hollowwood

I have a 2012 Wagon. It took us and a 5'x14' trailer with all our belongings 4400 miles to Hollis, Alaska, on Prince Of Wales Island. We had the trailer dead xed fpr the run to California. From there to Washington to a ferry with a slightly lightened load. We had, and I think still have, the only TC Wagon here. We have met more people who wanted to know what it was and where they could get one. Except for the traction control that you can not disengage for deep snow and mud, I have zero complaints. I get close to 30mpg. As gas is now going for $4.57.9 per gal. here, I like being thrifty. With a 3/4 ton rating, I want for only a second one to allow my wife one of her own.

I am writting this from Bellingham,WA. We made it with no major damage. The bias ply tires wore badly from the weight. The Radial replacements did not. Plus, they are much nicer running and do not hobby horse on concreat roads like the bias ply do. They absorbed most of the cracks and seams. We did lighten the load by about 200 lbs from one side to even the load and gain a bit of spring travel. It also brought the tounge weight down to an even 300lbs. So, after about 4,000 miles of cross country towing at altitures of 7,000"+, I can say that the TC will do most average tow jobs plus.A 2,000 lb gross should be very easy. A 3,000 lb load is possible. I do wish I has a gear between first and second. After having done this close to 4,000 lb load, I would not do it again. It is asking too much of the TC. Our Red Wagon will now make the trip tp Prince Of Wales , AK and lead a less stressfull life.

Yes you can tow with a TC! But you should not take it to the extream as I have. I have tried to attach 2 photos showing our 33' long towing combo. I will not know if they took till I post this. I have a 5'x14' cargo trailer loaded to it's limit and beyond with house hold items for our move from New Hampshire to Prince of Wales, Alaska. We are presently in Williams,Arizona. We are headed to California to visit the misus family for Mother's Day. I found out today that I did not have the spring movement I thought I had and we have to lighten the load a bit before we head north. The trailer has a 3500 lb. axle. The trailer alone weighs 880lbs. With one side dead axed, and the other close to it, the tires started wearing on the inside and will have to be replaced. My mistake in not double checking the trailer before we left. We were packing up to the last day and got focused on the move only. On the van side, it has about 1200 lbs of people, cargo, and hitch weight(324lbs).I am guessing that the trailer is sprung lighter than the axel rating. The trailer has a 1900 lb cargo capacity.I think I am now closer to 2400lbs. Add the 880lbs of trailer weight, and, you have me towing about 3300 lbs. Add the 1200 lbs in the van,and, you get 4480. That is about the weight of another TC. As I said, do not do as I did. We are getting 16-18+ mpg. Speeds are 35mph on the steep hills to 60mph on the flatter roads. Handling above 60 is not stable as sway come into being. I am super carefull with how I brake on the hills so as not to get into trouble. I had 4 years of towing a travel trailer with a 65hp diesel. The TC's 130 hp does better. I am putting this here to show an extreem example of what the TC can do. You can gage your use of it from mine.

It is not that I have a wheel spinning, but, that the traction control will not allow wheels to spin. If it detects one spinning, it applies the brake to that wheel and cuts back on the throttle. The throttle is affected first. You find yourself going slower and slower even if the pedal is to the metal. So clawing your way forward is not allowed. I will ask my service guy for a workaround.

I found my first thing to bitch about with my TC. I do have to temper it in that this was designed as a Road Van, not a Mudder. It is Mud Season in Northern New Hampshire and skills born of long years have to be brought forward to do battle with the muddy roads and parking areas. I had thought, that with the TC, that it would be the same kind of defence as in past years. WRONG !! I have now to contend with the Traction Control that Ford has designed for the TC. During the Winter, on ice covered roads, it worked as intended. Coming up our snow and ice covered hill to my home was not so good. It kept throttling back and applying brakes and would sometime run out of steam and stop. I delt with it and did OK. It just took a few more tries than normal to make the hill. But, now the snow is gone and in it's place is clay based mud. What ever you are driving will have you sinking and spinning. To get forward traction from a standing stop when parked, you may need to rock backwards as far as you can,then, roll forward and up and out of the hole you had sunk into. You need to keep on the gas a bit and claw your way forward. With the proper feel and touch, you can usually make it out. That was before Traction Control designed for hard surfaces. It does not allow you to do this. As soon as it detects spin, it pulls back on the gas and starts jabing the brakes. You might make it to the top of the hole only to have the engine die and leave you stopped there. It will not let you spin or claw. My morning errands have been put off till tomorrow due to the fact that my TC is mired in the mud of my driveway. I have the strap attached to the trailer hitch and when my brother get home from work, we will have he and his tractor extridite me. So, a Word To The Wise, Mud and TCs do not mix! :stop:

Not sure exactly what you are asking? In the US, 87 octane fuel is the normal fuel. If you have a high compression engine, or, one that has a carbon buildup, you need a fuel with a higher octane number. What you may not realiize is that the higher the number, the harder it is to ignite the fuel. High compression equates to higher tempertures in the cylinder before the spark plug can fire. This can cause the mixture to ignite too soon resulting in Pre-Ignition, or, knocking. Making the fuel mixture less prone to low tempature ignition by raising the octane rating, keeps the engine from damaging knocking and poor fuel milage. Carbon buildup can cause hot spots that will also cause pre-ignition. So, understand, lower octane fuel ignites easier than high octane fuel. Low octane fuel works best in a short stroke engine. High octane in a long stroke engine. Low octane burns fast, high octane burns slow. Not exact,but, close.

Let me add a few more comments. We are past the 1000 mile mark and the TC has loosened up a bit. I have trouble now keeping it below 60mph on our 50mph roads. A highway trip of 200 miles+ at 70-75 mph got us 26mpg. We have a cargo trailer with a 5'x14' deck on order. The class 3 hitch has been installed. I still start grinning when I look at it,and, every one who sees it does the same. Every one wants to know more about it. Many think it might just be, "For Them"! The gambit of interested people run from burly loggers to socker moms. No big negatives yet. Love the electric defroster!!! In 5 mins it cleans the ice and snow off the windshield before the engine is warm. Do wish I could over ride the traction control! It is not as good as I at getting up our snow covered drive. We pick up the trailer in mid March. It weighs in at 900lbs empty. We will add at least another 1,000 lbs of house hold goods for our 4200+ mile cross country trip in May. We will do a critique when the trip is done. Not sure yet if I will add an Equalizing Hitch. The trip back from the dealer will be the test.

Do your homework here and on Ford's Transit Connect site. Valves are what you get,and, that is important. I paid for it so "Just In Case" I want to convert, I can. Costs are all over the map depending on the type. Some inject the gas, some the liquid. Expect to pay in the $2,000.00 range at this point in time. As more people sign on to it.or, Ford itself gets involved, cost will come down.

I have seen many comments on the forums here complaining of weak reception from the stock radios. After almost a month of using mine in the northern NH country, I have nothing but praise for the one in my wagon. I am picking up stations that I could not before,and, hanging on to stations that would fade in and out. While the speakers are not high end, they are not too shabby either. I would rate this radio as the best OEM radio on reception I have ever had. This is, of course, just one radio,and, one opinion. Does any one else with the new radio want to add to this?

They have Spray Paint in cans designated for Vinyl that I have used on car panels. It holds up well. Any hardware, Walmart, ect. will have it.

We ordered our TC last July when we were not sure if we would end up with a 2011 or 2012. We got an alert from our dealer within a month that we were on the "Build List" but that no Vin number had been assigned as yet. About a month later we got a new alert that a Vin Number has been attached to our order. The next alert we got was about 3 months later when it was listed as leaving the factory and waiting for a ship. One month later had them saying it was on a dock in Maryland. It took more than a month to get from the dock, thru shipping and arrive at the dealer. All told, it was almost 7 months total. We are located up in the North East corner of the US and our dealer is the last one in NH before Canada. That would add to a delay under normal conditions. You might fare better.

2012 TC with Hankook W409 Snow Tires. I have been driving winter roads for over 50 years. Many kinds of cars and trucks both with and with out snow tires.This TC is right up there with the best of them,and, ahead of all of them at backing down a snowy hill.Most vehicles will have the front end try to swing around and put you cross wide or into the ditch. This TC holds straight and the flat sides and large mirrors let you see the tracks you made on the way up and allow easy aiming.The traction control takes some getting used to. I use second gear.Traction on icy roads is very good. Better than all but the 4 wheel drive van I had. Our snowy hill had 8" of loose wet snow this year. It took 7 tries to get to my drive way. Each time you claw a bit farther up the hill as you plow a path for the tires.That makes 6 times I had to back down. It made it each time and I did not have to swerve at all. Big thumbs up !

It is not as simple as it sounds. Taller tires means that for each revolution of the tires, you travel farther. But, it also means that the engine has to work a bit harder to do it. It is like using a higher gear.I used to run BFG-ATs on Toyota FJ Cruisers. I went from 13 mpg ,with stock tires, to an adjusted mpg of 13mpg! No change! What I gained on going farther, I lost on making the engine work harder.I drove a FJ 60 Wagon with 1 ton stock axles and a curb weight of 3800 lbs. On a lighter truck, you may see better results.PS: Not that wider tires will reduce your mpg due to more wind drag and road friction. I ran the 950-30 BFGs which were not Mudders. They were Rock and Rut tires.

I just priced a Class 3 hitch w/ wiring harness for $310.00 installed. I will let you know how it looks when I get it done. These people have done hitches for me before.I will be pulling a 6x10 cargo trailer from NH, to Prince of Wales Island, AK come May when we move. I will fill you in on that too. We will log over 4,000 miles when we are done.

You might check with Security Companies. They use converted vans for mobile security stations. I had an Astro Van that that was done to.

That is a carryover from the work TC. It is to toss a folder or paperwork into.I have a few cds in mine.

Is the climate control for cooling,or, heating? Heating removes heat from the engine where as cooling loads down the engine with the load the compressor puts on it. With today's fuel injected engines, over heating is not as much a problem as in the days of Carburetors. Running an engine at idle speed with a carburetor fed it a lean hot mix. Injectors are more forgiving. Are you running it 8 hours straight at idle? That would be the worst case. Keep in mind that the transmission will be getting hotter than normal as it will not have any moving air passing over it, One third of the cooling for both the engine and transmission come from the air flow as you drive. If your 8 hours are broken up with a drive to lunch and coffee, that will certainly help. Cabs get this treatment all the time. Engine and transmission oils may need changing a bit sooner as well. Hope this helps.

I am just going past 500 miles with the 2012 TC-XLT Prem. Wagon that we waited over 6 months for delivery. There were times during that wait when we had second thought as to wondering if the wait would be worth it. Glad to say that it was. First impressions are positive. My likes: Wide flat side windows are great for looking out for oncoming traffic when entering an intersection. Electric windshield defroster work great for getting a fast start on a cold icy morning. Low angle of view for the road ahead make foggy weather driving safer. The fog light work well also. Windshield wipers cover almost the entire windshield. Washer spray works fine which means they may have corrected them from a previous owner's complaint. The rear washer I need to aim higher. Driving this TC is just plain Fun! Quick and nimble with a solid feel. I found I had a silly grin on my face but my back road driving had a frown on my mate in the passenger seat! She also enjoyed the driving feel. We have had to find new places for the every day things that were not the same as the Venture Van this TC replaces. We have the right side read seat folded up to allow our Basset Hound space to get in. We also put the laundry baskets, and rubbish barrels in that space. We push them to the rear.A small trash container goes between the front two seats at the back of the console. A short bungy cord between the head rest post holds a role of paper towels. This also keeps the dog in the back seat. The kleenex, which used to be on the floor in front of the console of the Venture, now is located in the overhead shelf. I turned it side ways with the tissues coming out under the net. The only negative so far is the bucket seat. The left side puts pressure on my leg. I have this problem with all of the bucket seats and just need to find a small pad to boost my butt up a bit. We have not had the loud road noise that others have had, even with snow tires all around. We have the Premium Wagon and the extra side wall covering may help. We have the newer CD/Mp3 radio but the speakers are still weak. That is our first impressions. So far so good!

I think the Chrysler New Yorker from the 60s had it. So too the Edsel. Corvair had a small slider mounted on the dash to the right of the steering wheel.

Being one who has owned a diesel station wagon I used for towing a travel trailer,I have to point out that gasoline now cost $3.40 here in NH,while diesel fuel cost $4.10. Add to that the fact that the high sulfur content of diesel fuel requires that you change the oil more often. The cost advantage of a diesel is not as great as it seems. Torque is where a diesel is better than a gasoline engine. My 65 hp diesel engine pulled our wagon and trailer, 7800lbs of rolling weight, as far as Ohio and West Virgina while getting 18 mpg.It did work the begeevers out of it! LOL Weigh the Cost of it to the Benefits you get.It cost more up front too. If you really work your TC, then a diesel may be for you.

Just took delivery of our 2012 TC XLT Prem. Wagon yesterday after a 6 month wait. First impressions are mostly positive.The bucket seat bothers me about the same as most do. The left side puts pressure on my leg that will require me to add a small pillow. Padded seat covers might do it to. I do like the button on the shifter that locks out the OD for ice conditions and down hill braking. My wife would like an adjustable seat like the drivers side. We may look into an English Drivers seat replacement. We have the snow tires on now and the traction control does it's job better than the Venture Van it replaced. I have to add my comment on how well it handles overall. Very tight on the twisties, and,love the braking. I will add to this when we get a few more miles on it.

I think that one of the reasons not to have a column shifter is it blocks access to all those gizmos mounted in the dash. CD Player, Electronic Screens, ect.