jrm223

I've had no real trouble with my $30-ish USB device from Amazon. Sometimes a read or write fails, I just make the changes again (if it's a write) and then it generally works fine.

The difference in bolt pattern is only 6.3mm - or 3.175mm on each side of the wheel center (1/8" for us). So the plastic tabs on the Crown Vic hubcaps could be bent in a little extra at the center to grab the lug nuts of a Transit Connect bolt pattern - with the one huge caveat being that nobody makes "shoulder" lug nuts for our wheel bolt size/pattern! Pictured is a Crown Vic lug nut, that shoulder in the middle is what the prongs/fingers of the hubcaps grab onto, but nobody (when I had looked a couple years ago) makes shouldered lugnuts in our M12x1.5 size. Which then leaves you back to the adapters to run 5x114.3 with the right-sized lug studs or knocking out your studs to put in 1/2"x20 from a CV with the right lugnuts and then tweaking the hubcap prongs in a little bit extra for the slightly smaller bolt pattern. Crown Vic shouldered lug nut for plastic hubcaps:

That's just an uplevel screen on a higher-spec'd vehicle. I tried to turn on that extra info using Forscan, but it didn't work, lol. Cruise control works fine, but the digital display stays the same as it already is. The extra buttons won't do anything in your vehicle.

Dang ole "Sunday driving with Miss Daisy" right there! Mine is a '15 model and I had 9K miles within about the first 3 months of brand new ownership! Rolled 129K today. Luckily, I stopped driving it 100 miles a day a little over 4 years ago by moving to a new state & getting a job and house that were a lot closer together, haha. Now it gets about 25-30 miles a couple times a week and around 170 miles 1-2 weekends a month to visit friends, so that fast odometer is slowed down a lot now. You oughta have good luck and good times with that van, they're handy lil things.

Looking at your battery install, stripping some paint on that chassis ground location could be a good thing. You do get at least some connection/flow through the bolt, too, but it's always been recommended to get bare metal under the connector itself. Of course, now it's going to be more difficult for you to get to since the van looks to be at least partially reassembled, lol. Those four extra outlets - are those all USB or 2x USB ones and 2x standard 12V "cig plug" power ports? Looks like some good work overall, even the unusual but resourceful "battery holders". I'd still prefer to see actual hold-down clamps; in a bad enough accident, that battery can still move around and - more importantly - up, potentially shorting on the false floor above it. Smart reuse of the swivel D-rings, too!

Gary Roe, have you every picked up a sleeper-sofa? They weigh a ton, especially compared to all the other options posted above.

I had changed my struts awhile back, but don't recall exactly what I had to remove for the cowl. I just went out and looked all over it and can only see those 4 screws across the top of it - and picking/moving around various parts of the cowl, it seems like that's really all that's holding it on. There might be some tab & slot type of deals, I don't remember now. I think maybe try lifting the two ends up a little bit first and then slide it forward? Since you posted 7 hours ago now, you may have already figured it out, anyway.

How about putting a section of plywood over it? 3/8"-1/2" is plenty thick enough to support a bed (probably even 1/4" since you're just covering a small area), and will take up minimal room overall. Plus you'll have the space between the steps and the plywood to store random small stuff, like a roll of paper towels or whatever. Is this a cargo van or passenger van? Cargo vans have a false floor there with a pretty decent amount of wasted space below it. I removed the false floor from mine a long time ago.

Rather than disconnecting the ground at the battery - or even the positive, for that matter - all you need to disconnect is the ground connection on the strut tower, next to the battery. That cable is the only ground connection between the battery & vehicle.

Pictured by G B L is the ambient air temp sensor - if that was bad, your digital gauge on the dash would show wild outside temperatures. For example, when mine went bad at about 33K miles, it said the outside air temp was as low as -25*F when it was really 90-ish F in the summer! The temp sensor you want would be the cylinder head temp sensor ($12-$17 on Rock Auto), middle top of the engine between cylinders 2 & 3.

They make 72-75% ceramic tint, nearly clear. The ceramic blocks UV heat from coming through the windows, and is supposed to reduce interior temperatures about 40°F, as I recall. It's so light that you'll easily get away with having it, even in states that don't allow front tint. And then use darker ceramic on all the back windows.

Some cargo vans do have rear & side windows, although it's too late for all that now, lol. For that matter, adding RV-type windows would have been less hassle overall than trying to remove all the wagon-specific safety stuff, particularly the air bags. As a camper conversion, you'll likely kick yourself for having glass all around, that's going to be your biggest problem with being too cold in the winter and too warm in the summer. Reflectix will be your best bet for insulating window covers, maybe sew it inside some fabric if you want them to look "aesthetically pleasing".

That's silver trim, same as my XL van, lol. I think sun & reflections are making it look different.

When they do blow, they go straight downwards, so I'd say leave like 3-4" alongside them clear of wood. Maybe you could do a canvas or other fabric cover with some tabs of Velcro every few inches to hold them into place? That way the airbags, if ever needed, could still deploy but you don't have to see them all the time.

Why are you removing the rear air bags? There's a good chance that doing so will disable your entire air bag system, just like removing the passenger seat will do. People with Gen1 vans figured out resistors to simulate the passenger seat being in place, but I tried them on my Gen2 2015 and it didn't work, lol - I haven't gotten around to ohming the connectors for my pax seat to figure out what resistors a Gen2 needs. But, I think you may open yourself to more problems than any advantage you may gain from their removal. You can test it by just unplugging them and starting the van, I bet the air bag/SRS light will stay permanently lit-up, indicating a problem. Maybe they can be reprogrammed/disabled via Forscan, first? I have a cargo van myself, so never had to worry about rear air bags.