Exploring via a camper van named Andiamo!
Andiamo is a 2023 Mercedes 170 sprinter cargo van with AWD, that was professionally upfitted by Benchmark Vehicles in Portland Oregon. It includes 640 Ah Lithionics Lithium batteries with Zamp solar panels, Agile Off-Road RIP kit suspension, Owl Vans Talon wheels with Apex rapid air down valves & BFG K02 275/70/17 and Owl rear tire carrier, CA Tuned Hammerhead front bumper, Warn Zeon 12S winch, Roambuilt Safari Rack with Rigid 50” light bar & Diode Dynamics load lights all around, Nomadic Cooling X3 12V AC, Flarespace flares, Guzzle H2o Water filtration, Pedal Box Throttle Positioning Tuner, ARB Air Compressor and much more. We also had Agile Off-Road install a rear diff locker, giving it nearly 4×4 capabilities. We took it for its first shake down run on May 3rd, 2024 through Oregon, Nevada, Utah and Colorado. Now you’ll see us boon docking in Baja, Canada or someday soon, Alaska! When we are not in our hometown of Cincinnati Ohio.
The name Andiamo is Italian for “Let’s Go!” and we thought it exemplified our motto. Let’s get out there and explore! We love Italy and visit as often as we can. With Theresa’s Italian heritage and Tim’s love of all things Italian (especially food!) well, using an Italian phrase as the van’s name made perfect sense to us.
If you see us out on the road, give us a wave and a honk! You can also follow our travels on Instagram, Facebook and Youtube.
Andiamo version 1.0
Our first camper van was a 2022 Winnebago >Travato 59k model camper van based on the RAM Promaster 3500 series van. (currently for sale in Spring of 2025) We put down a deposit on January 5th 2021 but had to wait for it to be built during this Covid pandemic era. We finally took possession on June 7th 2021 at Lichtsinn RV center in Forest City Iowa. We immediately put on 1800 miles with a long way round trip up into Michigan’s upper peninsula (UP!!) and back down its western shorelines before heading home. Exploring along the way visiting family, staying in state parks, harvest host sites and generally getting to know our new rig. Since then, we’ve been across country several times, North, south to Florida, Texas and also Canada. One of the major modifications we made was batteries: In spring of 2024, we upgraded the batteries to Battle Born Lithium from the original AGM style, which perform so much better!
Andiamo 1.0 on its initial shakedown run in June 2021.