I can share on this topic....I'd just had my transit for about a week (pre owned 2011 XLT with 8700 miles, perfect condition), and one day I heard a weird rubbing noise from under the front end....almost like a stick jammed underneath dragging on the asphalt. Later that day, I was at a rental and got into the vehicle, put it in reverse and nothing.....I mean nothing. I was able to limp it home, knowing something was wrong. Had it towed to the dealer who at first said they couldn't duplicate the symptoms. They said it was working fine.....I said " drive it some more!"... A few hours later they called and said it failed.....big time failed. Dropped the pan and a ton of metal came out. After further inspection, it was completely destroyed, including the case. They were instructed by the factory to replace with a reman unit, but they aren't yet available so a new Trans was ordered. They also replaced the Trans cooler and flushed the cooler lines.
It took a week, and I picked it up today. After doing some research on the net, I discovered that the forward planetarys are a very common failure on these vehicles. My advice to anyone who starts to experience the symptoms talked about is to get it to your dealer and tell them to PLEASE drop the tranny pan. That should do it...