Ace · Sprinter 144

The Story

Ace is one of the first builds that ever rolled out of the 2Pines shop, finished eight years ago when the crew was smaller and the tool list was shorter. The brief was a week at a time away from services: enough storage, power, and heated water tanks to get to a mountain bike trailhead, a ski hill, or the lake, and stay comfortable once the van got there. A 4x4 Sprinter 144 chassis handled the part of the trip where the pavement runs out. And yes, the full name is Ace Vantura, and eight years later we still stand by the pun.

For its day, the systems package was a serious one. A 300Ah battery bank fed a 2000W pure-sine inverter with 110V and 12V outlets throughout, topped up by 380W of solar and alternator charging while driving. An Espar hydronic system covered cabin heat and hot water, and heated water tanks kept the plumbing working when the season turned. Inside, an induction cooktop, swivel seats around a Lagun table, Flarespace flares, and a bench seat with a third sleeping position made a 144 wheelbase feel bigger than it measures, with air conditioning and a Maxxair fan covering the warm end of four-season climate control.

Ace is the early ancestor of what became our Aleppo floor plan, and looking at it now is a bit like finding an old photo of yourself: instantly familiar, with details that have clearly moved on. Today's builds run bigger battery banks and full Victron monitoring, and the engineering has tightened up year over year since this one. But Ace is still on the road eight years later, doing exactly what it was built to do, and we are still proud of it. No major warranty claims in almost a decade, and this is one of the vans that started that streak.