2015 Ford Transits, anyone using one yet?

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iwire

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Massachusetts
So the company I work for just bought some new service trucks.

This is what I started driving last Tuesday

trn15_pg_020_ext_med.jpg


5ea32b3b40e9c73f6d6da361f9181303x.jpg


So far very impressed, yeah its an ugly box but I can stand upright in it and with the straight sides it provides much better room for shelving placement.


It is a '350' with a 10,000 LB GVWR but it only has a 3.7L with a six speed auto transmission. It shifts a lot trying to maintain speed and I am no where near loaded up yet.
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
Seems like a small power plant for the load ability of the vehicle, but then I am not on top of these things as much as I once was - but they can get more power out of a smaller package these days though I am not entirely convinced they can all get the same life as some older bigger units either. And they are much more complex then older engines making them more expensive to repair when they do fail.

If it shifts a lot it would seem they maybe don't have a good matching transmission for your application, whether it be load conditions, driving conditions, or both. I would think if you do a lot of city driving you would want a different transmission then if you did a lot of highway driving, fuel mileage isn't a big concern to most that only go short distances on an average trip, performance on that trip is a bigger concern. If you made a lot of long trips this may be the optimal transmission, but from what I've gathered from past posts you mostly make shorter trips in city driving conditions.
 

mike7330

Senior Member
Location
North America
I love my American E350 econoline

I love my American E350 econoline

I looked at buying one. Don't like it! Bought ford E350 for 30 years! If I am going to buy this design, I'm going to by Mercedes-Benz .
This means new ladder racks, shelves..........
On the high roof transits how do you get your ladders and materials off the roof?
A tow behind scissor lift ?

I more then likely will buy my first chev van!
 

goldstar

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
I wish I could give you a positive review of this truck but I'm no longer a "Ford" person. My last service vehicle was a Ford E250. I had 161K miles on it, it kept blowing coil packs and one time I had actually burnt a platinum spark and had to have the socket re-tapped. I had just spent $2.5K on the 5th transmission and two weeks later I blew the head gasket. End of story. Managed to sell the truck for enough $$ to get my new truck re-lettered. I now drive a GMC Savannah 2500. Suspension is better, turning radius is better, 4.6 liter V-8 engine. I can't stand up in it but I feel like I'm driving a Caddy by comparison.

Good luck with the new van !!!
 

gar

Senior Member
Location
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Occupation
EE
150705-0930 EDT

Fuel economy regulations are the driving force behind smaller engines and many gear ratios in multispeed transmissions. A neighbor that works for GM is working on something like a 9 ratio transmission. By using many gear ratio stages it is possible to approximate a continuously variable ratio transmission. The goal is to optimize the engine operating point for maximum engine efficiency.

Champion Spark Plug, a part of Federal-Mogul (originally a bearing and seal company), is developing an ignition system that should improve fuel efficiency by a greater amount than they can expect thru friction reduction in engines and drive trains.

.
 

JoeyD74

Senior Member
Location
Boston MA
Occupation
Electrical contractor
I looked at them but they don't look like they are built for our type of use, loaded all the time. Look under one, the axles, the brakes, the front suspension all look under sized.
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
150705-0930 EDT

Fuel economy regulations are the driving force behind smaller engines and many gear ratios in multispeed transmissions. A neighbor that works for GM is working on something like a 9 ratio transmission. By using many gear ratio stages it is possible to approximate a continuously variable ratio transmission. The goal is to optimize the engine operating point for maximum engine efficiency.

Champion Spark Plug, a part of Federal-Mogul (originally a bearing and seal company), is developing an ignition system that should improve fuel efficiency by a greater amount than they can expect thru friction reduction in engines and drive trains.

.

Do they test performance of such vehicles when loaded to rated capacity or just the base vehicle that comes off the line? Reality is people buy heavy duty trucks and vans because they intend to use some of that load capacity, otherwise they would just buy a typical passenger vehicle. Is a vehicle with a small motor really that efficient if it is pushed most of the time by the load it is driving? Somewhere one must find a happy medium without too much sacrifice either way.
 

sparkyrick

Senior Member
Location
Appleton, Wi
I have a 2015 Transit with the 3.7L, It's a dog with the small engine. The suspension is weak too. I loaded a couple hundred feet of 1" EMT and 80" of deep strut on the van and bottomed out the suspension going across a bump at the shop. I do keep a lot of stuff on my van though. You never know what you'll need on a service call. It's long, which is nice though. I see you don't have the Adrian Steel package. Too bad, I have tons of storage on mine.
 

JoeyD74

Senior Member
Location
Boston MA
Occupation
Electrical contractor
I'm holding on to my "old fashioned" E250 until the wheels fall off.
I may have to do the same with my 06 Chevy. It just rolled past 215,000 though. While it runs and drives great, you can't stop the rust from the road salt.
 

Dennis Alwon

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Chapel Hill, NC
Occupation
Retired Electrical Contractor
I have heard for years that a 250 or a 350 is a must. I have always had a 150 Ford or equivalent Dodge and its never been an issue. Basically the 150 with upgrade kit is about the same as a 250 but cheaper. Looks like you can get 3 wheel bases 130" , 148" and a 148" with extended body'

The transit looks like an econoline with an extension on the top
 

gar

Senior Member
Location
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Occupation
EE
150705-1309 EDT

kwired, and others:

The government is driving design. To meet fuel economy requirements the vehicles must become lighter. This means using more expensive higher strength materials, and structural design changes.

The stiffness and load capability of a mechanical structural member is a function of the modules of elasticity, yield strength, and the moment of inertia of the structure's cross section. In the past some mechanical courses were required of all engineering students.

Just looking at a mechanical object does not tell you durability and capability. To a trained eye some information is visible. Do you know the alloy of a material by just looking at it? Probably not.

When I designed my home I specified a breezeway 20 feet wide by 35 feet. There is a front and rear cross member to support the roof structure (beams). The architect was going to use a 1" x 12" steel plate with attached wood for these beams. I told him that made no sense, and he changed the specification to a channel iron. Less weight for greater strength and stiffness.

In the past Ford did tests at their Arizona test track in a sand trap with the truck under test greatly overloaded, much beyond the load rating. The competition did not compare in ruggedness.

Here are the engine specifications I could find.
Available Engines
3.7L Ti-VCT V6 FFV 275 hp @ 6000 rpm 260 lb.-ft. @ 4000 rpm
3.5L EcoBoost® V6 310 hp @ 5000 rpm 400 lb.-ft. @ 2250 rpm
3.2L I5 Diesel 185 hp @ 3000 rpm 350 lb.-ft. @ 1500 - 2750 rpm
Under normal driving conditions with an automatic transmission Ford will keep engine RPM around 2000 RPM. This general region is where you want to look at HP and/or torque. The speed-torque curves for the different engines are not provided, but a conventional gasoline engine has torque drop substantially as RPM is lowered from peak HP. The EcoBoost has a more flat torque curve, and the diesel probably flatter.

Note: 400 #-ft at 2250 RPM = 400*2250/5500 = 164 HP, and 350 #-ft at 2750 RPM = 350*2750/5500 = 175 HP.

I believe you need to look at the different engine options relative to the kind of load you expect to carry.

.
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
150705-1309 EDT

kwired, and others:

The government is driving design. To meet fuel economy requirements the vehicles must become lighter. This means using more expensive higher strength materials, and structural design changes.

The stiffness and load capability of a mechanical structural member is a function of the modules of elasticity, yield strength, and the moment of inertia of the structure's cross section. In the past some mechanical courses were required of all engineering students.

Just looking at a mechanical object does not tell you durability and capability. To a trained eye some information is visible. Do you know the alloy of a material by just looking at it? Probably not.

When I designed my home I specified a breezeway 20 feet wide by 35 feet. There is a front and rear cross member to support the roof structure (beams). The architect was going to use a 1" x 12" steel plate with attached wood for these beams. I told him that made no sense, and he changed the specification to a channel iron. Less weight for greater strength and stiffness.

In the past Ford did tests at their Arizona test track in a sand trap with the truck under test greatly overloaded, much beyond the load rating. The competition did not compare in ruggedness.

Here are the engine specifications I could find.
Available Engines3.7L Ti-VCT V6 FFV 275 hp @ 6000 rpm 260 lb.-ft. @ 4000 rpm
3.5L EcoBoost® V6 310 hp @ 5000 rpm 400 lb.-ft. @ 2250 rpm
3.2L I5 Diesel 185 hp @ 3000 rpm 350 lb.-ft. @ 1500 - 2750 rpm
Under normal driving conditions with an automatic transmission Ford will keep engine RPM around 2000 RPM. This general region is where you want to look at HP and/or torque. The speed-torque curves for the different engines are not provided, but a conventional gasoline engine has torque drop substantially as RPM is lowered from peak HP. The EcoBoost has a more flat torque curve, and the diesel probably flatter.

Note: 400 #-ft at 2250 RPM = 400*2250/5500 = 164 HP, and 350 #-ft at 2750 RPM = 350*2750/5500 = 175 HP.

I believe you need to look at the different engine options relative to the kind of load you expect to carry.

.
Understand, but also need to see comparison to something I am familiar with otherwise those specifications don't mean that much to me. Better yet hook to my trailer with 4-6000 lb load on it and see how it performs compared to my older Dodge truck with the Cummins Diesel - fuel economy don't mean a thing to me when towing that load, performance does, I bet I can tell you which one outperforms without looking at the specifications. If the Transit would even come close to my Dodge (other then maybe fuel economy)- we will next take that trailer out in a corn field to work on irrigation machines and see if it can keep up.

Feds can make regulations all they want for passenger vehicles, trucks (big and small) are used to do some specific task, if we need power to do that task then we need the power, nothing wrong with some tweaking to get more out of less but there are limitations before you actually decrease efficiency of doing the desired task. Fuel economy - it will take a certain amount of energy to move a set amount of weight of cargo, plus the weight of the vehicle - Feds can not change that. Is true that making the vehicle lighter weight reduces amount of energy needed, but you can only go so far with that and still have something strong enough to handle the cargo, and the cargo still needs to be transported from point A to point B. A truck that does 10% better fuel efficiency still takes more fuel if it needs to make 2 trips to haul same load, the bigger picture sometimes doesn't get looked at as hard as it should. They also can't change the fact that some trucks are used over the road on "fair" grade and paved roads but others are used in more extreme conditions that may need extra power over those used on "fair" roads.

I could be in the dark on some information here, but this is a nice change from AFCI debates, where I am also likely in the dark to some extent.:D
 
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