Bought a new Transit!

[IGBT]

Welp, I broke down and bought a new 2018 Ford Transit 250 148" wheelbase medium roof with the 3.5L ecoboost.

They had a lot of incentives for the 2018 models bringing it under $30k.  It has 45 miles on it and full warranty from date of purchase (verified).  Pretty basic model though, no heated seats or frappe chiller.  Plain white, no windows (except front of course lol).   It does come with A/C and back up camera standard.   The turbo engine makes some insane HP like 375 with 485 foot pounds of torque or something.   I am hoping the midroof and a light foot will get me 16 to 19 mpg.

I think the cargo capacity for this model was 4000 pounds.   The box length behind the seats is just over 11 feet and my 5"8" wife can stand up in it.  (I have no hope of that at 6'7", not really even in the high roof version which I don't really like the looks of anyway).

With all of that it is almost the same length (19 feet) as my F150 supercab with 6.5 foot bed so parking should not be so bad.

At first we plan to use it for kind of a mobile workshop, but maybe a little camping could be in the future.

 

[deryk_the_gypsy]

Congratulations! I wish you guys many wonderful adventures! Share pics!

 

[highdesertranger]

congrats. we need pics. highdesertranger

 

[IGBT]

Thanks!

It is just your basic Ford Transit, a blank slate I guess for modifying.

I could have gone a little cheaper and gotten the regular 3.7L but the little tiny EcoBoost turbo in our F150 is so peppy I just felt it was worth the extra ~$1800.   I doubt I will need the 375HP or need to go 0 to 60 in 7 seconds in a van lol but you never know!

I am so jealous though that my wife can stand up in it.   Sucks being tall.

(attachments are not working.  When you click add attachment it just pops back to the main screen)

 

[highdesertranger]

IGBT go the sub-forum "Forum issues" and report the attachment problem. we got some new tech people that are doing a fine job. highdesertranger

 

[IGBT]

Drove the Transit across the mountains today.  300 mile trip and used 15 gallons of gas, so right at 20mph.  Not bad for a medium roof van with 11 feet+ of cargo space, 3800 pound payload capacity (only had about 500 pounds of material in it though).   The turbo 3.5L engine is simply amazing.   I could come out of a 30mph curve and get back to the 60mph speed limit up a 7% grade in about 2 seconds.   It really feels more like a sports car than a van.

So far the only thing I have done is add a BedRug which is a precise fitted all weather carpet with a foam backing.  Pretty neat and makes walking or sitting on the van floor much nicer.  Was an exact fit around everything...wheel wells, tiedown points, entry ways.   I think I would buy one to use as a template even if I were making the floor out of something else lol.

Bought some 1/2" and 3/4" 13 ply marine plywood to make some cabinet/work table combo units to hang on the walls.  The idea is the work table will fold up and latch, forming the door to the cabinet shelves above it when you need to get on the road.   I think I will have one of those on each side above the rear wheel wells but not sticking out past them so to maintain the ability to fit a 4'x8' sheet of anything in the van at all times.   Since there is a bit over 11 feet behind the seats I will make one smaller workbench up front that is always set up.   I think instead of doing anything fancy on the electric side of things I will just use our Goal Zero Yeti 1000, which has a 1500 watt inverter and 1000 watt-hr lithium battery built in.  It can be charged from a 12V plug at 120 watts, so just have it charge up when running errands in the van.   This should provide enough power to run a few of my tools and recharge the cordless batteries plus it can power our Keurig coffee maker (already have tested that, it uses 2% of the battery life to make a 10oz cup of coffee).

 

[[email protected]]

If you doing any towing I would like to know how it goes. I have been looking at the Transit to pull my travel trailer.

 

[tx2sturgis]

Drove the Transit across the mountains today.  300 mile trip and used 15 gallons of gas, so right at 20mph.  

Probably could go a bit faster than 20mph....you know....just sayin...

 

[Impapa22]

Congrats on your vehicle. I had a time figuring out the picture thing also. After uploading/attaching the photo an additional step of adding it to the post is required. Button below the area showing attached photo. Hope that helps.

 

[IGBT]

Still really enjoying the Transit 250 medium roof with the ecoboost.   We did another mountain trip of about 400 miles and got right at 18mpg.   I still can't get over how much room there is in a van compared to our truck lol.   I look behind me and it is just a cavern.

Probably going to use it for light camping in a few weeks when we go to a small lake to sail.  Just going to toss a mattress in back.

 

[DigitalNomad]

Congrats on your purchase! What incentives did the dealer give to bring it down to below $30k? I'm considering the Transit and would like to know more. Thank you!

 

[IGBT]

It had some incentive because it was a 2018, around $5400 off for that I think and another incentive of $2750 in rebates from Ford.  If we had owned a Ford E series van at the time we could have gotten another $1000 off.

The 2019 also have some incentives now that 2020 models are coming out.