Hi ya'll from Oregon.
I've previously owned an '89 Ford extended cargo and a '99 15 pax XLT passenger van, both set up for camping and surfing.
Both those vans were extremely reliable, if not exactly fuel efficient, and served their purpose well.
Now I have two kids (10 and 16) and need a little more room than those vans offered.
I've been eyeballing Sprinters for years, but wasn't in a position to buy one. Now the Transit is here and I can afford one, I'm about ready to order.
What I really want is a crew van, as it will be set up as a bare bones cargo/mountain bike hauler/surf-mobile, with a simple bed platform for two (kids get a tent, it builds character
) or folding bunks. Other than that, it will only have an electric fridge, microwave, solar, awning, and maybe some sort of small outdoor shower arraignment.
No cabinets, I'm gonna roll with Tupperware tubs and a simple racking set up for those. I saw that in someone else's build online. He had a rack in his garage identical to the one in his van. Each person had a tub based on activity, say a wetsuit tub, mtb gear tub, camping tub, etc. Grab a tub, throw it in the van and go. Take them out when your done.
So anyway, though I really like the Spinter Crew van (and to tell you the truth, I really want to like the Promaster, but wasn't too impressed with the build quality when I looked in one), and it seems to price out pretty close to the Ford after I add it up, I think I'm going with a High roof, Extended T250 with one of the gas engines.
So a few things to work out before I plunk down the money. 3.5 eco, or 3.7?
I won't be trailering anything more than a small utility trailer on occasion, so the 3.7 is probably enough, but that locks me into the 4.10 rear end. So the question is, if I keep my foot out of it, could I conceivably get better mileage with the 3.5 Eco? Most of my camping will be on secondary highways with low speed limits, and our freeway limits top out at 65mph here anyway. The turbo would probably be nice for trips to the Rockies with the altitude, but I'm not too worried about that. I like the idea of being able to nurse the eco 3.5 with the 3.31 rear, but I don't really know if I'll gain that much. This rig will only get driven probably 5k miles a year, so the mileage isn't really that big a deal anyway.
The other concern is rear seating.
On my '89, I mounted a used Flexsteel captains chair in the back, which was pretty easy on that rig, but I'm a little more concerned with having something safe for my kids to ride in. I could probably find a way to mount a couple captains chair with built in seatbelts, but that would be pretty expensive. The other route might be to retrofit a used rear Sprinter seat somehow. There's a guy that did that on the Promaster forum and it looks pretty nice.
So I think the seating thing will work out and I'm not holding my breath for a crew version of the Transit, but I'm mainly stuck on engine choice right now.
JP
I've previously owned an '89 Ford extended cargo and a '99 15 pax XLT passenger van, both set up for camping and surfing.
Both those vans were extremely reliable, if not exactly fuel efficient, and served their purpose well.
Now I have two kids (10 and 16) and need a little more room than those vans offered.
I've been eyeballing Sprinters for years, but wasn't in a position to buy one. Now the Transit is here and I can afford one, I'm about ready to order.
What I really want is a crew van, as it will be set up as a bare bones cargo/mountain bike hauler/surf-mobile, with a simple bed platform for two (kids get a tent, it builds character
) or folding bunks. Other than that, it will only have an electric fridge, microwave, solar, awning, and maybe some sort of small outdoor shower arraignment. No cabinets, I'm gonna roll with Tupperware tubs and a simple racking set up for those. I saw that in someone else's build online. He had a rack in his garage identical to the one in his van. Each person had a tub based on activity, say a wetsuit tub, mtb gear tub, camping tub, etc. Grab a tub, throw it in the van and go. Take them out when your done.
So anyway, though I really like the Spinter Crew van (and to tell you the truth, I really want to like the Promaster, but wasn't too impressed with the build quality when I looked in one), and it seems to price out pretty close to the Ford after I add it up, I think I'm going with a High roof, Extended T250 with one of the gas engines.
So a few things to work out before I plunk down the money. 3.5 eco, or 3.7?
I won't be trailering anything more than a small utility trailer on occasion, so the 3.7 is probably enough, but that locks me into the 4.10 rear end. So the question is, if I keep my foot out of it, could I conceivably get better mileage with the 3.5 Eco? Most of my camping will be on secondary highways with low speed limits, and our freeway limits top out at 65mph here anyway. The turbo would probably be nice for trips to the Rockies with the altitude, but I'm not too worried about that. I like the idea of being able to nurse the eco 3.5 with the 3.31 rear, but I don't really know if I'll gain that much. This rig will only get driven probably 5k miles a year, so the mileage isn't really that big a deal anyway.
The other concern is rear seating.
On my '89, I mounted a used Flexsteel captains chair in the back, which was pretty easy on that rig, but I'm a little more concerned with having something safe for my kids to ride in. I could probably find a way to mount a couple captains chair with built in seatbelts, but that would be pretty expensive. The other route might be to retrofit a used rear Sprinter seat somehow. There's a guy that did that on the Promaster forum and it looks pretty nice.
So I think the seating thing will work out and I'm not holding my breath for a crew version of the Transit, but I'm mainly stuck on engine choice right now.
JP
