Pleasureway Plateau Ford Transit

[Jon in AZ]

I parked next to a newish Pleasure-Way Plateau TS- that’s what the badging said- on a Ford Transit (extended, dual rear wheels) at the grocery store this morning. I was curious to know more, so I visited their website, and it shows the Plateau only on the Sprinter. I did some online searching and I can't find anything like what I saw. What gives?

It was gone when I came out. Wish now I’d taken a picture.

[rowiebowie]

Surprises me too. I'd only seen Ontour's built on the Transit. I hope more use of the Transit chassis is a trend, as it is another gas engine option in addition to the Promaster. While most promaster owners love their rigs, the 3.5 ecoboost should give a huge acceleration advantage over everything else out there.

[LostInWoods]

Originally Posted by Jon in AZ

I parked next to a newish Pleasure-Way Plateau TS- that’s what the badging said- on a Ford Transit (extended, dual rear wheels) at the grocery store this morning. I was curious to know more, so I visited their website, and it shows the Plateau only on the Sprinter. I did some online searching and I can't find anything like what I saw. What gives?

It was gone when I came out. Wish now I’d taken a picture.

I wonder if you saw a proto OnTour. Ultramobility did a factory tour in early 2019 where the new Transit model was labeled Plateau-TS, with a Canadian rental company graphics. In September it was announced as OnTour.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT5ld5nZrIA

[Gaucho]

Yes, the original Ontour was called a Plateau.

Someone posted a pic on Facebook very recently of his Ford Transit Plateau (it’s a Ford with the Plateau TS decal).

[Jon in AZ]

Thanks! That seemed the most likely explanation, but I was surprised that searches on “Pleasure-Way Transit Plateau” turned up empty.

[Billyboy46]

That rental company is now selling used Transit based PleasureWays after service as rentals. My guess is that is probably what you saw - an ex-rental.

[Jon in AZ]

It was registered in CA. Are they selling them in the States? It’s not so easy to buy an RV cross-border these days. Just curious; I’m not looking to buy.

Were any Transit Plateaus ever sold on the consumer market, or was it just a beta of the Ontour and only sold to the rental company?

I like the Transit, but for myself I’d rather have the mid-roof.

[rpgibbs]

The coachmen Beyond is also built on the Ford Transit chassis. We have a 2020 Beyond 22C wit the Eco Boost engine and love the class B.

[Lou]

We have a Ford Excel and after Excel stopped, I remember that our replacement insurance used to designate another Ford Pleasure-way that existed at that time. Now it is the Lexor TS on a Ram. Lexor used to be their pop top van but not now. Now the pop top is called Tofino and is also on on a Ram Promaster.

[bl_smith25]

The Transit “Plateau” that you saw was an OnTour prototype. Why they named it a Plateau is beyond me and any of us. They were never sold to the public, only the rental company. They’ve since released/sold them off and some got down to California. There are only a handful of them out there.

As for the last comment by Lou, the other Ford based PWs at the time the Excel was discontinued were the Pursuit and the Prestige, both class C’s on the Ford 350 (?) truck chassis. They were made for a couple of years only and that was it. You can find them used but they’re hard to get ahold of. The Lexor was never a pop-top. It was on the Dodge, the. Chevy chassis and now the Promaster chassis. The pop tops were the Traverse. I think they were on the Ford E250 smaller van chassis. It appeared for awhile and was very popular, went away for a bit, came back and disappeared again. It’s been reborn again as the Tofino on the Transit chassis.

[Jon in AZ]

Originally Posted by bl_smith25

The Transit “Plateau” that you saw was an OnTour prototype. Why they named it a Plateau is beyond me and any of us. They were never sold to the public, only the rental company. They’ve since released/sold them off....

Perhaps at the time they were made they had no badging for the new model and decided to throw the Plateau label on since they were similar layouts. Perhaps they even hoped the rental customers would come back to purchase the “real” Plateau.

When I was searching I noticed that the Ontour does not have the raised chrome badging of other recent PW’s. Pivoting toward a younger demographic with a stealthier look, maybe?

Just speculating... Thanks for the information.

[mumkin]

Originally Posted by Jon in AZ

When I was searching I noticed that the Ontour does not have the raised chrome badging of other recent PW’s. Pivoting toward a younger demographic with a stealthier look, maybe?

Just speculating... Thanks for the information.

Actually the younger demographic is buying the Tofino as fast as they can make them... and many are now stripping off that badging.

[Plume]

We loved also our 2020 Beyond build in Transit. Has you can see, I say "loved".
Actually I have around 5000 km (Canada), this summer, his first one, I went to the dealer 3 times to repair the AC and 2 times for the inverter. This week i got to the Ford dealer to install a new strut assembly, the tech. take about 4 hours to replace it. He must do the same thing as any other véhicule but to take down the strut, the only way he can do that is by inside the van, take off a part of the dashboard all around the glove compt. till he can see the 3 bolts to unscrew far on the back. If I had to pay for that shock, the bill should be almost 500$.
I finish with a 3000$ wather pomp friend story. The Transit V6 have not 1 but 2 water pumps, one pulley pump drive by the serpentine outside and one sprocket pump inside drive by the timming chains, back of the front engine cover. I asked to the dealer yesterday and he confirmed that is true.
So now I love my Transit a little bit less