windguy

@15Dan15 - thanks for posting your "seat removed" pic on this thread. it's very helpful to me to see that compared to what the cargo van has going on. the difference between my van and EvilRobot is that I have the same dark carpet extending from the front seat area to the rear. It ends after it steps up to the cargo floor height and then a few inches back then it's all just painted metal. So now I'm wondering how Ford attached the deck to the floor since there is carpet there. Seems like there wouldn't be any welding going on. Maybe they use the same holes that the seats are attached to as anchor points. I hope to make this a next fall/winter project when I have some time. Now that EvilRobot gave us the tip that you can access this area by removing the side door step molding without having to remove the rear side panels, I'm more encouraged to dig into this project.

@15Dan15 - thanks for sharing pics of your van and seating changes. I really like seeing that. your van looks very nice. I like the options you have. seeing all that extra storage space reinforces my idea discussed in the "cargo mat" thread about creating a storage area. looking forward to seeing a pic of the dogs in their van. yes, it's their van and you are their driver

great pics - can see them just fine. thanks for sharing. not sure this would help you but I put a 1/2" sheet of plywood (primed and painted) inside the floor of my cargo van. I couldn't stand the spongy floor mat that came with the van. Covering the plywood with a low cost gray utility carpet from Home Depot that's sold by the foot in a 6ft width. gives the van a nice finished looked.

There doesn't appear to be too many changes for the 2016 model year so pretty much the same as 2014 and 2015. See the first page for "New for 2016 MY" I like this addition as a safety feature "Blind Spot Information System (BLIS®) with Cross-traffic Alert is now available for XLT Wagon and Titanium Wagon". Too bad it's not offered on the cargo version too. 2016 Transit Connect Order Guide.pdf

@cageb8 - the Frostking material looks like a good option. whatever works. anything added will help. keep us posted on that project. regarding uploading pics, creating your own gallery (MY GALLERY) is really easy and doesn't have the same size limitations as uploading an attachment. once a pic is in your gallery, you can attach it to your post by using the MY MEDIA option in the toolbar when you create a post. let us know if you have questions in setting that up.

brought the van in this morning to have it looked at by the dealer's transmission guy. They said the leak is very minor so we are going to take the strategy of watching this and not doing anything until Ford comes out with a Technical Bulletin on this issue. They would have replaced the seal if I wanted but based on everyone's experience so far I don't see any benefit to doing this at this point. I don't put a lot of mileage on the van so I'm hoping there will be a fix for this before it becomes a bigger problem.

is the glass clear like the front windows or does it have some tint to it? on my van, the added windows on the sliders and rear barn doors have a decent tint to them but you can certainly see inside if the lighting is just right or you get close enough. I'm assuming that's what privacy glass is like.

@CAGEB8 - welcome to the forum. nice first post. looking forward to reading about your van customizations. just so happens I was looking at insulation materials while at Home Depot this past weekend. I was looking at the R-Tech 4x8 sheet insulation with foil on both sides. I like that it's moisture resistant and has some flexibility to it. comes in different thicknesses and is inexpensive. R value isn't too high though. I think another poster used this material for his work van. Could have been KeyWestLes. Applied with a spray adhesive. Dynamat Dynaliner looks like a really nice option but it's very expensive.

@GBL - good input. thanks. in the other transmission thread, someone reported this issue back at the end of November, so this has been going on for at least five months, if not longer. You would think that Ford would have a fix for this by now. hopefully soon

crap, my axle is leaking trans fluid too :( brought the van in for its first oil change on Friday after roughly 1,100 miles (over four months). yeah, I don't drive too much. per other posters' suggestions, figured it would be a good idea to do an early first oil change and get that axle checked for leaks. I have an appointment in a week to have the local dealer's transmission person replace the seal. Service advisor said she only saw one other case of this fluid leaking. I would have thought they'd seen more by now. I knew going in this might be a problem but I was hoping the 2015 model would have fixed that problem known on the 2014's. Now I'm hoping that replacing the seal will solve the problem and I'll be done with it. Perhaps I'm sticking my head in the sand a second time. I plan to have the axle checked after another 1,000 or so miles to make sure it's not leaking again.

There was a side discussion in the thread linked below regarding tow hooks, on pages 2&3. http://fordtransitconnectforum.com/topic/3450-lost-in-transit-a-toaster-van-build/page-2 As GBL stated above and also in the above mentioned thread, the Gen 2 TC doesn't come with a tow hook. Part No: 6M2Z-17A954-A - List Price $31.81 As silly as it seems, you need to buy one from Ford as a spare part. There is a convenient tow hook holder located next to the jack in the rear left compartment. I picked one up yesterday and took some pics as shown below. Since my TC has a factory installed hitch, the rear bumper doesn't have a tow hook receptacle. There is a bumper cover port for it but nothing behind that. I did take a look at a van yesterday on a dealer lot and can see the difference now. The regular van has a metal bumper behind the bumper cover that is bolted to the frame, four bolts on connects to the same four bolts on each side. So you get one or the other. Looks like I'm stuck leaving that hitch on permanently even though it's a shin grabber.

thanks for the info. understand about not having the time to take this task on. I'm in the same position. if you get back to it sometime please update us. interesting about the rubber liner vs carpet and where it ends. it would be really useful to have two large storage compartments. hopefully one day.

BTW - The other day I opened the rear compartment for the jack to check out the location of the tow hook holder, and I looked around with a flashlight to see how the sidewall area was constructed. there's a lot of space on each side that's unused. there's an extra inner layer of metal extended up from the wheel well dividing the area into two parts. Seems like it's mostly designed to support the side panel for aesthetics and not functionality. The van could really use more storage areas so it's a shame the van designers didn't maximize this feature.

@evilrobot - great pics, thanks for posting. very cool for me to see this cause I didn't explore that far. almost hard to get oriented when looking at them. It looks cavernous with all that open space. what did you remove to get these views? in my exploration, I thought you'd need to remove the rear black panels on the side in order to remove the step molding and lift the cargo mat. Did you do this? the step molding I can see is gone. was there another panel on the side of the platform that was removed or was it open like this? there seems to be a center hub running front to back that's permanent. my 2015 van has carpeting that extends from the cab area, below the seats, and all the way back to rear of the platform where it goes up to the level of the cargo area. I don't see that in yours, just raw white body, so that's once difference. so what's your next step? you're my hero for doing this and sharing your discovery.

sorry to hear that. I guess it's important to know what was "fixed" for each service. Another forum member, Jimmyboost, had many similar problems as documented in his post on this other transmission thread http://fordtransitconnectforum.com/topic/2972-2014-transit-connect-lt-lwb-transmission-shifting-issue-any-one/ I think he gave up and went the Lemon Law route. Hope you can resolve this problem quickly and peacefully. please keep us posted.

great news - that was a quick change in events enjoy your new ride!

thanks for posting that info. curious, how did you find this out? are you looking to remove the deck to free up some space? thanks

funny only problem with that strategy is that the lane is full with GM vehicles doing the same thing

I have a Gen 2 TC and bought a few sheets of plywood recently. Since I didn't need the full 8ft length, I had it trimmed to 7ft so I could close the doors. one sheet was used as an overlay on the existing cargo mat to provide a better surface. the spacing between the wheel wells maybe over 48" but I found they had a weld right about mid point that reduced that width to <48" :( if you go a little higher up or angle slightly, you're fine. so if you put two pieces of 2x4 on each side and slid the sheets in you're good to go, which is probably an easier way to load them anyway. I think Ford should have left a tad more space there than shaving it that close but perhaps they didn't want to have sheets sliding around. hard to say what's in their minds

@bob248 - thanks for posting pics of the roof rack with details. that's a really nice solution. I like how the track sit flush inside the existing track so when you remove the crossbars, it's hard to see. nice job on the board rack too. didn't know furniture grade PVC existed. if you make something like I did for your sails/masts then you've got extra storage space below unless you have really big sails/masts that won't fit that way. my biggest sail is a 5.6/wave and a 430 mast. one thing I haven't fully worked out is the flopping barn doors due to heavy wind. I made a slotted stick as you can see in one of the pics that goes between the doors and clears my head when walking around. that works great for lighter wind but when it gets pumping the doors jiggle that loose. Yesterday, I ended up just using the stick against the ground to keep the windward door open, which worked okay. The stick would work better as designed if I can clamp the doors together as well. I need a better design.