directly so we get both hot water and heat out of that is that like a radiant floor yes we have several blowers that have the capability we also have underfloor heat isn't it let her keep additional cabinet for clothing I really like the way the cabinets are all finished what separates advanced RVs from some of the other well you know I think I make a comment to them directly that I think they're great cabinet makers and they also sell great fan so the quality of the cabinet's is really what set them apart we designed this from the point view that this is a little bit wider than the normal it's about two inches wider on this side they had never used this particular isotherm refrigerator so it had to come out two inches so they basically brought it out and then just finished it off and we didn't get a microwave this is a Breville convection oven that you would we picked up at williams-sonoma so it served us very very well so now the systems how they run in here are a little bit different than a traditional RV you have 48 volt lithium ion you have an under hood generator right so can you explain to the viewers how like a rooftop air conditioning would work we're actually in very good shape so being from the south the temperature is much higher generally we have the capability if the batteries are full charge and they charge as we drive and we do not go to campgrounds generally you know I spent probably 270 nights in the van and probably only about 12 in campgrounds so if we pull in we actually run the air conditioner while we're driving during that extreme hot weather and then at night we can get eight to ten hours of air conditioning during the time when we're sleeping we can run the TV to those few hours that you're not there so there's a lot of capacity the next morning depending on what the charge is we go out on the road and within an hour and a half that's back up to full charge so basically from what I've seen so far there's no propane in here there is no propane and that was a goal my wife didn't like the idea of having propane and you know when you talk about a lot of people getting supply sometimes and the inconvenience and when you get in very cold weather you go through your propane fast because I'm going off my diesel fuel as long as I have a reasonable amount of fuel I can keep the van for as long as I need the driving area is also customized they hydro dip the wood grain and you get to pick that out we have Recaro seats which are extremely comfortable and very adjustable the seats I can rotate them basically step out wound forward and then rotate them around so this one rotates very easy this one just turns a little bit but we have tire pressure monitor here and we have car play here we have surround cameras so this is what we're driving if I turn on my left directional it shows me what's on my left-hand side just to demonstrate you know kind of the quality of the Woodman shift I try to show visitors in here you have about five different angles coming in and all this wood is CNC machined so it's just a perfect fit curve door as well so at night it's very convenient we just push the backs of the chair up curtain comes across on this side as well as one coming in from this side and we're set for the night we also have we carry things to keep the heat out as well reflectix but for the most part this is what we do for privacy this block here is for a looong table we can mount it here as well as there's also another mount back in the pet home area right there so it's convenient to use and just makes living in the band a little bit easier we are not full timers like I said we've had the pen about 20 months and we've I've stayed and my wife doesn't travel with me all the time but about a hundred and seventy night so probably 40% of the time this is a TV antenna setup just rotates we get over-the-air broadcasts [Music] we have a canapé on the top actually you maybe in a minute how it works we'll just do a quick tour one of the things you'll note that's pretty unique is because we don't have any propane we actually have no openings down the side of the vehicle we do have a utility in the running board on the other side this is just an extra cabinet here then we have AC power in addition to one inside we have an air Chuck because they have an onboard air compressor as well this is a 3500 series chassis so you get the dual rear wheels on the back that's right what are you getting for fuel economy on average with just under 16 and that gets pushed down a little bit because if you stay in stationary you're using the engine and you're also using the diesel to heat but out on the road you can get up to 17 and a half we have suspension in the back as well as we have levels in the back sometimes we use them if we can pull into a location we probably stayed at Cracker Barrel as many as any other location and all I want to do is make sure the back is just a little higher than the front is so we have we have a smart plug in the back and that's the only external utility that we have and they've kind of tucked behind here we have another screen we have storage up under the bed so crazy easy to use sweet and you can see they've built a shelf for the CPAP machine we have storage under the bed there so we have a couple underfloor things so this will keep out water lines power lines tools we have other things laundry supplies I actually carry a spare fuel filter this is a unique thing the whole couch will move forward and these are legs so the legs come down this is where the inverter is legs and come down you can actually sit looking out back if you have the right circumstances no openings and this is where my utilities are so I have to go to dump I just have to pull my hoes out I have electronic valves on the black tank and the grey tank macerator this is a light that just comes on this is a flush for the black tanks I have an outside shower the second off and Chuck and then this is the city water fill and the way this works is you hook your water hose in I go inside push a button on my panel and it brings up to 95 percent automatic fill and then shuts off these are just bypasses in case you had problem with the macerator so we've not had any major problems we have not the system so what you're saying is if the macerator pump failed you could still gravity discharge the tank I believe you can but I have not had to do it so that's good that tells you that it's a quality piece and these compartments what are these is this fiberglass or ABS plastic I think it's ABS plastic it's really nice and there's nothing in the front that's just a dummy to make it look like and on the outside basically they've continued the windows down this is where all the cabinets and the bathroom is so they don't operate but they insulate it well and those that's the bedroom area this is a little unique they used to have big lanterns on so this is a 3d printed light with motion detector and the coach also has 360 so that's one of the cameras with one in the back one in the front as well [Music] so these seats are an upgrade over the mercedes-benz sprinter or akairo seats yes I don't remember the Sprinter vans from this timeframe having power is that was that an upgrade it was while the I think they put power seats on everything but obviously this seat is will unique you have to learn how to actually get into it because it has such high bolstering here and then and the coach and it just really poach you well in the coach so this is the high idle so in order to get if you've just a stationary and you want to charge the batteries you put it on go to high idle high idles about 1100 rpm and that's what charges the batteries and keep in mind that because there's 48 volt one of the advantages they don't have to use this grater wire instead of using a three or a four they probably use it like that twelve or fourteen it charges at about 58 volts and when we're driving down the road we can be up around 200 amps so that's why it charges very I don't see a ladder to get onto the roof what's up there so what we have is right here that's the antenna for the Wi-Fi Ranger that's the skylight small vent coming up for the plumbing the TV antenna back here is the air conditioner the white thing on the tail is reboost and then there's also an antenna for the radio in the back and there's an antenna for the radio in the front as well so no solar no silver no solar okay that's pretty pretty good that you're able to run all that time with just being self-contained without having solar you know and like I said we we go on trips we carry out power cable and most the time we don't even use it and even where there is power we're just gonna spend one night I've been to some casinos where they have free power it just doesn't make sense well go through trouble pulling it out looking up this is the exhaust coming out of the best bus system what I talked about that does the hot water it's very efficient I think it's designed to put that to use about one tenth of a gallon per hour that the heat going on [Music] and a fan savvy is a very small shop generally probably less than 40 employees and they've probably made about a hundred and address 110 coaches in seven years so it's a very small operation that makes high quality coaches so they don't have an actual model the each one's named differently is that correct and for us we were new to our VM we did not have one prior to this and when we bought the band they had found a ban and we purchased it they kept after us for a name of the van and it took us a little while but this vans name is lee Batoche which means freedom in latin and it basically lived up to all those expectations in that we're free to go wherever some days we've got as much as 600 miles other days we've done 40 miles we use it to visit family we use it to go to national parks we've been to 38 states the last 20 months we use a lot and you know just I live in Atlanta the traffic's generally pretty bad so I have a doctor's appointment at 8 o'clock and it's about 35 miles away I Drive the fan over at night sleeping the pack a lot and I'm easy to get into my 8 o'clock appointment now can you tell us a little bit about the process you this was your first RV really you didn't know what you don't know what you don't know so how'd you know to go that I actually went out in the first fan I took my wife to look at was an Airstream interstate and my expectation then was going to be as we would have it it would be very convenient to travel we would go from hotel to hotel I wasn't really thinking of spending all the time in it there were some things about the Airstream the loudness of the propane generator and the bed this bed we've customized the foam in it and is extremely comfortable and I've heard some stories about how the guest room with the different sections was a little more challenging I did more research and the thing that kind of sold me on advanced IV they had a video out on how they go about picking their alternator there was so much engineering and detail in the way they select the products that go in here [Applause] Levellers and yeah bags are coming from Europe because they thought those were the best so it has BMP and Levellers so that that's what sold me on now what's their process like how does it work you show up with a van and they converted or is there more to it they they have done that they've done recently they did one that was they used in and that people brought the van in in most cases you know you have to make a decision on whether you want the length so there's three choices now in Mercedes you can have a 144 wheelbase you can have a 170 wheelbase and you can have a 170 with an extended so this is about 15 inches longer than the standard Mercedes 170 left side on what kind of drive you want this is two-wheel drive yeah four-wheel drive a period of time generally and it's been a challenging year for van makers throughout the u.s. because Mercedes hasn't been able to produce the product that the demand requires but generally it's up to a year and I think if it's a four-wheel drive which are much more scarce it could be up to 18 months so the process was we had visited them before just to get to know people a little bit and we were very impressed we went up there a couple weeks afterwards because they had actually found a van that we could use and we spent two and a half days going through a configuration which was extremely tiring because there's nothing in the van that you didn't touch in the design phase so first day is more interior countertops colors of the walls and the flooring the next day is more technology and the third day and unfinished things up now once you get to that point how long is it take to you get the driver to us I was fortunate I got mine about six months after we did the configuration but that was because the van was on-premise now what they're actually doing is once they hit they have orders going out so they actually pre make all the cabinets to that individuals things then they hold it waiting for the chassis to come in so they know when the chassis isn't coming in are promised by the sea is there anything that now that you've owned it for a while and this was your first RV and you designed it from the ground up is there anything that you might do differently if you were to do it all over again things that you didn't really need or things that you wish you would have added while they were building it that would have been easier not a lot of things you know the awning for one thing is something because we don't stay in campgrounds very much we have not used it very much but we do have friends that spend a lot of time out of the southwest and what they've told me is that when you go out there you actually need it from the point of view that there is no shade and you need to create your own shade so there is a certain expense in doing it I think it's a future need that we'll get when we spend time out there there's not a lot of other things we've modified some curtains in the pass through here to the cabin we've converted from AC to DC on the CPAP because the Volta system is a very powerful battery system however it's not the most efficient from the point of view of before just using electricity in the van and you have to run the inverter you know you have to step it up down from 48 to 12 so you can use that so you use it a little more power by putting in the 12-volt charge on those then we're in a position where we don't have to leave the inverter on night and the batteries last a lot well I really appreciate you taking the time today to give our viewers a tour of your beautiful van and wish you luck on your journey and have a safe trip back home down to Atlanta area and if any of you folks have any questions you could put them in the comments and I'll do my best to answer them and also going to include a link so you could follow Edie on his journeys on Instagram right we're at big get past got the RV's thank you very much for the time and look forward to meeting you next time this is Patrick New Jersey's outdoor adventures YouTube channel I hope you enjoyed this video please like this video comment share subscribe I love it and we'll see you soon

Channel: New Jersey Outdoor Adventures

Views: 351,414

Keywords: van life, vanline, tour, conversion, mercedes, sprinter, 3500, diesel, advanced rv, humble road, airstream, interstate, winnebago, revel, roadtrek, how to, walk through, new, used, buy, sell, price, libertas, Mike Neundorfer

Id: v7Q2QTMzqHk

Length: 29min 44sec (1784 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 05 2019