How not to use public transport. Now Mercedes camper shenannigans.

[Talbot]

In the end, I have delayed the need to make a public transport journey.  I ended up driving up to the destination and then leaving my car there to collect at a later date (likely next week) as it then means I can get to the car with (much) cheaper off-peak travel, and without time constraints.

Turns out my amazing plan of driving up early backfired on me anyway, as after sitting for 2hrs parked on the M25, I was already late up to Brum.  The vehicle I was transitioning to also ended up with a split valve, meaning a spare had to be deployed, which meant finding tools and jacks etc.  I was about 5hrs delayed in the end and got home rather worn out!

... so what did I go to collect?

[High Jetter]

(All together now...) We don't know, what did you go to collect?  😀

[Talbot]

As a sidenote, I don't suppose anyone is due to be driving to Birmingham from "the south" this weekend or on Monday? 

[Talbot]

Follow up to this.. so what was I collecting?  Well, I ended up driving up in the E300, got to my destination, and parked one Mercedes next to another one.  This one in fact:

I am so utterly fed up with pitching a trailer tent every time I go to a 2CV race, and am so very bored of hotels whenever I'm away with work, I've decided that both of these miserable functions can be carried out by 5-ish-tonnes of mercedes commercial from the early 90s.

Speaking to the seller, the people he's had to look at the vehicle and who were very serious about wanting it were absolutlely absurd.  One couple with no C1 licence, no clue about mechanicals, no clue about electricals and seemingly no money to spend either.  That and a string of chancers and bellends, I think he was just very happy for it to go to someone who knows what it is, can work on it and isn't going to come back with stupid complaints about a 33-year-old vehicle that is well beyond it's design life.  Based on that, he was very happy to accept my fairly feeble offer for it and we shook hands on a great deal.

First thing that was an issue is that one of the tyres was actively leaking while I was there.  The seller had inflated them all for me, but in doing so had torn one of the valves such that it was leaking.  He couldn't hear it, but I could.  A gentle prod, which yielded a massive hiss and leak determined it was definitely the valve, so the spare needed to go on.  It took a while, but I got it swapped over.

Now to drive it home.  Jump in, and the first evident issue is that the (non-original) seatbelt is too short for me, and I can't get it round me.  Well, I can, but at that point I am pinned to the seat and can't reach half of the controls.  Not ideal.  MOT booked, and we're on the way.

It drives as you would expect a small truck to drive.  Redline is 2800rpm.  Torque band is from 1200 to 2000rpm.  Idle appears to be at about 100rpm when cold, but gets too fast when it's warm.  The dogleg-first-gear gearbox took a moment to get accustomed to, and the brakes are astonishingly powerful.  This is just small enough to have vacuum assist brakes rather than Air assist, but the servo is about the size of a washing machine drum, so a mere hint of press on the brakes and the momentum you've just spent ages building up is immedately gone.

Noisy, slow, ponderous handling and desperately underpowered when hill-climbing, it's a vehicle I rather like driving already.

After a horrendous journey up to Birmingham in the first place, which included 2hrs sat parked on the motorway, the additional half-hour-plus of wheel changing that was needed meant I was never going to make my booked MOT, so I went straight to my work and parked it up off-road.  Cycled home, and slept.

Next post is the public transport journey I then took a week later to go back up to Brum to get the E300.  If ever there was an advert for using your own vehicle for every journey and not using public transport, that journey was it!

[warninglight]

That's a very useful big bus! Does it have a towbar?

In the past I've gone to buy big stuff (Range Rover) by taking trailer there behind something smaller (S60) and then towing the S60 home on the trailer, saving the public transport ordeal. 

Despite the lack of power, I bet it would barely notice a big Merc on a trailer behind. 

Bet the new 'van' has the same tail lights as my old trailer, to boot.

 

[Talbot]

It does have a towbar, and having looked at the chassis, a particularly large and strong one too.  I definitely plan to use this to tow.

The only issue I have is that the base vehicle electricals are all 24V, meaning I need a 24V trailer board or a set of buck converters for each of the functions to convert to 12V for the socket (or possibly something clever that uses relays for each function and then just uses power from one battery maybe) otherwise if I hire or borrow a trailer, I'll pop every bulb in it.

Which is similar to the only mistake I have made so far (other than buying it!) in that I plugged in my 12V compressor to the cigarette lighter socket, forgetting it was 24V (as I'd just unplugged a USB unit which is tolerant of up to 30V).  The compressor ran very hard for about 0.5 seconds, and then stopped as the vehicle fuse had popped.  Fuses which are bullet type rather than blade type, so I have no spares.  I can see a fusebox conversion to blade fuses at some point.

So of course then with no compressor I had to spend ACTUAL MONEY on fresh air from a garage to blow up all the tyres, as the previous owner had stated that he ran them at "about 40psi".  IE nowhere near what a commercial tyre like this needs.  With all tyres at 55 (one being up from about 30!) it drove a lot better.

[Talbot]

Next challenge is getting the vehcle an MOT.  The challenge isn't getting it to pass an MOT, it's getting an MOT centre to do the MOT.  Motorhomes like this (and in fact of any weight) fall into class 4, which means it's the same MOT as a normal car.  Easy peasy surely, almost every MOT centre does class 4 MOT testing.  Well yes, but very few have a lift big enough to heave 5 tonnes into the air, or if they are an older centre, have enough space to get a vehicle of this size over a pit (and places like that with grandfathered in ability to use a pit are getting few and far between).  According to the man from the ministry, any class 4 garage can indeed do it, and they can just use jacks and axle-stands and get under the vehicle, but YAHRIGHT am I going to find anyone to do that when they can do three other normal cars in the same time.

OK, so take it to somewhere that deals with HGVs surely?  well, again yes and no.  Yes, you can take it for a commercial vehicle plating, but in theory that is the wrong class of MOT, meaning it's not valid.  Any centre that has a clue what they are doing are likely to refuse to test as they can't do the correct class.

So what is needed is somewhere that does class 4 and also much bigger vehicles so they have a nice big pit, but can issue the correct class of MOT test.  The nearest I could easily find is most of an hour's drive away, down outside Lewis, where a company does all the work on almost all vehicles for West and East Sussex council, so they do every single class of MOT from motorcycles up to HGV tractor units, and work on just about everything.  They do things like the bin lorries, police cars, ambulances, powered access platform vans, etc. etc.  Very helpful, and a great company, just rather a long way away.

Took the van down to them on a friday afternoon, hoping that it being the end of the week and also a lovely day might help my chances of anything borderline being waived through.  I wasn't quite as lucky as I'd hoped:

So that's two ball-joint rubber boots, two wiper blades, and headlamps won't adjust up high enough.  Could have been a LOT worse.  And is indicative of the lack of mileage and use this vehicle has had for the past decade or more.  It appears to have done barely a few thousand KM in 10 years.  Most years are a few hundred KM at most.

Annoyingly I then had to throw the vehicle back to my works car park and then go away with work for most of the following week, meaning I couldn't do any work on it.

[Crackers]

I'm incredibly glad you've bought this, I was hoping it'd stay on the forum so I can buy it the next time it comes available.

[Talbot]

3 hours ago, Crackers said:

 I can buy it the next time it comes available.

You might be lacking in qualification to drive it.  Not the C1 licence requirement.. I am sure you can get that no issue at all.  It's the minimum weight of the driver requirement so that you can actually press the clutch down, not just stand up in the cab without the pedal going down 😁

Actually, aside from the remarkably heavy gearbox (might need an oil change) and the steering wheel that is the size of a largeish round dining table, it's not that difficult to drive.  It's just generally rather large.  And cannot be driven quickly... It travels at it's own pace, regardless of driver input.

[Crackers]

48 minutes ago, Talbot said:

You might be lacking in qualification to drive it. 

 

49 minutes ago, Talbot said:

It's the minimum weight of the driver requirement so that you can actually press the clutch down

[catsinthewelder]

On 27/02/2026 at 01:57, LightBulbFun said:

if you need a hand, I am happy to offer a lift if you think the bike will fit in the back of an ADO16!, 

As an ex ADO16 owner, the only way thats going to work is for @Talbot  to remove both wheels from the bicycle, wind the passenger window down and fold forward/remove the passenger seat to get the bike in then put you in the boot and drive it himself.

[chaseracer]

Is this the @Floatylight(once removed) machine?

[Talbot]

Yarp.

It will need work, of that there is no doubt.  At the moment it is set up as a mains-connected vehicle only, meaning if you are not connected to mains, you're a bit stuffed.  The heating and hot water are both mains, the leisure battery is mains charged (with solar top-up, but no charging from the vehicle) and it doesn't really cope as a stand-alone vehicle.  I am in the process of changing a lot of that..

[Crackers]

So, let's address the other elephant in the room. What happened with your other large, far away, in need of work, Mercedes powered portable apartment?

[Rustybullethole]

Really glad this has stayed within sight. Fail sheet looks pretty good to me, like you say could have been a lot worse. 

 I too would like to circle around vulture like for if the time comes that you get bored of it. Doesn't sound like that will be any time soon and from your explanation of the driving experience I can see why.

[Mac69400]

I went to see this twice and was very close to buying it. It's a cracking thing. I'm glad it's found a new home, and wish you luck with it. 

[Talbot]

21 minutes ago, Crackers said:

So, let's address the other elephant in the room. What happened with your other large, far away, in need of work, Mercedes powered portable apartment?

Less said about that the better.  It still exists.  It is blocked in for the moment, and the experience I am having with this T2 is helping a lot to assist doing things with that one.

[Crackers]

54 minutes ago, Talbot said:

Less said about that the better.  It still exists.  It is blocked in for the moment, and the experience I am having with this T2 is helping a lot to assist doing things with that one.

Fair enough, I won't ask further 😁 

[hairnet]

2 hours ago, Crackers said:

So, let's address the other elephant in the room. What happened with your other large, far away, in need of work, Mercedes powered portable apartment?

he left that while he collected this

 

[wuvvum]

That's a decent result on the MOT.  I've never driven one of these but I imagine they're not dissimilar to a Dodge 50, of which I've owned several and which are also great fun to drive in their own way. 

[dean36014]

When I was 18 I used to drive a brand new 0609. Caravan delivery, one on the bed, one on the towbar. It's performance was off the era, it would easily maintain 60mph on the motorway, pre speed limiters. Interior was pretty destruction proof,  but a symphony of beige and brown. I put 400, 000 on it in 3 years until I passed my hgv at 21. Only breakdowns was a minor wiring fire caused by a faulty aftermarket battery isolator, fire container using my flask of coffee, and an alternator replacement. E647RRH, where are you.

[Talbot]

13 minutes ago, dean36014 said:

 E647RRH, where are you.

If that reg is correct, then there's something a bit odd about that vehicle, as DVLA seems to think it was a 3.5 tonne vehicle rather than the 6-ish-tonne that the model suggests.  Shows that the tax expired in 1998, and it never had an electronic MOT, which suggests it was scrapped at just 10 years old, which is a rather short life even for the time.

[dean36014]

That's correct. It was derated to 3.5t so you could tow within the 7.5t limit for non hgv driver. I knew where every weighbridge vosa operated and ran extremely early hours to avoid them when loaded. It had an very lightweight alloy body on it and came in at 2.6t empty.  Even had no spare wheel or passenger seat to keep it light. 

My gaffer loaded up every cavity and underbody with wax oil. It got redone every year and it used to stink for weeks afterwards. It was sold on to another caravan transport company so I'd imagine by 10 years old it would have been mechanically worn out, I'd have been surprised if the van was rotten.

[chodweaver]

20 minutes ago, dean36014 said:

That's correct. It was derated to 3.5t so you could tow within the 7.5t limit for non hgv driver. I knew where every weighbridge vosa operated and ran extremely early hours to avoid them when loaded. It had an very lightweight alloy body on it and came in at 2.6t empty.  Even had no spare wheel or passenger seat to keep it light. 

My gaffer loaded up every cavity and underbody with wax oil. It got redone every year and it used to stink for weeks afterwards. It was sold on to another caravan transport company so I'd imagine by 10 years old it would have been mechanically worn out, I'd have been surprised if the van was rotten.

I'd imagine that is on a farm somewhere  functioning as a chicken coop. Unless someone managed to set the waxoyl alight

[chodweaver]

10 hours ago, Talbot said:

Yarp.

It will need work, of that there is no doubt.  At the moment it is set up as a mains-connected vehicle only, meaning if you are not connected to mains, you're a bit stuffed.  The heating and hot water are both mains, the leisure battery is mains charged (with solar top-up, but no charging from the vehicle) and it doesn't really cope as a stand-alone vehicle.  I am in the process of changing a lot of that..

Currently enjoying the sights and sounds of the land of the great white cloud in a 2024 Transit based coachbuilt camper - which despite plenty of daily mileage and a modern solar panel, has traction and leisure batteries that constantly rumble around the 12.5v mark. The hire company advise spending at least every third night on a site with electric hook up, which for a vehicle with all the necessary 'Self Contained Vehicle' certs and in a country that positively encourages overnighting in council car parks and lay-bys is annoying. I'm blaming the 3 way fridge which while excellent at fridging and even freezing, seems to soak up most of the alternator's output anytime the engine is running. The leisure battery is at its healthiest after a day spent parked up in the antipodean sun, fridge on gas, but the traction battery doesn't seem to get charged from the solar. If it were my van, I'd be messing about with the electrics, too...

Good luck with this one @Talbot. Watching with interest

[Floatylight]

15 minutes ago, chodweaver said:

Currently enjoying the sights and sounds of the land of the great white cloud in a 2024 Transit based coachbuilt camper - which despite plenty of daily mileage and a modern solar panel, has traction and leisure batteries that constantly rumble around the 12.5v mark. The hire company advise spending at least every third night on a site with electric hook up, which for a vehicle with all the necessary 'Self Contained Vehicle' certs and in a country that positively encourages overnighting in council car parks and lay-bys is annoying. I'm blaming the 3 way fridge which while excellent at fridging and even freezing, seems to soak up most of the alternator's output anytime the engine is running. The leisure battery is at its healthiest after a day spent parked up in the antipodean sun, fridge on gas, but the traction battery doesn't seem to get charged from the solar. If it were my van, I'd be messing about with the electrics, too...

Good luck with this one @Talbot. Watching with interest

 

Firstly congratulations - @Talbot on buying this, it's definately gone to the right person and my FIL & MIL had a real sense of peace about you having it, it really was his pride and joy for the firstly 15 years of me knowing them but in the last 5  it had got to the point of it being a source of worry for them and he just doesn't enjoy driving anymore.  I think if you hadn't bought it there was a real danger of it being stripped & weighed in, so glad it didn't come to that.

in terms of the electrics if it was me I'd probably go to lithium batteries and get an dc-dc charger so it charges with the engine running and put more/ newer solar panels on the roof, think the one up there has been on 7 or 8 years and is probably only 100w, a decent domestic one from City Plumbing is about 450w for about £70, you'll probably need to replace the charge controller in the wardrobe though.

@chodweaver that's shocking, we've got a Fogstar 280ah battery in our transit camper,, connected to one 450w solar panel, along with a dc-dc charger for when the engine is running and the fridge is never off, been on all winter and the van hadn't been started for months, solar has been enough to keep the battery at 90% +, when in use throughout all of last year we never connected to mains even though we're using an induction hob through an inverter for cooking and kettle.

[chodweaver]

2 minutes ago, Floatylight said:

 

Firstly congratulations - @Talbot on buying this, it's definately gone to the right person and my FIL & MIL had a real sense of peace about you having it, it really was his pride and joy for the firstly 15 years of me knowing them but in the last 5  it had got to the point of it being a source of worry for them and he just doesn't enjoy driving anymore.  I think if you hadn't bought it there was a real danger of it being stripped & weighed in, so glad it didn't come to that.

in terms of the electrics if it was me I'd probably go to lithium batteries and get an dc-dc charger so it charges with the engine running and put more/ newer solar panels on the roof, think the one up there has been on 7 or 8 years and is probably only 100w, a decent domestic one from City Plumbing is about 450w for about £70, you'll probably need to replace the charge controller in the wardrobe though.

@chodweaver that's shocking, we've got a Fogstar 280ah battery in our transit camper,, connected to one 450w solar panel, along with a dc-dc charger for when the engine is running and the fridge is never off, been on all winter and the van hadn't been started for months, solar has been enough to keep the battery at 90% +, when in use throughout all of last year we never connected to mains even though we're using an induction hob through an inverter for cooking and kettle.

This is a Roller Team Zefiro (while I understand that Trigano own most of the Euro coachbuilt brands, Roller Team is I believe their most budget offering and it shows. If I'd paid the new price for one of these I'd be weeping)

Thanks for the tip on panels from City Plumbing - the new-to-us Transit Rimor back at home could use some updating.

I'll leave this here...

Sorry for the thread drift

[Talbot]

3 hours ago, chodweaver said:

I'm blaming the 3 way fridge

Which country is that you're in?

And yes, a three-way fridge will destroy your battery in short order.  Ammonia cycle refrigeration is woefully inefficient, and  the energy needed to run the heater (as that's all it is, a gas/12v/240v heater) is significant.  Compressor refridgeration uses a lot less power.  The last ammonia fridge I measured was drawing over 10A at 12V for 100% of the time, meaning you're looking at 240AH for a 24h period, which is "shitloads".

A compressor fridge, in comparison, uses less than 5A, and likely has a duty cycle of 30% (depending on ambient temps) so you're looking at 35AH for a 24h period.  Depending on the specific conditions and the exact model of fridge, the ammonia 3-way unit is an order of magnitude more power hungry than a compressor fridge.

[juular]

For comparison, I have an 8 year old 100AH lead acid leisure battery that has seen the wars, and 200W of 'ebay solar', in other words probably closer to, I don't know, 4W 😄

That setup will run my compressor fridge for about 3-4 days in the summer while parked up off grid, and around 2 days in the winter.

Once cold,  it draws something daft like 2.5A whilst the compressor is running if I have it turned all the way up.  For an average trip I have it turned up to around 3/4 as I don't usually need the freezer compartment.

With some real grown up solar panels and a decent lithium battery you'd comfortably be able to run that indefinitely off grid without starting the engine.

Compressor fridges are most definitely the way forward in comparison to 3-way.

[Talbot]

3 hours ago, Floatylight said:

Firstly congratulations - @Talbot on buying this, it's definately gone to the right person and my FIL & MIL had a real sense of peace about you having it, it really was his pride and joy for the firstly 15 years of me knowing them but in the last 5  it had got to the point of it being a source of worry for them and he just doesn't enjoy driving anymore.  I think if you hadn't bought it there was a real danger of it being stripped & weighed in, so glad it didn't come to that.

in terms of the electrics if it was me I'd probably go to lithium batteries and get an dc-dc charger so it charges with the engine running and put more/ newer solar panels on the roof, think the one up there has been on 7 or 8 years and is probably only 100w, a decent domestic one from City Plumbing is about 450w for about £70, you'll probably need to replace the charge controller in the wardrobe though.

Thank you for saying so.. I felt a bit bad making a cheapskate offer, as it was clear that he had put in a huge amount of work on the vehicle "back in the day", but at the same time, it's all I could offer for it.  I'm glad he is happy with the deal.

Electrically, I plan on having several split systems on this, likely with a battery devoted to the fridge, one for lighting/phone charging and another to run an inverter for when off grid.  I've already been looking at the space under the vehicle for batteries, and there's loads of room.  So much in fact that I can put ALL the batteries under there, along with a rather interesting split-charge arrangement to preferentially charge certain batteries before others.  I can also get a bigger fresh water tank, a decent size grey water tank and a hot water tank that can be fed from engine heat or a diesel hot-water heater.  I have many plans!