Community Forums

**Camp CA** · 12-11-2021, 04:52 PM

1. Is there any braking assist on this engine on say 7% downgrades, especially towing a 3500 lb vehicle, without an exhaust brake like my Ford F350 or is it transmission only?

2. How well does it tow a 3500 lb vehicle on 7% upgrades?

bigb56 · 12-11-2021, 04:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Camp CA

1. Is there any braking assist on this engine on say 7% downgrades, especially towing a 3500 lb vehicle, without an exhaust brake like my Ford F350 or is it transmission only?

2. How well does it tow a 3500 lb vehicle on 7% upgrades?

No extra braking assistance, you will want to go slow and keep to low gears. We were on a 9% in Death Valley and in order to keep the brakes from overheating I had to reduce to under 20 MPH and use 2nd gear. My weight was just over 11K and I have the 5 speed automatic, newer ones have more gears.

We don't have a toad so can't answer the second question but people have reported they do OK with a small toad although many will be hanging in the slow lane with the big trucks. You also have to consider your GVW, ours is over 11K but many of the B classes are lighter and can tow the weight better.

hippopapamus · 12-11-2021, 11:00 PM

No exhaust break or break assist on the Sprinters. You need to use the transmission to keep your speed down on steep grades and avoid overheating your brakes. Not a big deal, but takes some paying attention.

We towed a Jeep Wrangler Unlimited JL all over California and to / from Yellowstone. Averaged over 13 mpg with some serious grades. You aren’t going to win any races, but that shouldn’t be expected (or the point). You also need to mind your weights (coach and toad). We always traveled with empty tanks and would load the Jeep sparingly, drive with 1/4 tank of gas, and even take the hard top/doors off if we needed to use it for extra storage.

The Sprinter based RVs are fantastic, but you have to know and be ok with their limitations.

Rookie RVer · 12-12-2021, 07:01 PM

We drove ours under a Thor Quantum in the Colorado mountains and tow a Jeep Wrangler 2 door. We were not lucky enough to get 13 mpg but were at about 9 or 10. I70 west out of Denver is a pretty long pull and we didn't win any races but it did "ok". On a descent we just stayed off the gas and infrequently manually downshifted but we never really got out of control. Pretty stable.

Ours was a 2017 Sprinter and it was nice but in my opinion nothing to write home to Mom about. Very easy to drive, not bad in wind, but at least a 3-4 month wait to get service around Denver and the check engine light continually came on just about every trip. It was always diesel demissions control issues and apparently nothing Mercedes could do with it. We just sold it and went from a 2019 Thor to a 2007 Dynamax. We'll see how well that gamble works out.

HighDesert · 12-12-2021, 07:06 PM

We had a 2017, towing a Jeep 2 door JKS. There is no brake assist on the Sprinter so i5 is a matter of gearing down and s phase us3 of brakes on grades to prevent overheating. We spent a lot of time crossing the continental divided (7 times) and each downhill was always interesting. In some cases, just pulled over to let things cool down. Have since moved on to a class A gasser and now a DP with an exhaust brake. World of difference.