Germany's HRZ Reisemobile shows yet another way of completely transforming the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter into a boundless, gear-hauling two-person camper van. The company abandons the standard layouts in favor of a flex floor plan that slides and folds out into separate drive, eat and sleep modes. Despite its compact sub-6-m (19.7-ft) size, the Mambo comfortably carries two people and their bicycles, provides kitchen, bathroom and dining room space, and offers a longitudinal bed to stretch out on at day's end.
There are a few different ways to squeeze maximum space and comfort out of the finite dimensions of a camper van. You can base your camper around the biggest, highest van out there, like Alphavan has done. You can start with a bare cab chassis and build your own oversized motorhome box to look like a van a la La Strada. You can follow the footsteps of Westfalia and pop a slide-out through the rear window. Or you can rely on sliding, folding and/or swiveling furniture and components to put the same space to use two+ different ways, like HRZ does with the Mambo.
At first glance, the Mambo appears to have the sideways-sleeping transverse bed common in other 593-cm (233-in) Sprinter camper vans, but a quick look at the van's exterior shows flush sidewalls, without the expansion flares used to accommodate full-height campers stretched out across the rear of the van. Instead, HRZ swings sleepers around to more comfortable lengthwise orientation with a simple slide-out bed frame extension that grows the bed into a spacious 200 x 166-cm (79 x 65-in) queen that sleeps two, providing superior comfort and the ability for both sleepers to get up out of bed without rolling over one another.
When not in use, the bed extension slides away into the rear frame, the front mattress cushions resting atop their rear counterparts. This clears the dual-bench two-person transverse dining lounge below. The tabletop slides out from the middle of the drawer stack to hold food, beverages, board games and other campsite odds and ends. This layout saves space over the four-seat front dining area quite common in European camper vans while also accommodating the expanding longitudinal bed.
Also saving space are the compact bathroom and kitchen areas. HRZ goes the slide-out route one more time in the bathroom, conserving floor space with a slide-away drawer sink directly over the toilet. The remainder of the floor is dedicated to the shower.
Similar to the kitchen we saw in the recent ConceptCamper, HRZs compact block includes a dual-burner stove + sink combo, with fold-down lids serving as the only worktop space. A 69-L fridge is positioned at the front of the block for indoor/outdoor accessibility.
The raised rear bed leaves a 1-m (3.3-ft)-high cargo space in the rear load area, large enough to store a pair of bikes. Owners will probably need to add an exterior rack for fat bikes, large 29er mountain bikes, thick-framed e-bikes and other bulky modern two-wheelers, but the under-bed cargo area works okay for more modestly sized bikes, like the urban commuters pictured in the gallery. There's also a through-loading compartment for skis and other thin, oblong cargo.
The Mambo includes a 240-Ah battery, Truma Combi gas heater/water boiler (diesel version optional), and a 120-L fresh water tank and 80-L waste water tank. It's based on the Mercedes Sprinter with 161-hp 2.2-liter CDI engine, and an all-wheel drive "Freedom" package is available optionally. According to a recent Promobil report, pricing starts around €75,000 (approx. US$87,800).
Source: HRZ Reisemobile