Mercedes Trailer Hitch

Hot Pit Sideshow: Airstream Interstate 3500

You see them most everywhere, ambling along America's highways and byways like gentle whales. Inside sit recently retired couples who have managed to shove the bulk of their earthly possessions into a full-size, bus-size RV. And 40-footers aren't uncommon. They're even towing a Mercury Sable because, let's be honest here, nobody wants to try and park a rig of this size anywhere near an Olive Garden. Bigger is of course better -- so say the great state of Texas and a large portion of what makes up our American consciousness. But if size and nothing else mattered, Alaska would be twice as fabulous as Texas! And as any Lone Star Stater will tell ya, that simply ain't the case.

Meet the Airstream Interstate 3500, a luxurious and compact recreational vehicle. Compact is a relative term, as the Interstate is based on a full-size dually Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van that shows up "naked" weighing 5562 pounds. Once Airstream is done with its converting, the 22-foot-long, 80-inch-wide van tips the big scale to the tune of 8436 pounds, with a GVWR of 11,030 pounds and a GCWR of 15,250.

However, the 3.0-liter Blue Efficiency V-6 engine is more than up to the task of moving around an extra ton, a startling fact when you consider that the small diesel makes just 188 horsepower and 325 pound-feet of torque. Even with those (relatively) small numbers, our Interstate had no trouble whatsoever keeping up with traffic and maintaining a 75-mph cruising speed up and down the 101 from Los Angeles to north of San Francisco.

Better still, loaded up with me, my wife, our dog (a 13-pound miniature pinscher mutt named Knuckles), and enough stuff for a six-day road trip (including 26 gallons of fresh water, 27 gallons of gray water, and 14 gallons of liquid petroleum gas), the Interstate averaged 18.6 mpg over 934 miles. Not bad at all and, as Airstream points out, 30 percent better than a similarly sized and equipped gasoline-powered RV.

Trailer Hitch Installation – 2000 Mercedes C230 – etrailer.com ...

Www.etrailer.com Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information. Alright today, on this 2000 Mercedes C230, we are going to install part number 257229 from DaLan. First what we are going to do is get into the trunk area and we are going to have to move and remove some components. The reason why we are going to do this is to give us some better working room inside there because you do have to do some drilling. First off, we will take off the cover and then we are going to take out the spare tire. And the spare tire tools, we are going to remove those. And then there are some electrical components on the driver side. And then we are also going to loosen the battery and just scoot it off to the side. Alright, we have our template that comes with the instructions. And we are going to cut this template out and we are going to apply it to the bottom of the vehicle and that will show us where to mark and drill our first two holes. Alright, we will go ahead and use a punch to mark our holes and then we will go back through it with a drill. 00:49 Next, we are going to take our stiffener reinforcement bracket and this is going to go on the inside of this channel here. What is going to happen is these two bolts are going to go inside of here and go through the holes we just drilled previously. So unfortunately, you are not going to be able to see this and I am going to have to go by feel.

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