windguy

@stanger_missle - Don't think you're overthinking this at all. You're just exploring the what ifs, which is cool. I too have a cargo van with only two speakers in the front doors. Below is a pic of the slider doors speaker mounts you're referring to. Your concerns about road noise are valid. I personally wouldn't bother mounting speakers there. I think that mounting point would be good if you had passengers in this area but it would be a waste otherwise. If you want music for the cab area, then that's where I'd add or upgrade speakers for better sound. If I spent more time in the van I would consider an audio upgrade. Good luck!

Okay, no tracks on the roof. Then why do you care about the factory racks? How wide is your awning? Do you need to have roof racks for other purposes, other than the awning? If not, I would provision two or more mounting brackets for a low cost solution. You might be able to find brackets already made for a ladder rack application. The only downside is that they would be fixed in place when you're not using the awning. That's where a rail and removable foot has its advantage. You'll have to share more about your requirements.

Do you factory tracks or nothing? Start by using the search feature of this forum. Try "ROOF RACKS". There are numerous threads to be found. One sample below.

Would love to see a few snaps of your wagon. Please share. Regarding shopping around, I agree and disagree. It's always great to get a decent deal when buying something but there's something to be said for paying a little extra for quality work. Especially when it comes to auto repair and tires in this case. Same goes for other services like a contractor for instance. I used a low cost bidder once and it was a disaster. Many years ago I brought my wife's car to a tire shop with a flat tire. I had put the spare on and the tech worked on the car outside of the bay area using a floor jack. I watched the tech use an impact wrench and strip one of the studs. Totally his fault but the shop wouldn't back up their mistake and blamed me for cross threading the lug. I had to go to the dealer to get a new stud installed at my expense. Needless to say I didn't go back to this shop. I've had nothing but excellent service at America's Tire and now they have appointments. It took only 35 minutes to get the tires installed and they handed me the old valve stems in a baggie. Well worth a tip. Plus their pricing is always competitive so I don't worry about that. I value my time as much as the quality of work. At my last oil change the service writer at the local Ford dealer told me that my tire treads were low and need replacement @15,000 miles. I said okay, will you prorate the tires then. He gave me this blank stare and didn't answer. I said I'd email him for a quote, but never bothered and he never bothered contacting me.

Thanks Bill. Glad to hear you like your Pirellis. Always fun when you make the right choice. I took my first trip to the beach yesterday with the new tires and put them through their normal paces. So far so good. There are two spots where I would always get wheel spin with the Cont's and did not have that at all. The Pirellis seem to have better grip and traction, especially on the curvy road. Not sure if that's going to translate into reduced MPG. Will see on that. As far as noise level, at first I thought they were just as noisy at the Cont's but over the course of the ride I'm thinking they might be a tad more quiet, but I think I'm just trading one noise for another as the cargo van is just a noisy vehicle to begin with. That same thing happened when I did some sound proofing. The noise source just shifted. Will keep an ear on that and see. Probably the only true way to test that is with a decibel meter of some sorts. Speaking of van level noise, when I went to get the tires mounted, I removed all my sailing/surf gear from both the hanging rack and cargo floor area so the van was gutted and it was noticeable noisier when it's empty. Having that gear in there really helps dampen and muffle the sound, which makes sense. Just a tidbit. Will report back when I put more miles on the tires.

You make some interesting observations but I'm not really sure what your message is. BTW - all the Sears store in my area have been closed for a while. They are a done deal. What type of TC do you have - wagon, cargo, year?

I followed in TCCONVERT's footsteps (tire tracks) and got a set of Pirelli Cinturato Strada AS's installed today. Stock size. I've been way overdue to replace the OEM Conti's and planned to do that at 20,000 miles. Just shy by 500 miles and picked up a leak in the left rear tire so pulled the trigger. 20,000 miles is about average for me and tires due to curvy canyon roads I mostly travel to and from the beach. I've used America's Tire (Discount Tire) for previous cars and I like their service and it's convenient so I wanted to stick with them for the van. I asked if they would prorate the OEM tires and they said they don't on OEM tires. Only if you buy them separately. New Pirelli's have that with a 70,000 warranty. Will be interesting to see how well they wear and if there is any reduced noise I can detect. Now I need to go get the alignment checked. The tire wear was pretty even on the OEM's but I'll error on the side of caution.

Factory warranty on the Powertrain is 5 years or 60,000 miles. Do you still qualify for this coverage?

Thanks BONE. For sound proofing, I used two layers per the mfg recommendations. For the ceiling and doors (sliders and rear), I used Kilmat 50mil butyl sheets (one 50sft ft box) as a lightweight option. The Noico 80mil butyl sheet material was my first choice but after feeling how heavy the sheets are, I switched to the Kilmat 50, which are much lighter than the Noico 80. I used the Noico 80mil (one 36sq ft box) for the cargo area flooring and also the rear upper side panels. The second layer for all surfaces was Noico 150mil liner sold in rolls, which provides a combination of sound proofing and insulation (two 36sq ft boxes). It's now in 170mil rolls. Buy the Noico roller and expect to spend a lot of time doing the install. The ceiling work is tiring working above your head. As I said above, I'm not sure the sound proofing on the flooring areas is very effective. After I removed the rubber cargo mat I fitted a 5/8" sheet of ext grade plywood. Since the bed of the cargo area has numerous ridges and pockets, I separated the foam liner from the rubber mat and used the foam as a liner under the plywood and is good for leveling. That offered very good sound proofing from road noise. The sound proofing on the ceiling, doors and rear side panels is very helpful. The only noticeable noise I pick up now is from the slider panels that I painted. I need to work on that. Another poster added a thin layer of liner used for wood flooring installs to the panel and that seemed to work out nicely.

@MRTN - Many thanks. Exactly what I needed. The sound unit I'm considering is 68MM deep, so it should fit but might be snug with the wiring harness coming out the back.

Need a favor from a Cargo Van owner. I need to know the recess dimension of the rear side upper cavity. See pic below. Mine are covered up with panels and it's not a quickie to remove so I'd appreciate someone taking a measurement for me. I realize the side wall is curved but just a ballpark on the depth. I found a few surface mount radios I like but need to make sure they'll fit okay. Much appreciated! Thanks!

Sound proofing pics

Regardless of what hatch design you use, if you want to optimize the amount of storage space then I would recommend removing the existing carpet and foam. Cut it back to the edge of the foam blocks under the front seats. I did that for my storage area and it gives you a little extra space and keeps the storage area flatter. I added back two layers of sound proofing but that's probably not necessary and a layer of grey carpet that I used for the rest of the cargo area decking. Carpet found at Home Depot sold be the linear foot off a 6ft wide roll. If you store a bunch of stuff in there like I have that will provide enough sound proofing to muffle any road noise.

I've often seen poster GBL provide a link to Rockauto.com so I'm assuming this is a good source for parts. Got a coupon code in the mail yesterday from those Money Mailers that I want to share. Only 5% off but it will help offset the tax so it's something. Good luck! Expires 08/31/19 DISCOUNT CODE IS MMJUL29 Enter in the "How did you hear about us?" box for an additional 5% savings.

Thanks for all the great ideas. Lots of choices to consider. I would have never considered using my smart phone to drive a BT speaker. That's how far behind the times I am. I do stash my phone away when I get to the beach because of smash and grab break-ins but I can figure something out if I go this route. Thanks again!

@tlmason - thanks for sharing your build pics. Very nice work. You put a lot of thought into your design. For those rear windows, what holds the reflectix in place? I might want to do something like that for extra shade protection and to keep people from seeing my gear back there. Looking forward to seeing what else you add. Keep up the good work!

Thanks guys. A portable radio is definitely an option that could have expanded uses outside the van, around the yard, so that would maximize its use for sure. I'll keep that in mind if mounting a radio doesn't work out. @doublenickles - good idea for mounting but I have to keep that area clear due to the hanging shelf I use for gear storage. See pic below. What would be optimal is to have a remote control that turns a radio on that is tucked away behind a panel out of sight. Cool if the radio doesn't draw any power when it's off or I guess I could add a rocker switch to control power to it if it does draw power. The remote would make it easy to operate. That would be an ideal setup.

I spend a fair amount of time in the back of my cargo van while at the beach with the barn doors open. The thought crossed my feeble mind yesterday when I was putting gear away after a sailing session that it would be nice to have some music. I'm pretty green when it comes to anything high tech and audio systems. I wouldn't need anything fancy or high end. I'm not looking to draw any attention to my van. Just basic radio station music or perhaps off of a thumb drive if reception is poor and adding an antenna would be too difficult. Obviously a portable radio would probably work okay but I'm adverse to using batteries and having something floating around and not mounted. My thought was to mount some type of radio in the back (not sure where) and add a pair of speakers either on the upper grey side panels above the wire baskets (see pic below) or in the rear door inserts if it's easy to put speaker wires through the door conduit. The only hitch with mounting on the rear doors is that the speaker could get wet because I shower off in this area and the wind often sprays the water towards the van doors. I've got 12VDC power in the back that I can tap off of. The doors and side panels already have sound proofing (two layers) so that should reduce any vibration or tinny sound from the speakers. Has anyone else thought about doing this or added one themselves? If I put a radio in, I'm assuming I would need some type of antenna? Appreciate any thoughts or advice from the audio gurus. Thanks!

@rileuy - thanks for the update. Great news. I think you've got the dealership in your hip pocket now. Time for you to go and enjoy the van and write-off your first week's experience.

@tlmason - All sounds good except for the kids part. I have very little patience for noisy kids. Mozzie? That's a new term. Had to look it up mate. Looking forward to seeing more pics. Enjoy!

Check out this thread below for a thorough discussion. Since you have a 2018, the dealer "should" be able to disable the approach lights. Or you can do it yourself using Forscan with the right ODBI reader. In the meantime, if your driver's window is down, you can use the high beam lever to turn off. Push forward then back. Better to have that featured disabled permanently. Good luck! PS - If you don't have one, as poster MRTN mentioned, good to have a jump start battery pack handy. I now have one for both our vehicles. There's a thread about this subject as well.

@jackgrimshaw - Great update on your van. Nice job! Now your van looks just like mine.

@Rileuy - Sorry to hear about your woes. Understandable why you're upset. I wouldn't give up on the TC so quickly. You obviously selected this van for reasons that are still valid. You're just going to need to fight a little bit to get things sorted out. It shouldn't have to be that way but sometimes things don't always go as planned. The seat strap issues seems minor to me. Same for the audio problem. Those aren't show stoppers. Keep in mind the 2019 has some new features that Ford mechanics might not be up on how to service them. Your van might be the first time they experience a few of those problems. The smoke coming out the tailpipe sounds like more of a serious issue to me and needs to be diagnosed ASAP. If it's constantly doing that, then that would be cause for concern on a new engine. If you're not getting adequate responses from certain low level people at the dealership then you need to go up the ladder to get some traction. Don't be afraid to seek out the general manager of the dealership and raise a little rockus if you think you're not getting the service you deserve. Best of luck - please keep us posted on what happens.

Welcome to the forum and congrats on your new van. Did you just get the van? I like your shade setup. I take it you're sleeping in the back of the van. Please share more pics. Looks like a nice quiet campsite but with all that greenery I take it the skeeters are the size of your wheel covers. Enjoy your travels!

@dinocarsfast - Not to worry. Plenty more out there. Check out the inventory at LKQ as I showed above.