Van Life: Why You Shouldn’t Buy A Sprinter Van
In this article, I will discuss the bad things about a sprinter-style camper van.
Yes, they’re sexy as hell. Sure, many of us dream about them as the perfect adventure vehicle. Versatile, simple, and stylish. But hot damn there are some not so obvious things about sprinter van life they just don’t tell you.
My wife and I are finishing our first van road trip in a rental camper van from Outdoorsy.com and we’ve no doubt had an absolute blast. We’re considering saving up for a camper van and we wanted to test out if camping and traveling from a van suits us. We rented a 2022 Ford Transit 148 wheel-base AWD with the tall roof.
Ford Transit Camper Van in Wyoming.
With insurance, taxes/fees, milesage cost and pet fee, the cost of the rental came to $2800 for 9 days, or approximately $311 per night. Expensive! And that doesn’t include fuel.
At that price point, we expected luxury and ease. There absolutely were some amazing aspects of van life, but there were also some things that we wish we had known in advance.
Here is a short list of why sprinter van life isn’t all peaches and cream.
Insufficient Sleeping Room: The van we rented had a full-sized bed, which while in itself isn’t the worst, the bed was orientated perpendicular to the length of the vehicle. At 6’2”, I cannot fit in this bed. My wife, at 5’8” barely fit. A bed that runs parallel to the length of the van, or a bed that runs perpendicular but is fitted to a van with flares that extend the sleeping area by several inches on each side is crucial for most average sized couples.
A full-sized bed is 75 inches long, but you’ve got to remember space for your pillow above your head and that most of us don’t sleep with our feet perfectly perpendicular to our legs. And if your van isn’t insulated like ours, you may need a few more inches at your feet to throw a spare blanket or pillow to cover the void.
Gas mileage on a Ford Transit Camper Van
Good Gas Mileage Isn’t a Thing: We figured a modern vehicle made by Ford would get us mileage on the highway at least in the mid to high teens, if not better. I mean, my 2016 V8 F150 gets 22-23 mpg at 65 mph highway driving. Nope. We averaged 11.9 mpg over 1425 miles of interstate, country highway, and mountain roads through Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming and Colorado. And with a gas tank of only 22 gallons, we were filling up every few hours.
Comfortable handling on a windy day? Fergitaboutit If you like white-knuckle, sweaty palm driving on two-lane farm highways, sprinter van life is for you! The rig on calm days was one of the most comfortable vehicles we’ve ever driven. Add some 30-50 mph gusts and negotiating tractor trailer traffic you’ll be wiping down the steering wheel from sweaty palms about every 5 minutes. No joke.
Ford Transit Camper Van in Custer State Park, South Dakota.
It’s still a lot of work Some parts were easier, but the trip wasn’t completely stress and worry free. With only 6 gallons of fresh water and grey water, plan on finding a dump/fill station about ever 36-48 hours. And keeping it clean and livable isn’t easy either. We found the key to keeping a comfortable home on the road is to find a car wash with a high-powered coin operated vacuum about every 3 days or so.
The view from inside a sprinter camper van, looking out.
A DIY van is going to have it’s kinks Broken kitchen drawers, curtains falling apart, refrigerator doors that wouldn’t shut. You cannot expect the moon from a van that was built as someone’s weekend project. At a build-out cost of $80,000 (I asked the owner who rented it to us through Outdoorsy) on this 2022 Ford Transit with only 16,300 miles, we expected a mobile camping vehicle that was dialed. Not to say these things ruined our vacation, but it would have been nice spending less time figuring out how to put drawers back together. We might rent the Winnebago Revel next time, and spend an extra $120 a night. Ha!