More future Mercedes diesel rumblings?

[Gary - K7GLD]

My brother in law has a pretty new Winnebago Mini-Winnie motorhome - a V10 gasser in a Ford chassis. He's been getting Winnebago advertising brochures about the latest stuff they are offering, and one caught his eye - a MH about the same size as his 27 footer, on a Dodge chassis and powered by a Mercedes diesel.



He wasn't sure what transmission was used in that setup, but if he hasn't tossed the brochure, I'd like to check it out.



Could this be the "foot in the door" for a mercedes replacement for the Cummins? Anyone have more info?

 

[RustyJC]

Winnebago is marketing a Westfalia motorhome in this size range that's built on the Sprinter chassis which, of course, uses a 5-cylinder Mercedes diesel. I suspect that's what he's seeing.



Rusty

 

[klenger]

I stopped at a Winnebago dealer this weekend to look at the motor homes built on the Sprinter chassis. They looked nice and the workmanship appeared good at first glance. I think they claim to be 23' long. Too small for my preferneces, but might work for those who are vertically challenged (bed is too small for me). I noticed that the transmission shifter had four settings: P, R, N, D. I have no idea how many gears it actually has. Reports are that this thing gets in the area of 19 MPG and costs about 90k.

 

[JLinder]

The sprinter we have at work has a 5 speed auto with the 5cyl engine. Very peppy little motor with great economy. I don't think it's every got worse than 24mpg. The shifter is kind of cool, when the shifter is in drive you can slap the handle to shift up/down manually. Overall I wouldn't be the least bit shy about owning a MB engine. Heck, even the larger engines in the Freightliner midrange trucks are pretty impressive.

 

[MontyDyer]

Freightliner Custom Chassis has had the MB906 as an option in there chassis built motorhomes I believe for over a year now. FCCC has also gone to using only Daimler chrysler rear axles.

 

[GaryCarter]

A relative owns a Sprinter conversion class B MH... mileage in the low 20's at 70+ mph. Not bad at all.

I followed a Sprinter commercial van towing a car on I-10 for a while. He was running 75 up hill and down. Pretty impressive for an engine that size.



Gary

 

[JoshPeters]

Benz has always been good at getting Power, Reliability and Longevity out of a smaller engine. Great stuff to have! The V engines have independant journals for the rods. They are stepped away from eachother even on the common cylinders. (ie straight across from eachother, typical... 350Chev shares journals)



Josh