Beta Don

We took our TC (and the Segways) to Gatlinburg last fall just before the big fire - Beautiful country and lots of nice folks. We rode the Segways 25 miles over the 4 days we spent there. Had a motel right down town. Nice aquarium there too Don

My wheels are said to be from a 2012 Focus of some trim or other - I'm not really sure. I bought them on eBay for $350 Don

That's a replacement for everything from the catalytic converter to the back end of the car. New muffler and all the pipes before and after it Don

Ospho is what you want, and it does work - You can buy it from Amazon http://www.ospho.com/ Remove loose rust, spray it on, let it dry and it converts the rust to a hard coating which won't rust again Don

If you have an engine that makes sweet music, a good set of pipes can really intensify your pleasure. A sweet V8, a Ferrari V12, even Porsche flat 6 would be excellent candidates Never had a '51 Ford, but did have two '57 Chevy's and a '58 Corvette and then an SS 396 Chevelle and they all sounded pretty darned good. I did put a set of six stainless pipes on my CBX and was in heaven! As close to a Ferrari as I'm ever likely to own But a 4 cylinder just doesn't make my kind of 'music' - Don't get me wrong . . . . I really LOVE four cylinder vehicles and my last 4 or 5 cars have all been fours. Mazda Miata and 3 other Mazdas and now the TC - I bought it specifically because it was a four. For me the best thing a four can do is be as near silent as possible on the freeway - Don't need any of that enhanced buzziness I hear from fours with pipes. I'll get my music from the stereo! Don

The Pros - If you drive a vehicle known for rust out problems, undercoating can greatly extend the life of your vehicle, especially if you live in an area where they use chemicals or salt to deal with snow and ice in the winter time. I guess it can also give you a bit quieter ride. Can't think of any other advantages The Cons - It's expensive. It's messy if you need to do work under the car on any part that gets sprayed or oversprayed. It adds weight to your vehicle. Is it worth doing to your TC? Has anyone ever heard or read about a TC anywhere with serious rust problems? Not many modern vehicles are prone to rusting out these days - This wasn't the case 20 or 30 years ago when undercoating was a popular aftermarket option. Many cheap (and even some not so cheap) cars had holes rusted through them before the payment booklet was empty, but that's not the case very often anymore - Car manufacturers got lousy reputations for building rust buckets and they were pretty much forced to build longer lasting vehicles . . . . cars cost more, engines are better, oils are better and it's not uncommon now for people to keep a car for 200 to 300 thousand miles and you can't do that if the body doesn't hold up If you like undercoating, maybe because you live where they do salt the roads, or maybe you like the quieter ride, or maybe it just gives you an added sense of security, I wouldn't try to talk you out of it - Take your brand new vehicle and get it undercoated the day you drive it off the dealers lot. It's not THAT expensive and there are some benefits. But unless you're planning to keep your 2012 for another 15 years, I wouldn't even think about trying to scrape and brush existing rust off a 5 year old car and then paying to have it undercoated. The horse is probably out of the barn at that point. You'll never get it clean enough to get good adhesion and I don't think you'll be extending the life of the vehicle enough to make it worth all the time, trouble and expense - You could spend 20 hours under there with scrapers and wire brushes and still never get it really clean Either way, post an update here in 2032 and let us know how it works out . . . . I might be all wet in my thinking, who knows? Don

Welcome to the forum! There are several very well documented camper builds with plenty of pictures here on the forum. Lots of info for updating the electrical system to support new loads too - Inverters, fridges and ventilation Take a look around and do some reading. I think most of your questions will be answered right here! Don

I haven't either - Done 100% of all my maintenance myself, to include brake jobs, timing belts and everything else. But . . . . I had *hoped* when we bought our TC that I would just take it in and let the dealer do everything - I'm getting too old to enjoy crawling under cars! Unfortunately, my first trips to the two dealers closest to the house turned out to be very unpleasant experiences. The first one charged me a 20% ($30) 'restocking fee' to return an accessory I had ordered which arrived broken - The box it came in had been opened and retaped shut half a dozen times before we got it, so pretty obvious this broken piece had been 'restocked' before Took it to a second dealer for a warranty issue and also had them check on the rear wiper which wasn't working when we bought the car. Took them a week to get the passenger window to roll up and down correctly and then they hit me with 'Fuses are not warranty items'. They wanted a $99 'diagnostic fee' for changing the fuse. When I asked why I needed to pay $99 to have a fuse changed, they said they needed to find out WHY the fuse blew out. Why did it blow? 'We don't know - We replaced it and it didn't blow again' I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but even for me it's pretty easy to figure out that neither of these dealers want or need my business, so I guess I'm not retiring my ramps any time soon. I'm coming up on my first oil change at 20,000 miles (Van had 13K when I bought it) and then the 13 quart transmission fluid change at 25,000 miles I will make sure all the drain plugs are reinstalled correctly, and the oil filler cap too! Don

When 'Junior' got his drivers license, we out him into a $1500 car. That worked out so well (never a ticket nor an accident in his first years) that when our daughter turned 16,we put her in a $3500 car . . . . which she wrecked three different times Don

I agree - The cost of the oil itself and the filter is minimal. It's the moron they hire to change it who leaves the drain plug loose, or under or over tightens the filter (or neglects to change it at all) or leaves the oil filler cap off the engine The more often you need to have someone work on your car, the higher the probability one of them will screw something up True story - My daughter took her car to the dealer for an oil and filter change and they left the filler cap off. About the time she got home and shut the car off, she noticed smoke rolling out from under the hood. A check showed she was a quart low. Then, the dealer had to keep the car two days to steam clean everything. Better I guess than the finger tight drain plug stories I've heard so many times where all the oil runs out I think the manufacturers realize that if your first service isn't due until after the warranty expires, there's much less chance one of their 'technicians' will screw something up which would require a new engine under warranty! Don

If you use a quality filter, full synthetic 5W-20 and drive 10,000 miles per year or less, you can just change it once per year. That's the 'schedule' we're using Don

From the thread directly below this one -

I have the Metra kit installed with a Pioneer headunit and I agree it would be better if the headunit was tilted a bit more forward. But, the Euro piece looks to have about the same tilt to me - The design is different, but the angle looks about the same to me. How did you determine that it's actually tilted differently? The problem is, the aftermarket headunit fits into the same slot as the OEM radio chassis you're removing and changing it's angle even a little bit isn't a simple thing to do, without butchering up some of the internals of the dash Good luck with this and I hope it turns out the way you want Don

The clockspring is only for the horn, air bag and the steering wheel switches - Don't see how it could have anything to do with the Radio, A/C, or Instrument Cluster??? Don

Why not just tint the glass so dark that you can't see through it? Don

I think most of us buy a vehicle which best suits what we need it to do 95% of the time and you just get by the best you can the other 5%. This is not always true, of course - There are tens of thousands of pick-ups in this country used only as commuter vehicles which have never towed anything and 95% of the time, they haul nothing other than the driver and an occasional passenger. IMO, those owners have the 95/5 rule backwards and they could be commuting in a 40 mpg vehicle which cost half as much and renting/borrowing or hiring someone with a truck (or using a trailer) the other 5% of the time and end up saving a bunch of money The SWB TC is more like a sports car (I know a guy who autocrosses his) while the LWB is more like a . . . . truck. If you NEED a LWB most of the time (business truck or family of 7?) by all means, buy one, but if your only objection to a SWB model is that you might find it a bit uncomfortable to sleep in the back a few times per year, that's certainly do-able in the 'sports model' and not a good reason to buy the truck! Don

We have 2 electric cars and pretty much only use our TC for out of town trips, usually carrying our Segways to some other city to explore. One thing you learn driving electric cars is that using friction brakes shortens your range - You can go farther by anticipating the need to slow down and using regenerative braking which puts back the energy you used to get the car rolling Driving EV's really changes how you drive every other vehicle you own - You follow a little less closely, anticipate the need to slow down so you don't have to use the brakes and that gets you much better mileage. Our TC computer says we've averaged 28.6 mpg for the first 20,000 miles. I'm afraid if I had a 'big brake kit' I could probably instantly knock 4 or 5 mpg off that number! Don

They're not cheap, but the first time you use it vs paying the dealer $100 per hour, you'll get your investment back I managed to get a brand new copy of the electrical service manual which I think is about $75 from the dealer on eBay for $15 with free shipping. Keep an eye out there for a shop manual and you may find a 'bargain' Don

The '14 SWB we bought sat on the dealers lot for more than a year - The salesman said evidently nobody wanted a SWB as they has sold several LWB models during that year. Eventually, the dealership titled and registered it and began using it as a loaner car for the service department when warranty or maintenance work was being done on a customer car. After a year and 13,000 miles as a loaner, they put it on their used car lot and it didn't sell quickly there either. By the time I found it (I was specifically looking for a while SWB XLT) they had already marked the price down a couple times and I made a deal, sight unseen over the Internet, to knock another $2,500 off their asking price. We ended up getting it for a dollar a mile off the sticker for the 13,000 miles it had on it I'm sure they got money from Ford every time it was used as a loaner - Wouldn't surprise me if they didn't get close to a dollar a mile - We were very happy to find exactly what we were looking for and at a price we were quite pleased with Don

They're available on-line http://www.fleet.ford.com/fleet-manuals/?sg=commercial-trucks&yr=2017&md=TransitConnectCommercial&brand=Ford Don

Unless you travel with 4 people, a SWB model might be all you'd need - I could easily get a pair of medium sized dog crates in mine. The rear seats in the SWB are split 60/40 and either or both fold flat and then tumble vertically so they rest against the back of the front buckets - You don't even have to remove the headrests. With the 60 side folded and vertical, there's lots more room than you would think and you can still carry 3 people Still not enough room? Either or both of the 60/40 rear seats can be completely removed from the van in less than 2 minutes - No bolting or unbolting and they have carry handles to use to tote them into the house. They reinstall just as quickly. Take a look at a SWB passenger van while you're looking to decide what to buy - You may be surprised! Don

I did lots of reading on both engines before we went shopping. There seemed to be many more documented problems with the 1.6 than the 2.5, especially after the warranty period expires - Don't need any of that! Plus needing premium gas to make 5% more horsepower than the 2.5 made the decision easy for me - I don't want anything that needs premium gas as the cost difference VS the gain is too expensive for me. You buy the premium gas, but never get any real benefit from it other than the few times you actually stomp in it . . . . and at my age, I don't do nearly as much 'stomping' as I used to - Consequently, my tires, engine and transmissions all seem to last me much longer than they used to! Don

We test drove a '15 TC with the barn doors first - We were 95% sure that's what we would want, so that's what we started off looking at. That first drive changed our minds completely. The vision obstruction where the two doors come together is much larger than I anticipated - Looking at the doors from behind, you'd never guess how big a deal this is. I could never get comfortable with what I saw from the inside mirror with that big obstruction in the middle After that, we only looked at vans with the liftgate. I'm 6' tall and it's virtually impossible for me to bang my head, unless I jump up and down I guess. We carry a pair of Segways in the back of our SWB and we love the liftgate, especially when it's raining - It's huge and really neat to stand under and stay dry when loading/unloading We had lifgates on our last two vehicles, a 2002 and a 2003 and never had to replace any of the lift tubes, and we were in and out of the back of those vehicles much more often than we will be using the liftgate in our TC, so I'm not too worried about failing lift tubes - I'll happily replace them in the unlikely event they eventually go bad Best advice - Drive one of each and evaluate the rear door(s) to see what works for you and what doesn't. If I was buying a vehicle with no glass in the rear doors, the barn doors would be OK (but I would still miss the dry loading/unloading) but if you have glass in the rear doors and are used to being able to see something back there, you probably won't care for the vision out the barn doors Don

We don't carry passengers in the rear very often - I may wait until I have a problem before allowing the dealer to screw up the latches on it which work as they should right now. I called to see about getting the recall done and was told they needed a full day to do the work. Seems like a long time just to replace door latches? Don

Granted, you do have to mount the battery so it cannot move around which might cause the terminals to come into contact with anything. A secure mounting system is always needed. Also, using protective terminal covers would be a good idea http://www.ebay.com/itm/Blue-Sea-4010-CableCap-Red-0-70-to-0-30-Stud-PVC-4-6-8-Cable-Sizes-Terminal-Boat-/292017687581?hash=item43fd9c4c1d:g:kzEAAOSwls5Y7t27&vxp=mtr With sealed AGM batteries, you can mount them in all sorts of unusual positions - Laying on their side, for example. The fact that you never need to access them for maintenance enables you to stick them in places where you won't have good access to them in the future Don