2015 Transit F150 Rental

Every Road Leads Home · Aug 21, 2016

So in my never ending quest to liquidate three households worth of stuff into one I did a bunch of shuffling of stuff today. Needed a storage unit to quickly empty stuff out of the family summer home that my cousin is buying from the rest of us. Her kids start school in about a week and need to set their bedrooms up before hand, so I only thought it proper to get my stuff out of their way and it helped me to consolidate as well as a few loads went to the dump, goodwill, craigslist and my house in Maine.

Anyways, the storage unit I got came with a free truck rental and although I didn't really need it, I saw it was an Transit 150 with tall roof so said sure I'll take it. Put about 70 miles on it and all in all I was pretty impressed with the way it drove. Smooth ride, responsive handling, plenty of engine power, great brakes. While loading some stuff in it, my head was really in overdrive thinking of all the possibilities with that tall roof.

Then I got stuck on a 10 degree incline backing up.....we have a sandy driveway, but i've never seen any vehicle get stuck there before. That kind of killed it for me. I think I still prefer the Chevy Express as they feel more like a truck to me and I like they are built on a frame, not unibody like the Transits. But I gotta say overall i'm impressed with the whole eurovan concept, as ugly as they are! For a live in vehicle, they sure do have a lot of benefits.

What's everyone else think of the new style Eurovans compared to the more traditional Chevy Express Vans and Ford E-Series?

Wish I snapped a few pics of where I got stuck, but by the end of the day my feet were hurting so bad hopping out for a quick picture seemed like climbing a mountain! But it was a success, as this time last year I literally couldn't stand up for more than 4 minutes, today I did about 7 hours with a few breaks.

AngryVanMan · Aug 21, 2016

backing a rwd up a incline is the worst for weight transfer, lighter weight is a disadvantage for sure in this case. i did put the limited slip option on my van for this reason, but the long tail will help put weight over that axle (as long as it doesnt drag!). ford/chevy vans going back to unibody is probably inevitable with fuel economy standards the way it is though. chevy's been on a frame since 96, but ford been on that frame since 75, big change!

i dont mind it (got the transit) the one area i think you really lose is towing, 7500 weight carrying is not bad, but a 1-ton dually e-series had it beat and with the frame, weight distributing is a nice feature you lose on the transit. for a van to live in, i won't give up a factory high roof ( over 6'7" inside!) for anything though, not even a little better towing. i'll take the economy bump+that roof every day of the week!

NeedAnEscape · Aug 21, 2016

If you want the factory high roof and a truck frame, look at the Nissan NV.

Every Road Leads Home · Aug 21, 2016

Lost in the world said:
If you want the factory high roof and a truck frame, look at the Nissan NV.

I've always had issue with purchasing foreign cars.......I don't know why but it's always been a hang up of mine. I know a lot are assembled here and some of the others are manufactured out of the country but just seems un American to buy foreign vehicles still.

29chico · Aug 21, 2016

Lost in the world said:
If you want the factory high roof and a truck frame, look at the Nissan NV.

The Nissan NV is directly based on the Titan pickup. Nissan had lots of rear axle problems and failed to live up to the problems and fix them in most cases. The Titan was also known for electrical issues.

I could not overlook the above issues, especially in the light of the poor fuel economy the NV gets, even though the factory high roof and truck frame were very attractive features.