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In case anyone needs to remove the rear liftgate panel, here are photos of what mine looks like. I hope it helps with your custom installations and modifications.

BBJ - pics would be very helpful -. Thank you!

I am afraid that carrying lumber happens to be the shortcoming of a little "city van". I almost think that the engineers designed it that way to prevent overloading. If they made the an able to accommodate a piece of plywood, which they easily could have, then it would almost be about the size of an Econoline. Sure, the vehicle will only be a few inches wider and longer. And I guess in Europe, where these were first sold, there just isn't the same desire to carry American building materials. Is plywood & sheetrock even the same 4' X 8' size in Europe or Asia? I don't know, because I've never bought building materials in Europe or Asia. How do all the Japanese go to their version of Home Depot in those little Tacoma trucks? The idea was to make the van smaller, for people who did not want such a large vehicle. And as we all know, if it could fit, people will fill it. Can you imagine that many pieces of stacked plywood or sheetrock and what it would weigh? I can see it now. Somebody will try to stack 40 pieces inside the van, and 10 more on the roof rack.

The oval holes make more sense if you think about the difference between the aftermarket rack designs and the factory roof rails. Most aftermarked designs are a pair of side to side cross bars, one fore and one aft. But the factory rails which are permanently installed are longer rails running front to back, one on each side. The oval holes make sense for these long rails if you take into account differential heating and cooling. The roof panels and the rails will expand and contract at different rates if they are different materials.So the rails will effectively be getting longer or shorter in relation to the roof panel they are mounted to. If you don't allow for that slight movement with oval mounting holes, the metal roof will buckle or stretch, or the rails will. You see the oval hole fix used a lot in woodworking where moisture and grain differences produce relative movement that would split the wood. It's less of a risk with the side to side aftermarket rails since the bow of the roof provides plenty of room to flex. It's the extra length and stiffness where the factory rails mount just above the strong door frames that would likely cause a problem. Of course, this is all just a guess on my part.

Hello AXN-RXN. Nice tutorial on how to add a roof rack to the second generation Transit Connect. It is amazing how Ford went from a small commercial van with roof rack mounting positions including threaded metal inserts, to the second generation mini-van with plugs in the roof. What was the thinking? In order to interest "soccer mom's" in the new mini-van they seem to have forgotten how the Transit Connect started out as a commercial van. It seems to have worked for Ford. The second generation is a big seller, out selling the first generation by a large margin. Must be because of the "soccer mom's".

Hello stickman89, I did the same this winter when it snowed, pulled the fuse.

What !!! Really ??? Texas ??? Well shoot your gun then !!

Super impressed with the traction control on steep muddy/snowy roads after following advice of PetrosA in an earlier post: moving shift lever to "1" allows my 2011 transit connect to "paw" its way up bad roads that requires 4x4 on standard pickups. I recently had to go up to a job site, 8 miles up a long dirt road that finished with 1/2 mile steep climb (the owner had to use 4x4 on his f150, and had offered to pick me up at bottom since I only had 2wd). My first day up there in bad conditions (wet clay, gravel mud some light november snow) was with my summer tires: I could feel the power shift from right wheel to left wheel quickly so that I was able to maintain speed and not just spin out. When I felt a wheel break traction I noticed the traction control light flash on. Next trip and after nastier weather (muddier), I had my snow tires (studded Arctic Claws - almost too loud and aggressive for highway driving). This time, despite the messier conditions the transit barely broke traction and just hauled up that steep, slippery two track road. Impressed that I had no loss of power (if manually shifted to first gear) - as would occur with a standard traction control of front wheel drive cars that cut torque as ABS (brakes) minimize slippage on the spinning wheel. Now I just wish there was more power at highway speeds and in the headwinds we see a lot of in montana.

Don't try pulling the PCM fuses. That disables the whole car and it won't even start. We had several days of rain and I had to go through a slick, muddy spot and I had to get the tractor to pull me through. I pulled the fuses and nothing would work. When I turned on the key all I got was a series of dashed lines on the display. My truck is a 2010 model and this is my first big gripe, other than the POS Continental tires it came with that failed in 16,000 miles, that I have had about this little truck. Another poster modified the module located under the console and that seemed to work so I am going to try that by wiring a NC push button switch into the circuit so thst as long as I hold the button down the traction control will be disabled. I hope it works. My wife's 87 Olds Cierra NEVER got stuck in this kind of mud.

I regularly have to drive in a steep and snowy drive way. Even with excellent winter tires the traction control made it impossible. I found this unacceptable, so today I installed an off switch. I located the stability control module, which is under and in front of the gear selector (it has a 4 pin connector that is black and blue and faces the passenger foot well)(on the module on the passenger side is a sticker that reads something like: ``vital for vehicle safety'') To access the connector you have to take apart - though not completely remove - the three floor console panels to get some access to it -- I was able to get to the connector and wire around the side of the front panel section once it was unclipped and slid rearward a few inches, which was possible without removing the electrical connectors. I did remove the heater core cables at the heater core (which is easy) but this was probably not necessary. I also did completely remove the center trip piece containing the a/c and power outlets - but this was primarily to allow installation of the switch. Once I had that apart I snipped the power wire leading to the module (the red and yellow wire) and spliced in 20ga wire on each end which I routed to a switch that I installed next to the shift lever. When you start the car with the switch on, the traction control light does not illuminate and everything appears to work as intended. When I move the switch to the off position the traction control light illuminates and I presume is disabled (along with ABS and the anti roll feature) -- though I haven't had a chance to test this. If I turn the switch back on at this point the light remains lit. (Not sure if the features return or not at this point... probably not. If I turn the car off and then back on the light does not come on. This way I can now disable the feature on the rare occasions it is critical to do so. Though to restart the feature I will have to restart the car. No check engine light appeared and I don't believe there would be any trouble codes present. I meant to take pictures of the process, but got caught up in it. This was a fairly simple operation (took me about 1.5 hours or less) I recommend that anyone who has to get up slippery hills do this. I will report back on how much better the van performs up a steep hill without traction control.

Just bought a 2013 wagon. Pg 125 of the manual says some models come with a Traction Control OFF button....Mine didn't. I loved the traction control on my wife's Chevy Venture. That DOES have an off button, but I've never had an occassion to use it. I think traction control is awesome in the snow...especially in a hilly area like we have in eastern PA.

I agree big time with PetrosA. I live in rural Michigan, and this has been an unusually cold winter so far, with lots of ice always just below the most recent snowfall. My driveway is a couple of hundreed feet, unpaved, to the dirt road, then two miles to the nearest paved road. I replaced my trusty AWD Vue after it's demise at 145K with my TC last February, and I'm at ~23k miles now. So I figure I've got somewhere about 5-6k on snow and ice with it. The FWD TC beats the AWD Versa-Trak clone Vue hands down. And I loved the Vue, and kept it shod with good tires (last ones were Michelin LTX M/S). Simply, you must use the range selector. I've come to think of "D" as fail-safe "dummy" mode. It's impossible to make the thing slide on command in ""D". O/D off, it get a little better. 2 is good, but nothing beats taking off in first, and shifting up as things get rolling. Seriously, the traction control must have at least three behaviors programmed in it. In first, on shiny glare ice, up hill, it will alternately spin each wheel for about a full second, pawing it's way forward quite aggressively. It has always found a grip, even on hills and turns out here in the fields that have absolutely stymied any other vehicle I've had here over the last 20 years. In second, it just won't paw like in first, but it is a lot more deliberate than it is in D. I tell my wife and son to keep it in D, but I sure won't... Use the shifter, and you will be rewarded! Cheers, Jeff

Thanks Zepper! The Powertrain Control Module (PCM) minifuse is under the hood in position 28 (15A) and position 35 (10A). If I get stuck again, I may just pull them out and see if that helps. Meanwhile, can I install chains on the front wheels of a TC? I have only seen them on the rear wheels of rear wheel drive vehicles.