Advanced RV builds premium, personalized motor homes to fit your unique travel needs. Starting from the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter platform, we optimize each coach with features and finishes that enable you to go wherever your road takes you in elegance and comfort.
Because we believe the perfect motor home is the one you design, we seek your input every step of the way. It's more than selecting colors and options. You tell us how you want to travel, and we tailor your RV to suit, whether that means incorporating climate-controlled dog crates, storage for road bikes, or bunk beds for grandkids. It's your motor home. Make it your own.
Very interesting that you plan to travel for an extended period in a Class B after having been in a 30' trailer. Would like to hear how the composting toilet works for you as well.
It’s actually not a composting toilet, it’s from a company called DryFlush and it’s truly amazing. Far cleaner and easier to empty than any black tank, cassette or compost. Super happy with that decision.
Beautiful concept and design. I'd change the sofa to deep purple, but other than that, love it. BTW, something is either unique or not. It can't be very unique or extremely unique. Unique means one of a kind.
Not an ARV owner but I've been to ARV and I've met both Mike and his wife Marcia; good, honest people, as this short video evidences. Their RVs are in fact "advanced", they're just not for everybody, and Mike's OK with that.
Thanks for the question Mark. We are able to put solar on a B Box. However most clients choose not to include solar because their build already includes a comprehensive battery system with a secondary alternator that charges the battery any time you run the Sprinter engine.
After three years of intermittent use, we're finding that the shower system requires significant maintenance to keep filters clear and water pristine. We didn't experience these issues in our year of testing and haven't put this system in recent builds. We are exploring ways to make it better.
Eric here, the client. I cannot speak highly enough of the people at ARV. A completely custom van is not for everyone - there was a lot of time, effort and $$$ that went into this project; clearly this isn't the path for most. I myself probably logged 250-300 hours of "work" during the 18 months from initial deposit to start of build - watching RU-vid video from countless builders, researching systems and appliances, selecting materials (and backups for all). I walked into our 3-day planning meeting with very clear objectives, material lists and a detailed spreadsheet with notes and links to all. Despite all that effort, as pointed out in the video, there were a 1000 other concerns ARV has to address in terms of "how to build it", 99% of which they did with little to no input from me. This is what ARV brings to the table. The designers, engineers, mechanics, artisans and fabricators that can take a client from conception to completion - and do so with a level of competence few can match. And it doesn't stop there as their creative team came up with countless ideas to enhance my vision, like my compass logo on the running boards and replacing the Mercedes logos, or making the outside hinges gold to match my wheel color choice. If you're truly in the market for this level of van, I highly encourage you to consider one of their refurbished ready to go vans to truly understand what an elevated product and customer service experience ARV brings to this crowded market. Using one is also the best way to figure out what/how you want yours while you wait the year+ for the next available build slot!
Can you advise approximately how much cargo this van can carry? With only a 4-cylinder plus AWD and the B-box + water, and the heavy e-bikes, I’m just wondering how close to the max weight limit this van is carrying. Beautiful vehicle!
The weight is below the max upfit weight Mercedes allows their certified upfitters. We aim to give each build (with full fuel tank) about 800-1000 lbs of cargo capacity. You are correct that with two passengers with gear, full fresh tank and two e-bikes it will approach GVRW of 11,030 lbs. Thanks for your question.
Hi there, I’ve been watching all your videos and other luxury brands - I’ve been trying to understand why Mercedes only. I’ll be looking for a luxury van to travel throughout North America then ship it to the UK for a European tour. Parts and Maintenance seems a concern. I’m not handy- so I’m willing to pay for roadside assistance. Can you share what happens if your vans break down?
Cindy, thanks for your question about chassis service. We have built almost all of our Motorhomes on MB chassis as you observe. This is due to client preference. We do currently have deposits for a couple of Ford Transit builds. Ford is catching up to Sprinter in capabilities. I have personally used MB road service once in my over 300,000 miles of driving sprinter Motorhomes. It was great service. In summary, we will build on whatever platform serves your needs and can discuss capabilities of different platforms if you wish. - Mike
@@AdvancedRV thanks for responding- the more I read about ford vs MB the more Ford seems to make more sense from a service standpoint. I have a question that likely affects both manufacturers. What happens when you get a flat tire on the rear duel tire. This seems different to fix.
@@AdvancedRV I’d love to travel to Alaska so flat tires are a large worry when there are 6 tires on the 170’s. This seems like a bad reason to choose a 144 but it’s one of my concerns.
@@cindyannohara Although your chassis comes with tire changing tools, the chassis is heavy and can be dangerous to jack up, especially on uneven or soft ground. Whether you have single or dual rear wheels, the best approach to a front or rear flat tire is to call for service.
@@nw4runner makes sense. its a beautiful truck and design. i love the art deco. i'm just lazy and would never make the bed everyday so i'd prefer the elevator bed and just bring less stuff.
Next, please, a demonstration video of the 7-min bed set up, incl the placement of fitted sheet and toothbrush. It takes me 5 min to put a fitted sheet on my bed at home with room to maneuver all around the bed.
Love everything except the 4 cylinder. Diesel is the only way to go for engine life but sadly they want to kill the diesel because it was the best engine ever and we just cannot have that option for Americans.
Over a half million dollars for a van. Total rip off. You cannot justify charging that much for a van. You're charging that much because you don't build enough of them to stay in business. That's more than Airstream charges and they're overpriced too. This is what happens when you have a company that only builds four or five vans a year. You can get a luxury class A for half a million dollars. And then you mentioned selling used ones for $100,000 - $500,000 so you're seriously in the rip off business. I paid $70,000 for my van and $85,000 converting it and it is much more luxurious than anything I've seen on this channel.
Thank you for your comment. We appreciate your perspective. We wish we could provide our level of quality, comfort, and service for much less money. All manufacturers choose a balance of product price/volume dynamics that serves their clients. We provide one small group of clients who want to totally customize their motorhomes to match their travel needs. They want freedom, deep comfort, immediate technical service, and no squeaks and rattles even after hundreds of thousands of miles. We are fortunate to be able to serve these clients. We are also fortunate that we can build many times more custom ARV motorhomes than you estimate. We are grateful that there are so many choices and price points available for the traveling public. Thanks for watching our videos and thanks for your feedback.
Thanks for the question. The short answer is yes, anything is possible. We are often approached by owners of factory motorhomes to design with them and build a new custom interior. However there are a lot of reasons, when we get into the details, that we often can't make it work out. Essentially, the owner is saving cost on a used factory chassis but paying extra for the tear out and infrastructure upgrade. So it is usually a more efficient process for the client to purchase an empty chassis and start with that. We've done that type of project often.
I like ARV's embrace of custom work. I'd love to be a fly on the wall when owners share their design ideas with ARV staff. Keeping dreams compliant with the law of physics and the GVWR must be quite a chore sometimes. :-)
👋 ARV ⁉ I have an idea 💡 for ARV... Would you ever consider applying your wonderful craftsmen and workmanship to a cargo-trailer build if I were interested ?
Thanks for the comment. Check out our video on the Moose Trailer: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4KQeVnghYgU.htmlsi=BnjId2TLjto2LNIW We'd love to do one again.
Wow the first point is a great observation I actually agree with that: The need for travel experience to cultivate the vehicle vision(s), as I have done.
Wood stoves and Espar type heaters will dry and keep dry a van better than anything else. After that you want to create a thermal break at every thermal bridge.. do that with firm closed cell foam strips. Then control air exchange into the structure of the van with controlled venting. You can divert some of the forced air from an Espar actually into the open structure, behind the walls to keep thing dry (and remove snow ). Did this on a T1N.. worked perfect.
This is a good video for those who make over $500,000 a year, already have their house, car, child's education paid for and $1 million already saved for retirement. You don't have to explain the details to those people, they are looking for high quality products. And let's face it, they want something unique to stand out from the crowd. They worked hard and deserve it. ARV doesn't need to do this, but it would be interesting to see a full video showing the complete cost item by item. The price goes way down if you have the same vehicle every time and make an assembly line (like Winnebago) One design works for thousands of vehicles on the road. With ARV (and other companies) each vehicle needs an: engineer, designer, mechanic, plumber, carpenter, electrician, upholstery and metal worker. Imagine the cost of contracting all of those people. It will then cost even more than you think because you need these workers to be skilled in specifically making RVs. (rare skill set, higher cost) ARV has to pay for all of the equipment for all of those diverse workers. Finally, they need the storage to build several projects at once. Finally, the owners get their cut of the profit, why else have a business. Anyway, I hope those at ARV are paid well. The vehicles look great, I am glad you found your niche. Having said that, my family would say I was out of my damn mind for spending $500,000 on a vehicle.
Well said. I struggle with the idea of putting 400-600k of kit into a 75-90k vehicle. One-off specialized versus economies of scale from mass production.
We did a follow up video on spray insulation not too long after this video was published, you can find it here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-diFOAQgNtYg.htmlsi=3c-QYyf19GZf4o_B
I just bought a Sprinter 170" high roof cargo van (no windows) that has already been spray foamed...I'm converting it to a camper van...should I just stick with the spray foam alone, or add an additional layer of something...any advice would be greatly appreciated...
