windguy

@sean - welcome to the forum. congrats on you new van. do you have a cargo or wagon model? where do you plan to mount the inverter and house battery? do you have specific plans on what you're going to power? what size inverter are you considering

seems like you're getting decent gas mileage. good report. regarding the one touch windows not being smoker friendly, I thought I read somewhere that the American Cancer Society teamed up with Ford designers when they made the TC and figured out how to discourage drivers from smoking while driving, and the windows was one of those deterrents In my cargo van, only the driver's window has the one-touch feature, but it's easy to crack the window a bit if needed.

thanks Mustang. so if Boomerwerps was doing 80+ at times, we should expect to see mpg around 22 or so. I had the cruise control set to 68 (for 65 limit), my comfort zone, so that's not the optimal speed for max mpg.

great trip report. curious, how was your gas mileage? my wife and I just took our own first extended trip, but not even close to that distance. about 180 each way. the TC is a nice touring vehicle. like you said, the views out the front and sides with the big windows makes it really nice. I'm used to the road noise in our cargo model but my wife thought it was a bit noisy. need to work on getting that quieter. Gas mileage didn't improve that much over my usual mixed driving, which is about 24mpg. We averaged maybe 24.5mpg, which seems really low. This is according to the van's calculation for mpg. I expected upper 20's. It's so nice to have a van to pack up for a weekend trip. so much room.

got it. thanks. When sitting in the van today my rear view mirror side view ends at the blank panel in the back. I don't have a window there on the cargo model. With a wagon you would. I do have windows on the sliders but that's out of view. So adding this panorama mirror would widen that view so I can see out the slider windows, presumably. The cost is low enough to give it try to see if it offers better visibility.

interesting gadget. thanks for sharing. what's the main purpose in having the panorama view - for seeing a wider view inside or outside? with a liftgate you get a nice unobstructed view out the back. with the barn doors the inside frame of both doors creates a partial block but you get used to it.

thanks. when I have the sliding door panels off to refinish I'll see what's there. I have a feeling there won't be any speaker wires.

welcome to the forum. are you planning to order a TC? When I ordered the van it was supposed to be at dealer invoice. When I signed the papers it was $100 below invoice, which is even better. Ford had raised the MSRP by $200 from when I ordered in July 2014 till pick up in mid Jan 2015, so it kind of halved the difference. I considered contacting Ford about the $200 increase but haven't yet and probably won't bother. The best part about the Costco auto buying program (or other ones out there like AAA or truecar) is that it's a set price. No haggling BS and games going back and forth for hours. You can establish the price over the phone or via email before setting foot in the dealer. Going to the dealer is only to drop off a deposit and sign your intent to order. Easy peasy. For ordering a van, this is probably the best you're going to do. If there's a van already on the lot, there's a chance you might be able to do slightly better. You also are eligble for any factory incentives/rebates ontop of this pricing so that gets you even lower. Those incentives change all the time and are only eligible when you pick up the van and not when ordering. I missed an extra $750 incentives just based on timing. Good Luck!

welcome to the forum. congrats on your new TC - cargo version I'm guessing. can't help you on a ramp but can say the load height is great on this van. very easy to get things in/out. heavier things that I've moved so far I lean on the edge of the tailgate and lift in. the back end is sturdy and easy to do this with. good luck!

very nice looking. your Titanium looks sharp! in CA, I don't think we're allowed to tint the front windows.

so you really have 6 speakers, 4 up front and 2 rear? jealous! where are the rear speakers mounted? wonder if the wiring is there in all vans as part of a common wiring harness?

this is like a good mystery novel. thanks for the great story guys. I hope it has a good ending.

I would agree. The van does warm up quickly compared to prior cars I've owned. And it retains that heat well so if the car if off for a few hours, it gets back to operating temp almost right away. Regarding the four speakers, the cargo van has four, but they are all up front. I think one on each side of the dash near the mirrors and one on each door close to the hinge side. No fader on the radio controls that I've found. Just balance left/right.

my note about the mirrors was more about not having a blind spot since you won't have side windows available if you wanted to turn and see what's there. the two mirrors gives you an nice wide view. I think the sync feature is more for making Bluetooth connections between a mobile device and your entertainment system. I think the radio has pretty reception. Perhaps the location of the antenna up high helps with that. The radio does lack decent speakers though, more so for location. All the sound is in front of you and nothing behind. A rear speaker option would have been very cool. There's plenty of room for it. Ford, are you listening? Any one with a Titanium or Wagon model have additional speakers in the back area?

@stevemalone189 the side view mirrors are pretty decent and have an inset blind spot mirror for extra coverage, so not having side windows or rear view won't be too bad of a handicap. I also have a backup camera and it's pretty good. takes some getting used to but does a nice job in predicting your path and guiding you plus good visibility even at night. another forum poster mounted his own backup camera so that it's angles for easier alignment for his trailer. if you search on backup camera and trailer you might find the post. I had once checked out the blank panel on the sliders and it appears to be put on with an adhesive and not welded at the factory, but I could be wrong on that one. I have an XLT and it has a USB port but I haven't tried it yet. I don't have Sync or Mytouch, not a gadget type of guy.

my service adviser said there was no TSB regarding the transmission problem. I'm guessing the spare parts axles are the same as what's used in production. I'm sure the dealer gets paid in full for any warranty work so it's revenue for them to replace the seal and drive shaft if they can prove it's leaking.

@daneli - there is a second thread discussing Gen 2 TC transmission problems. http://fordtransitconnectforum.com/topic/2972-2014-transit-connect-lt-lwb-transmission-shifting-issue-any-one/ Search for a post by jimmyboost on page one that mentions resurfacing the drive shaft. I would agree that this may be part of the problem. That's why replacing it with another drive shaft that has the same surface texture might not necessarily solve the problem, so poster GBL's approach of monitoring the fluid level and waiting for a TSB is a good game plan. Otherwise you may introduce more problems greater than the original problem.

@stevemalone189 - most of the TC's at my local dealer (not where I got my van) are cargo versions. In fact, the local dealer has about 6 of them and only one wagon. maybe 6-8 full size Transits too. And guess what color they all are? yes, white. I stopped by on Saturday just to see what options were on them and the saleswoman, despite me telling her I don't need any help, was hovering like a dog sensing food, shadowing my every move. Someone needs to give me a better line to get them to leave me alone. if you need more detailed info on the dimensions and/or pictures, then let me know. I do have a pic in my gallery of the rear cargo opening. what color did you get and what options? regarding delivery - my van left the plant shortly after it was built but it's a slow boat to Maryland and then customs and processing (which can take a while from other posters' experiences) followed by a train ride to your regional dispatch and then a truck ride to the dealer. I didn't get any status once it was on the ship until it got to the local dispatch, then it was a few days to the dealer. I would expect a solid two months for delivery unless things are faster now than what I experienced.

thanks

welcome to the Forum Steve. congrats on your van order. it's a long wait. below is my schedule from start to end in case that helps. you'll still need another helping of patience before you get delivery on that van. 07/11/14 - van on order 09/02/14 - 2015 production started 10/02/14 - order selected for production at end of October. 10/17/14 - got VIN from the dealer 10/30/14 - van produced 01/10/15 - delivery at the dealer in CA regarding the door opening height, I measured mine and got 43" at the sides, 45 at the max height but the middle area has a drop down bracket for the door locks that's about 10 inches wide so the clearance drops to about 43.75. Hope that helps.

thanks. will keep the forum posted if they test the van. link to the company website if anyone is interested http://www.automotivetesting.com/locations.html

good catch - you are probably right about his being a Canada delivery vs US. My platform was probably added by the processing center in Maryland after the seats and belts were removed. I think you're right about it looking just like the wagon version with the platform out. That's more encouraging for me to take this project on in the future. I'd like to have a bit more storage area right behind the seats for small items and then have larger storage areas for things like jumper cables and maybe an inverter. thanks for the input!

nice detailed post. looks good. thanks for sharing. what's next?

sorry to hear that. thanks for the update. Yeah, it would be nice to know why the mechanic thinks the cv axle needs replacing and also how much the seal is leaking. please keep us posted. thanks