Mercedes Vario 814 Build - Our New Fulltime Home (1 Viewer)

[Lusky]

I'm on all the Vario groups etc and often see people buying fire engines. That's the first one I've seen actually finished

Thinking about it, maybe I shouldn't criticise as I'm not exactly speeding along myself

Last night this German couple rocked up next to us at a free aire at Avranches

 

[jongood]

Yeah a lot shorter. And not as tall I'd guess (older model, so not 100%).

I know someone with a short wheel, low top Vario though. Beautiful van and one of the last made, but I can't stand up in it. You certainly wouldn't fit this lot inside

View attachment 664898



Not decided on upholstery yet, but Claira is busy honing her skills as we eventually want to do it in house.

Genny is still a question mark. I've had a back up genny in our van for years. Times used = 0.

I'm thinking that as we will have enough power to last at least a week without any sort of charging, forget a genny. After a week or so we would need food or water etc anyway, so a night on a site would make sense I think.

Please don't get me started on a trailer. Think Claira might actually stab me

Can I respectfully make 1 comment on your layout? Bearing in mind you re after year round use, would you be better off with a demountable table and more of an L lounge for rainy days rather than the upright dinette?

 

[eurajohn]

One you may or may not like seen on Lofoten

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[Riverbankannie]

When you and Claira are deciding on the upholstery, do make the foam insides nice and deep and comfy. Sometimes I look at self-builds and the cushions look thin and a bit “mean”.

 

[Wissel]

Can I respectfully make 1 comment on your layout? Bearing in mind you re after year round use, would you be better off with a demountable table and more of an L lounge for rainy days rather than the upright dinette?

It's something I seriously considered Jon.

I originally started to design a Vario a few years ago (always liked them) and my first rough designs had a front L shape lounge. It's a really basic drawing, but the layout is all to scale:

That's a 5m floorplan, 2m wide. I think with some work, this layout would be really nice for two people in a 7m Vario.

For us though, our chosen layout works better. It has everything we want and nothing we don't want. I won't bore you with why

When you and Claira are deciding on the upholstery, do make the foam insides nice and deep and comfy. Sometimes I look at self-builds and the cushions look thin and a bit “mean”.

I couldn't agree more

I think the standard of upholstery we want will be a step too far for Claira in the short term and it's likely we will get someone like Regal to do this part. She's getting good, but we both want the Vario upholstery to be as nice as top of the line A class's (cab and hab area) and that's a specialist job.

Besides, she's concentrating her skills towards creating a range of matching thermal solutions for windscreens, windows and skylights (amazing how much heat is generated by a skylight in the summer). It's one of the reasons we now have two adjoining workshops - so one is a "clean" area

 

[TinaLes]

H Wissel
Another Funster brought their van up to date by having the interior reupholstered and were very pleased with this company, don't know how local they are to you but, thought I would mention while the name was still fresh in my mind.
LES

Home - Anderson Upholstery - re-trimming county durham

anderson upholstery is an Upholstery specialist based in the north east specialising in campervan conversion,re-trimming and motorhome conversion. Covering county durham, yorkshire, darlington and north east we can cater to all your needs including upholstery and VW conversion

anderson-upholstery.co.uk

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[Langtoftlad]

These bloody Varios get everywhere

This one is from the Norfolk Fire Museum...

Northernraider

 

[Northernraider]

These bloody Varios get everywhere

View attachment 665260View attachment 665261
This one is from the Norfolk Fire Museum...

Northernraider

I like where that side door is located

 

[jongood]

These bloody Varios get everywhere

View attachment 665260View attachment 665261
This one is from the Norfolk Fire Museum...

Northernraider

Nice and big. quite a long wb as well.

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[jongood]

I like where that side door is located

r reg 97? must be getting close to pension time. bet there's no rot on it.

 

[Northernraider]

Nice and big. quite a long wb as well.

That's the same size as mine and 300mm shorter than Wissel . Nice big vans

 

[Minxy]

I like where that side door is located

Move away from the vehicle .... especially with your angle grinder!

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[Northernraider]

Move away from the vehicle .... especially with your angle grinder!

If I build mine it won't be getting a side door. But yet to decide how I'd do it.

 

[Mousy]

Saw this in Croatia today, made us smile .

 

[Northernraider]

Here's a couple of unique ones

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[Just smiffy]

Now that’s just wrong in so many ways….

 

[Northernraider]

View attachment 665437

Now that’s just wrong in so many ways….

Nuts eh

 

[Harrogate motorhomer]

Saw this today in Royan. Has anyone seen one before?

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[Northernraider]

Saw this today in Royan. Has anyone seen one before?View attachment 665460View attachment 665461View attachment 665461View attachment 665462

Yes seen a few of those old mercs

 

[gus-lopez]

Saw this today in Royan. Has anyone seen one before?View attachment 665460View attachment 665461View attachment 665461View attachment 665462

We still see them around here on the road. my mate's neighbour has the same model as that in blue, bought new & in excellent condition. It was around 40 years old when i moved here & that was 20 years ago. Sure it was also an inherited model originally from a firm mercedes took over but can't remember the name?

 

[Northernraider]

We still see them around here on the road. my mate's neighbour has the same model as that in blue, bought new & in excellent condition. It was around 40 years old when i moved here & that was 20 years ago. Sure it was also an inherited model originally from a firm mercedes took over but can't remember the name?

Hanomag I think

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[jongood]

Hanomag I think

Bang on. Plenty of people still call the older Merc Vans Hanomags

Hanomag Henschel

 

[Dutch 68]

I had a 1962 Hanomag tractor, 2 cylinder diesel, beautiful piece of kit

 

[Otter Spotter]

Here's a couple of unique ones View attachment 665392View attachment 665393View attachment 665394

I love that he has a weather system fitted, if the wind picked up he would be blown over, it’s that too heavy.
I bet the clam shell roof us a pain to keep waterproof.

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[Harrogate motorhomer]

What I don’t understand is that it’s parked on pavement outside a big house in a moneyed
area & the doors can’t have been opened in 20 years.

 

[Manic]

Saw this today in Royan. Has anyone seen one before?View attachment 665460View attachment 665461View attachment 665461View attachment 665462

Looks like the one we say at Carsington water earlier this year

 

[cliffanger]

Lake Garda campsite today - it has a covered patio area at the back!

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[Monty777]

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

Wisse, please excuse stupid questions I am about to ask:
I have seen loads of these vario’s and they seem popular for convertin-why, what is so special about them? (I did say it would be a stupid question)
How long are they/is it-I ask as I have often thought that the only way we will get a van that really suits us is to do it ourselve-but 7mtrs is the maximum length we can get on our drive.
Right-back to reading about your conversion.
john

 

[Wissel]

Wisse, please excuse stupid questions I am about to ask:
I have seen loads of these vario’s and they seem popular for convertin-why, what is so special about them? (I did say it would be a stupid question)
How long are they/is it-I ask as I have often thought that the only way we will get a van that really suits us is to do it ourselve-but 7mtrs is the maximum length we can get on our drive.
Right-back to reading about your conversion.
john

Hi John,

I can't comment on anyone else's reasons for buying/wanting a Vario, but I'll give you mine.

The main one is reliability. Like loads of others, I've had lots of issues with modern cars/vans. A Vario is simple and well built, with an engine nicknamed "the million mile engine". Basically, if looked after, they go on forever.

The second is the floor space. Mine is 7.4m long, with a load space of 5.4m long and 2m wide = 10.8m2. My current LWB Boxer (6m) has a load space of 3.7m long x 1.83m wide = 6.75m2. There are quite a few different lengths available, longer and shorter.

Third is the height. Great ground clearance (plus rear wheel drive) gives loads of space for tanks etc underneath, plus a nice high driving position. Also I can have the windows open and most wouldn't be able to see inside.

Lastly, I just love them. The look, the sound, the build quality, the simplicity and how they drive. Always have. I like all the old Merc vans and the Vario was the last of them. Don't think there's anything like them now built sadly.

The downsides are they are a bit more to run (around 22mpg seems the average) and like most Mercs, are prone to rust. I was lucky with mine as most of the bodywork had already been sorted by Northernraider (who I bought it from). It's definitely a vehicle to buy with eyes open, as a lot of YouTubers have found out the hard way.

Another plus or minus might be the weight. These are a 7.5t truck. On the minus side, you need a C1 licence to drive it. On the plus side it has a payload of well over 3t

I'm sure others have different opinions, but these are mine.

 

[Dutch 68]

Hi John,

I can't comment on anyone else's reasons for buying/wanting a Vario, but I'll give you mine.

The main one is reliability. Like loads of others, I've had lots of issues with modern cars/vans. A Vario is simple and well built, with an engine nicknamed "the million mile engine". Basically, if looked after, they go on forever.

The second is the floor space. Mine is 7.4m long, with a load space of 5.4m long and 2m wide = 10.8m2. My current LWB Boxer (6m) has a load space of 3.7m long x 1.83m wide = 6.75m2. There are quite a few different lengths available, longer and shorter.

Third is the height. Great ground clearance (plus rear wheel drive) gives loads of space for tanks etc underneath, plus a nice high driving position. Also I can have the windows open and most wouldn't be able to see inside.

Lastly, I just love them. The look, the sound, the build quality, the simplicity and how they drive. Always have. I like all the old Merc vans and the Vario was the last of them. Don't think there's anything like them now built sadly.

The downsides are they are a bit more to run (around 22mpg seems the average) and like most Mercs, are prone to rust. I was lucky with mine as most of the bodywork had already been sorted by Northernraider (who I bought it from). It's definitely a vehicle to buy with eyes open, as a lot of YouTubers have found out the hard way.

Another plus or minus might be the weight. These are a 7.5t truck. On the minus side, you need a C1 licence to drive it. On the plus side it has a payload of well over 3t

I'm sure others have different opinions, but these are mine.

I would love one but only with the auto box which do exist according to Tam, but not many about I think , went to look at one in Norwich area, a while ago, was in fab condition but couldn’t live with heavy clutch, and as I like a lot of space, probably should just get a Mercedes’ Atego base with a auto gearbox and then bring it to you wissel

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