jrm223

I have a full-panel cargo van (no windows at all behind the seats), bought brand new in 2015 and had American Family originally, no problems at all. Moved to Texas and AmFam isn't licensed here, so I had to switch. Ended up with stupid State Farm for a few months - over twice the premium for the same coverage! Dropped them for Texas Farm Bureau Insurance and their premiums were in-line with AmFam for the same coverage, but went up about $15/month several months back. But none of the three had problems with it being a cargo van. The one problem that I've run into with it being a cargo van is that my Capital One card sometimes offers me auto refinancing, but they consider my van commercial, so they won't refinance it. Oh well...

Correct. It's the same 2.5L engine, although routing/placement logistics will be a bit different across platforms.

The tailpipe is 2.25", but that inlet pipe looks more like 1.75" or so. A reducer/enlarger may be needed to make changes work right.

That's this one right here, "Custom Platform" - but the crossbars holding up the Unistrut is some aftermarket 3-bar setup.

Replacing the seat will be nearly impossible because of the airbag in the seat (assuming you have a 2014+ Gen 2, anyway. I don't know if Gen 1 had airbag seats). I have back problems also and used to keep my seat reclined at a fairly ridiculous angle - I always got comments like "Wow! You drive like that?! I'd be sleeping." haha. Just before I finally started going to a chiropractor, I decided to try putting my seat damn near vertical, it's only a couple notches away from the fully-up/forward position on the recline part, and it's been helping me some. Right after I bought the van, I had to add a foam pad under me because of the uncomfortableness. My own situation is even more unique with a bad right knee and limited motion in my right ankle after a car accident, so I have to sit closer to the steering wheel than most guys my height would, and I have a small foam stick-on pad on the shifter hump that I can rest my knee against. Since you were talking about raising the seat up, you must have an XLT or something? My '15 XL only slides forward/back and reclines, no up/down, no lumbar, etc. If yours has adjustable lumbar, have you tried messing with it? Just might get better support at the bulged disc and not need to go higher up or anything. I've also thought about trying those add-on massager/lumbar seat covers, but haven't gotten around to it.

Oh, you got the nicer ones, haha. I bought the AVS stick-on ones that go all the way down to the front edge of the door. I have it in the back of my mind that if these ever get broken, I'll replace them with the ones you have. I can't help much on the four-door part, since mine is a windowless cargo van.

I did have Ford put in an OEM battery, plus trans flush & oil change. I was going to have them do my front struts, but my extended warranty expired at 100K and the van was just over 102K when it rolled in there, so I ended up doing struts myself. Ford wanted $855 on struts and $350 on rear brakes, plus tax. Battery was $170 + tax, total bill was about $480 with the trans flush and oil change. Here's a pic of the BCM specs. I don't recall offhand when my van was built, I think maybe March 2015? I'll have to look again later.

Ford ETIS never showed any change for my BCM after I had Ford update it & turn off the approach lights, so I don't think that will be a reliable way to verify the BCM update. My approach lights are definitely off, so the BCM was updated, lol. As for the battery issue, I had to get mine replaced a few weeks ago, even before the 4 years anniversary of me buying the van; but, it had 102K miles at time of replacement and the battery was going bad for a few weeks, problems started at about 98-99K miles or so for me. I can probably hook up my laptop tonight to read my BCM parameters, after I reinstall Forscan since I had to blow-out/reset my whole laptop due to various issues.

Some actual bro trucks, haha. Plus their little cousin, "stanced VW".

I believe I've read a post somewhere in FTCF previously where someone tried to activate the extra menus but using their base model cluster and it didn't work. I've been in my BCM many times now with FORScan, but I never tried changing the cluster programming to one of the other options. I've tried several other things (generally unsuccessfully) but not the IPC programming. Come to think of it, I'm probably overdue for a new extended license on my FORScan, I haven't used it in awhile, lol.

Are you lifting a front wheel? I had a bad RF strut for like 30K+ miles and finally got around to changing it out this past weekend, haha. When going over certain bumps, especially while turning right (when the wheel is unloaded, since weight transfers to the outside wheel), it would bounce like crazy and kick on the traction control. You can bounce each corner of your van while its parked and it should not move very much. If it goes down easy or bounces, then that's a bad strut for front or shock for back. Even though I only had a bad RF strut, it was recommended to replace both at the same time, so I spent the extra time & money to do that. Once you take apart all the stuff to replace one front strut, you'll want to just do both. Pull the wiper arms, two plastic covers inside the engine bay below the windshield, pull the wiper motors, then finally the struts themselves.

I have a base XL 2015 and added a steering wheel with cruise control. All the connections it needs are already inside the column because vehicles now use CANBUS, not an individual wire for each switch. I had to turn on both "Adaptive Speed Control" and "Cruise Control" using FORScan to get the CC working properly; enabling CC without ASC did not work for me, YMMV. But, I still have the base IPC with the small green screen (no speed on it, even), so the 4-way menu buttons on the steering wheel don't work for me. Maybe I'll eventually get around to upgrading the cluster and then the buttons will work & I'll have additional info on the display, lol. For the time being, my ScanGauge II shows my speed and I have it in the little pocket above the radio (premium radios will have a screen there instead of a pocket). If your central display looks like mine here, it cannot show anything other than what you already see ("SET MPH" normally shows how many miles until empty, when cruise control is off). Those arrow & OK buttons on the steering wheel are the ones I was talking about that don't work with my base IPC display.

That is nothing like a bro truck. Not every lifted truck is a "bro truck"; just like not every lowered vehicle is a "lowrider".

Most states do have frame & bumper height laws, amongst others like headlight & taillight heights, mud flaps, etc.

$600 for the bumper guard, another $600 for the side "steps", woooooah! No thanks to either one, haha. Link to website

IMO, you ought to be thankful that it doesn't qualify as a stupid "bro truck", haha. Ridiculous fad that I can't wait to go away!

Nah, there's too much sidewall on those tires, haha. Here's a good example of a Chevy bro truck. My van has more mud on it right now than this Chevy will ever see in it's life, lol.

Those are both amber/white split and they're wired directly to the reverse lights, so they come on when backing up. They're cheap Chinese ones and the passenger side light doesn't have a 'memory', so it changes flashes patterns every time I go into reverse, haha. The driver side one does have working memory, so it's the same pattern each time. Not a big enough issue for me to worry about, especially since they're screwed & siliconed 100% to the filler panel. After 3-ish years, the lenses have yellowed some, so I may eventually replace them with better ones at some point.

Is that a taxi window or something? Aftermarket? I haven't seen any TC windows like that before, lol.

I'm running General Grabber AT2's in 215/65R16 and haven't had any rubbing or traction issues with them. I've gotten through mud that the original Conti's couldn't dream of getting through - I've even got stuck in my own yard several times with the OEM Conti's! There's no rub that I've noticed, but it is getting fairly tight at this size. And yes, I have spike lug nuts, haha. I need to get some better looking wheels to go with them, though. The second picture shows the clearance with the wheels turned, not straight ahead.

I have the RhinoRamps 12K from Walmart. I've used them on the back of the van to install my hitch, but I can't remember if I've used them on the front at all. But I can say that the 12K has no problem with my 7.3L Powerstroke F350 4x2 trucks on concrete or gravel. Even left one of the trucks on the ramps in gravel for a couple days last fall.

I've got a 10ft hammock hung 100% inside my van, but I pulled out the front headliner (cargo van, so no rear headliner); hangs passenger front corner to driver rear corner. A 9ft would be a lot better, but I wasn't about to buy a 4th hammock just to use in the van, lol. I use rubber straps to hold up the front part of it while driving, since I don't have headliners in the way.

Changing seats will require moving the airbags & sensors over from your current seats. Otherwise, as far as I understand it, the entire airbag system will be disabled. That even applies to removing the passenger seat if you wanted extra space over there. Although, some people have fooled the computer into thinking the passenger seat is still there by using specific resistors. Our second gen TC's also have a sensor that tells the computer how close the seat is to the dash and I haven't heard of a way to fool/simulate that part of it.

Some of the requirements for a bro truck is 8+ inch lift kit with small 33-35" tires on large 20-22" diameter rims that are 14" wide. Lift kit isn't really an option on a TC, nor are 33" tires or wide wheels. Maybe some 15x12" wheels with the shortest & widest tires you can find would make a Bro TC that could turn around in 40 acres? But it would look more like the stance crowd than bro truck, IMO.

Looks like a Cali plate on that gold one, so we shouldn't be too surprised that he (or she) is bonkers, lol.