MichiganTC

Hey everyone, just picked up my first Transit Connect. It's a 2013 XLT that had 28,000 original miles. It has only been on the road for about 3 years of it's life as it had a tree fall on the hood and windshield with only 1900 miles on it. After sitting in insurance limbo for 5 years, they totaled it due to the cost of repairs. A company that specializes in repairing salvaged vehicles purchased it, repaired it, and rebuilt the title. Shortly after, an electrician bought it and used it for about 26,000 miles before they realized it was too small for their needs. I picked it up about two weeks ago and it's been great. Other than a few scratches where someone keyed it while sitting in the insurance lot, and the bend in the hood, there is very little body damage. I have plans to build it out as a tiny home/camper that can still be used for hauling a few things and used in trade type work if needed. The interior will eventually be quite a bit different than most camper builds as I plan on using aluminum for most of the build - I want very little lumber to be used. It came with an awesome roof rack that rotates down so you don't have to climb up to reach the stuff on top. I plan on mounting solar panels on one side where I can service them standing next to it. Since it has had so little road time, almost no winter driving, and was washed daily by the company who used it as a fleet vehicle, it's rust free underneath (a big deal in Michigan considering cars start to rust the first winter). I plan on coating the underside and interior floor with PPG Ameracoat 240 epoxy to protect it from rusting. It's a marine grade product the salt trucks in Michigan are coated with to prevent rusting. So yeah, overall, it's already turning out great. I'm sure I'll have plenty of questions and eventually will document the build a little as I can. Thanks for having me here. Mike

That's definitely helpful! Thank you. Yeah, I figured it would be a pretty significant poke that I do not want. That's shifting the load a little too far out for my taste, even if it would physically fit. I'll look into the spindle sizing and see if I can come up with something. I'm actually surprised they didn't use a 5x114.5 bolt pattern from the start considering these are built as a commercial vehicle that's more like a truck than a car. But changing out the spindles could open up a whole new collection of wheel options.

I have a set of Ford Ranger Aloca 15x7 (5x114.5) wheels from a 2006 Ford Ranger that I would like to mount up to my 2013 TC. Obviously would need adapters to go from 5x108 to 5x114.5 which would only make the 12mm offset of the Alcoa's an even worse problem when considering the stock steelies would have a 52mm offset. Has anyone done this? Does anyone know the center bore on a stock setup? I'm sure this wouldn't be the safest setup, even if it doesn't interfere with the front fender as the outer sidewall would be pushed almost 3" further out with a 1" adapter. Is there any known setup that allows the conversion of the 5x108 hub to a 5x114.5 hub on these, i.e. not using a spacer/adapter, but actually changing out the hub, or is this a pipe dream?