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Beta Don

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Everything posted by Beta Don

  1. . . . . and you shouldn't! - Any quality steel belted radial should be fine at the maximum pressure indicated on the sidewall and not show any unusual wear patterns. My other 3 cars are all EV's and I run all their tires at or very near the maximum pressure on the sidewall and the tread on all of them wears perfectly flat from one side to the other
  2. Really good tires are cheap insurance - They're cheaper than repairs after a lesser tire puts you off the road at high speed. You can buy good tires or you can buy new fenders & repaint them . . . . if you're lucky enough to still be right side up after you hit the ditch Buy generic canned goods, generic clothes, generic anything you like to save money, but buy new, first rate tires and save money elsewhere Don
  3. The max pressure on the sidewall is what the tire manufacturer says - Don't go above this number or the tire will be so stiff and inflexible that when you hit a pothole you'll damage the tire . . . . probably break a belt The door sticker is the vehicle manufacturer telling you that their number is safe, will give you decent gas mileage and a somewhat comfortable ride - Don't go below this number no matter what, because you could be compromising safety. Underinflated tires heat up and too much heat destroys the tire carcass - You can't see it happening, but this is what causes most blowouts . . . . a tire that was overheated 2 or 3 times in the past finally comes apart when you least expect it I use the door sticker number, plus 10 to 15% on all my vehicles Don
  4. Transit Connects are based on the Ford Focus chassis and they don't have a lot of ground clearance - I don't see one as being a good choice for unimproved roads, especially if they're rocky and uneven. Guess you could maybe rent one and give it a try to see if it would negotiate the road you're talking about I would guess fewer than 5% of TC's will still be running at 250,000 miles. Ford advertised them as having a 'lifetime transmission' with no dipstick and no easy access to adding fluid. It's not at all uncommon to hear of transmission failures before or shortly after the warranty expires. Properly maintained (total fluid changes at least every 50K) you could have a trans last 250K I think, but beware of buying a high mileage used one, as very few of them have been maintained to that standard A full sized Transit with higher ground clearance and a more conventional drivetrain might be a better choice, but it won't be FWD if that's a priority for you Don
  5. Your solar panels, controller and house battery bank should be wired up as normal - Connected together all the time. The voltage sensing terminal of the relay would be attached to the van's starting battery, so when the alternator raises that battery's voltage up to 13 or so, the relay closes and adds alternator power to your solar controller. Engine not running, the solar works as normal, Engine running, it adds in the alternator power to charge your house batteries Don
  6. Battery isolators are definitely yesterdays technology - They use diodes which introduce a voltage drop so your aux battery never gets a full charge - The fact that they are mounted in a huge aluminum heat sink is a clue - The voltage drop creates lots of HEAT which must be dissipated somehow A voltage controlled relay is a much better choice. The relay senses the voltage at the input and when it rises above a certain level, indicating that a charge voltage is present, it closes the relay and connects the aux battery with no voltage drop . . . . and no heat. A Blue Sea Systems ACR (Automatic Charging Relay) is a good choice. Their model 7601 can handle 65 amps, so it should be good for the OP's installation. You can get one from Amazon for less than $60 Don
  7. How often any vehicle needs new brakes is 90% a function of the way it's being driven - Most people maintain their desired speed right up to a stop or corner and then use lots of brake to get slowed or stopped. Others take their foot off the gas 100 yards sooner and gradually slow and need to use much less brake. Braking hard while going uphill is a real waste of energy, but I follow people who do it every day - They never seem to figure that just letting off the gas sooner, the laws of physics will slow them down for free. Many times I catch up to them about the time the light turns green and I never had to touch my brakes at all Friction braking is the act of turning the kinetic energy you paid for getting up to speed into heat . . . . and poor gas mileage . . . . and frequent brake jobs. There are more efficient ways to slow down Don
  8. That one looks like the same exact battery I bought at Sam's Club for $159.95 Don
  9. Adaptive cruise control requires a whole myriad of complicated electronics, none of which are installed on '14 thru '18 TC's and if you had a '19 which has the modules to support adaptive cruise, it would already be there for you to use . . . . so, for our purposes, ignore that option anytime you see it on Forscan I have Adaptive Cruise on my '17 Chevy Volt and I LOVE it . . . . I would never buy another new car without it, but I wouldn't even try to install it on any vehicle which didn't come with it. There are just too many modules required that didn't come with a car that doesn't have it from the factory Don
  10. Tires, batteries, filters & such are all consumables and I never press any of those trying to get a few extra months or miles out of them, because . . . . they're a major pain when they fail unexpectedly and either leave you stranded somewhere, or they have you scrambling trying to find a replacement after hours or on a weekend, so you never get a good deal or you never find the best brand to buy when you need something in a hurry - Your procrastination has created a mini-emergency and the solution to it is seldom the 'right' one because you're in a hurry. I can't remember the last time I had to go buy a battery because my vehicle wouldn't start . . . . but I know I was much, much younger then and I honestly believed that trying to get the very last mile out of anything automotive was saving me money - It seemed like it was at the time, but in actuality, it wasn't. If I had bought the battery 6 months or a year sooner, I'd have ended up with a better replacement and for less money . . . . and I wouldn't have missed or been late for wherever it was I was headed when it wouldn't start . . . . and I wouldn't have had to change it out in the rain or freezing cold So . . . . can't hazard a guess as to how long an OEM battery might last - Mine was changed out long ago Don
  11. . . . . even if someone not related to you is towing it with a vehicle not on your insurance policy?? Don
  12. Yes - With the van level and up to operating temperature, you pull the plug with the engine running (if you pull it with the engine NOT running, fluid will run out) and then you slowly add fluid until you see it just start to run out the hole and then put the plug back in Don
  13. I had a mouse nest in mine too - Must be a fairly common problem Don
  14. As I said earlier . . . adding extra trans cooling to a modern vehicle is more complicated than it was in the old days . . . . Don
  15. Well, our resident 'expert' has spoken!! - Modify away! Don
  16. Do a Google search for 'Absorbent Glass Mat Battery Transit Connect' and you'll find a link to the discussion here - You can't find a darned thing searching this forum Anyway, it's a Sam's Club Duracell Group 48 AGM battery - $159.99 when we bought them in 2017. Another Google search gives the dimensions as 10.9 X 6.9 X 7.5 inches. Theres a spacer in the battery box to keep the little Ford battery from moving around and you have to remove that to get it to fit. It's taller too and barely fits, height wise. I run an inverter I mounted in our TC to charge 2 Segways and I also use it to run an air compressor for filling tires. It's a great battery and has served me very well. I highly recommend it! Hope this helps you Don
  17. A few of us here have installed a Sam's Club AGM battery which is much larger (both in size and in amp hours) than the little Ford spec OEM battery. There's a thread on it here which gives all the details - I don't recall offhand the battery dimensions, but I can personally guarantee you that you won't find anything which fills up the stock battery box better than the one we used - It's a very tight fit . . . . but it does fit with no modifications to anything Don
  18. I think adding extra trans cooling to a modern vehicle is more complicated than it was in the old days. The ECU wants to control the trans temp and too cool is probably almost as bad as too hot. If you add cooling in a way that the ECU can't warm up the trans quickly on a winter day, you'd probably be doing more harm than good . . . . at least in my opinion Don
  19. I'm using Castrol Transmax Full Synthetic Multi-Vehicle that I bought online from Advance Auto Parts for $5 a quart, with free shipping on orders of $50 or more. There are several different Transmax fluids, so make sure you get the one that says "Ford Approved for Mercon LV Applications" on the front of the label. I'm still not sure if Mercon LV is 100% synthetic or not, but I wanted a full synthetic which wasn't ridiculously priced, so that eliminated Mercon LV from consideration - I hate paying 2X or 3X for the same stuff others sell for a reasonable price. Mercedes is the same way for ATF for the trans for my Sprinter chassis motor home - You gotta search high and low for a 'non-Mercedes' fluid that meets their specs . . . . but it's out there if you look hard enough and you can save a small fortune if you're a believer in regular fluid changes Don
  20. That's simple - You just keep looking until you find one with 25K or less on the clock and then implement your own maintenance program. Our 2014 had just shy of 13K when we bought it 3 years ago. The dealer had used it as a service loaner vehicle since it was new, so we were the first owners. Paid $15K for it back then Don
  21. The aftermarket kits which give you steering wheel controls for the audio on your aftermarket radio *almost always* require you to give up the little screen and your back-up camera - They use the cable off that screen to tap into the CanBus signals. I have the Pioneer NEX-6100 nav radio installed, but kept the screen and my OEM back-up camera. Not sure Fords camera is compatible with your aftermarket radio, even if you knew which wires to tap into. It's a CanBus device too and I don't think aftermarket stereos are know what to do with those signals . . . . they're looking for a plain old video signal Anyway, good luck with your install and let us know if you find anything promising. The cheapest solution since you weren't looking for a nav stereo would have been to buy a used radio just like the one that came in your TC on eBay - Lots of those kicking around for $40 or $50 Don
  22. We love our 2014! We bought the SWB model (had to hunt high and low to find a low miles used one) because we never plan to sleep in it and I prefer the maneuverability of the shorter vehicle - It is much more like driving a car than a van Specifically wanted a '14 or newer just to get the 2.5 with the 6F35. It is a very efficient combo and the trans shift points are well mated to the engine's torque band. Even pulling a 1200 pound trailer has been no problem. We have electric cars for around town use, so our TC sees maybe 95% or more freeway duty and we typically get between 29 and 30 mpg so long as we keep it to 65 mph or less - We're both well past the age where we're in a hurry to get anywhere . . . . we just leave earlier if we have a long way to go There ARE horror stories concerning the 6F35 and I think much of that is due to Ford's 'lifetime transmission' advertising. Since Ford's definition of what constitutes a 'lifetime' is so very different from my own, I've decided to do some routine maintenance on ours - A complete drain and flush of the trans every 25,000 miles. Since there is no filter you can change, like in an ordinary transmission, I feel it's important to keep clean fluid in it at all times. Since a complete drain is nearly impossible to do, (no way to drain the torque converter, like in an 'ordinary' car) a 4 quart drain with a brief run and then another 4 quart drain, 4 times in total (16 quarts) gets you about a 95% change - Worth the time, trouble and cost in my book Every time I even think about selling the TC (mainly because we don't drive it all that often, only when we make longer trips than our EV's can do) I remember that it's about the most comfortable thing to drive I've owned in a long, long time and I would really miss it, so we'll keep it, probably for another 10 or 15 years - We're only at 30K on it now. The gas mileage ain't too bad either and for someone who very seldom buys any gas, that's pretty important to me Don
  23. I didn't know my barn door had a washer at all! - Now you've got me headed out to check it out . . . . tomorrow or the next day!! ? Don
  24. For every 10 guys who buy an extended warranty, there's usually only one who actually makes much use of it - Glad you're the one! The other 9 guys will be paying to rebuild your engine!! Don
  25. I got these 2012 Ford Focus wheels on eBay for $350. They're the correct offset, but they're 7 inches wide as opposed to the stock steels which are 6.5. They came with the TMPS stems already installed, so I was able to transfer my senders to the new wheels with just one screw. Note the chrome grille bars . . . . don't think many of you guys have those! ? Don
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