My love affair with my Transit is about to be over for good it seems like. Evidently, as some of you have confirmed already on this forum, Ford hasn't been very thoughtful about building a good AC capable of the full range of North American environments. And it looks like Phoenix and Southwest weather is going to make Transits unusable.
I'd say if you live in or frequent the SW, I'd stay away from the Transit. I hate saying this as I love everything else about it.
I've been driving around with mildly cool air blowing on me for a week now, in a white 15 passenger 3.5EB 350 XLT with rear air. This van sits outside most of the time, so it gets reasonably warm, but I religiously use sun shades, and have Llumar Air Blue 80 on the windshield (which I love).
But I can drive around for extended periods of time feeling like the air out of the vents is not cool enough to chill my skin, nor keep my back from sweating. Oftentimes, it feels like a swamp cooler rather than an AC.
Unfortunately, when using a contactless infrared thermometer, at the back of the duct, the temperature is mid to upper 40's with 99 outside temperatures (a tech's service note measured 46). My Ford service shop - Camelback Ford Lincoln - after discharging, recharging, and adding dye, says this is within spec. Keep in mind, 99 degrees here is a fairly moderate temperature. I hate to see what happens at 115. Unfortunately, 46 degrees at the back of the duct leaves the duct blades at about 60, and a lot warmer by the time it hits a body. In the interior of a 130 degree van, it takes a long time for 60 degree air to start to cool much.
This is obviously a passenger vehicle, and this would not be sufficient for the transport of passengers in the southwest.
The service shop, idiotically tells me that a separate rear AC would be a good solution. As if I should need a "solution" to make a vehicle designed to carry 15 people sufficiently functional for those 15 people to be carried. I see a number of forum members thinsulating their vans. But for a white van? Once again, how could a van made to carry people not be comfortable for carrying people? I think I'm starting to understand why so many of these passenger vans are coming out of fleet service after 1 year.
In some good fortune, I have an additional Transit 3.7 12 passenger in our fleet (ironically, I'm buying 6 to 7 of these in the next 18 months, and I think Ford has lost my business). I'm looking forward to also comparing that van, as it has recently had both an expansion valve and condenser replaced.
I've seen some others on this forum fight relatively complex issues - a bad batch of evaporators, a faulty rear temp sensor - and I've already had an AC expansion valve fail on the other van. But this looks like just miserable design to me, and it looks like the last organization I'd want to be repeatedly engaging with about AC issues.
Please excuse some ranting here, but I offer this as warning. Advice is welcome as well. I have really been looking forward to one of these as my family wagon. Any advice on dealing with a resistant service shop? Does anyone, from anywhere, have a definitive specification on the AC in these vans and what air temperatures and differentials they should be putting out? Is anyone happily driving these through Desert summers?
I'd say if you live in or frequent the SW, I'd stay away from the Transit. I hate saying this as I love everything else about it.
I've been driving around with mildly cool air blowing on me for a week now, in a white 15 passenger 3.5EB 350 XLT with rear air. This van sits outside most of the time, so it gets reasonably warm, but I religiously use sun shades, and have Llumar Air Blue 80 on the windshield (which I love).
But I can drive around for extended periods of time feeling like the air out of the vents is not cool enough to chill my skin, nor keep my back from sweating. Oftentimes, it feels like a swamp cooler rather than an AC.
Unfortunately, when using a contactless infrared thermometer, at the back of the duct, the temperature is mid to upper 40's with 99 outside temperatures (a tech's service note measured 46). My Ford service shop - Camelback Ford Lincoln - after discharging, recharging, and adding dye, says this is within spec. Keep in mind, 99 degrees here is a fairly moderate temperature. I hate to see what happens at 115. Unfortunately, 46 degrees at the back of the duct leaves the duct blades at about 60, and a lot warmer by the time it hits a body. In the interior of a 130 degree van, it takes a long time for 60 degree air to start to cool much.
This is obviously a passenger vehicle, and this would not be sufficient for the transport of passengers in the southwest.
The service shop, idiotically tells me that a separate rear AC would be a good solution. As if I should need a "solution" to make a vehicle designed to carry 15 people sufficiently functional for those 15 people to be carried. I see a number of forum members thinsulating their vans. But for a white van? Once again, how could a van made to carry people not be comfortable for carrying people? I think I'm starting to understand why so many of these passenger vans are coming out of fleet service after 1 year.
In some good fortune, I have an additional Transit 3.7 12 passenger in our fleet (ironically, I'm buying 6 to 7 of these in the next 18 months, and I think Ford has lost my business). I'm looking forward to also comparing that van, as it has recently had both an expansion valve and condenser replaced.
I've seen some others on this forum fight relatively complex issues - a bad batch of evaporators, a faulty rear temp sensor - and I've already had an AC expansion valve fail on the other van. But this looks like just miserable design to me, and it looks like the last organization I'd want to be repeatedly engaging with about AC issues.
Please excuse some ranting here, but I offer this as warning. Advice is welcome as well. I have really been looking forward to one of these as my family wagon. Any advice on dealing with a resistant service shop? Does anyone, from anywhere, have a definitive specification on the AC in these vans and what air temperatures and differentials they should be putting out? Is anyone happily driving these through Desert summers?