This mod took me much longer than I had expected. I was over-whelmed by all the procedures involved including cutting a hole in the floor and having to follow wiring diagrams to connect wires to connectors.

The results are good though. It puts out enough heat to drive you out and is more quite than the Suburban – on the inside anyway. On the outside it sounds like a gas water heater on steroids.

The first problem was the fuel tap on the Sprinter. It was about 2 inches long. You can remove the cap by pressing a square shaped button on the side. You couldn’t get a grip on it except to hold it between 2 fingers and to top it off, the fuel tap was 7.89mm and the hose that came with the Espar was 5mm.

Back from the auto-parts store with a 2 feet piece of fuel line I was able to get it clamped and routed to the pump. I mounted the pump inside an existing compartment for water, propane, electric, etc.

Underneath the Sprinter almost all usable space has all ready been taken by fuel tank, grey water tank, AGM battery, propane tank, etc. I lucked out and found about a 6″x6″ area that was just where I needed to put the heater above. The picture shows the hole for the heater just behind the battery container and just in front of the rear spring – not much room.

You can also see in the picture the silver exhaust pipe which goes through a hole in the chassis to the rear and the black air intake hose which just drops down about 6″. The clear line is from the fuel pump.

I wired the Espar into the existing fuse box using the connections the Suburban heater used. The mini-control unit is on the panel with a/c and d/c just above the refrigerator. I fished the wire through the wall and out near the other wires.

The completed install next to the power converter with the outline of where the old heater was so you can see how much space we picked up. We picked up verticle space as well because the old heater filled the space top to bottom and front to back.

The last photo is of the wiring before installation. The altitude sensor is on the top left. The circle part is the wiring I had to connect up. Not shown is the connector for the mini-controller which also has to be done.

Today I switched the standard emergency brake with the folding one. Why this isn’t standard on any Sprinter that is going to have swivel seats, I don’t know.

It took 15 minutes or less. I needed a 16mm socket and wrench, a small block of wood and a rubber mallet. The wood and mallet were to get the front cover of the emergency brake off. The rear cover comes off easily. After that it is unplug 2 wires, remove the 2 bolts that hold the brake in place and pop loose the pin that holds the emergency brake cable.

Now to set the brake I pull up on it like normal and then just push the handle down. The handle is out of the way for swiveling the driver’s seat. To release the brake I just pull it up until I hear it engage and push the black release button.

It always amazes me when an 8,000 pound vehicle has a horn that sounds like a baby road-runner. I mean it is down-right embarrassing when someone cuts you off and you can’t even express your displeasure with a polite tap on the horn, afraid they’ll drive off the road laughing.

I installed Hella Supertones a couple of weeks ago and while they were better, they still weren’t what I was looking for. So, I got on the web, went to the SMB (Sportsmobile) forum and checked out what some of them use – good idea!

I decided I did not want to sound like a train, or try to mount shiney chrome trumpets so I settled for a “Bad Boy.” This is a small, 118 decibels air horn that uses the 2 wires on your Sprinter and easily attaches inside the engine compartment where the oem horn is located.

It is available several places on line and here you can hear a resonably good rendition of what this horn and others sound like.

Yes, I was tempted to get a “Dukes of Hazzard” horn and I do have the site bookmarked just in case I get cut-off again with no respect.