Adventuremobile: White Feather 4x4 170 Sprinter

This thing is a beast!

First off this isn’t a “Mercedes” Sprinter, it’s the Freightliner Sprinter Van. The Freightliner Sprinter has been available in the United States from 2001 to 2021 (more on the end of Frieghtliner Sprinter here).

The early NVC3 Mercedes Sprinter Vans (and T1N Sprinters) in the US could not be purchased as a Mercedes Benz. Even though it’s made by Mercedes. In the US, the so smart marketers thought that having a three pointed star badged “work van” would lower the brands luxury status even though in Europe you have see the Benz badge on semi trucks, fire trucks, ambulances, buses and farm equipment for decades. They even didn’t officially import the G-wagon into the US until the early 2000s because it wasn’t luxury enough. So odd.

Anyhow, two things happened during the T1N and NVC3 timeline in the US. First, the only Sprinters were intially made available in 2001 as a Freightliner. Freightliner is owned by Daimler Trucks North America, part of Mercedes. Daimler-Benz AG purchased Freightliner from Consolidated Freightways in 1981. Daimler-Benz's technological resources helped Freightliner become the top heavy-duty truck brand in North America by 1992. Keeping with the commercial positioning, the Sprinter was introduced to North America under the Frieghtliner name and dealer network. Our first one was a 2003 Freightliner 3500 we bought from a Freightliner dealer in Salt Lake City.

In 1998 Daimler-Benz and Chrysler Corporation merged to form DaimlerChrysler AG. The Dodge Sprinter Van wasn’t available until 2003.

So anyhow, back to this van. It’s a Freightliner Sprinter. But wait, it gets even more unique. It’s a 4x4. Mercedes never offered a 4x4 Sprinter until 2015 (in the US) And the early Sprinter Vans that could be found as 4x4s in Europe all came from either 2 German modifiers. Iglhaut Allrad an outfitter that make all-wheel drive conversions with locking transfer cases and front and rear axle lockers. And the other is Oberaigner who is known for also being an aftermarket system but primarily focused on commercial duty use such as delivery, fire or ambulance vans that need 4x4 capabilities. With those, you have to ship your van to Germany and then ship the van back to get the conversion. So unless you’re going to do a big trip in Europe with your van after the conversion, it’s cost can be prohibitive.

So that being said, many people have turned to a small shop in Redding, California called White Feather 4x4. We saw our first White Feather conversion at a Freightliner dealership in Utah called Warner (which is now the Mercedes Benz Van Center). Sadly, the gentleman who was doing these conversions is now winding his business down and only supporting military veterans customers and did some last orders to generate donations for the Maui fire vicitims.

What’s interesting about these conversions is that it uses readily available F350 Ford axles and transfer case. Esentiallly when using the Ford bits, you’re forced to convert the suspension also to to Ford spec. That give you a 4.5-inch lift over the Sprinter stock height. They use a Dana 60 super mono-beam front axle with an open differential. These can easily be made to run lockers. They spec Fox shocks, front and rear sway bars, and a 2-speed NV271 manual shift transfer case that’s typically found in big Dodge and Ford Trucks all the way up to the F550.

Running all that Ford hardware you end up having to run Ford brakes and hubs. This has you ditching the Mercedes Sprinter 6x130 16” wheels and going with Ford 8x170 bolt pattern where you will need to run Ford wheels.

In short, this is getting very close to being similar to the Sportsmobile E350 vans you see out there. What you don’t get with a E350 is this long wheel base 170 setup that makes this van so cool.

It’s set up with an Aluminess front bumper that can accept a winch and will protect the front from most anything you might be running into.

The interior is a custom plywood build. It looks very utilitarian. The rear has a dinette / lounge are with the bed overhead. The toilet is a simple stow away unit that’s not too flattering. But I’m sure it does what it needs to do. The sink and burners look simple in tucked away galley leaving the sliding door wide open. The cool part is the use of the folding two seat passenger bench. These do what they need to in terms of carrying people around. They’re just not great if you need to sit in the van for more then a hour of two max.