Beta Don

There is no 'frame' to straighten - It's all unibody. Even a minor front end collision could alter the position of the entire driveline - Engine, trans *and* the front wheel position . . . . and no frame to straighten to put it all back where it belongs After taking apart the front end doing my foglight install, I commented to my wife that I hope we never have even a minor front end collision like the one she just had in our RWD electric car - The EV cost less than $3K to fix and I thought that was very high, given the very minimal damage - We drove it home after the accident and there was zero damage to any running gear . . . . still drove straight and true After looking at the way the front end of our TC is put together, I would not be at all surprised that a similar low speed crash would total it Don

Many people drive EV's to work, recharge them there and drive home - More and more employers who want to appear to be 'green' allow free recharging at their places of business. In this scenario, it's easy to do a daily 100 mile round trip and with very little out of pocket Many EV's have DCQC ports and can be recharged to 80% in about 20 minutes. One of our cars has this feature, though we very seldom use it. We recharge at home 90% of the time Of course, you could always buy a Chevy Bolt . . . . 235 miles range, so no 'anxiety' there! Don

"Range anxiety. Commutes can easily be an hour or more in traffic. That's why I haven't gone electric." Range and time are two completely different things - When an EV isn't moving, it's not consuming power (and reducing it's range) like a gas powered vehicle does. 'Normal range' is about 75 miles for the iMiEV and true, it's much shorter if you're using the heater . . . . not much less if you're using the AC though. Many Canadian owners (and a few in Europe as well) have installed diesel heaters which allows you to have a very comfortable car and not lose any range We've had one of our cars for 5 years and got the second one 2 years ago. In 5 years and now more than 50,000 miles, we've yet to experience the first 'range anxiety' episode, but then we know how far the car can go and we usually also know about how far our destination is. BTW, the 75 miles is an average - At freeway speeds it might be as little as 50 miles, but in stop and go city traffic at 25 mph, it will go closer to 100 miles EV's are very easy to fall in love with - You learn a whole new driving style and when you get in a gas powered vehicle, you magically get about 25% better mileage in it too Don

No, we very seldom see fog here, so it may be a while. I have a pretty severe case of glaucoma so I need all the help I can get seeing the road after dark, so I always run my 'fog' lights all the time after dark. As I mentioned, I have these same lights on both of our electric cars, so I'm very familiar with how well they light up the road Unless we're going out of town on a trip, our TC seldom gets driven. The last gas powered car we had we only managed to put 30,000 miles on in 6 years and almost all of that was on long trips. Not often the gasser gets started around our house . . . . a Battery Tender Jr trickle charger keeps it ready to go for those times we need something with more range than one of the electric cars - We put most of our miles on the electric cars Don

Here's a couple photos The new combo Fog/DRL units are standard on many cars - They're the same units used on our Mitsubishi electric cars as well as several other domestic and Japanese brands. The close-up shows the LED bulb in place of the incandescent P13W bulb that they usually use for the DRL. The fog light bulb is behind the little reflector for the DRL bulb The other photo just shows them lit up on the car - They're a lot brighter than they appear because the camera was so close to the front of the car that they're not aimed right at the camera

Now that my upgrade is complete, I have a pair of lightly used OEM 2014 fog light housings sans bulbs which I no longer need. PM me if interested Don

Define what you mean by 'correct pressure' - Are you referring to the max pressure number stamped on the tire (that would be 51 psi for the Continentals that came on my TC) . . . . or the number the car manufacturer puts on the door sticker, a number which frequently is done without much if any input from the tire manufacturer, as was evident with the ultra-low number found on the door stickers on the old Explorers which led to tire overheating and a slew of accidents The 'correct pressure' will vary according to vehicle loading. The 10 ply tires used on most 3/4 ton pick-ups are rated for 80 psi and it's a very good idea to use 80 psi if you're loading the truck so the tire is near it's max capacity of around 3,500 pound per tire, but running 80 psi in them when the truck is empty will loosen your teeth pretty quickly - 50 to 60 psi is more appropriate for an unloaded truck The term 'correct pressure' covers a lot of ground and it's not a 'one size fits all' number. As was proven with the old Explorers, even the number recommended by the vehicle manufacturer cannot be counted on to be 'correct' in all cases Don

How hard was this to do? Does the one bulb do both high and low beams? Do you have to remove the headlight assemblies to install these, or is there room to do this in only ten minutes as they claim? I see on Amazon similar lights with 4800 lumens and Philips branded LED chips vs only 4000 for the ones you bought and they are only a few dollars more. Reading the reviews on these, a few buyers seemed not too happy with the amount of light they got from installing this particular bulb vs the halogens they had before - Is the main benefit the whiter light, or were you going for *more* light? Why did you choose this particular bulb over some of the others? What's the benefit of the external power supply?? Most of the others have the cooling fans but none of them that I saw have the external power supply You've got these on more than one vehicle - Thanks for sharing your experiences!! Don

Well, I got my DRL's installed. I already had the OEM fog lights and I replaced those units with similar ones which had both a fog and a DRL bulb. I did use LED's for the DRL's but the LED's I bought for the fog lights were far less effective than the OEM 55 watt halogen bulbs, so I stayed with those It wasn't as simple a project as I had envisioned though. You must remove the wheel/tire and the inner fender well to even get at the lights. On the left hand side, you still can't see the light as Ford mounted the engine computer behind the foglight, so that's got to be moved as well. I had to modify the fixture holder a little to make room for the DRL bulb which comes out of the bottom but it was as simple as cutting away a bit of plastic with a pair of snips. For now, I have the DRL's running off a spare fuse slot (F45) in the battery fusebox, but that means they are on whenever the key is on - They don't go off when you turn the head lights on like they do in our other cars, so I'll have to see if they bother oncoming drivers at night and if so, I'll add a relay so they go off when the headlights come on No question the van is more visible with them on. Sure don't understand why Ford opted not to install DRL's as standard on all USA models. I know they are required on every vehicle in Canada and I think that's a good idea Don

Overall, I'm pretty happy with our van - We also have about 3,000 miles on it now. My last several vehicles have all been 4 cylinder cars, so my power expectations aren't that great. When we were shopping for a used TC, I only looked at 2014 and newer models because I think in a vehicle of this size, the 4 banger really needs a 6 speed transmission and the combo of the 2.5 and the 6 speed works very well I always try to never back into any parking space and I never back into the garage. If you pull in forwards into any tight space, it's easy to get centered and to know when you're all the way into the space. When you back in, those are much harder to do - How many times have you seen someone going forward and back 3 or 4 times trying to get centered when backing in? For me the big advantage is I can back out in my own tracks without even turning the steering wheel. You wouldn't want my wife trying to back in next to your car! Don

Those little 'blindspot mirrors' built into the side mirrors are one of my favorite things about this wagon. I never change lanes without checking them first. I like that I don't have to swivel my head anymore to check the blindspots - They've already saved my bacon a couple times Don

Boy, did we somehow get off-topic, or what?? I see all sorts of folks riding motorcycles with no helmets and wearing only a Tee shirt and shorts . . . . and I respect their right to make those idiotic choices. I do think there should be a requirement for a forehead tattoo though which states - "Do not resuscitate" and/or "Good sense wasn't the only thing I was missing - I have no medical insurance either" I've ridden motorcycles for the better part of 50 years and always try to wear the proper gear, though it can be difficult in 95 degree temps with 75% humidity, but I can honestly say I've never ridden without a helmet . . . . and . . . . my helmet saved my life once when I was young and foolish. A broken fiberglass shell will really make you think of what your head might have looked like. "Always wear whatever you would like to have on while sliding along on the asphalt at 50 mph" is a good rule to live by - One day, it will probably happen to you I rolled a '57 Chevy once long ago and the seatbelt I had installed myself saved my bones that time too - I'm a firm believer Don

Did you break one?? I've had mine off and back on again 5 or 6 times so far with no problems. It seems pretty rugged to me . . . . of course, now that I've said that I'll probably break it the next time I take it off Don

Grab the aft end of the cover and lift and pull - It's held in with 4 snap clips. You can see two of them in the 3rd upside down picture Don

A secure, yet easily reversible way to mount any GPS in your 2014, 15, 16 (17?) TC 4 pieces required. A RAM cradle to fit your particular GPS, a 1" ball mount adapter for the cradle, a round 1" ball mount adapter to bolt to the dash and a 2 1/2" double ball connector If you use 4-40 screws, nuts and washers, you can bolt the round 1" ball to the removable dash cover without drilling any holes, which means you can remove it later with no damage to the dash Don

On our 14 SWB XLT, only the drivers seat is power. It does raise and lower a good bit . . . . 2" maybe I would guess. It's plenty enough IMO. The lumbar support is in both seats, but it's not power - Just a lever on the inboard side of the seatback. I think you'll probably like the power seat - Between it and the infinitely adjustable steering wheel, you can always find a comfortable driving position and you can change it all a bit on a long drive to find a new position when you've been sitting on one place too long Don

Well, ordinarily I'm not a big fan of front plates on cars . . . . but in this case, I think it looks better with it than without What do you guys think? Don

http://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/autos-vans/ford-transit-connect-wagon/ar-AAjUNIi?li=BBisPVf&ocid=spartanntp Don

I installed a similar camera with a screen in the mirror on one of my EV's (the other one came with a factory camera and a dash mounted display) and I've never been happy with the mirror display - There's too much glare to see the screen clearly most of the time. Works excellent at night though. Maybe since you have dark tint it won't be a problem for you, but for me, mine is almost useless in the daylight Don

There are over 200 pages just dealing with the connectors in the car - Views of every connector with a pin by pin description detailing the wire color and what signal is on the wire. Another 40 pages of component locations so you can actually *find* where whatever it is you're looking for is located within the car. More than 300 pages of schematics. I don't know how you could work on anything electrical in the car without this book. For less than $20, it was a no-brainer to buy Don

I bought the 2014 Factory Wiring Diagrams Book on eBay for $16.81 and that included free shipping - It's a brand new book and several hundred pages. There are similar deals for other years if you look for them Don

"Someone told me that the 2017's would have a small storage compartment, with a lid, under where the front passenger rests their feet." Doesn't sound like he's asking about the one *under* the passenger seat . . . . Don

Congrats!! Tell us more about the one you bought Don

I'm wondering if the speaker wires are there in the pillar if your van didn't come with factory speakers there? I have an XLT which came with a radio one upgrade from yours - Door speakers front and rear but no A pillar speakers. Please let me know what you find when you take yours apart. If the wiring isn't there, I think I'll skip installing anything in the pillar Thanks! Don

Googling 'Turning Circle' I got 39.2' for the 2013 (not sure if that's a SWB or a LWB) and 36.1' for my 2014 SWB and 40' for a LWB model Don