Transit Opinions Appreciated

[zip]

The trail factory lift is a body lift, it's the same geometry as the so you can still do a spring lift.

Videos here on it:

WOW! Very informative. So, the trail factory lift is the same as the Q lift? Kinda cheesy looking. Drops the radiator, intercooler, and leaves exhaust pipe the same height? Gone mobile vans recommends doing both. Q and VC lift. One negative I see on the Transit forums is that the VC front struts/shocks have a serious clunking issue. Not sure if VC has a fix in the works.

 

[Jason4]

My wife and I bought a Transit last month after looking seriously at vans for about 6 months and wanting a van for several years. We won't be "overlanding" in the van, we'll use it most weekends to stay closer to trailheads for climbing, mountain biking, and skiing. Our most difficult roads will be snowy and icy or poorly maintained forest service roads, nothing offroad which is why we concluded that the AWD Transit drivetrain would be better for us than a 4WD drivetrain from either Quigley or in the MB Sprinter. Since we plan to use it mostly for Friday/Saturday nights between the weekly grind our build will be biased more towards car camping than a home on wheels. We'll keep it simple with an emphasis on flexible cargo space that includes room for motos and a bed with an adjustable height. We don't plan to have a rigid kitchen, we'll cook on a propane Coleman stove and carry jugs of water instead of having built in water tanks. A lot of our use will be in winter conditions where built in water tanks might be more of a liability than an asset. It only has a temporary bed/couch platform in it now but we're already loving the comfort that it has brought to our winter adventures in just a few short weeks.

We went for a 148" WB, high roof, and ecoboost. We bought it off a local Ford dealer but I'd probably order one "next time" as there are a handful of options that would be nice to have and a handful that we got that we probably won't make use of. We tend to keep our vehicles a long time so I don't know when "next time" will be and we'll work around any of the issues that come up in the meantime.

 

[TGK]

Yes, I have visited that ford transit forum. Very informative. I found a forum here on FB, that was good as well. What are the FB forums you are recommending? NFS and BLM are the roads I drive too. Do you have RB, or EB? It's just me, but I intend to live in it full time, and want to keep my bike inside. Leaning toward EB. Who did your camper conversion?

The relevant FB forums are Ford Transit AWD Lifted and Overlanders of USA. Also Ford Transit Camper Conversions of North America. Lastly, Ford Transit Overlanding Adventures. However, there doesn’t seem to be as much activity on that one. Lastly, there is a fellow who has a youtube channel called AWD Transit Overlanding. He has the shorter 130” WB Transit that is lifted. His videos feature his explorations in the SW, primarily Utah where he explores the limits of his rig. Claims to have decades of experience with more traditional 4x4 rigs, so not a novice.

Our van is a mid roof with a 148” WB and was converted by Van Haus. The Q-Lift was installed by a Quigley authorized Ford Dealer.

 

[TGK]

WOW! Very informative. So, the trail factory lift is the same as the Q lift? Kinda cheesy looking. Drops the radiator, intercooler, and leaves exhaust pipe the same height? Gone mobile vans recommends doing both. Q and VC lift. One negative I see on the Transit forums is that the VC front struts/shocks have a serious clunking issue. Not sure if VC has a fix in the works.

Actually, the Ford factory lift that is found on the Transit Trails is not the same as a Q-Lift. Extensive discussion about differences between the two can be found on the Ford Transit USA forums. In that discussion, many commenters suggested Ford should have actually used the Q-lift. However, likely trying to save money, they did not. For example, the exhaust pipe on my Transit is higher than on the Trail.

 

[b. rock]

So, for those looking at these, how have you squared the reliability of the 3.5 ecoboost and the 10r80 in with your purchase? If I wanted to get one that wasn't going to have CDF drum issues or cam phases issues, it looks like the first year where both of those was fixed is...2024?

Also is the awd system basically the j-tekt system they used on their fwd vehicles (taurus, escape/bronco sport, previous gen explorer) but flipped? I.e. there's a clutch pack in the front diff that engages as needed but the front driveshaft goes through a PTU and is always spinning? Because it sure looks like it to me, and the system volumes look pretty similar too.