jrm223

I've never had any trouble seeing things in my "small" mirrors (same as pictured above), although I would like to upgrade to the "large" ones. No windows at all behind the front seats and mine is an XL, so no cameras, sensors, doodads, thingamajiggers & whatchamacallits, lol. But, I've also previously had F150's & an F350 that had camper shells, so I couldn't really see through the back on those, either. But it's good that you were able to get what you need for relatively cheap, at least! Looks like a clean install, too.

Where in the Southern plains are you? Maybe another member that already has the equipment can help out? I'm in north-central Texas, myself - right in the middle of the Ft Worth/Abilene/Wichita Falls triangle.

You cannot easily do it yourself on a 2014-15 because the BCM needs to be updated by Ford, first. 2016+ does not require a visit to Ford, though. Tempus will have to bring his into Ford and reference the SSM about it.

M-Sport is a European company, we won't see any on this side of the pond, lol. I looked at their decal packages awhile back and seem to recall a price around $500, so obviously I skipped that. They definitely make some sweet looking custom vans.

Gobills, what year is your van? If it's 2016 or newer, you can easily do it with a laptop, Forscan software (free) and an ELM327 adapter to connect the laptop and van together. More info about it is in that link that Don Ridley shared. But, if you have a 2014-15, you'll need to have Ford update the BCM programming first and then they can also disable the "approach lights" (that's the name in the BCM itself). For 2014-15, you'll want to reference SSM 46321.

I was just reading through the service schedule earlier today and it said 150K miles for ATF under 'normal' driving conditions. But if you have lots of trailer towing, gravel roads, excessive idling or a car-top carrier, then they recommend only 30K miles before changing the ATF. The town I moved to 2 years ago is gravel roads except the two main ones, but I'm only 1.5 blocks from the main road, so going "in between" the 30K & 150K is probably good. I used to do a lot of highway miles before moving to Texas, so my brake pads are original, too. When I checked them last summer (probably 80-85K), they still looked basically new and very thick.

If you're in a cargo van, anchor inside instead of through the doors. I have a 10ft double hung in mine and wish it was a 9ft, lol. But, I pulled the front headliner/storage shelf out, so I'm hooked onto the steel ceiling directly, front & back. At some point, I'll be putting in insulation, so removing the headliner for now is multi-purpose.

I haven't, no. I need to bring it into Ford for a right-front strut and I figure I may as well have them do the 100K maintenance while it's in there. Normally, I do my own work, but this is still covered under extended warranty, so it should only cost me $100.

22497?? Are you a church & grocery driver? lol. My 2015 will be 4 years old (for me) in June and it's already going to roll 100K this week or possibly next week. If I was still living in Illinois with my old 100-mile commute, it'd likely be over 160K already. That's awesome that you got the dash changed out & working. I'd like to eventually do that on mine.

That looks like a pretty slick setup. You piqued my interest with L-track, but it looks like that's a proprietary hex-shaped setup, so you'll need their special connectors instead of standard L-track ones. I custom bent two L-track rails a few years ago now and really need to stop procrastinating on installing them, haha. But, I pulled my front headliner out last weekend, so now I have less excuse for procrastinating - I'll be drilling and putting in nut-serts (rivnuts, whatever) using the bolt pattern that's on the L-track I bought. One problem is that the rails I bought are a little bit shorter than the channels on the roof, so I won't be able to go full front-to-back with them like I want to, oh well. I can always pick up a couple short sections to finish it out at some point.

You should have kept this all in one thread instead of three separate posts. But the end result looks awesome! Good job. You definitely win the "OEM type appearance" compared to my setup, haha. I completely took out all the false floor pieces and have a 48" tool chest in there, shown in the pictures. I've thought of putting this one at the back doors, but now that I have my hammock hanging in the van, I don't think they'll fit together - I'm already rubbing on the tool chest now, lol. I had to put some wood support blocks (I think they're 1x1" or 2x2" by 3ft long or so) under this chest because it wasn't wide enough to sit on the brackets that the plastic steps originally mounted to (second pic). You can kind of see that wood support at the right side of the second pic and they run on an angle front-to-back. But, I have a 60" that I need to fix a strut on so I can swap the 48" out for the 60" - yes, the big one does fit cross-ways in my cargo van (just barely), lol. At least the 60" box will also sit about an inch or so lower than this 48" one is and I'll be able to put some rivnuts in the step brackets and bolt down the 60" box. Unless I change my mind and try to build a more custom setup since I still have some wasted space under the tool chest.

Look below his picture, he said it's done in Photoshop 😄 But that top is from Fiberine - supposed to be great stuff, but talk about $$$

The hitch install really is that easy, lol. I installed a Curt on my 2015 by myself in maybe 30 minutes, not counting the wiring.

I had looked at that awhile back to adjust for my 215/65R16's, but when I saw the available choices, I decided to just leave it as-is so I wouldn't have to recalculate the speedometer error between the options there and my actual tires. I know for a fact that my current setup is 5.9% higher, so 70MPH on the gauge is 74-75MPH on the road and 100 miles odometer is actually 105.9 miles traveled (for rare times when I check my MPG). I was really hoping for better/more choices, but I understand that Forscan is only interpreting what's in the factory computer and it's not as powerful as an aftermarket programmer - AFAIK, none exist for TC's. Which leaves me to wonder if anyone has tried a Focus programmer on a TC, since they're mostly the same under the skin, haha.

The window coverings also aren't steel blanks, they're some type of plastic - but only on the sliding doors. I have a windowless van and there are no cut-outs at all on the actual body (quarter windows), no cut-outs on the rear doors and then the sliders have paint-matched plastic where the window would go. I've had some other thoughts of what to do with those blanks, like perhaps built-in tool storage and hinge the blanks like a toolbox lid for external access - or even replace the blanks with metal toolbox doors, idk.