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jrm223

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Everything posted by jrm223

  1. My original one went bad around 33K, had it replaced and now I rolled 124K the other day and no problems. But, the AAT sensor is - or at least was - a common issue among other models because they're all the same unit. I'm wondering if there was a big batch that was bad or just poor manufacturing by the 3rd-party manufacturer that supplies them to Ford.
  2. Pretty sure that might could fall under "insurance fraud", too, lol. Purposely trying to get people to hit you - and posting it on a public forum for a prosecutor to use as evidence of premeditation?! I don't know the particular area of Texas that OP is in, but my rural podunk area really doesn't have tailgaters that would "require" brake-checking in the first place...
  3. I love the moons, even tried looking around for some awhile back for my black '15 TC cargo windowless because I'm more a rat rod kinda guy (actual rat rods, not the stupid new junk from 80's and up painted black with red wheels, I prefer pre-1960), but the moons are a low priority for me, lol. Can't say that I'm a fan of fake sidepipes, especially yellow?! That fits in with the ricer crowd (add a Super Bee wing to complete the muscle-ricer-van look? lol), IMO, but to each, their own! As far as a 'muscle car' look, y'all might could do a stripe along the side body line just above the handles? The front wheel arches and handle 'holes' kind of goof things up, though. For the front, maybe they could curve up with the arch and end in a point just behind the headlights, I don't know.
  4. And that's also assuming that he's/she's buying brand-new instead of used.
  5. One of these would make installation of any 14x14 fan or A/C easy as far as sealing everything up to prevent leaks. I'm not the maker/seller, I found it from someone else that had linked it in the forum before, lol. Roof 14x14 adapter for 2014+ TC ridged roof on Ebay
  6. Weight isn't really the problem because there are insulated delivery TC's running around with reefers on top, but you're basically going to freeze yourself out, lol. That unit is 13,500 BTU; consider the fact that a 5K BTU window unit in a house can easily cool 150 square feet (times 8ft tall for typical ceilings, so 1200 cubic feet and our vans only have 166 cubic feet of cargo volume, plus a little bit more for the front seat area, lets round it to 200 cuft total). IMO, you'd be better off with one of those new portable AC's, instead. This "Zero Breeze" Mark 2 unit has good reviews online but is spendy $$$ and seems to be pretty decent for what you'd be doing and it's battery-powered/portable, weighing just 16.5lbs (Coleman Mach 3 roof unit is 90lbs, for comparison). Our vans have a total cargo capacity of roughly 1250 lbs or less, depending on specific model and features, so weight is an important consideration when building a micro-camper and still being able to carry everything you'd like to - including yourself & any passengers - without exceeding GVWR.
  7. Below procedure copied from this thread on the forum Now, for Step 2, I personally did not buy OBDLink MX because I generally strongly prefer hardlines over wireless, so I bought this OHP ELM327 USB adapter from Amazon and I've had no problems with it. The other difference with my vehicle is that for step 'e.' above, I had to turn on "Cruise Control" and either "Adjustable Speed Control" or "Adaptive Speed Control" (it's been awhile, so I don't recall the A word exactly, but only one of those will be shown). I had only turned on CC first and it did not work for my 2015 XL van, but after I went back in with Forscan and found the ASC further down the menu list and enabled it, I was then able to use CC. YMMV, but just a tip of what I had to do so y'all don't go crazy if you enable CC and it still doesn't work - in that case, enable ASC, lol. Or do it right off the bat, it won't hurt anything. All told, it cost me $120 for a steering wheel on Ebay and then about $30 for the USB/ELM327 adapter; Forscan is free and I'm a computer tech, so I have a few laptops and one of them still has Windows on it (W10 Home, specifically).
  8. Yea, you're right on the height difference, my bad, lol. For some reason, I was thinking that the difference was only about an inch total, just had to go double-check the original diameter and it does show 25.3" like you're saying. My van still scrapes the damn front bumper in areas, even with the taller tires; just sticks out too far & low even though it's higher than some of my friends sedan bumpers.
  9. Genetic, I suppose. Never did sports outside of PE class and I was only 16 the first time it went, so I never even tried for military, lol. But I graduated high school 3 months after 9/11, so guess where I would have gone had I enlisted.
  10. Forscan will only configure certain settings within the modules, it cannot be used to update the configuration file to a newer one; only Ford can do that using their special $$$ Ford IDS computers.
  11. You should gain 0.45 inches in ride height - remember that half of the tire is above the hub, lol. I think I had calculated a difference of 5.9% based on the mileage that my GPS said the drive between my two properties should be. But when I drove my step van home this weekend, I noted the trip mileage as being slightly less than what GPS had told me before, so I'll actually be recalculating the % difference next time I drive my TC to my other house (rather, calculating it home from my other property) since I always drive the same route. That might be a few weeks, though. The good news is that would mean my MPG's may actually be slightly better than I've thought, although very marginal, haha. It's probably not enough to even worry about, though. 70MPH x 5.9% is 74.13 and 70 x your 4.6% is 73.22MPH; my GPS shows 74 to sometimes 75MPH when my dash shows 70, so my ratio is at least pretty dang close to accurate for my tires. Since you changed the speedometer settings, I'd recommend a test run for a known distance (longer the better, for accuracy, my route is 83.9 miles per my other truck) and compare the tripmeter "traveled distance" to the "known" distance. That's how I originally calculated mine, but there's also quite a few turns along my route, which could be the cause of the discrepancy I noticed this weekend when driving my other truck home - assuming that it is truly accurate, of course. But that truck/step-van runs stock size 8R19.5 tires, so at least it's all still factory-spec. As mentioned, I'll find that out next time I drive home from my other house, lol. I left the factory settings alone because there was only a drop-down menu with maybe 4-5 sizes in Forscan when I had tried to do it way back when and none were big enough. I notice your tread pattern is a lot less aggressive than my Grabbers (which are BFG AT copies), so those tires should be pretty quiet, I bet. The Grabbers aren't terrible, but I've also had trucks with fairly aggressive MT's before, so it's all relative.
  12. Hyper-mobile patella, lol. I've blown out my right knee like 6 times and my left knee once. Hurts like a sumbitch and I fall to the ground like a sack of potatoes when it happens! I appreciate the sentiment, though, thanks.
  13. My cushion is only for the bottom. As mentioned, I have one that also has a section for the back, but it's the same dimensions as the arse section & thus too short in height to be comfortable - my shoulders had nothing behind them but air. I used to be reclined way back in order to be comfortable for my bad back (some people called it sleeping position, lol, it was maybe half-dozen clicks above fully reclined, no partition BTW), but for the past year or so I've been sitting nearly straight up and it's actually fine enough for me. When I visit family a few times a year, I drive 1000 miles in a day (15-17 hours, really) and just need to stretch occasionally and crack my back once in awhile. I'd kind of like to replace the seat with something better, but the sensors & seat air bag really complicate things in that regard, limiting me to only OEM Transit Connect seats for compatibility sake. The bigger problem that I have is a bad right knee & ankle, so I had added one of these little pads from Amazon to the center console (obviously left-hand drive in US and I added it sometime after taking the pic I shared yesterday) to rest my knee against while I'm driving. Since my seat doesn't raise & tilt and all that fancy stuff, I can't get enough support under my leg to keep the weight off my knee while driving, so having the pad to lean against helps take the pressure off of it. I might need to try just some spacers under the front mounts of the seat to give the base a bit of a lean back, thus putting more support under my legs near my knees. But my daily drive to work is only 11.5 miles one-way, so it's not high-priority as the main benefit would be achieved only on long drives.
  14. I just looked on Ebay again, looks like there's now US suppliers for these. Here's a pair for $102 located out of Texas and he has 3 available currently. They've dropped low on my priority list for now, but maybe some day, haha.
  15. I've been using an extra seat cushion/pad thing since a month after I bought my own 2015 Transit Connect in June '15. I had taken a road trip about 1100-1200 miles (1770-1930 km) a few weeks after buying the van and as soon as I got back home, I immediately went looking for that seat cushion, which I already owned. My driving prior to that was just to work, about 100 miles round-trip each day, so the long-term discomfort hadn't made itself known yet, lol. Even with the cushion, it's not the most comfortable vehicle I've had, but it's at least a lot better than without the cushion. My van is a base XL cargo model, so the only adjustments is sliding the seat forward/backward and recline angle. Shopping on Amazon, you can pick from myriad different types of cushions and add-ons, even a massaging one to loosen up your back as you drive. That windshield is definitely far away, for sure. Makes cleaning it kind of a pain, I should maybe get one of those microfiber deals that has a long handle on it, haha. Best pic I have showing the seat cushion. This one is just the bottom part, nothing on the back. I had tried another cushion I have that is basically two of these together, butt/back, but the back part was way too short in height to be comfortable.
  16. Guys, the original post was nearly 5 years ago! Necropost.
  17. Transit Connect is a minivan, so you're just comparing some different minivans, lol. I have a '15 TC XL LWB windowless cargo that I bought brand new in June 2015 and I have nearly 123,400 miles on it now. Aside from standard maintenance stuff, all I've had done is the safety recall on the sliding door latches (verify that has been done on the one you're looking at Ford Latch Recall Website, you'll need VIN and the date codes from the latches, 4-7 digit number on each), a front passenger wheel bearing under warranty (turns out it was actually fine), front struts (the passenger one was blown and causing the noises I thought were the wheel bearing) and I did brake pads on the rear because of very uneven wear - come to think of it, I ought to pull the rear wheels soon and check on them now that the new pads have 15-20K miles on 'em. Original tires got pulled around 70K miles when one pair reached the wear bars; the van ("wagon") you're looking at should probably already have new tires since it has 80K miles. Aside from that, there's been various customizations and add-ons specific to what I want and how I use my van, including getting the BCM updated by Ford and then having them turn off the annoying perimeter lights (or "dark mode" to some, y'all can use search feature in the forum for more info) and adding OEM cruise control myself & the factory "large" side mirrors to replace the factory "small" ones. Overall, I do like the van, but I still wish I could have afforded a full-size Transit 350 extended-length high-roof, instead - which would have been much better overall for my own use, lol. For what it's worth, the asking on that passenger wagon/van does sound pretty reasonable, too. 2014-15 TC cargo vans around me (north-central Texas) are going for $7-9K and of course they tend to be beat up a lot more from commercial use.
  18. Those rails shouldn't have noticeable wind noise because there's only a few square inches cutting through the wind. My ladder rack bars do have some extra wind noise & MPG hit, though, even with that "spoiler" on the front side of the first bar. But then, running General Grabber AT2's in 215/65R16 had already lowered my mileage a bit anyway (after adjusting for the speedometer/odometer difference due to the larger tire diameter), lol. Those raised rails look pretty nice, though!
  19. Not entirely accurate. My '15 XL has power windows, but only the driver window has a "one-touch" power window switch, so I can't use global windows at all - I've tried, lol. When I checked on the forum here, I found out that both windows need the "one-touch" window switches in order to use global open/close. That was in some thread a year or two back.
  20. Even better is custom-order. Roof rails are a $195 option on the build ticket (or $335 with the cross bars), but then you have to wait for your special-order to be built and delivered, lol. Get to tick all the options wanted, though. As you've probably seen from the forum, ordering just the rails from Ford after-the-fact is $1000 not counting install!
  21. I'm thinking the only difference for 2010 is the lack of a rear headliner reducing the ceiling height and also that 4'11" measurement is probably to the ceiling skin instead of the ribs that hang down - Ford measurements on the full-size T150/250/350 is to the roof skin instead of ribs, as well, assuming no headliner present. Check out these Autotrader links for a 2010 Ford TC versus a 2011 Ford TC - the bodies look 100% identical in every respect externally, aside from configuration differences like optional windows. Maybe find one of each for sale near you and bring your tape measure to verify the ceiling heights before you waste time dedicating yourself to only a 2010 model. The rear headliner will reduce ceiling height by at least 4-6" with dead airspace above and the Ford measurement may be to the lowest point of the headliner, which is that molded-in cargo light that's hanging down a bit in the 2011 TC ad above. So, same steel bodies, but rear headliner vs no rear headliner - and they're easy to remove to regain extra height.
  22. The US-spec bodies are 2013-down Gen 1 and 2014+ Gen 2. I know 2020 has a bunch of changes, especially in suspension, but I think the body overall is mostly the same as '14-19, lol. So I don't think there's a Gen 3, yet.
  23. The OE camera runs through the CANBUS like everything else, it's not like the universal ones that have easy separate power & video feeds. What you want to do will require a camera & screen kit. As far as I've ever noticed, only the vans with NO windows in the back doors have no mirror on the windshield (mine is one of 'em, zero windows behind the driver), because it wouldn't do anything except show the cargo inside. All the rear-window vans I've seen have the inside mirror, so are you saying you have back door windows and no inside mirror? I get by just fine with only the side mirrors and have for many years & vehicles (even window vehicles with inside mirrors - I don't use it); no cameras, gadgets, sensors or doodads, lol. Last summer, I did finally upgrade to the 'large' OEM mirrors since mine came with the 'small' mirrors. Gives a little better view, IMO. Only place I need to be careful is backing out of spots in public parking lots like Walmart because people are morons stuck to their phone screens instead of paying attention to their surroundings - they don't even notice (or maybe just don't care) my strobe lights flashing in their face at near-eye-level, just above the taillight assemblies. A lot of people just keep on walking right by, although some do pay attention and stop so they don't get run over, haha. Here's a comparison shot of the mirrors, in case you want to consider the upgrade. The one thing I don't like is that the wide-angle mirror on the large one is not adjustable and it's clearly turned in just a bit too much, but I suppose that works perfect for shorter drivers close to the steering wheel. My phone/camera is positioned as close to where my left eye sits while driving as I could get it, too. So it's as apples-to-apples as I could manage to shoot freehand.
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