While I do intend to put a small bed in the back of my disco for now. The idea that people are making connects into mini-RVs has tickled me. I see a lot on CL with way over 100,000 miles a a few topping 200K, so I assume Ford did something right in building them.
The idea of turning a small van like this:
Into:
Right on, looks good to me. I reckon with your boating knowledge you will understand how to use the space efficiently. If it were me doing it I would make the bed as comfortable as possible and forsake some of the cooking and sanitary Arrangements
How tall are you? In the short wheelbase models the cargo area is less than 6' long. Long wheelbase could be a good candidate. Sort of a tiny house on wheels.
More worried about what to look out for on the connect. I heard there were transmission issues?
I'll be 56 years old this year. I have a house that has 2,000+ square feet with plenty of storage. I sleep in a king bed and make a lot of noises as I get out of bed at 5:30am. I have a nice shower to use along with a decent furnace and air conditioner to keep my house comfortable. My neighborhood is somewhat quiet and my job is decent and pays me well.
The good Lord has blessed me but somehow having one of these vans seems interesting to me.
Where is the link to the website for these?
Absolutely a cool little van. Out of all the cars I sold at Ford, the coolest one (to me at least) was the transit connect I sold. That thing had more little storage compartments than I would ever know what to do with. so basically... DO IT!!!!!
Transit Connect was one of the first 'rest of world' small vans to make it here. It seems as a rule the 'rest of world' small vans all put styling WAY behind the biggest interior box that will fit on the platform, have tons of overhead room for their size, and put all sorts of neat cargo stowage bins everywhere. There are some really neat ones i geek over whenever i run into them online.
Watch out for the the 2000lb tow rating if you are planning on doing any car related towing with it.
I have one as my company vehicle when i need to drive. 2015 or 2016 if i remember right. Put about 25k miles on it. Great little scooty box. Comfy on long drives, decent power, plenty of room, tons of head room, good sound system although the ford bluetooth interface and some radio controls are completely miserable. Easy fix, just plug in a aux bluetooth dongle.
I drive it fairly aggressive, plenty of full throttle and never had any hint of a complaint from the tranny or and part of it really.
I have seen the nicer dressed up non-fleet transits and was thinking it would be a pretty cool family hauler.
Mine was a 2010(first year).
It had the second row seats. I put in an Alpine HU with XM and nav and a BedRug carpet in the rear. Also put on 2012 Focus 17" wheels. It was very handy to have and drove nicely other than being slow.
They were designed as a city delivery truck and are geared for hauling rather than cruising. Manual transmissions were not available in the US. Even with dedicated winter tires it was lousy in slippery winter conditions. That was because of the way Ford implemented the traction control. More than once I found myself on a snowy parking lot with my foot to the floor going nowhere because traction control had put the brakes on both drive wheels. That is why I now drive a Subaru Outback.
I drive one for work. I've had three go through my hands in the last year and a half, just from moving on to other employees. two of them I had from brand new. the second one was a 2014 with over 100k on it. They make good vehicles that are comfortable to drive 6 hours at a stretch. I understand them to be built off of the focus platform and I believe it. They handle extremely well for a work van.
In reply to imgon :
Anyway to easily tell which is a SWB and which is a LWB? I have been trying to tell on CL, but it's hard to eyeball. XL vs XLT?
As for long and short. I think all the First Gen's were only one length. It wasn't until the Second Gen that a long or short was offered.
John Welsh said:As for long and short. I think all the First Gen's were only one length. It wasn't until the Second Gen that a long or short was offered.
Correct. Comparing 1st Gens and 2nd Gens is like comparing Oranges and Tangerines. 1st Gens had only one size and came with a 2.0L Duratec and a 4 speed automatic. 2nd Gens have two different wheelbases(one shorter and one longer than the 1st Gen) and came with a 2.5L Duratec or a 1.6L Ecoboost and a 6 speed automatic. 2nd Gens are also 1' shorter in height than the 1st Gen. Rear suspension design is also totally different.
Ford Truck Enthusiasts forums are generally a good information source.
In reply to Hal :
I still don't get this taction control problem. I have driven my Fiesta for 7 winters and never had anything like that happen. Often when I take off from a stop I get the light/spinning for a bit until the tires get traction. I have even tried full throttle on our ice tracks. Same thing happens. Of course the Blizzaks help.
Sorry, off topic.
I was actually looking it up on Wiki. According to the specs listed they have two different wheelbases. A 104.9 inch and a 114.6 inch. I have actually seen a couple listed as having the 114.6.
Thing is, for the prices I see nice 1st gens going for, it seems almost worth spending a few thousand more to get a 2nd. I see nice 1st gens going for up to 14k with most hovering around 8 or 9 and 2nd gens starting at 14k. These things seem to hold their value well.
iceracer said:In reply to Hal :
I still don't get this taction control problem. I have driven my Fiesta for 7 winters and never had anything like that happen. Often when I take off from a stop I get the light/spinning for a bit until the tires get traction. I have even tried full throttle on our ice tracks. Same thing happens. Of course the Blizzaks help.
Probably different programing in the software. As soon as a wheel would start to spin the brakes were applied.
mad_machine said:I was actually looking it up on Wiki. According to the specs listed they have two different wheelbases. A 104.9 inch and a 114.6 inch. I have actually seen a couple listed as having the 114.6.
Then you are looking at 2nd Gens. But the pictures you posted and I posted of mine are 1st Gens. As I stated, they are totally different vehicles. Except for the low ceiling you probably want a LWB 2nd Gen for your stated purpose.
I found there were short and long wheel base 1st gens.. but we never got the SWB models in the US. Makes it easier now
I have nothing to contribute except that a pop-up Westphalia Transit Connect would rock.
And I really really want a first Gen one turned into a Ranchero.
oldopelguy said:I have nothing to contribute except that a pop-up Westphalia Transit Connect would rock.
And I really really want a first Gen one turned into a Ranchero.
Someone made (makes?) a poptop for for the earlier Transit Connects. I did some research at the time, but decided the base vehicle didn't have what I wanted. I've been casually checking to see if a poptop for the second gen long wheelbase exists, but nothing so far, at least not in the US.
We had one at my last job. Got it at ~30k miles and put 110k more on it until the transmission went. 3k for a rebuilt transmission and then one of our drivers decided to use a Rav4 in front of him to stop...less than 1k miles on that transmission. We dogged that thing and I probably should have taken better care of the transmission. Best recommendations I saw were to put on a bigger transmission fluid cooler and change the fluid with some regularity.
So the second gen is just a standard 6 spd auto, not that dct garbage.....i was a little unclear of that when these were first coming out.
Well that makes things interesting because i had dismissed these entirely for a few years now.....
Been an admirer of the Ford Transit. Global distribution and their primary purpose means they usually have very overbuilt systems in the design. Maintenance costs actually matter in fleet sales so keeping them low cost and easy sells more units. Then with several thousand sold world wide the parts should be plentiful.
I once asked about the pop-up to a conversion company and the answer I got is there is a high roof version that kind of kills the idea of the pop-up roof being profitable. I asked as I thought I saw one but he said it was probably a refrigerated back of the van and he AC unit is packaged in a bump on the roof.
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