2004 Forest River MB Cruiser - Have One?

We had a 2005 MB cruiser, 222, put 75000 miles on it until we traded it last year. It was really a good rig for us, took to Alaska twice including the haul road to Prudhoe Bay. It had great clearance, 8 1/2 inches at the lowest, fresh water system was on the floor, protected from cold, and the largest black and grey tanks in the industry. All in all a good rig, and sometimes regret trading it.

bobojay5 wrote:
...2005 might have been the first year

Nope. Our LTV is a 2005 conversion on a 2004 chassis and ours definitely has a turbo resonator, the 3rd one. :)

Being a 2004 built rv it was probably like mine and built on the 2003 chassis.

Davydd wrote:

topless wrote:
Before you rush out and buy a turbo resonator make sure: it hasn't already been replaced or as my 2004 sprinter conversion, didn't have a plastic one to start with. I bought one, and my van didn't have the plastic one, so I sold it at a loss.

Correct me if I am wrong but I don't think the turbo resonator came with the Sprinter until the 2004 chassis year. I had a 2004 Sprinter chassis and drove 61,000 miles without ever having to replace the turbo resonator. I carried the after market metal one for many of those miles and it eventually went with the B.

You're not wrong David, the 2004 chassis was the first year for it.

I believe?? also that 2004 was the first year for an in tank fuel pump that makes it so much easier to prime fuel filters. This tidbit of info might be off a year though....2005 might have been the first year

topless wrote:
Before you rush out and buy a turbo resonator make sure: it hasn't already been replaced or as my 2004 sprinter conversion, didn't have a plastic one to start with. I bought one, and my van didn't have the plastic one, so I sold it at a loss.

Correct me if I am wrong but I don't think the turbo resonator came with the Sprinter until the 2004 chassis year. I had a 2004 Sprinter chassis and drove 61,000 miles without ever having to replace the turbo resonator. I carried the after market metal one for many of those miles and it eventually went with the B.

Before you rush out and buy a turbo resonator make sure: it hasn't already been replaced or as my 2004 sprinter conversion, didn't have a plastic one to start with. I bought one, and my van didn't have the plastic one, so I sold it at a loss.

We have a 2005 MB Cruiser with 64K miles. We love our's also, drives great and gets 22-24 mpg. We still have the original turbo resonator, but carry the metal replacement just in case.

Dave

Oooooh!!! Oooooh!!! We've got one!!!

Not exactly the same though. Ours is a 2003. But we LOVE IT!
Ours had about 80,000 miles on it when we got it a few years ago. It's held up fantastically for us as we've added another 30,000 already. With regular maintenance (we have a Freightliner dealer in town), I have no worries that I'll get two or three times as many more miles out of her.

The engine is solid. You may want to check out the Sprinter-Source forum for the particulars on what can go wrong with the various years. Ours, for example, doesn't have the turbo resonator (apparently). As another poster observed, it's not quite as smooth and quiet as the newer ones, but you'll get them back at the pump. We routinely get over 20 MPG, fully loaded.

The floorplan with the dry bath is terrific, and something that (as far as I can tell) the entire B industry went away from until Leisure Travel Vans brought out the Free Spirit SS last year.

We liked ours so much, I spent a lot of time and money remodeling the interior. You can see the whole remodel on our blog, in the signature. I'm also in the middle of some suspension upgrades.

All in all, if you like the price, I'd say pull the trigger. You won't be disappointed. And we'd love to see another one on the road!

The Mercedes 5-cylinder is a good engine, although I recommend replacing the turbo resonator ASAP. There are topics from a couple weeks on this, as well as one I posted a few months ago when I was looking at a T1N Sprinter "B".

If everything checked out, I wouldn't hesitate on a T1N model "B". 20+ MPG is nothing to sneeze at. I would say that the newer NCV3 models run smoother and have more horsepower, but this does cost a little bit in gas.

PS: I didn't know FR made "B"s. That might be a market they should be looking at again because it is one of the fastest growing RV segments.