6 tips for your journey around the world in the Sprinter 4×4.

N°1: Safe is safe.

“Some of the regions we travelled to were regarded as not particularly safe because of their political situation. We are not daredevils and that is why it is important to take the advice from the police or the military in these regions seriously. In a difficult moment in Sudan the embassy helped us with competent information about the current situation.”

“After driving through the sand to the beach in Mozambique we had to pump up the tires again.”

N°2: Deflate.

We normally have a tire pressure of four bar for the rear wheels and about three bar for the front. However in Jordan, Kenya or Mozambique, we drove some of the long routes with deep sand with roughly one bar. Thanks to the flat tires and our all-wheel drive we easily handled the sand; we rarely had to use shovels and sand plates.”

In some cases it’s wise to deflate the tyres.

N°3: Less is more.

“We do not need much to live on our journeys: the camping table and chairs are our most important equipment. The GPS device has also become an important companion. In Africa we discovered Tracks4Africa, an amazing GPS application which knows even the smallest bush tracks.”

Laura Kunz with the Sprinter 4×4 in the Jordanian desert.

N°4: There is always a way.

“Regardless of whether America, Asia or Africa – there are Mercedes-Benz branches almost everywhere who can help in an emergency. We have had a number of good experiences with their services. In Pakistan, for example, the representatives ordered new shock absorbers from a branch 1,000 km away. We received the material the next day. To this very day we have no idea how he managed that…”

Related Article

A van with the all-terrain capabilities of a G-Class and the loading capacity of a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter. Allow us to introduce the Oberaigner 6x6.

More

N°5: Good advice is worth its weight in gold.

“On our first journey – so without much experience – we were travelling through Costa Rica and it had been pouring with rain for hours. Although the locals had advised us not to, we dared a small gravel road – and promptly got stuck fording a creek despite the all-wheel drive. Since then we know that you should always trust the tips from the locals. It was namely a local who finally pulled us out of the mud with his tractor…”

The Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 4×4.

N°6: A good line home.

“Our daughter handles a lot of administrative work for us in Switzerland and sometimes sends us things by air mail which we cannot handle remotely. We stay in touch via Skype. We have a wireless aerial in the Sprinter so that we can still use the Wi-Fi some distance away from the route in the van.”