Fed Ex Sprinters
 

I was visiting my sister today and a friend of hers who is a Fed Ex mechanic dropped in. He was driving a diesel Volvo so we started talking diesel. He gave me the scoop on Fed Ex Sprinters. They get about 40mpg as opposed to 10mpg for their previous vans. They tested them by buying 50 unassembled ones and shipping them into the country as parts. They liked them so ordered a hundred thousand or so. Then Mercedes had to meet US emissions so added the necessary equipment including EGR's. They've had quite a few problems with the EGR's and other pollution equipment and they go through a lot of tires and brakes but they are very happy with them. They have over 150k miles on a lot of them. He also said they had three in their local fleet fail because an o-ring in a fuel regulator broke. They couldn't replace just the o-ring so had to buy the complete $270 regulators. He said the diagnostic procedure is simply to plug in a laptop and everything appears on the screen or printout including the compression numbers. A far cry from the 617's in the 300d's.
Can you imagine the fuel savings that Fed Ex must be seeing by switching to them?
He also said that next year Fed Ex will be introducing a diesel/electric hybrid in the 10,000lb range.
I could have sworn I saw a Sprinter at a Plymouth dealer today with a Chrysler logo on the front and not a Mercedes.

Re: Fed Ex Sprinters
 

Wooo hooo.... I like that!!!

Now if they would just make a Unimog with that drive system :D :D

A vendors rep came to the plant the other day in a Sprinter set up as a "display" vehicle for their line of oil flowmeters, pump and shaft seals. Anyway, got to talking to him about it and he stated he is getting 22-24 mpg. The whole time they were on site they kept the engine idling with the a/c going wide open. They had a little circulation fan in the back where the "display" was set up. I got him to let me take a look at the engine. Man, that thing would be sweet in a W123 bodied car:). It looked like everything was pretty straight forward as far as maintenance and I believe I saw an electronically controlled wastegate. With the electronics in this car wonder how much more trouble it would be to control the wastegate using the exhaust gas temperature as a controlling factor. I could not, for the life of me, see the "connection" for the egr system. I guess it is near the back of the manifolds? Plumbing for turbo/intercooler/intake was neatly laid out.

Here is something that is pretty sweet:).

http://adcache.rvtraderonline.com/3/6/8/40071068.htm

I any of ya'll come accross a wrecked Sprinter that they are parting out please let me know:).

I was talking to our FedEx guy about the Sprinter. His only beef is that the FedEx garage doesn't have a tire balancing machine, so after wearing out the first set of tires, it shakes like hell going down the road. No other complaints.
And yes, I heard that Dodge would be selling them also, but haven't seen one yet.

The old obsolete Dodge B series vans are soon to be no more. The Sprinter will also be sold under the Dodge nameplate as its replacement. This year, they are being sold side by side.

Palangi,
I saw a Dodge-badged Sprinter on a dealer lot in (I think) Weatherford last Sunday. It was a short body version. They're being marketed under the Freightliner and Dodge brands.

http://www.freightliner.com/brands/sprinter.asp

http://www.dodge.com/sprinter/index.html?context=homepage&type=top

Saw one today at the Wisconsin State Fair, not a cargo version though, more set up like a 16 passenger van, with windows.

Gilly

Re: Fed Ex Sprinters
 

See the second part of this article for info on the diesel elec.
http://www.daimlerchrysler.com/index_e.htm?/environ/report2002/c3_e.htm

Wish they would come up with one based on pouring wvo into a tank and changing filters every now and then:).

that would be nice but even nicer is a WVOpowerd diesel /elec hybrid. Talk about efficeint and enviro friendly

Hybrid gone sour
 

This is from a friend of mine that drives for Valley Transit in Phoenix.

<Another grand idea: Electric busses to serve the free neighborhood routes. These were battery-powered with on-board gas turbines to recharge as needed, which was most of the time since they were pulling large ACs as well as moving the bus. The manufacturing company tried desperately for 2 years to make the idea work (4-6 onsite techs and instructors), but the Phoenix summers ultimately killed them off and bankrupted the company. The drivers who took the 3-day training for these busses said that about 8 mos a year they worked very well, but during the summer they simply shut down whenever the onboard computer said so, and with no emergency "get me out of here" button, they often gave up on railroad tracks or in the middle of busy intersections. City of Tempe owns 10 of them (origial price $300k/ea) -- want to make an offer?>

Hehe...I bet those turbines would run just fine on fry grease.

A friend of mine is getting seriously interested, and wants me to go with on a test drive here in the next month or so. I'll let ya know what we think when we do.
Anybody have any insight to the 5-cyl diesel engine in the Sprinter? Is it the old 617 engine resurrected, or a whole new design?

Whole new design from what I gather. The Mercedes engineer I talked to a few months ago who worked on the 617 and the new ones, said the new ones were MUCH better.

EGR elimination
 

Does anybody know if the EGR can be removed on the new sprinter? I would like to be able to have the sprinter idle and with the EGR this does not appear feasible. This van will be used for off road use only. :rolleyes:

I believe I read on a Sprinter forum that a plate can be made to fit under the EGR valve, but I think this was a temporary measure allowing the vehicle to operate in a 'limp' mode until a repair could be made.