Hi.
We are a two Estonians on our way from Europe to Argentina. We started at 16'th of may in Estonia and are now in Quebec Canada. The plan is to drive to the west coast of Canada first and then see after that what road we will take next. Here is little bit how we ended up on this trip and what we are driving with:
First idea was that we definitely need 4wd vehicle with all the extras we could jamm into it. At the same time we had license issues, as we both hold only normal car license its almost impossible to find a vehicle what can accommodate all the luxuries what we enjoy home. There where some 2’nd hand vehicles but prices started 20thousand+euros for just plain chassis . So it was only choice in our budget to buy a 2wd drive vehicle. Lots of research went into finding a cheap way to build a “living box” in the back of some vehicle before we even have bought one. Long story short was that building a polyurethane living box is idioticly expensive in Estonia and that’s how new idea was born of buying second hand vehicle what already had large box in the back.
About 2 months later we found a perfect car trough some website, and the perfect car for us was in Germany. So our platform for “house on wheels” is now a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 315.
Vehicle info as follows:
Cross weight of 3500kg
95kW emission class 5 diesel engine
6gear manual gearbox
67 000 km on the clock
3 seats
aircon
cruise control
box: (L) 4375mm (H) 2200mm (W) 2050mm
List of all the other stuff what we have in our truck:
4 pics. of Victron Energy telecom AGM 165ampH batteries
65A MPPT solar charge controller from EP Solar
6 pics. of “back contact” up to 22% efficient 100W solarpanels (semi flexible,
2,6kg each)
1500W (4500W peak) inverter(230V)/charger from Zodore
Dometic FreshJet 1100 aircon unit 230V (that’s what Zodore inverter is for)
Dometic MDC65 refrigerator 12V
Surflo “Whisper King” waterpump 12V
Surflo accumulation tank
Webasto ceramic cooker plate X100 (runs on diesel)
Webasto Dual Top Evo 6 hot water/air heater (11L boiler, runs only on diesel)
126L clean water tank
71L gray water tank
5x roof LED lights
3X Dometic Seitz S4 hinged windows
2X Dometic AirQuad mini Heki roof lights
Dometic portable toilet 976
We have hot/cold shower, fully equipped kitchen.
126L of fresh water has been enough for 4-7 days.
All that battery power allow us to run the aircon for 8 hours (power left 60% after that) on full speeds for us to have a nice cold night to sleep. When we where in France in june, there was heatwave and if nights where 30 decrees celcius outside then we where enjoing 22 decrees inside. We dont need any shore power to be connected because all that solar easily will charge the batteries full again before sun goes down.
Water system is built for us to be able to fill up the fresh water tank enywhere we are. In French alpes we just lowered the in-take hose (filter at the end) to the mountain river, twisted 3 valves and started the water pump. Mainly we just use a bucket under the water tab and pump will suck the fresh water from that. Have not found that clean rivers to park next to in Canada yet
When we where looking up info in border crossings we ended up in this forum more then once.
We trie to update on our procress to our website what is www.globetrotters.ee and on Instagram: travelingamericas.
If anybody has any questions about our build or travels then we are more then happy to answer them.
Cheers,
Hannes and Meriliis
We are a two Estonians on our way from Europe to Argentina. We started at 16'th of may in Estonia and are now in Quebec Canada. The plan is to drive to the west coast of Canada first and then see after that what road we will take next. Here is little bit how we ended up on this trip and what we are driving with:
First idea was that we definitely need 4wd vehicle with all the extras we could jamm into it. At the same time we had license issues, as we both hold only normal car license its almost impossible to find a vehicle what can accommodate all the luxuries what we enjoy home. There where some 2’nd hand vehicles but prices started 20thousand+euros for just plain chassis . So it was only choice in our budget to buy a 2wd drive vehicle. Lots of research went into finding a cheap way to build a “living box” in the back of some vehicle before we even have bought one. Long story short was that building a polyurethane living box is idioticly expensive in Estonia and that’s how new idea was born of buying second hand vehicle what already had large box in the back.
About 2 months later we found a perfect car trough some website, and the perfect car for us was in Germany. So our platform for “house on wheels” is now a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 315.
Vehicle info as follows:
Cross weight of 3500kg
95kW emission class 5 diesel engine
6gear manual gearbox
67 000 km on the clock
3 seats
aircon
cruise control
box: (L) 4375mm (H) 2200mm (W) 2050mm
List of all the other stuff what we have in our truck:
4 pics. of Victron Energy telecom AGM 165ampH batteries
65A MPPT solar charge controller from EP Solar
6 pics. of “back contact” up to 22% efficient 100W solarpanels (semi flexible,
2,6kg each)
1500W (4500W peak) inverter(230V)/charger from Zodore
Dometic FreshJet 1100 aircon unit 230V (that’s what Zodore inverter is for)
Dometic MDC65 refrigerator 12V
Surflo “Whisper King” waterpump 12V
Surflo accumulation tank
Webasto ceramic cooker plate X100 (runs on diesel)
Webasto Dual Top Evo 6 hot water/air heater (11L boiler, runs only on diesel)
126L clean water tank
71L gray water tank
5x roof LED lights
3X Dometic Seitz S4 hinged windows
2X Dometic AirQuad mini Heki roof lights
Dometic portable toilet 976
We have hot/cold shower, fully equipped kitchen.
126L of fresh water has been enough for 4-7 days.
All that battery power allow us to run the aircon for 8 hours (power left 60% after that) on full speeds for us to have a nice cold night to sleep. When we where in France in june, there was heatwave and if nights where 30 decrees celcius outside then we where enjoing 22 decrees inside. We dont need any shore power to be connected because all that solar easily will charge the batteries full again before sun goes down.
Water system is built for us to be able to fill up the fresh water tank enywhere we are. In French alpes we just lowered the in-take hose (filter at the end) to the mountain river, twisted 3 valves and started the water pump. Mainly we just use a bucket under the water tab and pump will suck the fresh water from that. Have not found that clean rivers to park next to in Canada yet
When we where looking up info in border crossings we ended up in this forum more then once.
We trie to update on our procress to our website what is www.globetrotters.ee and on Instagram: travelingamericas.
If anybody has any questions about our build or travels then we are more then happy to answer them.
Cheers,
Hannes and Meriliis
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