My Ride & Drive Day with the New Transit

[bobojay]

Got to do the first public ride & drive day for the new Transit that Ford did in Kansas City on June 11th. Thought some of you might enjoy reading my experiences there.....

http://www.fordtransitusaforum.com/f...long-post.html

Long read....

[AK49er]

You Lucky dog. Well written article bobojay, sounded like it was fun. How does the Eco-Boost stack up against the 5.0?

[wincrasher]

Interesting read. Ford must be pretty confident that they would offer press drives with a payload strapped in the back.

Too bad they couldn't go up to freeway speeds, as I think we'd all be interested in performance as many would use it.

[Davydd]

Did you ask or did they say anything about Class B converters and their developments?

[bobojay]

Originally Posted by AK49er

You Lucky dog. Well written article bobojay, sounded like it was fun. How does the Eco-Boost stack up against the 5.0?

Never driven a 5.0 but I will say the EcoBoost will outrun and out pull any current van on the market bar none. Acceleration felt like our 2010 Camaro with it's 305 horse V6. The 3.2 Diesel wouldn't be far behind at least up to 40-45 mph....

[bobojay]

Originally Posted by Davydd

Did you ask or did they say anything about Class B converters and their developments?

I talked to one engineer about it. No one there knew when the RV option package would be available though, not even the head of marketing that was there. She did say that more versions and options were coming along as time goes by.
The dual sliding door option for instance won't be available till the 4th quarter this year.

They stressed in the pre ride & drive that the launch is being done slowly to get the bugs worked out in the assembly process what with this being an all new vehicle with a lot of new ways to do things that Ford hasn't done before.

By the way, another thing that was brought up was that the primer & paint process and durability was designed to be a 10 year commercial environment item.

They turned the robots loose on the durability testing. Constant test track driving and durability testing by robots, with a minimum 250,000 door opening and closing cycles in there too on all doors.

David I would assume that all the RV upfitters that expressed interest to Ford have a prototype in house. I know the company that did the 4wd on the E series, Quigly I believe?? had a prototype a couple months ago. Sportsmobile was pushing that issue on their forum with pictures

[bobojay]

Found out yesterday in a round a bout way that Roadtrek has a prototype in house....

[mlts22]

I read that Quigley is working on a prototype, I'm sure Sportsmobile is not far behind.

I'm not surprised that RT has a prototype in house. I remember a discussion on a RT group about it, where they seemed to have interest (although OCCC and GVWR were concerns), while the ProMaster was laughed off completely.

I wonder how big an issue the tail swing with the 22 footer will be. I also wonder how well it can tow. I hope it can handle 5000 pounds at least, so when I hit a festival, I can drag along a storage trailer to stash on site.

[accrete]

I would think that QuadVans of Portland Oregon would have one in the works soon too. They are direct 4x4 conversion competition to Quigley and SMB.

I want one that looks like this (my photomod doodle for the day)



Happy Trails,
Thom

[bobojay]

Originally Posted by accrete

I would think that QuadVans of Portland Oregon would have one in the works soon too. They are direct 4x4 conversion competition to Quigley and SMB.

I want one that looks like this (my photomod doodle for the day)



Happy Trails,
Thom

Hey I like that one accrete

[accrete]

Maybe someone will spy this out in a lot sometime.
EPA MPG rating would be whacked with those super-swampers...and our Dear Wives would need stepladders...but hey, a guy can dream!?