Mercedes vario 814 self build bus to FLT palace

[Northernraider]

Pee tank?

Yes. ..fitting a seperator toilet so pee goes in a tank and solids go in a bag lined bucket and binned.

 

[Lenny HB]

Nah it will just be underslung ... TBF i empty it daily and in many places i just sit a bucket under the tap and leave it open. So wont need to worry about it freezing....only fitting a small tank 2 ...well 2 of them one for shower sink waste and the other a urine tank

Won't have blown air heating either just the diesel heater and wood burner.
Fresh tanks will be onboard under the rear bed

The diesel heat is blow air well all the ones I have seen are.

 

[Northernraider]

More photos please! Looking good.

Not done anything else to it yet ....weather has been really bad here , hail and rain got to drive it to a fabricators tomorrow to see about the sills and window plates which will be fun if raining ...flintstone vans not fun in the rain

The diesel heat is blow air well all the ones I have seen are.

Well aye but only the one outlet ...im hoping to put a t piece in so i can have it blow in the main van and the shower cubicle so i can use it as a drying room.

 

[gpat]

The battons all get taped over like this before top floor goes down. View attachment 493279

The only bit of floor that wont be insulted is under my stainless steel shower tray as i need the headroom in shower ...it will be straight on to the phelonic ply and ill make a hardwood duck board for it.

Thats not your is it?

 

[Rixy]

I bought this bus unseen a few months back while i was still in Greece with the plan to replace my exsisting hymer with something more suitable for off grid use and fulltime living. Now that its been MOT tested and changed from a PSV to an HGV i can hopefully progress with the build.

Vehicle. Mercedes benz vario 814d
7.5 tonne gross weight , 7.3 metres long, 2.2 metres wide, 3 metres high. 4250cc engine ,5 speed manual transmission, rear wheel drive. Current mileage 441530km , 1 previous owner, full mercedes benz service record.

I plan to convert it to a luxury 2 berth fulltime camper.

This is how i bought it View attachment 485698View attachment 485699View attachment 485700View attachment 485701View attachment 485703View attachment 485704View attachment 485705

Pics of work done so far to follow

I also have an Instagram account for the build @kouros_the_vario feel free to follow.

Better than anything Johnny Vegas has looked at so far ! What a space.

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[Northernraider]

Thats not your is it?

Ha ha no im a long way from that stage but its the same van .... incidentally it had the same rust problems too.

 

[Scotch mist]

The batons will make an unwanted thermal bridge across your floor. If you use a strong enough ply top I reckon you could dump the batons as the ply will sufficiently spread the weight to an extent that they are not needed. Maybe?

I would bond the kingspan (both sides ) to make a sandwich & as gpat says it will stop thermal bridging , not unlike modern MoHo construction

 

[gus-lopez]

Not done anything else to it yet ....weather has been really bad here , hail and rain got to drive it to a fabricators tomorrow to see about the sills and window plates which will be fun if raining ...flintstone vans not fun in the rain

Well aye but only the one outlet ...im hoping to put a t piece in so i can have it blow in the main van and the shower cubicle so i can use it as a drying room.

Get an 80mm (?) 'y' piece & a load of the expanded ali tube & it will run anywhere. especially if you can have insulation over the tube. The 5kw ones heat a space like yours brilliantly & you will end up running it turned right down. Go for an 8kw & it will eat the job.

 

[Zoobec]

Not done anything else to it yet ....weather has been really bad here , hail and rain got to drive it to a fabricators tomorrow to see about the sills and window plates which will be fun if raining ...flintstone vans not fun in the rain

Well aye but only the one outlet ...im hoping to put a t piece in so i can have it blow in the main van and the shower cubicle so i can use it as a drying room.

I bet it’s a bit noisy at the moment

 

[Northernraider]

I bet it’s a bit noisy at the moment

Unbelievably noisy lol. I wore earplugs the last time i drove it . Fortunately im only taking it 5 miles and back

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[Northernraider]

Get an 80mm (?) 'y' piece & a load of the expanded ali tube & it will run anywhere. especially if you can have insulation over the tube. The 5kw ones heat a space like yours brilliantly & you will end up running it turned right down. Go for an 8kw & it will eat the job.

With the 5kw and a wood burner i cant see me ever being cold ...and i plan to put the rear heater matrix i removed back in also to heat the back when im driving

 

[Northernraider]

I would bond the kingspan (both sides ) to make a sandwich & as gpat says it will stop thermal bridging , not unlike modern MoHo construction

I think the way i plan to do it at present will be warmer than the hymer anyway . Despite the hymer having the double floor it isn't a true double floor like the frankia was and theres zero insulation in that floor. I can't afford any more height than the 25mm on the floor as i already nearly touch the roof struts with just the standard floor in it and i will lose another 15mm on the roof once its panelled etc

 

[mitzimad]

YOU COULD FIT ONE OF THESE WHILE THE FLOORS OUT

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[Scotch mist]

I think the way i plan to do it at present will be warmer than the hymer anyway . Despite the hymer having the double floor it isn't a true double floor like the frankia was and theres zero insulation in that floor. I can't afford any more height than the 25mm on the floor as i already nearly touch the roof struts with just the standard floor in it and i will lose another 15mm on the roof once its panelled etc

It’s only our opinion , if you’re happy , crack on

 

[tonyidle]

Yeah pretty much ...cut out the extra steel the bus converters had welded in and not painted or treated. The rest is pretty solid and cleaning up ok ...loads of sikaflex though which takes an age to remove.

If you don't already have one buy one of these:

<Broken link removed>

With a sharp blade attachment they eat Sikaflex. And have many other uses.

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[Jamesh]

Your tempting me to a Vario except I cannot drive one on my licence!
Running it 600miles in a weekend to my parents and as a daily driver would be crazy!!

Cheers James

 

[Northernraider]

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Already has one you can see it in this pic ... apparently all busses need them by law now

 

[Northernraider]

Your tempting me to a Vario except I cannot drive one on my licence!
Running it 600miles in a weekend to my parents and as a daily driver would be crazy!!

Cheers James

Too big for a daily driver thats for sure .. but lots of the vario owners i follow on Instagram can't drive them yet either ...quite a few doing the c1 test ...one girl applied for the wrong one and is doing a class c test lol ...she never quieried why she was learning in a 12 tonner

 

[Eggs]

Already has one you can see it in this pic ... apparently all busses need them by law now View attachment 493697

T'is real tidy underneath.

 

[Eggs]

The thing is with these old Vario buses is they are cheap, they go on for ever, and some, and if they've recently been in service they have to be in good shape. The downside is, they take a lot of graft compared to a 814 panel van, that said a tidy'ish panel van of that age would be 3-4 times more to buy.

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[Northernraider]

The thing is with these old Vario buses is they are cheap, they go on for ever, and some, and if they've recently been in service they have to be in good shape. The downside is, they take a lot of graft compared to a 814 panel van, that said a tidy'ish panel van of that age would be 3-4 times more to buy.

Yep exactly...i was dead set against a bus originally and planned to buy a panel van in germany ...till i discovered the cost of importing had gone up now.

Panel vans in uk arent that easy to get so i started looking at busses.

 

[Hymerbell]

Yep exactly...i was dead set against a bus originally and planned to buy a panel van in germany ...till i discovered the cost of importing had gone up now.

Panel vans in uk arent that easy to get so i started looking at busses.

Why does it cost anything to import it...when I bought my last two Hymers in Germany...if they were more than 6 years old or whatever it was they didn’t cost anything to import bar the speedo switchover and DVLA stuff.

 

[Abacist]

Hymerbell You have somehow managed to miss the fact that Brexit has happened and we are no longer in the EU!

 

[Hymerbell]

Hymerbell You have somehow managed to miss the fact that Brexit has happened and we are no longer in the EU!

Oh right...I wouldn’t have thought secondhand MH’s would be affected at all...indeed anything secondhand....do you know what the rules are now with MH’s over 10 years old ?

 

[jongood]

Already has one you can see it in this pic ... apparently all busses need them by law now View attachment 493697

I can't see how close the retarder is to the floor but (just in case you don't already know) they can emit a fair bit of heat when in use so if its close to the Ply you might need to think about a heat shield?

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[Northernraider]

I can't see how close the retarder is to the floor but (just in case you don't already know) they can emit a fair bit of heat when in use so if its close to the Ply you might need to think about a heat shield?

Already has one of those too ..should all be fine as im just putting the same type of ply back down how it was before. Additions are on the inside

 

[Northernraider]

Why does it cost anything to import it...when I bought my last two Hymers in Germany...if they were more than 6 years old or whatever it was they didn’t cost anything to import bar the speedo switchover and DVLA stuff.

Due to the gift that keeps on giving everything is affected. Ive even been paying tax now on ebay purchases

 

[jongood]

Due to the gift that keeps on giving everything is affected. Ive even been paying tax now on ebay purchases

Its given most of us a vaccination that our friends in Europe are still waiting for.

 

[Northernraider]

Its given most of us a vaccination that our friends in Europe are still waiting for.

Not getting in to that debate. But smoke and mirrors.

 

[Hymerbell]

I wonder if we have to pay tax on damaged imported French secondhand French fishing boats....mind you they were exported if picked up in Jersey I suppose...so the French would pay the tax presumably...

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