Everett, WA Represent!

[Kynetx]

Greetings, folks.

My name is Aaron and I have been travelling down the path to a lovely teardrop that my wife and I can call our own. This is going to be a project that should be completed by late spring of next year in time for my wife's family reunion in Colorado.

Ive been gathering info on all the sites I could find and finally tripped across this forum today. Hopefully we will start gathering construction materials this weekend and begin construction very soon. I have been sketching a design of my own using fairly basic elements from the classic design, but allowing for a queen sized matress and dog in the sleeping area. I'll post up the plans in the appropriate forum and post a link in this thread soon.

About me:
33, married (only 6 weeks!) wife is 34 and a full-time student. I work for a large telecommunications company that starts with a V and ends with an N. I can't tell you which one though.
I just purchased a 1985 Mercedes-Benz 300D turbodiesel. This will be our main tow rig. Our dog Lila is a 95-lb Rottweiler-Pinscher mix and will be accompanying us on our journey through the mountains.

Thanks for now and thanks for the future, I'm sure I'll gather a lot of valuable information from you.

[SkipperSue]

Welcome to the forum here! You will find just about anything about Teardrops here.
Thumbs up on your Mercedes Benz
I have an old 1971 220D that I have been useing as a tow vehicle for the time being. It's pretty slow but it will tow a load!

[Kynetx]

A 220? You're a brave man. I will say one thing... 0-60MPH unloaded: 20 seconds. Loaded, with a wife, teardrop, dog, coolers and other gear: 20 seconds. Very cool car though. Manual transmission?

I got a screamin' deal on mine. Luckily for me the dealer was pretty ignorant so I was able to talk him down big-time. Before we set out I'll have a lot of maintenance to do but they engine is tip-top.

[SkipperSue]

Yeah, it's slow
It's got the 4 speed in the floor, which I love. I only paid 600 dollars for mine but I had to put about 1200 dollars more into it. It had been sitting in a garage since 1988.
I plan on towing with my Volkswagon Jetta TDI when I get a hitch mounted on it.

[asianflava]

I just purchased a 1985 Mercedes-Benz 300D turbodiesel. This will be our main tow rig.

My dad got a cherry 300SD a couple years ago, it's an 1983 so it's a W-123 body style. It came in handy during the hurricanes because when you couldn't buy gas, diesel was plentiful. He said that he took a step down because they gave me the 1984 SL. I hardly drive the SL, my parents bought it when it was a year old and hardly drove it. It's in great condition but the odo stopped working I figure that it has around 80K on it, it's a European 280SL (6-cyl so it's a dog).

When I was a small kid, we took a cross country trip with the 240D. We were pulling a popup camper.

I can't wait to see a W-126 pulling a teardrop. Congratulations on everything, New Wife, New car (new to you), and New teardrop project.

[JunkMan]

I just purchased a 1985 Mercedes-Benz 300D turbodiesel. This will be our main tow rig.

I've been thinking about one of those to run back and forth to work (It's gotta get better mileage than my 3/4 ton pick-up!). Thought about a veggie oil conversion too. I've never driven one, but really was impressed with the engine in my Mercedes Unimog.

What kind of mileage do you get with it? How is it for power?

[Kynetx]

The 300Ds are peppy enough. You won't win any races with them but they're not dangerously slow either. The nice thing about them is the torque. The engine is slow to rev but it will rev at the same speed with a carload of buddies or empty.

I got mine for about 1600 from a shady used car dealer. He had originally wanted 3200. He was out of his fool mind in my opinion. When I test-drove it the first time it had no power, transmission shifted brutally and too high and a lot of the other systems just plain didn't work. I did some research on the internet and discovered a great forum (mercedesshop.com) and looked up all the symptoms I was having and how to fix them. I turned up the fuel and got the power back and replaced some tubing and connecters to fix vacuum leaks and the transmission started shifting right again. All in all I spent less than 10 dollars and 20 minutes and it was running and driving like a champ. It's a dream to drive. It's like piloting a waterbed down the road. It handles really well and on the highway it's really in its element. You can tell that it was designed to be an Autobahn cruiser. Mileage is in the low thirties to high twenties if I drive it hard. It's slow off the line but once I'm done with first gear the turbo has spooled up and it pulls firmly the rest of the way. I love it. I'm going to sell my little Volkswagen and save some money to buy one for the wife to drive to school.
It has the same engine as the Unimog (drool) of the same year.

[asianflava]

The problems we had with our 500SEL (another European Graymarket) were the doorlocks, power windows, antenna, ride leveling. I hear that these problems were common with the W-126.

The door locks and the antenna were easy fixes but I'm not shure about the ride leveling. Since ours was a European model, it had a manual override to raise the car.

After the windows were fixed, the guy told us not hold down the switch after the windows was fully raised or lowered (I guess there is no current sensing). We never had a problem afterwards.

[Miriam C.]

Welcome Kynetx,
Wanna trade cars???? Mine runs in bouble low. Congratulations on the wedding and finding us. We are the best ya know. Just one catch, ya gotta do the picture thing. Cause we got some "mad" ones. Best to keep the bubble oil level.