Mercedes Sprinter dimensions: every variant, L1H1 to L4H3 — and 144 / 170 / 170 EXT

Every Sprinter is 1.79 m wide inside. The cargo floor runs 2.61 to 4.71 m, the roof is 1.79, 2.08 or 2.24 m — and from the L3 up there is only rear-wheel drive, which takes 7 cm off the H1 and the H2 and puts the long Sprinter’s payload below every other large van’s. The 144, 170 and 170 EXT that American listings use are the same bodies named by wheelbase in inches, rated against a heavier plate.

Below is every European Sprinter variant in the planner’s database, inside and out, the payload each leaves after a real build, and the US line-up beside it. The figures are the 3.5 t Sprinter of 2018 on (the 907 body), read from the Mercedes-Benz German price list of March 2020 and the UK dimensions sheet, checked September 2026; the US rows are Mercedes-Benz USA’s 2026 specifications.

Every European Sprinter variant, measured

Interior length is bulkhead to rear doors, width between the walls (the wheel arches are closer), height floor to headliner before a build. Payload is the 3.5 t plate minus kerb weight — a planning figure; the plate on the van in front of you wins. Each row links to its own variant page with door apertures and arch spacing.

The width: 1.79 m, on every one of them

Every length, every roof, every drive: 1.79 m between the walls, 2.02 m across the body without mirrors. After about 6 cm for two finished walls that is 1.73 m — a transverse bed for anyone over about 1.70 m needs wall flares behind the rear quarter panels, the same arithmetic as on a Crafter at 1.83 m; only the Ducato at 1.87 m sleeps a tall adult across without them. The sleep-across table runs it for every base van.

Height: three roofs, and the drive takes 7 cm

• H1 — 1.79 m with front-wheel drive, 1.72 m with rear-wheel drive, 2.35–2.36 m outside. A sit-down van either way; the tallest H1 in the class, but still a stoop.
• H2 — 2.08 m with front-wheel drive, 2.01 m with rear-wheel drive, 2.61–2.64 m outside. Finished about 2.01 and 1.94 m: standing room to roughly 1.98 m in the front-driver, 1.91 m in the rear-driver. This is the roof most conversions use, and the only one in the class where an average adult stands with the rear-wheel-drive floor.
• H3 — 2.24 m, rear-wheel drive only, 2.83 m outside. About 2.17 m finished: an overhead-locker roof for anyone up to 2 m.

Rear-wheel drive lifts the load floor 7 cm — Mercedes prints both figures, 1,789 and 1,719 for the H1, 2,079 and 2,009 for the H2 — and the H3 exists only over the rear-drive floor. For scale, a Transit H2 is 1.88 or 1.79 m by drive, a Ducato H2 1.93 m, a Crafter H2 1.63–1.73 m: the Sprinter H2 is the tallest “high roof” among the big vans by 8–15 cm. The standing-height table puts every roof side by side. None of them park under a 2 m barrier.

Lengths and wheelbases: the RWD L2 rides on the shorter one

L1 is 2.61 m of floor on a 3.26 m wheelbase; L2 is 3.27 m; L3 is 4.31 m on 4.33 m; L4 keeps that wheelbase and adds 40 cm of overhang for 4.71 m. The L2 is the odd one: the front-wheel-drive body has a 3.92 m wheelbase, the rear-wheel-drive body 3.66 m, inside the same 5.93 m van — so the RWD L2 carries 26 cm more of its body behind the axle. Outside, the four lengths are 5.27, 5.93, 6.97 and 7.37 m: the L3 stays under the 7 m ferry and campsite step by 3 cm, the L4 does not.

A Sprinter L3 is 4.31 m; a Ducato L3 is 3.71 m and a Master L3 3.73 m — the same code, 60 cm apart. The body-code decoder is the reason to never cross-shop on the letters alone.

144, 170, 170 EXT: the same steel, named in inches

Mercedes-Benz USA sells the same body by wheelbase: 144 in is the L2 with rear-wheel drive (3.66 m, 3.27 m of floor), 170 in the L3 (4.32 m, 4.31 m of floor) and 170 EXT the L4 (4.71 m of floor). No L1, no front-wheel drive, no super-high H3 — standard or high roof, rear- or all-wheel drive, and the 2500 series is rated at 9,050 lb (4,105 kg) gross, which is why a US Sprinter quotes 1,520 to 1,910 kg of payload where the European 3.5 t rows say 1,020 to 1,395.

Interior height is MBUSA’s standing height (1.73 and 2.01 m); the exterior height is 10 cm taller with all-wheel drive. The Sprinter-vs-Transit-vs-ProMaster post is the US comparison in inches; the US Sprinter page has every row with door apertures.

Payload: 1,395 kg down to 1,020 kg — and the L3H2 problem

The shortest, lowest, front-drive Sprinter carries the most: 1,395 kg on the L1H1. Rear-wheel drive costs 60 kg on the same body (an L2H2 is 2,195 kg with front drive, 2,255 with rear), and every step of length and roof adds kerb weight against the fixed 3.5 t plate: 2,405 kg for an L3H2, 2,480 for an L4H3.

The “obvious” long-wheelbase Sprinter, the L3H2, has 1,095 kg of plate margin — the lowest of the big three at that length. A Ducato L3H2 weighs 2,095 kg and carries 1,405; a Transit L3H2 with front-wheel drive 2,149 kg and 1,351. The Sprinter L3 only comes with rear-wheel drive, 310 kg heavier than the Ducato. Put the typical 600 kg build and the EN 1646-2 two-person reserve through it and this is what each variant has left:

647 kg on an L1H1, 551 on a front-drive L2H2, 330 on an L3H2, 251 on an L4H3 — against about 650 on a Ducato L3H2 and 596 on a Transit L3H2. Under 400 kg is where a full water tank, two adults and a week’s food start to argue, so the long Sprinter is the one that needs an uprating first — Mercedes plates the same body at 4.1 and 5 t, with the C1 licence that brings — before the Ducato or the Transit of the same length. The under-3.5 t comparison ranks every base van on this number; the reserve post explains the 145–170 kg the standard sets aside for people and water.

FWD or RWD: side by side

On the L1 and L2 both exist and the rows sit next to each other in the table. Front-wheel drive: 60 kg lighter, 7 cm taller inside, 60 kg more payload, the longer 3.92 m wheelbase and less rear overhang. Rear-wheel drive: the only option from L3 up, the H3 roof, better towing, and traction that improves as the build lands on the rear axle — the drivetrain post has the axle arithmetic. For a two-person L2H2 the front-driver wins on every number that goes into a conversion; the rear-driver is the right call for a heavy garage or a trailer.

Which Sprinter for which build

• L2H2 FWD — the sensible two-person van: 3.27 m of floor, 5.93 m outside, 2.08 m of headroom, 551 kg left. Lengthways bed, or a flared transverse one for sleepers up to about 1.75 m.
• L3H2 — 4.31 m of floor, the most of any L3 in the class, a fixed lengthways bed over a full garage and a proper kitchen — with 330 kg to spare and a 6.97 m van. Plan the uprating with the purchase.
• L3H3 — 2.24 m raw, about 2.17 m finished, for anyone over 1.95 m or an overhead-locker run, at 295 kg left.
• L4H2 / L4H3 — 4.71 m of floor for four berths at 286 and 251 kg of spare payload on 3.5 t; realistically a 5 t van.
• L1H1 / L2H1 — 647 and 591 kg after a build, the best in the range, and 1.79 m of headroom: weekender or pop-top, no standing.

The planner puts your layout in the real variant with live weight and axle loads, and the twins post covers the one thing the Sprinter does not have: a badge-engineered sibling. The VW Crafter and MAN TGE of 2017 on are a different body, not a rebadged Sprinter — the 2006–2016 Crafter was.

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Related: every Sprinter variant page · the US Sprinter · payload calculator