Need Advice on SMB

[trailsurfer]

I happy for you that your SMB meets or exceeds your expectations. Perhaps they did a better job putting yours together, or our expectations were different.

I am familiar with the dis-connects.

You mention Fins & Things in Moab, which I am familiar with. We both know that there are many parts of the park that the SMB couldn't tackle, it would simply be a matter of physics, it's just too big, too long and too heavy.

Please accept my apologies if I have treaded on anyones choice or belief in their SMB.

Respectfully,

Fred
Explorer 1

P.S. You might want to add to your list deep loose sand, fresh snow over 1' deep, any uphill reverse slope turn on slippery material.

I live in the mountains of Colorado and have traveled all over Baja, Utah, Arizona etc... . I have driven thousands of miles in all kinds of conditions.

Including having my SMB buried, on multiple occasions, with snow up to the top of the wheel wells. I just dig out so I can open the driver side door, get in, start it up, put it in low, and drive right out. The most incredible vehicle I have owned. Lots of ski trips and four wheeling in the snow.

I have been on beaches where Land Cruisers were stuck and buried in the sand. I just lower my tire pressure, put it in low, and pick out a prime camping spot in a place that others can't get to.

And living where I live, we have many off camber, steep slippery slopes and switch backs. Never had a problem.

It is a great vehicle and the folks at SMB provide incredible customer service.

 

[Explorer 1]

The most incredible vehicle I have owned????

I live in the mountains of Colorado and have traveled all over Baja, Utah, Arizona etc... . I have driven thousands of miles in all kinds of conditions.

Including having my SMB buried, on multiple occasions, with snow up to the top of the wheel wells. I just dig out so I can open the driver side door, get in, start it up, put it in low, and drive right out. The most incredible vehicle I have owned. Lots of ski trips and four wheeling in the snow.

And living where I live, we have many off camber, steep slippery slopes and switch backs. Never had a problem.

It looks like I have touched a hot button here, and it would seem that my experiences with the SMB quality and ability should be discounted by such statements.

Sounds like your having a great time with your SMB and I wish you the best and continued success.

Thanks,
Fred
Explorer 1

 

[Saline]

To add onto this post we have had our 2004 Ford SMB 4x4 for almost 2 years. In that time we have logged about 22,000 miles and have spent 96 nights in it. We have put it through its paces and it has never let us down. We have even spent 2-3 days at a time in 4 lo. Driving a 10klb rig off road does take some getting used to for sure, slow is the name of the game.
At any rate, we feel that the SMB has been a great purchase and we don't regret it.

 

[trailsurfer]

It looks like I have touched a hot button here, and it would seem that my experiences with the SMB quality and ability should be discounted by such statements.

Sounds like your having a great time with your SMB and I wish you the best and continued success.

Thanks,
Fred
Explorer 1

Not a hot button issue for me. I have genuinely appreciated the SMB. I have been lucky enough to own a few different off road vehicles so I have something to compare this vehicle with. The service, performance, quality, capability, and reliability of this Van was incredible. I no-longer own my 2008 SMB, so I think that I have a pretty impartial perspective.

Hope you have better luck with your SMB in the future, I have had vehicles with multiple problems, and it is no fun. (especially when the vehicle is suppose to be made for fun!)

 

[1leglance]

Wow I can't believe those shreaded tires...
I put 36,000 miles on a set of Nitto Trail Grappler 33's and when they came off they were still in great enough shape to give a buddy who is running them....never a flat, never any chunking or anything....11,000 lb rig aired down to 30 on rocks, 10 on baja fluffy sand if 20 didn't do the trick.

the 35" Nittos I am running now are even better as I have more sidewall to play with...lots of sharp rocks here in Arizona and no issues.

I did have a learning curve going from my FJ Cruiser that would go air borne, won the Expo Trophy and I baja bashed all over the place. Driving the Sportsmobile is about tire placement, thinking about the tail end and letting the diesel & low range pull me up and over anything.

Is it the perfect vehicle? No way.
Do I love being able to get up, turn around, and relax in the back? Absolutely.
Also letting newbie disabled people drive the van gives me a great perspective on how easy it is to teach a person who to wheel a big ol' van

 

[jackflash]

Thanks for all the comments guys!

 

[Saline]

On top of everything else it's nice to be traveling down the road and have your co-pilot be able to reach back, open the fridge and get a nice ice cold coke!

 

[McZippie]

I own a 2007 Ford E-350 Diesel EB SMB.

Out the door we were over $120,000 which from my perspective was high for basicly a Ford van with a lot of bolt on quality upgrades.

I have to agree with most owners that the curb appeal and attention one recieves is quite high and I can't deny that recieving such attention does feed one's ego, comments like "That's the most bad *** van I've ever seen" aren't unusual.
With 4wd and F&R lockers it is able to successfully navagate most class 1 and 2 roads, however my SMB weights in at over 10,000 lbs without passengers, water and a full fuel tank. This is a lot of weight and even with larger tires than most SMB ride on it doesn't take much to require the 4wd and the lockers be called on to assist.

I quickly had to learn that while this may be a capable EB van, it's really not a very capable off road vehicle. If you are looking for a van that can drive milder dirt roads it will work fine, however with it's weight and size it is limited. If you want to places where you driven another 4wd vehicle like a Jeep Cherokee or Toyota Tacoma while using 4wd you might be disappointed in the SMB 4wd ability. My experience has been that if I really needed 4wd to drive a trail with one of my smaller vehicles, the SMB will be struggling to drive the same trail in 4wd.

If I could do it all over again, I would go for a 4wd pickup with a quality 6" lift, F&R lockers and all the other off-road bells and whistles, then I would buy a pop-up camper that was constructed for off-road use and the pocket the difference of anywhere from $30,000 - $50,000.

Thanks,

Fred
Explorer 1

I understand your post and came to a somewhat different solution.

Wife and I wanted a 'SMALL' comfortable multi task 'vehicle' that also had good 4wd capabilities, could tow our ski boat or fishing boat. It needed a bath room, king size bed, simple kitchen for 2 people camping. It had to be constructed safe and strong like a Van, rather than RV rattle apart junk, and also have room for taking up to eight people along on day trips or when tailgating.

It had to have full-time stand-up head room and also fit in our garage.
Could pound out the miles from Wisconsin to Rocky Mountain States at 80+ mph and still get relatively good fuel mileage.
Budget $120m.

We researched and looked at all the normal stuff Tiger, Pick-up/camper, 4wd drive vans etc... and came to the conclusion that either creature comforts or 4wd capabilities would have to be compromised.

So rather than compromise anything, we purchased a 2009 Ford diesel van cutaway, 'SMALL' shuttle bus from Turtle-Top and had them out-fit it with our creature comforts list. And decided instead, to tow a Jeep Unlimited Rubicon.
We drive the Bus while towing the Jeep on back-roads to a 4wd trail-heads or camping spot. The Jeep can be unhitched in a minute and reattached in under two minutes.

It works for us, creature comforts, in a 'SMALL' Rig for 'family/friends day use or 2 people touring 'hoteling-it vacations, that can also tow our Boats or Jeep for camping vacations, when it's just the two of us.

It cost about $120m for the Bus and Jeep. I considered making the Bus 4wd, but at this point can't justify the cost benefits.

 

[EMrider]

It looks like I have touched a hot button here, and it would seem that my experiences with the SMB quality and ability should be discounted by such statements.

Sounds like your having a great time with your SMB and I wish you the best and continued success.

Thanks,
Fred
Explorer 1

I think this is largely a function of reference points and what each of us consider 'normal'.

I've read and enjoyed many of your trip reports. From my standpoint, you regularly do much more advanced and technical 4x4 stuff that I'd consider doing in my SMB. If I had your skill and was interested in doing that sort of off-roading, I'd probably have similar feelings about the capabilities of the SMB. For my current and likely future needs, the SMB is an extremely capable off road vehicle and provides great utility.

R

 

[Explorer 1]

Couldn't agree more!

So rather than compromise anything, we purchased a 2009 Ford diesel van cutaway, 'SMALL' shuttle bus from Turtle-Top and had them out-fit it with our creature comforts list. And decided instead, to tow a Jeep Unlimited Rubicon.
We drive the Bus while towing the Jeep on back-roads to a 4wd trail-heads or camping spot. The Jeep can be unhitched in a minute and reattached in under two minutes.

Looks like you carefully solved your question on a vehicle(s) choice with both thoughtfulness and style.

I couldn't agree with you more about bringing along those "other" vehicles to take on the more challenging trails. Althought it takes me a few more minutes to get them ready to go!

"I think this is largely a function of reference points and what each of us consider 'normal'."

You probably hit the nail on the head with this comment.

Perhaps my expectations were too high for how the SMB would perform and hold together.

Thanks,
Fred
Explorer 1

Explorer 2

Explorer 3

 

[Coyotearms]

Diesel Fuel in Mexico

Another nice thing about getting something 2010 and older is no worry on the ULSD fuel finding in Mexico, if you go there at all that is.

I wish someone knowledgeable on fuel in Mexico would respond to this. My 2008 Diesel E-350 SMB is supposed to use ULSD. I am pretty sure that same 6.0L diesel engine is in all the newer vans until Ford stopped making them at the start of 2010. So that is one thing that is misleading in the above post. So to clarify, for some years now the Diesels in the E-350's have required ULSD.

A friend of mine who lives in Mexico 6 mo. out of each year says ULSD is everywhere. If true, that does not surprise me since for the tourist, fuel will undoubtedly be purchased from government run PEMEX stations. However, I sniffed around the web and found (http://www.rversonline.org/ArtMexFuels.html) some indication that Mexican No. 2 was reformulated in 1990 to have 1/10 the level of sulfur of earlier fuel, but that does not make it ULSD. Does someone have better info on this?

 

[Coyotearms]

Drinking the Kool Aid Could Be Bad

Perhaps my expectations were too high for how the SMB would perform and hold together.

Even though Explorer 1 seems to be out-voted, his posts seem to indicate he is the real McCoy and has backed up everything he said with pretty convincing proof! I think we have seen time and time again that getting BIASED accounts from guys about their toys (especially vehicles) is the rule rather than the exception. So if you are thinking an SMB might be in your future, Explorer 1 should not be underestimated!

I have had my SMB for 6 mo. (W/O 4x4) and am trying to decide whether to follow through with 4x4 and if so, which of the at least five outfits to go with. The original plan was to do the conversion in two steps so as to get a feel for what we got in stage 1 before doing stage 2. So reading this thread has been very interesting. One thing I can input is that I promised a friend I would NEVER buy a SMB if it used MDF cabinets. We almost bought a used 2008, but it was MDF---UCK! I learned around that time (and the time varies depending which SMB plant) they started using plywood, and that is what we got. Pretty nice stuff IMHO, but the cabinets are still fabricated in place with cheesy L-brackets holding them together.

While we really love the layout we designed and loved the ability to chose what combination of appliances, and any problems we have will eventually be worked out, what we actually got was a pretty bad basket of workmanship issues that we are left to deal with---kind of kills the magic! It appears that after a long struggle with SMB we will probably have to fix virtually all the issues ourselves on our nickel for two reasons. First even though you will get a warranty that says workmanship issues can be fixed at a repair point in your home area, just try it! Secondly, what most owners classify as a workmanship issue (especially for the bucks you put out) will probably be classified by SMB as "how they do things." So if you really want one of these rigs, think carefully about where you live and where you will break down.

Don't get me wrong. Once we clear up our problems we will have an incredible vehicle that we will love as much as we did the day we picked it up. But after reading this thread I have to say it makes me more reticent about putting out more big bucks for the 4x4. While I agree with Explorer 1 that Quad Van's approach of using Ford parts is great, it is far more expensive going that route compared to doing, say, Quigley, which at least you sense with more certainty will be around for a while given the size of their operation (and you can get it done on a previously purchased van at some Ford dealers).

 

[dzzz]

I think the ideal engine for van Sprint would be new Ford diesel reduced in size by about 1/3. AFAIK Ford hasn't committed to building a smaller diesel for North America.
I can see why they don't want to do the engineering to get the new diesel to work. It's an awfully big engine for that size vehicle. Most people will do just fine with the gasser. It's not that heavy of a vehicle when it comes to trucks.
The Sprinter diesel has something like 300 lb of torque. The new Ford diesel has 800 ft lb of torque. It's not a light truck engine.

...................

If I could do it all over again, I would go for a 4wd pickup with a quality 6" lift, F&R lockers and all the other off-road bells and whistles, then I would buy a pop-up camper that was constructed for off-road use and the pocket the difference of anywhere from $30,000 - $50,000.

A one ton pickup with SRW and factory offroad goodies combined with a truck camper is certainly a viable option. I went with a unimog version of that, but still love the ford SMB. The SMB has vastly more sex appeal. The pickup, while probably longer than the SMB, is still probably more capable and certainly more heavily constructed. Realistically many SMB owners live in neighborhoods where they're not going to be parking a pickup truck camper. That's not necessarily snobbish, it's just the way it is. SMB ain't selling to the pickup market segment.

 

[1leglance]

I wish someone knowledgeable on fuel in Mexico would respond to this. My 2008 Diesel E-350 SMB is supposed to use ULSD. I am pretty sure that same 6.0L diesel engine is in all the newer vans until Ford stopped making them at the start of 2010. So that is one thing that is misleading in the above post. So to clarify, for some years now the Diesels in the E-350's have required ULSD.

A friend of mine who lives in Mexico 6 mo. out of each year says ULSD is everywhere. If true, that does not surprise me since for the tourist, fuel will undoubtedly be purchased from government run PEMEX stations. However, I sniffed around the web and found (http://www.rversonline.org/ArtMexFuels.html) some indication that Mexican No. 2 was reformulated in 1990 to have 1/10 the level of sulfur of earlier fuel, but that does not make it ULSD. Does someone have better info on this?

I think you would do well to call Alan at Sportsmobile West and talk to him about the use of Mexican diesel.
He spoke directly with the Ford Factory Engine guys and was told the only thing ULSD on the vans was the sticker.
I have a 2008 6.0L and so do many other SMB & Van owners and many many of us have been running Mex diesel with no issues.

Again this is per SMB West who spoke with Ford, you CAN take your 6.0L diesel to Mexico and use the fuel you find there.

 

[trailshooter]

I know I'm chiming in late here, but I had not yet taken delivery of my new SMB when this was first posted. I have a 2010 (2011) EB-350 4x4 diesel that's pretty loaded. Toyo Open Country M/T 35's. About a month ago I spent a week in Moab and surrounds. I intentionally sought out more difficult trails and I have to say, I was really impressed and surprised with the SMB's off road capability as were others we ran across along the way. I have the EB and I did hit bottom pretty hard a couple of times but I quickly learned how to avoid that in many situations. True, the SMB is a 10,000# beast, but for its weight, its agility is impressive.