jrm223

When I originally read the post, I thought you were trying to remove an armrest from the console for who-knows-why, not the driver seat - maybe some custom mods, different armrest cover, etc. Confusing, but lots of people do confusing stuff, so who am I to judge. Hell, everyone on this forum is probably confusing to "normal" people since we're enthusiasts of a minivan, essentially. I've never tried pulling off the armrest from my 2015, which could be different than your '19, anyway. But, I'm wondering if that 60 degrees is above horizontal or 60 degrees down from the 'up' position? I've never researched it before this post. Well damn, I just tried to remove the one in my van, tried every position throughout the range of motion and I can't get it to budge, at all. And I'm the type that can remove the headrest in a second or two, lol. I was sitting in the driver seat and pushing it towards the passenger side, I've got too much junk in the passenger seat at the moment, so I can't sit there & pull instead of push.

They're using the exact same plastic pieces to replace the broken pieces, so you shouldn't be surprised when they break again. The one in my '15 van took roughly 3-3.5 years and nearly 100K miles before it broke, but I'm not really even worried about it. Yea, it kind of looks like crap - especially since I still left the 100% broken-off piece sitting there (hitting 111K soon), but I'm not going to spend money & time on replacing some useless cosmetic crap that will break again, lol. If you're worried about it lowering trade-in value a few bucks, replace it immediately before trade-in rather than 2, 3, maybe 4 times before you finally do trade-in. I bet you'd end up spending more money on replacing it all the time than what the trade-in value would actually go down by with a broken one.

Thanks, Double Nickles. I forgot about importing the Euro lowering springs, lol.

Vented propane/gas heaters need the vent going out through the wall or up through the ceiling. Hot air rises, so you can't vent out the floor. The diesel heaters get away with under-floor exhaust because they have a separate blower inside that helps draw in fresh air through the combustion intake and pushes the exhaust out & down through the exhaust. That being said, on my 2015, there's about a 1" hole in the back-passenger corner (back-driver side for countries driving on the left side of the road) where higher-optioned vans have a wiring harness go through for the auxiliary fuse block. Since I don't have that fuse block, there was just a rubber plug in the hole. There's also a few drain holes in the floor behind the front seats that have rubber plugs in them. Rear-passenger corner for LHD:

There's nothing available for lowering the 2014-18, so I highly doubt your 2019 will have anything aftermarket like that.

Rather than mounting the stove & sink on the door, why not build a slide-out kitchen using heavy-duty slides? They'll cost some money, but they put no weight on the barn doors and you could then use it inside or out. I'd also include a 12V compressor fridge/freezer in the kitchen unit. Something like these from Amazon, 30" 500lb capacity per pair You could build something like this, but your bed would be different than this ladies van (random online pic). You might have it turned 90* so it's full-width and not as deep front-to-back; that's my plan for my own van if I ever build a camper out of it, lol.

So, since it's from England, are y'all pulling it to the English passenger side or the American passenger side? Because they're opposite, lol. I've never even seen one of those consoles in-person, only on online pics, so I can't help much beyond this.

I can't recall seeing any Transit Connects lifted (gen 1 or 2). One of the biggest problems on FWD is that the axleshafts tend to be pretty short, so a lift puts them close to or even outside of their operating range. IFS on 4x4 trucks is usually not the same, because you have a front differential instead of a transaxle like FWD. A differential is easy to drop using brackets; but a whole engine & transaxle, not so much. I "lifted" my 2015 Gen 2 about a whopping 1/2" over stock height using slightly larger tires, 215/65R16 General Grabber AT2 (I have an old thread in the wheel/tire subforum for them, but not updated in a long time). With differences between TC1 & TC2, I couldn't say what fits your wheel wells, but I'd try to find an all-terrain style tire that will fit. Your TC1 has 15" wheels stock (OEM tire size 205/65R15), which should give you a much better all-terrain tire selection than my TC2 with 16" wheels - and I believe I read that 15's won't fit on mine because of larger brakes. A major overkill method to raise the back would be using air suspension bags like some people put on pick-ups. Raise it a bit when extra clearance is needed, then drop it back down on the streets. Front would still be an issue, although I've seen someone here before use McPherson air bag struts designed for a Focus (TC uses a modified Focus floorpan/structure), so that could be an option. Most people use those to lower, but they may have enough range to lift, instead?

My brakes have squealed randomly since shortly after I bought the van, lol. Don't rely on squeals to let you know when they actually need to be replaced, since I have over 110K on front now and they still look basically new. I've heard a couple squeals since doing the rear brake pads, so I'm guessing it's the fronts that like to get 'vocal' on me. Personally, I just check 'em when I rotate the wheels and I don't anticipate having to do the fronts for a long time. That's a great thing about disc brakes - once the wheel is off, it takes a couple seconds to check the pads without even crawling under the van.

I think I've seen that porthole van posted in the forum before, but it was a random internet picture that someone found while searching porthole windows for TC, lol.

If you know the width and the offset, you can calculate the backspace fairly accurately. Online info for the stock wheels on my 2015 show 6.5Jx16 ET50, which calculates out to 5.2185" backspace. But the website shows backspace of 133mm (5.2362 inches), web link here. Slightly under two-hundredths of a difference. Positive offset pulls the wheel in, negative offset pushes it out of the fender. You're moving them out 5mm/0.2" (+50 vs +45), but the wheels are also a full inch wider overall than stock, so the inside edge will be about 0.3" inward of stock (half the difference in wheel width, minus the 0.2" change in offset going outward). I think you'll find that you'll be going in a slightly straighter line with those wheels and the reduced steering angle. Then it's up to you, Old School, to decide if the reduced angle is acceptable or if you want to try some thin spacers (quarter-inch would nearly bring the inside wheel edge back to stock location) or whatever. Problem there is that the wheels would then be sticking a full inch out from stock location, not accounting for any tire width difference added on.

My "OHP Tools" version was $30, which I consider inexpensive, and it works fine, lol. And I'm with you on hard-wired instead of wireless. People never understand my preference for hard-wired, especially when they find out that I work in IT, haha. Wires have faster communication (typically) and are less prone to compatibility issues like dozens of different radio models trying to communicate properly. KISS principle!

However, those vans are imported from Europe, so there could be some programming that's common between EU & US versions - although a lot will be different because of Euro-V or whatever their current emissions standards are called versus EPA standards. Stuff like cruise control programming might could be the same across both sides of the pond, though. Can't know until actually comparing As-Built data from both.

Just make sure you buy a quality & recommended ELM327 adapter because there are tons & tons of cheap junk on Amazon that don't work. Forscan website has a list or you can search our forum here. I've posted mine in several threads and other members have posted the ones they've successfully used (I prefer hard-wired, some prefer Bluetooth or WiFi). Any that you see mentioned in this forum - except the BBFLY one that someone bought & then had to replace because it doesn't actually work right - will be good for what you want to do. Also save a back-up copy of every single module first thing, before you modify any settings, just in case something goes wrong and you need to restore the original configuration.

Ford flushed my 2015 trans at 102K miles, so I don't know what color came out. I'm still running the factory front brakes at 110K & they look new, but I replaced the rear pads a few weeks ago at 108.5K miles. Ford told me back at 102K miles that the rears had 2mm left, but wanted like $330 to replace the rears. I bought the parts on Rockauto and finally did them a few weekends ago, but I found that three of the pads still had 60% life and one had about 30% life - still far more left than the 2mm @ 102K miles that Ford said. Since the one pad was worn weird (I think it was passenger outer?) I went ahead and replaced all four pads in back, but left the factory rotors since they didn't even have a worn lip on them. Now I have a spare set of rear rotors for like 200K or 300K miles or whatever? If I don't lose them before that, haha

There are clear ceramic products (can't really call it "tint") available that will block 70% of heat trying to come through the windshield. As mentioned, it's pretty expensive, but worth it. You can also get ceramic tint in different levels that will block more heat than any cheap non-ceramic tint, but at a cost. Check out this video, they use a heat lamp & meter to show the difference between cheap junk tint and ceramic. YouTube Texas Tint Masters video

If you look close at that center console, it looks like they cut out a huge section of it along the passenger seat; you can see a big notch cut out by the corner of the seat. I bet it has enough material cut away to allow the seat to swing around.

I had Safelite come to me to do my windshield because their nearest location is about an hour away from me. Paid them right around $400 or so, probably closer to $425 with tax and such, back in Nov 2017 I think it was. Mine is the base model XL cargo, no inside mirror even. Local glass shop had quoted me higher than Safelite, but I'm also in rural Texas halfway between Fort Worth, Abilene & Wichita Falls (middle of the triangle, lol).

If you are satisfied with only partially charging that LiFePO4 battery (about 70% max), then go ahead and use the direct-connection charger methods talked about above. But, I assume you want it fully charged, so you'll need the proper MPPT DC-DC charger that is designed for lithium batteries. Lithium-based batteries charge very differently than old school SLA/AGM style batteries - which vehicle alternators are designed for. It's not as simple as "give it power to charge and it's good" when it comes to those batteries. As the saying goes "Anything worth doing, is worth doing right." https://www.progressivedyn.com/frequently-asked-questions-on-converting-to-lithium-charging/

Could that be hooked up to the alarm system, perhaps? Someone breaks in and that annoying bastard is going off in the back, but it's difficult to find & cut, lol. Stand outside the van and hit the horn on the steering wheel to make sure it does not sound off, that would be real annoying while driving.

GBL beat me to it; windshields are laminated already, but the composite is in the middle of two layers of glass. So, you still get some tiny shards when a windshield gets shattered. Tint or clear ceramic would hold those tiny shards, at least. Plus, ceramic tint (or even clear) is the best thing you can get for reducing heat inside the vehicle and it makes a much bigger difference than exterior paint color.

Yep, that's about how mine look, too. When I rotate tires, I just give them a quick glance and think "Just what I expected, no noticeable wear, moving on..."

I only made the point about bbfly since there are so many cheap adapters claiming to be "elm327 compatible" and causing lots of issues, but I haven't looked at the Forscan list recently to see what models are on it. Just the name of it sounds like one of those cheap Chinese knock-offs, at least to me. Before buying mine, I had found it on a Forscan discussion on a Focus or Mustang forum and several users had recommended it, so I knew it would work properly, lol. As for your questions - I used Forscan since I don't have IDS. The ASC was in the same module that CC was in, but it was down towards the bottom of the list - I can't remember which module because it's been awhile. The setting was called either Adaptive Speed Control or Adjustable Speed Control.

When you're only putting in like half-dozen or so rivnuts, there's no reason to buy any special tools for it. All you need is a properly sized screw, washer, nut & a couple wrenches. Why make things expensive with dedicated tools for only 6 or so rivnuts? lol. Whenever I get around to installing my L-track rails, I'll be using rivnuts with the below procedure and drilling holes in the van body that match the factory holes on the L-track itself. Now I just need to quit procrastinating and get it done - I've had the rails DIY bent to match the roof profile for at least 3 years now...

This probably won't really help you a whole lot since I have my headliner pulled out completely (cargo van, so only had front headliner). But, here's where I have my hammock hooked onto in the van, it goes front-passenger to rear-driver because my hammocks are all 10ft long - a 9ft one would fit a lot better, but I wasn't about to buy one specifically for the van. There's a few things that I have planned that needed the headliner out, so I figure I'll just leave it out and the hammock hanging until I get around to these projects (like custom rails on the roof, insulation inside, etc).