Mercedes Hymer wanted

[Compo11]

Hi,
Looking to purchase our first motorhome and after much reading would like to purchase a mercedes hymer, manual, diesel.
Not sure which model , looking at any 4-6 berth vans.
Would like the camper to be pre 1994 (not looking to spend a fortune until we are sure we will be hooked!)
Any advice or offers gratefully received.
Thanks
Peter

 

[Proff]

As an owner of one of these fine machines, heres a few tips>>
the 2.4, 4 cylinder engine is very reliable, but a slug [ usually fitted in 550/560/555 Hymer Mercs]
The S in the name = one piece roof with round edges..
Most post 88 to 95 [last of the "Proper" Hymers IMHO] have the 2.9 liter 5 cylinder engine which will outlast most of us on this site..
BUT it is still a bit sluggish and will give around 23 mpg @ 90KPH
Turboing them makes a Fantastic improvement, ours was turboed 50K Kilometers ago @ a cost of £2300 all in....
no difference in Fuel consumption or top speed, BUT it does not know what a hill is anymore
the 660 has Twin back wheels [not axles] which gives a gross weight of 4.6 tonne..
1.5 tonne payload..
useful for >>

we also have a refillable chassis mounted gas tank, saves a fortune on bottles plus no lugging them about.

Towing makes no difference to fuel consumption except on VERY steep hills ..
Towing capability is 2 ton +

After being turboed our 1994 van owed us almost £20K four years ago with 30.000 kilometers..
We have been offered that for her now with 80.000 kilometers, but she's not for sale..

PM me if you want more info as I also find Hymers from Europewide for people ....

 

[Guest]

Proud

Nice photo's Proff, you must be very proud of her. Like the wine

 

[rolandrat]

Mercedes Hymer Wanted

Well I never expected to see my old Hymer on here but there she is K60 NCB. I wish I had never parted with it, it will go on forever and give you many years of pleasure. Theonly reservation I have is that the owner after me had it reupholstered in what I thought was a crappy colour scheme, its original unblemished colour was champagne. The layout is probably one of the best you can have.
Rolandrat

 

[Compo11]

660

Hi Proff,
Thanks for posting the pictures and information - your camper looks fantastic!
The 660 looks like a great model for our family. I don't seem to have the ability to PM but would be very interested if you could help source one.
Maybe you are able to PM me?
Thanks
Peter

 

[Proff]

Well I never expected to see my old Hymer on here but there she is K60 NCB. I wish I had never parted with it, it will go on forever and give you many years of pleasure. Theonly reservation I have is that the owner after me had it reupholstered in what I thought was a crappy colour scheme, its original unblemished colour was champagne. The layout is probably one of the best you can have.
Rolandrat

Well hello there Rolandrat..
You're right, you never should have sold her..
The uphostery I agree with you,, but the wife likes it
The previous [to us] 2 owners never used it, it had only done 234 kms in a year according to MOT's
The way we got it was strange>>
Early 2007>>>
I'd arranged to go to Wuppertal to see a Hymer 700 with 180.000kms, solar,gastank, etc and this one was mentioned to me by a friend in Paignton...
so we had a choice>
Travel 600 miles to Wuppertal or 40 miles to Paignton Devon...
We did Paignton and fell in love with her immediately
Only two problems with her..
You have to take the handbrake off to turn drivers seat round
My drivers footwell is a little cramped compared to the wifes side.
WHY???
Well she's Right Hand Drive [ one of only 6 RHD 660S Hymers ]
But Hymer only do a LHD Body so Drivers door is on passenger side whilst gas locker is still on my side RHD...

This one was June 2009, we're now @ 80,000Kms>

Compo, you can get me on keithstevenson2[at] tiscali.co.uk

 

[Deleted member 967]

As an owner of one of these fine machines, heres a few tips>>
the 2.4, 4 cylinder engine is very reliable, but a slug [ usually fitted in 550/560/555 Hymer Mercs]
The S in the name = one piece roof with round edges..
Most post 88 to 95 [last of the "Proper" Hymers IMHO] have the 2.9 liter 5 cylinder engine which will outlast most of us on this site..
BUT it is still a bit sluggish and will give around 23 mpg @ 90KPH
Turboing them makes a Fantastic improvement, ours was turboed 50K Kilometers ago @ a cost of £2300 all in....
no difference in Fuel consumption or top speed, BUT it does not know what a hill is anymore
the 660 has Twin back wheels [not axles] which gives a gross weight of 4.6 tonne..
1.5 tonne payload..
useful for >>

we also have a refillable chassis mounted gas tank, saves a fortune on bottles plus no lugging them about.

Towing makes no difference to fuel consumption except on VERY steep hills ..
Towing capability is 2 ton +

After being turboed our 1994 van owed us almost £20K four years ago with 30.000 kilometers..
We have been offered that for her now with 80.000 kilometers, but she's not for sale..

PM me if you want more info as I also find Hymers from Europewide for people ....

I have the S700 (1992) I fully back most of the above comments. Ours is not turboed and returns between 14 and 20mpg with the 5 cyl 2.9 engine and 5 speed manual box.

The S700 has a fixed rear bed or U shaped rear lounge and a Bar table layout up front. The door is in the middle rather than the front on the S660 otherwise it is the same vehicle, same load and weight. These are not so common as the S660

 

[Byronic]

J T I'm very surprised to see you only getting 14-20 mpg out of the 2.9lL 5 pot. I run a 709d 4L and achieve over 27 mpg logged over nearly 80,000 miles. Admittedly I'm never in a rush and a lot of my miles are on open French and Spanish roads, but your 20 mpg figures must be over best conditions and therefore can be compared.

 

[Proff]

The wife logged the whole trip this year and we averaged 21 mpg over 4000 kms..
Admitedly we don't use peage or any other toll roads, I'm happy pottering at 75/80 kph on most Froggy roads....
All top gear till we drop below 40kph..
We were thinking of trying to source an Overdrive type 5 speed box as fitted to Sprinters.
as 1st gear on the standard box [dog leg left] is only for towing 44 tonners to start them.............. damhik..
or 16" wheels instead of the 14" on her...
the 2.9l 5 cyl engine will also run on SVO [ straight veg oil @ 90p liter LIDL] or bio without losing power....

PS. we also had over 250 bottles of wine on board { 4.6 ton GVW rules } as we were about to become Grandparents [Lily 11 Oct 2010]
We returned on 10th Oct, and were at the hospital in Truro when Lily was born..
close call or what

 

[Byronic]

I don't know whether to trust SVO as a fuel, diesel injection pumps and of course engines are designed to exploit the lubricity of diesel fuel. I'm not convinced SVO have these qualities, still its good to know that old tech engines have some advantages should you need them in an emergency. Your 21mpg seems reasonable. I can only assume that the reason I get good mpg from a 6.6t MGVW vehicle (I run @ around 5t) is keeping the speed down, I don't flatter myself as if having some sort of superior driving skill.
On my van there were and are a number of rear axle crownwheel ratio options available, similar may also be available for your Type 1 model.Might be viable alternative to wheel change or overdrive.

 

[Proff]

I don't know whether to trust SVO as a fuel, diesel injection pumps and of course engines are designed to exploit the lubricity of diesel fuel.

AHH thats the point ....
Modern DERV[post 2000] has NO lubrication compared to earlier DERV..
Old diesel would stop on your hands for days, new diesel evaporates in seconds
A lot of Transits circa 1994 had severe problems with the new diesel fuel.
A set of injector pump bearings went from less than £20 to almost £100 to alleviate the need for lubrication...
EVERY Diesel engine I run [ 2 cars, 1 truck, 1 Hymer Wobblybox plus 2 gennies] uses at least a 20% mix of SVO in it's tank, saves money and keeps the engine CLEAN, in fact according to my last MOT if our Hymer was new, we would be in the £110 tax group according to our emissions
Remember to change fuel filter after first couple of fills with BIO or SVO as it flushes all the crap out of the fuel system...
I'm typing this with over 18 years experience of using BIO/SVO in my vehicles, doing an average of 150,000 miles before replacing them....
That's long before it was LEGAL to use 2,500 liters per year without informing UK Customs

 

[lebesset]

good point about when you first run SVO , when I first tried it [50 % ]the filter blocked very quickly with all the crud in the system

the main reason for lack of lubrication in modern diesel is the low sulphur content we now have ; personally I use the mercedes test fleet system of 0.5% 2T in the diesel , cheapest you can get [ Ebay ?] unless you have an engine with a particle filter , then you have to use one of the low ash variety

 

[Byronic]

I quote, " practically no lubricating qualities compared to the old DERV" that implies that the new has "some" lubricating qualities, and this would mean that it would be ok for the modern engine, which hopefully is specifically designed for it.
It's our old tech engines that are at a disadvantage' not being designed for modern DERV. Now if you choose to "water" down your modern DERV with SVO which may have near zero lubricating qualities then it may, be a detrimental decision.
A diesel engine fuel system can be cleaned with Automatic Transmission Oil added to the DERV, only once in a while, after all even this may not have adequate lubrication qualities for the engine.

 

[rolandrat]

Mercedes Hymer Wanted

Hi John Thompson,
I'm glad that you have highlighted the fuel consumption of your Hymer because no matter how I drove K60 NCB I could only get 14mpg when fully laden. It was fitted with a direct drive gearbox (not overdrive) as per plate on the side of it. The axle diff was also standard as well. The only way to improve overall fuel consumption would have been to fit it with an overdrive gearbox which is very easy to do, fit a higher ratio diff and as Proff has already done, have the engine turboed. There are loades of spares in the specialist breakers yards. I must admit that I was somewhat surprised at the 23mpg claimed after seeing it with a trailer attached as well but maybe it has been fitted with the mods I have mentioned.
Regarding the 609 Bremner Mercs with the log stroke engines, the one I had returned 12mpg.
Rolandrat.

 

[wints]

My last motorhome was a 1999 reg Mirage 6000 on a Mercedes 412 chassis, 2.9 turbo diesel with a 4 speed auto box. Over the 4 years I owned it I got 23 mpg.
The engine never missed a beat, and the auto box was silky smooth. I loved it !
But, we've got lots of hobby's with lots of associated kit, so the van went and I got a Hymer with a massive garage.
Allen

 

[Ian03/54]

We had a similar MPG with our old Hymer 665, built on the Bremmen 410D, we owed it for over 8 years and she never gave better than 23-24 even on French RNs at steady 90kph. Mostly 20mpg in the UK though. Mind they will go on for ever.

The Starline 640 we have now has the 2.9 and auto box which is much smoother, same mechanicals as Alan describes above, and we seem to be getting over 25mpg but then we have only done less than 1000miles since buying this one.

Ian

 

[Compo11]

I have found my Motorhome!

Thanks Prof for you help.
Managed to find a camper that suited our needs 1992 Merc Hymer S700.
Had to go quite far afield to find it - Tampere in Finland! Nice drive back and it never missed a beat.
Full of lots of gadgets that will take time to work out...
Pleased as punch with it!
Thanks again.

 

[Hazy-thoughts]

Hey compo, really pleased to see you got a Hymer and an S700 too

You wont be disappointed with it I am sure.

We bought a 1996 Hymer s700 just about two years ago now, which we have lived in since and love it to bits. It is a 2'9l turbo diesel with 5 gears and we seem to get around 25-26 mpg minimum driven steadily. We fitted Gaslow LPG bottles and would recommend them rather than calor.
We also have a solar panel and inbuilt genny, so totally self sufficient.

 

[Deleted member 967]

Thanks Prof for you help.
Managed to find a camper that suited our needs 1992 Merc Hymer S700.
Had to go quite far afield to find it - Tampere in Finland! Nice drive back and it never missed a beat.
Full of lots of gadgets that will take time to work out...
Pleased as punch with it!
Thanks again.

View attachment 1883

Hi Compo

You have the same year S700 as myself. From the picture I guess yours has the rear lounge as opposed to the fixed bed.

What is the cover for that is covered when the habitation door is open?

 

[Proff]

Thanks Prof for you help.
Managed to find a camper that suited our needs 1992 Merc Hymer S700.
Had to go quite far afield to find it - Tampere in Finland! Nice drive back and it never missed a beat.
Full of lots of gadgets that will take time to work out...
Pleased as punch with it!
Thanks again.

View attachment 1883

You're more than welcome Compo
You've got my Email addy in case you need it, remember you don't need UK headlights for MOT, just the blanker or diverter type..
Fog lamp has to be on OSR or both rear lights..
Other than that, she should fly through...
CM autos in Preston took over a lot of TB Turbos work, he's the EX Head Mechanic..
He may be able to Turbo her