Mercedes Vario 814 Build - Our New Fulltime Home

[Jamesh]

Isn't a rain shower in Scotland just opening the skylight!

Looking forward to the build thread!

 

[Two on Tour]

Wissel David, if your still after the red metallic of the F1 Merc safety car, then the red metallic Mazda MX-5 we saw today looked to be pretty well spot on.

 

[Minxy]

I like the colour but you know you're gonna get people thinking you're something to do with the fire brigade don't you?

 

[Wissel]

I like the colour but you know you're gonna get people thinking you're something to do with the fire brigade don't you?

Then I'm going to ruin a lot of fantasies

 

[Two on Tour]

Not sure tbh. Probably nearer 2kw?

Would be a waste though with just 460Ah of battery (imo)

Heat your hot water with your excess solar which is what we do plus we heat our hot water with our B2B while driving.

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[Lenny HB]

We have a rain shower at home but it has a normal handholdable shower head as well with variable jet. The rain shower doesnt work well on groinal areas unless you can stand on your head.

Too much information.

 

[Wissel]

Heat your hot water with your excess solar which is what we do plus we heat our hot water with our B2B while driving.

We use a tankless water heater though.

The MX5 you saw, was it a current one?

 

[DuxDeluxe]

I like the colour but you know you're gonna get people thinking you're something to do with the fire brigade don't you?

#firefighterfantasy

 

[Two on Tour]

The MX5 you saw, was it a current one?

Yes, sorry, I forgot to say it was the current model.

 

[Wissel]

Yes, sorry, I forgot to say it was the current model.

View attachment 615472

View attachment 615475

Nice one - that's the colour

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[Carpmart]

Wissel David, if your still after the red metallic of the F1 Merc safety car, then the red metallic Mazda MX-5 we saw today looked to be pretty well spot on.

I saw one (metallic red MX5) on the A1 north of Paris on our way home today and commented to SWMBO what a cracking colour it was!

 

[Northernraider]

Heat your hot water with your excess solar which is what we do plus we heat our hot water with our B2B while driving.

I can do that too

 

[Otter Spotter]

David the plans look great, can’t wait to see it in progress

 

[Jamesh]

I do hope your going to use pallet wood and copper tap fittings?!

 

[Wabs]

Nice one - that's the colour

It’s called Soul Red

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[Wabs]

I think it’s only Mazda that do this colour,,,,,and it is stunning

 

[Wabs]

I’d love to get the MH painted in this colour,,,,good knows how much that would be

 

[jongood]

Heat your hot water with your excess solar which is what we do plus we heat our hot water with our B2B while driving.

We have the heat exchanger while the engine is running but have pondered running the hot water off the excess solar, How would you do it? According to my inexpert calcs even 1kw at 12 volts would be 80+ a/h so even in perfect conditions you would need @1500w of solar and Alde on 1 kw is glacially slow.

 

[jongood]

As a lot of you know, I bought Northernraider Vario from him a few weeks ago and I promised to do a thread on the build. So here it starts.

I've always loved and wanted a Vario, but the state the bodywork can be in scares the hell out of me. Because of this, I've never come close to buying one. Tam had already done most of the work on his that I find terrifying. Not only that, he had documented it all here on Fun with 100's of images of the work in various stages.

When it looked like it might be available, it was just too tempting

A few conversations and the sale was agreed. Tam would bring his new Palace down to me to fix a bodge the previous owner had done, then I'd jump in with him up to Scotland to collect my new home.

300 miles later and the Vario is here at my workshop. Not the quietest drive as the van currently has no floor, but with earplugs it was fine. The van drives beautifully, the gearbox is great, the brakes and running gear are good - it was far better than I'd hoped. I mean tatty - yeah (obviously I knew this before buying), but a blank canvas with the vast majority of the bodywork sorted. It's just cosmetic and with a little bodywork and a nice paint job it will look really good. More importantly, because of all the work already done, it will last

So here is how it is now:View attachment 615303View attachment 615305View attachment 615306View attachment 615310I also have a ton of bits that Tam dropped off while here, but to be honest I haven't had time to see what's there yet.

So, the plan.

This van is for us. It will be our new fulltime home. It also needs to be a bit of a showpiece for work. We want plenty of space for the two of us and the dog, plus the room to take nieces & nephews away at weekends etc.

This is the layout we are pretty happy with:
View attachment 615316

The rear of the van is the same as our current van. It works for us so don't fix what ain't broke. The bathroom is much larger (145cm x 90cm at it's widest points) and will have a marine toilet (probably) and a rain head shower set high in a skylight. The dinette converts into a fair size bed (200cm x 90cm) and there will be a drop down bed across the cab.

The drop down will only be 5'9" wide, but will be 120cm deep. I always loved overcabs as a kid, so hoping the nieces and nephews will love it up there.

The kitchen is 1.5m long plus a 60cm flip up surface across the door. A 2.1m long kitchen - pure luxury

There's then a ton of storage and a great sized boot.

This van (currently) has a payload of 3.8t, meaning we can carry more water etc. There will be a 350l fresh, 350l grey and 250l black tank. If I can fit a little more fresh in I will. There will also be a 70l gas tank.

Power wise, 900w of solar, 460Ah LiFePO4 and a lot of Victron gear. Inverter will be on full time to provide 240v for the fridge and other things.

Oh, the colour. The colour will be a deep red with black around the bottom, kind of like these ish:

View attachment 615319View attachment 615320

Think that will do for now.

I'm snowed under with work at the moment, but hoping to get some time next month the get it painted. Then, work permitting, I'll hopefully get it done ready for the Overland show in September. Hopefully is optimistic

Nice one Wissel, I'm really looking forward to seeing what you can do with it. If I was going to do a self build, a vario would be up there because of the size and the ruggedness. I see little point in converting something that hasnt got the longevity and is likely to ultimately fail because of electronic gismos ( welcome to the 'no way am I going to see limp mode' club btw). It looked to me like Northernraider did a very through job on the underside although I'm amazed you still have almost 4 tonnes to go at with all the girders that seemed to be going into it . Are you bring the cab area into the living? I would because I like to see out. in the same way I love the big door but they do take s o much internal space, difficult to insulate and stop mossies/midges why getting through.

Good luck with it and hope I get to see it when you ve finished it.

 

[Minxy]

Then I'm going to ruin a lot of fantasies

... and your better half will be doing the same!!!!

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[Two on Tour]

We have the heat exchanger while the engine is running but have pondered running the hot water off the excess solar, How would you do it? According to my inexpert calcs even 1kw at 12 volts would be 80+ a/h so even in perfect conditions you would need @1500w of solar and Alde on 1 kw is glacially slow.

Our whale hot water tank was not suitable to take an additional 12v heating element, so I converted a cheap Chinese 8 litre water heater (well that's that idea out of the window for you ) to take a 300 watt 12v element.
It's ample for washes and washing up rather than using gas to heat more water than we need with our main boiler.
It takes about 18 minutes to heat the water from ambient to 55c.
410 watts of solar and 280aH of lithium, but with no solar input, it uses about 2.5% of our battery from ambient to 55c.

 

[corconx]

So looking forward to this. Watched first bit from afar but this is the more interesting bit as a woman for me. Thank you for sharing on here. Love the colour if you can get it!

Carol

 

[Northernraider]

We have the heat exchanger while the engine is running but have pondered running the hot water off the excess solar, How would you do it? According to my inexpert calcs even 1kw at 12 volts would be 80+ a/h so even in perfect conditions you would need @1500w of solar and Alde on 1 kw is glacially slow.

Mine has 1100w of solar , 700ah of batteries, my truma boiler has a mains powered imersion heater that now works through the inverter. On clear sunny days at present my batteries are full by around 1-2pm, water heater takes about 20 minutes. Or b2b when moving so i could flick the water heater on 20 minutes or so before parking up. Not so good when its cloudy though.

 

[Wissel]

I’d love to get the MH painted in this colour,,,,good knows how much that would be

Looks like the paint code is Mazda 46v

Also just watched a video on YouTube of this colour being sprayed - doesn't look too difficult which is a relief

Only trouble is I'm going to have to spray this outside probably as the Vario is too long for the workshop and I think this paint will need to be done in one hit or it will look patchy. I have a place I can use about a mile away and stay in our van there for a few days while prepping/painting.

So a case of getting the paint (not an issue), sorting the remaining bodywork, looking for good weather for a few days and transporting my compressor etc.

Wish I had a week to do it now, although with a bit of luck I will have towards the end of the month

 

[Al n Val]

Love to watch these builds threads, I really find them interesting tbh

Good luck with this one and btw the colour is what drew me onto the Mazda stand at IFA in Berlin a few years ago, I love it

Al

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[jongood]

Our whale hot water tank was not suitable to take an additional 12v heating element, so I converted a cheap Chinese 8 litre water heater (well that's that idea out of the window for you ) to take a 300 watt 12v element.
It's ample for washes and washing up rather than using gas to heat more water than we need with our main boiler.
It takes about 18 minutes to heat the water from ambient to 55c.
410 watts of solar and 280aH of lithium, but with no solar input, it uses about 2.5% of our battery from ambient to 55c.

Thanks, its a good idea but I thought you were heating the whole system. I can do the washing up with 2 electric kettles full in about the same time. I thought you were heating up the whole system. I've often been been sat there at 10-11am with full batteries wondering what else I could use all the surplus sunlight for ( sad I know ) and it would be great if I could come in and have a shower off it. I've previously seen italians with a tank on the roof especially for that purpose but ours is already high enough.

 

[Lenny HB]

I saw one (metallic red MX5) on the A1 north of Paris on our way home today and commented to SWMBO what a cracking colour it was!

First saw some Mazda SUV's in that colour in Spain last year and thought that looks awesome.

 

[bigtwin]

Thanks, its a good idea but I thought you were heating the whole system. I can do the washing up with 2 electric kettles full in about the same time. I thought you were heating up the whole system. I've often been been sat there at 10-11am with full batteries wondering what else I could use all the surplus sunlight for ( sad I know ) and it would be great if I could come in and have a shower off it. I've previously seen italians with a tank on the roof especially for that purpose but ours is already high enough.

Hi Jon,

Not sure if this link will work or not but there’s some useful information on the FB group “12 volt Boating group”.

Quite a few people have done exactly what you’re pondering.

Facebook

lookaside.fbsbx.com

Ian

 

[mitzimad]

I'm going to fit sound deadening all around (I have in my current van) before insulating

The rain head will be plumbed to an iMass instant water heater - again, the same as we have in our current van.

What do you use for insulation?I can't see any need for sound deadening if your glueing rigid insulation board to the panels

 

[Wissel]

What do you use for insulation?I can't see any need for sound deadening if your glueing rigid insulation board to the panels

Going to use a bit of a mix.

I'll fill all the ribs with whatever goes in best (either closed cell foam or recycled stuff), then add a layer of glued foam to the walls and ceiling. This is more precautionary to make sure there are no gaps where condensation can form.

Then 50mm PIR looks like it will fit about perfect.

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