Fifty150

I thought Tommy Chong & Rae Dawn Chong were Chinese.

And what is with that battery box configuration under the hood? I can already see how much of a pain it's going to be when it's time to change the battery. I suppose if I did things the old fashion way, simply wire my aftermarket accessories to the battery terminals and use a system of circuit breakers, inline fuses, relays, and switches, I could bolt everything right onto the top of the battery box cover. Has anyone added off-road lights instead of trying to mod the OEM lighting system? Modern LED lightbars can probably supply a better lightsource than any drop-in lamp or projector module.

Ah, yes. just like The 70's. Build a "Shaggin' Wagon". A Love Machine. Wood paneling, 6X9 speakers, and a disco ball. Far out. All that I can say on that matter is that my tinted windows have already paid for themselves. Fold down the 3 seats in the second row, and you've got quite the play space.

With the Econoline vans, the cargo hold was always very hot & stuffy, and even at full blast, the air conditioning was never good enough to cool the back of the van from the vents in the front. I understood that being a cargo van, it was only engineered for the comfort of whomever is riding in the first row, since nobody is suppose to be riding in the back. I thought that with the Transit Connect, since it is smaller, that the front A/C vents would be sufficient for the entire inside of the van. It makes me want to cut into my roof. Perhaps install something ridiculous, like an A/C unit.

On my car, it's just a little push button in front of the shifter. It says, "TCS OFF". I guess with a base model, everything is simpler.

My "go to" solution when I'm at work, or climbing in and out of different trucks. Low tech, but extremely effective. Kind of makes you not want to mess with that Sync system, and just use the head unit to play tunes.

From the quick peek that I got under the hood, I am now sure that if I go the LED route, the dust covers have to go. Some models of LED are direct plug & play, while others require a lighting ballast or LED driver which also powers the cooling fan. Right behind the low beam, on both driver and passenger sides, towards the body of the van as it leads towards the hood hinge, there is a piece of metal with a hole that I could affix a cable tie to secure the LED driver if there is enough wiring. And it looks like load resistors will have to tap into the harness which carries all of the lighting control wiring into the headlight assembly. Now, the big question is how much I am willing to spend, to gamble on questionable results. Typically, with other vehicles, a quick look at the forums will provide a wealth of information and feedback. But it looks like with this forum, we will have to pioneer the mods and report back on what works and what doesn't work.

In the days of yore & yesteryear, prior to drop-in HID & LED kits, my buddies & I always got higher wattage lamps. Hella was the brand that we always went with. Nobody ever got caught, or had an issue. Of course, I would never recommend that anyone do something as outlandish as install an 80 watt lamp because the Department of Transportation specifies that you operate 55 watt lamps. Anything over 55 watts is labeled as "off road only". So remember that you should only install them once you're no longer on a public thoroughfare, and only use them on the farm, at the campground, or anywhere else where there just isn't any overhead municipal supplied illumination. Never forget to change them out and drive around all over town, and across the country, with illegal lighting.

You could simply extend the positive and negative wires to an aftermarket auxiliary light such as a LED daytime driving light or bolt on foglight. Or, simply unplug the lamp and tape off the connector. Nothing will happen. Just a lamp that isn't on. But I would take that opportunity to take advantage of extra powered and fused connectors that are already tied into your OEM switching. I recently plugged in some little LED lamps that I just happen to have leftover from another project (buddy's Honda Pilot).

I've grown into using the Haynes Manual over the years. Mainly because of allocated funding. It's cheap. I'm cheap. Bang for my buck. At the Haynes price point, I receive more return on investment. I've owned a Haynes Manual for every car and motorcycle I've owned. Haynes is not just good for cars and motorcycles.

I will just bump this old topic back to the top, since my vehicle did not come with a backup camera. Anyone else in the same boat? Or did everybody except for me, spend the extra bucks at the dealership level?

My brother in law and I are constantly having the discussion of LED vs stock halogen. The facts are there. When you plug a LED replacement bulb into a stock halogen housing, the reflectors do not work well enough with the LED light. The headlight housing was designed to "throw" the halogen light. Sure, everything in front of you is brighter with the LED, but the halogen goes farther down the road. If you get a LED spotlight or lightbar, your results will be significantly better. With that being said, I installed LED lamps in my truck, and I am satisfied with the results. However, your feelings may be different. Especially since LED in rain and snow is a lot different. I'm still debating whether I want to change the lights on the Transit Connect. Obviously, I was hoping that someone had already beat me to it, and that I could come on this forum and read their posts. I see that we have dust caps on the rear of the light housing unit. I get it. Older cars without dust caps tend to have more issues when it comes time to change the lamps. With any LED drop-in kit, I will need to run them without the dust caps. The dust caps, even if they fit, will interfere with the extra cooling that the LED lamps require. The other consideration would be what to do with the ballast. Ideally, you would want to mount the ballast and/or secure it so that it doesn't just bounce around. I may have to come up with a creative solution so that my ballast don't come loose and fall off. Then there is the question of the direction indicators. I may have to leave the front direction indicators in their OEM configuration. Either that, or slice into the OEM harness which connects to the entire headlight housing, and run really long wires to the load resistors because those should also be secured, and preferable to metal not plastic, since they get hot. I sure wish there was a Haynes Manual available.

I've seen that one. Wasn't sure on buying it. As you said, almost everything is secured with plastic. I thought the plastic tools might be better. I was afraid of a metal tool being too rough.

My original strategy was to install fuse taps.

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I see that the parts are available from Amazon.com

Option up cargo van? Interesting. How is the interior? Is it nicely paneled, upholstered, and insulated? Did they build it with heating and air conditioning ductwork and controls for the rear? What about auto glass? Did they add windows, or are you driving around with steel panels?

The obvious issues are immediately diagnosed. I wonder what you'll find when you actually start driving it. Will your radio be stuck on a Spanish language religious station? Will your left flasher blink when you signal right? Will the engine cut out when you're standing on the brakes and stopped at a light?

You like the Korean tires. Interesting. Kumho is from Korea, right? A few years back, I noticed Hankook appearing as the OEM tire on Fords. They were really inexpensive at the time, so I ended up with a set on my truck. In my local climate, we get heavy rain. I have fishtailed, but I don't know if that was the tires, or me. I've slammed on the brakes hard, and each time, I was able to come to a stop whereby avoiding a collision. But drilled and slotted rotors probably helped just as much as the traction. Great on construction jobsites with loose gravel, dirt, mud, and uneven surfaces. I never lost traction or got stuck in the snow. And I've never had a problem driving through the park in soft dirt, soil, or driving across athletic fields with wet grass. I haven't had the opportunity to take my truck onto the beach yet, so no feedback on sand (wet or dry). I suspect that the most my transit connect will see is wet highways from rainfall, and roads serviced with snow removal equipment with chains on the tires. And maybe not even snow country since I would rather have my truck up there. But it will be interesting to read about, and hopefully view photos, of good tires and where it could take this little front wheel drive van.

A couple of things that I want to install on my imaginary Transit Connect are a cell phone signal booster, and a power inverter. A quick look at where the junction box is located shows me that there is plenty of space to work with. I can also easily access the 12 volt fused wire for the OEM power supply. I can see that the ground is attached to the body right behind the base for the seat belt. The base of the junction box has a ton of wires fed into it, and there are only a couple of fuses and relays installed in that junction box. So the logical presumption is that a lot of power is being fed into that junction box, that is not being used. Now, how to gain access to all that power. That junction box could potentially supply power to a lot of aftermarket mods like warning lights, A pillar mounted spotlights, Streamlight charger bank, entertainment system, a disco ball, led lamps, air compressor for an airbagged suspension, air compressor for air tools, air compressor for air, and electronic marital aids. BBJ or Don Ridley, Please post pics and share any relevant instructions so that those of us who are less than knowledgeable have a template to follow. Anything to look out for or be mindful of? Should we disconnect the vehicle battery prior to starting any projects? A step by step would be helpful. Since I am only driving an imaginary van.

If you're really interested, go to a good muffler shop, and have everything OEM cut off and removed. Then weld on a straight pipe, a small Cherry Bomb glasspack, and turndown to release the gas.. Unless, of course, local laws prohibit you from altering the OEM exhaust.

Yeah. Maybe if you contact a lift kit manufacturer, you can get something in development.