A sexy van for a sexy man ~ Ford transit

[OrioN]

Soo, I'm long gone from driving this particular cargo van.

My views on it, pretty good overall

I had the T250 high roof model

The particular rental company, Enterprise, didn't have a bulkhead to keep the driver safe from bricking out with no partition.

Soo I did this:

A shelf from one of those carts in the warehouse!

Back side of the wall... now, I can bricked it out in sequence from floor to ceiling

Most days, I work out the side curb sliding door... it just makes sense than running to the rear barn doors at every stop.

Rear glass windows is teh suck, so I got creative and used those logo rain bags as impromptu security curtains, LoL my customers see me backing up their driveways to see FedEx all over the rear!

& cops following me in the night immediately pulls away once they see my placards on this van.

Very beefy build, drives like a car, rear brakes has high bias, so it doesn't nose dive... I replaced the back pads at the 20k mile mark. No squeal tabs to warn of low brake lining. I just caught it in Time when I had to change a flat tire.

Integrated backup camera in the license plate frame & the monitor built in to the center rear view mirror was ingenious.


Oem continental tires were too soft & wore out at the 25k mile mark. Firestone tires were a good replacement for this van. Harder compounds of a touring tire would make it last at least 40k.

Manual shift buttons on the gear selector is accidentally engaged if your thumb hits it.

Just keep your thumb away from it

Gas mileage was better than a typical boxtruck with a v8 engine. Even though this transit had a v6, the transmission was pretty good at shifting to the next gears. And mileage was close to 15 mpg vs the 9mpg of my current gmc boxtruck

If I get a cutaway box body with this chassis, it would be a decent vehicle in my rural area.

The upfitted cargo van, called the velocity, has that funky sliding curb door, but the chassis seems to be built to handle this type of delivery.

Stay away from diesel powerplants, just because of all the emissions crap you will deal with down the road. A contractor had the Isuzu reach diesel engine and it was too much of a PiTa to maintain/fix them.

PS: BUDGET rental has these cargo vans with the steel partition on them!


Thumbs up,Ford! OrioN approves!

 

[MAKAVELI]

Still rockin a flip phone.

 

[OrioN]

Razor flip phone 3g network, still works... T-Mobile legacy plan $3 a month for 30 minutes/texts.

additional are like 10c per minute, butt I never went past my plan.

I do have a freedom pop phone (200 minutes/ texts a month for Free!!!! )

so I can look stuff up with WiFi hotspots with my Android phone (home network xfinity- so I got thousands of tethers in my area who uses xfinity routers)

 

[MAKAVELI]

Razor flip phone 3g network, still works... T-Mobile legacy plan $3 a month for 30 minutes/texts.

additional are like 10c per minute, butt I never went past my plan.

I do have a freedom pop phone (200 minutes/ texts a month for Free!!!! )

so I can look stuff up with WiFi hotspots with my Android phone (home network xfinity- so I got thousands of tethers in my area who uses xfinity routers)

Thousands of tethers in a rural area? C'mon bro.

 

[bbsam]

Is the front of that thing a cargo van or a hair salon?

 

[bbsam]

Overall they're nicer than promasters but still too cheaply built in my opinion.

 

[bacha29]

Let me get this straight. You replaced the rear pads on a RENTAL? With that in mind please tell me,aside from sitting back and collecting the cash just what physical work does the contract holder actually do to see to it that you are prepared to pick it up here and haul it over there. By the looks of things they've taken all of the core responsibilities that a contract holder would otherwise be required to perform and simply dumped them off onto you. So what else do you do on your weekends beside fulfilling contractor level responsibilities?

 

[MAKAVELI]

Let me get this straight. You replaced the rear pads on a RENTAL? With that in mind please tell me,aside from sitting back and collecting the cash just what physical work does the contract holder actually do to see to it that you are prepared to pick it up here and haul it over there. By the looks of things they've taken all of the core responsibilities that a contract holder would otherwise be required to perform and simply dumped them off onto you. So what else do you do on your weekends beside fulfilling contractor level responsibilities?

I'm sure the rental company appreciates the free maintenance on the truck.

 

[OrioN]

Thousands of tethers in a rural area? C'mon bro.

Mak, yeah thousands of tethers on route to the farmlands... but 40% of my route is a dead zone for cellphone and powerpad signals (Verizon on my powerpad). Soon will change though

Some of the farmlands are being sold to developers since the next generation of farmers don't want to carry on the legacy. Shame.

In the past 6 years, this route used to be 300+ miles of about 200 stops a day. The development of suburbia has doubled the number of stops.so they split into two full-time routes.

Now, I'm doing close to the same amount of stops at about 170 miles a day

 

[OrioN]

Overall they're nicer than promasters but still too cheaply built in my opinion.

Promasters are too cramped even for a small guy like me( cab wise but with no rear drive shaft or axles, there's more cargo space)! Weird that they have a traditional clutch disc/ pressure plate system, but has the shifting done by a computer...

 

[MAKAVELI]

Mak, yeah thousands of tethers on route to the farmlands... but 40% of my route is a dead zone for cellphone and powerpad signals (Verizon on my powerpad). Soon will change though

Some of the farmlands are being sold to developers since the next generation of farmers don't want to carry on the legacy. Shame.

In the past 6 years, this route used to be 300+ miles of about 200 stops a day. Now, I'm doing close to the same amount of stops at about 170 miles a day

From the looks of that truck, you aren't fitting 200 pkgs in it, let alone 200 stops. Even if you did 200 in 170 miles is still very spread out and doubt you have as many tethers as you say.

 

[OrioN]

Let me get this straight. You replaced the rear pads on a RENTAL?

I setup my van for the long haul... since my manager couldn't get me a definite time to get me a proper vehicle.

Of course I got compensation for doing so $50 labor. It's pretty easy for me for doing hundreds of brake jobs over the years

See what is missing? No squeal tabs on the backing plates...poor design. Besides an annual inspection, keep an eye on the brake fluid reservoir levels

PS, I'm a landlord of 2 houses now! 3rd one is gonna be a duplex type home to double down on passive income

 

[OrioN]

From the looks of that truck, you aren't fitting 200 pkgs in it, let alone 200 stops. Even if you did 200 in 170 miles is still very spread out and doubt you have as many tethers as you say.

Only if I didn't get too many oversized boxes or irregs... had a thread about it

Freedom Pop has 500 GB of free data if no tethers... but I do brunch while looking up misplots before I actually head out to my area. Now with area knowledge, I don't need my Android phone. Only the flip phone to contact select customers

 

[Star B]

From the looks of that truck, you aren't fitting 200 pkgs in it, let alone 200 stops. Even if you did 200 in 170 miles is still very spread out and doubt you have as many tethers as you say.

I've done 204 pkgs in a transit 350 swb this last peak. Had to make a wall w/ one of the bulks (had two), but I was able to do it and work out of it. I just wedged my handcart in front of the pax slide door so the pkgs didn't fall out of the door when I opened it and I was able to line up (for the most part) my next 10 stops every 10.

I never had an issue with the manual buttons on the shifter because it required at least two presses to actually do something.

On our transit, the backup camera was part of SYNC, not in the rearview mirror. That is how our new GMCs are like.

Stay away from diesel powerplants, just because of all the emissions crap you will deal with down the road. A contractor had the Isuzu reach diesel engine and it was too much of a PiTa to maintain/fix them.

We haven't had enough time with our new diesel GMC vans yet but they get ~20mpg on them. The jury is still out on how reliable they are yet...

 

[MAKAVELI]

View attachment 175698

I doubt your 200 looked like this.

I've done 204 pkgs in a transit 350 swb this last peak. Had to make a wall w/ one of the bulks (had two), but I was able to do it and work out of it. I just wedged my handcart in front of the pax slide door so the pkgs didn't fall out of the door when I opened it and I was able to line up (for the most part) my next 10 stops every 10

 

[Star B]

I doubt your 200 looked like this.

if my 200 looked like that there would be no way in hell I'd be taking it out on basis of safety. that half-ass bulkhead isn't going to save you if you were to get into an accident.

 

[OrioN]

Bump, soo my investor group and a few subcontractors are getting these as supplemental vehicles or for their BC/AO to drive around in case of a route having an issue...

With the increase in iCs, they are a poor choice right now. You aren't Amazon DSPs hauling smalls for most of your cargo!

If you like the drive train, then opt for the up-fitted box body.

Granted, the skinny cargo van body are for narrow city streets... but get the 250/350, not the puny 150, where u can be lucky to cram 150 stops if u don't have too much iCs

I chatted with one of my former subcontractors and told him this same observation.

So far, my current drivers on my belt line likes the standard p700 step vans. Sliding side doors, full height bulkhEad door and fold away shelves to accommodate a heavy iCe day.

P 500s are a bit small, but preferred over the standard box truck I'm currently in right now.

 

[fatboy33]

Still rockin a flip phone.

burner for his route chicks..lol

 

[rod]

Holy crap -- did you buy all the tie down straps and bungee cords------and how long did it take you to tie all that stuff down?

 

[fatboy33]

Holy crap -- did you buy all the tie down straps and bungee cords------and how long did it take you to tie all that stuff down?

Not to mention the missed budget for powerpad holsters.