Hello new member from NE Scotland
Hi there, just entered the world of G wagen ownership after having purchased a 1993 300GES SWB. It is in very good condition overall, the previous owner has looked after it very well although it has certainly been used in anger. The chassis is immaculate and the body only requires some minor tidying to bring it up to scratch as there is a couple of rust spots at the bottom of the rear door and around one of the door handles. The previous owner also modified it with a body lift and winch amongst other things. The most I will have to do is tidy the interior a bit. Both front seats are pretty tired and I don't if it's even worth getting them re-trimmed. That and the water ingress to the front footwells which I have seen discussed fairly extensively elsewhere in the forum
Managed to justify the purchase to my better half on the, somewhat flimsy, grounds that it will be needed to get up the rather steep track to our house that we are in the process of building. The justification also involved having something capable of towing a decent sized trailer up to the plot as well. Unfortunately because of the body lift, the standard towbar is too high for a normal trailer. Is it possible to get a height adjustable towbar for the G?
I love the build quality of these things, modern cars just aren't put together the same. I'm looking forward to seeing what it can do offroad although I'm a bit of a novice, my only experience is limited to the tracked vehicles and landy's I drove during my time in the army.
love the website by the way. I'm a member of a few automotive forums and this is by far the best online resource i've come across.
Cheers
Dougie
Hello Dougie,
First and foremost Welcome to the club. We are always glad to hear praises to the club, it shows the hard work by voluntary staff runing it, are doing right. That does not mean we do not want to hear of our failures either; we would rather learn from our flaws.
Should you have suggestions on how to improve our service, please do so, as a newbie, you could throw light on something, however basic we are blinded to.
As far as your tow bar is concerned, I do not think Mercedes do an adjustable tow hitch, you may have to consider the sort fitted to landdies for this purpose. Wait to see what other members suggest, they are usually well informed.
Enjoy your G-Wagen.
Hi Dougie
Congrats on your G purchase.
Do you mean that the G has had a suspension lift? I say this because a body lift (where the body only is packed some distance off the chassis), will not affect the towbar height as the towbar is fixed to the chassis.
I don't know of an adjustable OEM towbar, but it would be easy to make or have one made. Having siad that, the original ones aren't particularly high, and even with 50mm of lift I wouldn't think they are too high for most applications, but I guess you've tried your trailer! Put some rocks in the back of the G... Others may know more about this.
Regards Scott
Dougie,
Hi and welcome to the forum.
Hope you have a few years enjoying your G! You may like to contact LEEU here on the forum as he has just done exactly what you have, building houe, towing etc. and he should be able to tell you what is what.
Look forward to meeting you sometime in the future!
Spider1V
Welcome from NE too.. Aberdeen to half way to Dundee (up 1/2 mile track hence a winter G).
Currently have a variable height hitch lying on the ground behind my G; it was built years ago to allow usage with a ball and ring hitches. Keeping it at the moment because I may yet come across a ring hitch trailer I need to tow. Suspect it is totally illegal with the updates in towing regs but as car is pre 1998 it could work if it was there already ;). Never really had that much issue with hitch height but the G is a little tall I think. That just means you get more hitch weight which is a good thing most times especially as the G hitch is very close to the rear axle with stiff springs so is probably the best tow SUV you can get.
http://www.witter-towbars.co.uk/towbars/faq8.php#
Ball hitch CENTRE should be 350-420mm with vehicle laden .. which is proably true on a G but the most folk don't tow with 500kg in the boot..
Trailer hitch Centre should be 385-455mm with trailer fully laden.
SWB standard rear spring is 476 lbs/in so 500lbs is about an inch lower fully laden..
Note.. you will probably have to replace the rear springs if towing if they are original as they break easily if old (not as easy a a LR leaf spring!). Fit 461 van springs when you replace as these are 71% stronger.
If you really have an issue.. could be the trailer has the wrong hitch type on it.. could fit a spacer on it to move hitch up? I found the current G to have a soft rear end for towing a heavy/commercial trailer but then previous G I used had heavy springs fitted as factory option. Anyway mostly the broken rear springs I suspect and not been heavy towing since then.
Leaks; windscreen, wiper shafts or bulkhead where inner wings bolt on. Remove your fuse cover and drill a hole in it now as it holds the leaking water from windscreen.. then the permanent live corrodes. BTDT
Seat bases you can get new MB covers for £70 ; if you change seats then tell your insurance company..
Second attempt to post this..
Was the owner a gwoa member? Doesn't his dad have a g500 ?
The problem you'll get is braking it will push the rear down and lift the front up, that's what I found with my off roader towing a trailer due to its height.. Nice motor though
I don't think he was a GWOA member as he confessed to not being very good with computers. I think he got one of his employees to list it for him.
Didn't Russ280 have a sliding NATO hitch for his Sankey tailer? Might be worth sending him a p.m.
Check your wiper spindles, mine have no play but still leak. A seat retrim in leather oughtn't to cost the earth and will be cheaper than cloth replacements from Merc. Seat backs from a w201 or w202 are a direct swap but the bases of the w202 are slightly wider than those of the G so can press against the handbrake.
Passed that white one once down by Stirling.. it is tall!
Attached is remains of a variable one that towed about 7t on it at one time (Ifor Williams 0.75t heavy twin axle trailer, Fordson Major with twin wheels, Foster rear actor, Quicke front actor so near a JCB) .. hence a little distortion but it gives an idea of what your local fabricator needs to do ..i.e. buy the variable plate and then make the wedge shape bit to suit.
variable plate;
http://www.towsure.com/product/Adjustable_Height_Tow_Coupling
Which bent at ball bolts so hence the second plate made up from solid 12mm plate which you see in photo
Hitch allowing ball and rings .. which is what was on this fabrication
http://www.towsure.com/product/Heavy_Duty_50mm_Towball_and_Jaw_Coupling
Alternatively if 400mm works for you .. get fabricator to make the wedge bit to put the ball at that height. Note it would have to be made pre 1998 for regs I think.. but on a 1993 car that could be possible with a bit of blarney.
It is quite high, I was surprised when I first went to view it. It's taller than the transit is!
I've a good friend who runs an engineering firm so I think I'll go down the route of getting an adjustable one fabricated as it'll be a bit more versatile. I've also found a contact in Elgin who does seat re-trimming so I'll see what he thinks about the seats.
Thanks everyone for all the help and advice.
Dougie
Nice G. There were 2 Gs and 4 guys from Scotland who drove down to the 30th G gathering in Graz in 2009. Your white G was one of them and the other a mildly modified black LWB G500. I can't remember there names, they were all friends or family and all keen G owners.
Sorry I can't post the pic my limit is exceeded
http://www.ebay.de/itm/Anhangerkupplung-AHK-WESTFALIA-Mercedes-G-Modell-Kombinationskupplung-mit-E-satz-/160823808128?pt=DE_Autoteile&hash=item2571d89080#ht_3290wt_1054
Hello Dougie,
Please check this URL address and look at page 19/21.
http://www.orc.de/produkte/download/Catalogue_MercedesGPur_de_eng_201205.pdf
Regards,
Thanks for all the info guys, should give me something to go on. Also found the source of the water ingress, the left wiper spindle has loads of play and can see the tell tale water marks where it has been dripping. Sunroof drain channels are clear enough. The seal is split though. Has anyone changed this before? Is it easy enough to do?
Dougie don't worry about the extra hight. As Spider said, I have just finished building a house in the Welsh mountains using a G, 18ft Ifor trailor, 8ft trailer and lowbed.
My car has a 2" lift and 33" mud tyres, and it is even the same colour.
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It is the white one that I bought. It has had a suspension lift as well as the body lift so the tow ball sits around 600mm from the ground as opposed to about 400m on my transit which I have used with various trailers. Unfortunately my beloved transit has to go after years of trouble free service so this will have to take over. I may be better off just buying a suitable trailer and raising the hitch on that as the previous owner did although it won't be much use for any others.
I take it the consensus is that seats from a 190e would be a close match for the G?
As for the leak, the windsceen seal is good so I think it will be either the sunroof drain channels or through the heater box, both of which I still have to check