Looking for Advice on How to Increase Ground Clearance on the Delivery Van

I'm just repeating what you already know:

The only thing that increases ground clearance is tire height. A lift just allows you to fit marginally larger tires. The Transit wheel wells are small in diameter, so without cutting away crucial parts of the unibody, you cannot fit very large tires and have them still function without rubbing, bottoming out, or otherwise impeding themselves at some point in suspension compression or turning the front wheels. And even if they "just fit", gaps smaller than 1" allow mud or ice buildup to impede the function of the tires/van. A unibody vehicle doesn't have a chassis per se, so all lifts are just body lifts.

You can functionally increase ground clearance by up to an maybe an additional 1.5" with 3" taller tires that barely fit, with a lift to allow them to fit, and help matters by getting the rear shock mount shortening kit to move those up another 2".

If ground clearance is essential for your driving situation, AND you must have a full size van, then forget about the Transit and Promaster and get a Sprinter for the extra 2-3". Or man-up and get a Tiger Provan.

You can add six feet of lift but if you still use stock tire size your ground clearance is still exactly the same. The rear axle and front suspension bits are still going to be the same clearance.

(disclaimer: adding six feet of lift to a unibody is not impossible, but is improbable)


If I were to purchase a vehicle solely for backcountry exploration and camping, at this point I would opt for a shorter wheelbase 4x4 pickup and a good pop-top camper, like Off Road brand. A standard cab pickup with an 8' bed for a larger camper. I'm not sure you can even buy a regular cab pickup anymore, they all seem to be "extra" or "crew" or 4-door with a tiny little token "bed" to qualify as pickups and not SUVs.
Or maybe a cab/chassis with a camper box attached, like this:


But, my Transit is my only vehicle; daily driver, work truck, vacation-mobile. It does all that adequately.

OutsideJack said:

Interesting... you’ve converted with the added bonus of the lift but kept stock tire size. I think this is the first time I’ve read of someone doing that on this forum, but for a variety of reasons it makes sense.

Hoping you’re right that with the skids, shock and observant driving, that I might be able to reach part of my goal.

I’d love to get rid of that nagging thought telling me that I should‘ve gotten the Sprinter...

Cheers!

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I at a later date have the option to install larger tires. The agillis cross climates fit my driving profile area. Snow of Flagstaff, heat of Phoenix, forest service roads great handling with longevity.
At 68 i was stuck in a ravine in a jeep wrangler outside of Sedona. Now at 70 my vision of reality for what i want is different. Careful driving on forest service and some other light 4wd roads around flagstaff and the west are fine. it is the camping spots and nature that i can see that counts. Thus the 4wd conversion.
if you think about it, will that extra 1.5” of clearance from tires make that much of a difference. When you go over a rock and your shocks bottom out that clearance is nothing. Thus the skid plates for protection and slow movement. After all it is a lot easier to drive out 20 miles than get a tow cause you cracked your rear differential.

As to the mercedes. I looked at buying one and am so glad i did not. There are lots of threads on them here and elsewhere.

It is the pleasure of the experience not the method of arrival.

@surly Bill is only partially correct about needing bigger tires to add ground clearance under the axles. Clearance under the axle's lowest point is by no means the full story. Lift kits provide important and useful increases in approach, center-over and departure angles. In addition to which, the rear axle moves up with the wheel as you roll over objects - which obviously increases the clearance. We regularly take our lifted 4x4 Transit up trails and sometimes where there are no trails and I would happily put our Transit up against the vast majority of 4x4 Sprinters.

In today's age of 44" shod rock-crawlers everybody forgets that Series 1 LWB Land Rovers pretty much conquered the world with smaller wheels and less ground clearance that a QuadVan or Quigley Transit on 245 or 265/75/16s. 245/75/16 were the be all and end all of off-road tires not that long ago.

surly Bill said:

If I were to purchase a vehicle solely for backcountry exploration and camping, at this point I would opt for a shorter wheelbase 4x4 pickup and a good pop-top camper, like Off Road brand.

But, my Transit is my only vehicle; daily driver, work truck, vacation-mobile. It does all that adequately.

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Which is exactly what we got rid of to get our Transit; '98 Ranger with a 4 Wheel popup. We loved it and used the sh*t out of it. Never let us down.

Before that was a Bronco and a tent. The Ranger has over 200,000 and it was time for something a little shorter in the tooth. We liked the idea of being able to "camp" anywhere without the obvious popup. We've fitted the Trutrac and the 245 Geolanders. We just got back from the Swansea ghost town near Parker, Az. and the Transit handled that 17 miles of steep rocky road without a problem. (That Ranger pic was taken at Swansea in 2012) We stopped in the Mecca Hills on the way over and realized, once again, that the Transit will never be comfortable in the sand. Thank goodness for the recovery boards. We just have to manage our expectations.
The Transit is also our only vehicle (other than bicyles!).

Fwiw, I just got back from death valley, and I'm pleased to report that the van made it downhill, and more importantly -- back up -- a ridiculously deep sandy section on a long jeep trail with signs warning driver's that 4x4 is needed. And no rocks hit the bottom at all, which is a new experience for me given the mere 7" of clearance my old fwd suv has. I've only been stuck once in my life, and it was just this past Christmas in the old suv in that exact same sandy spot (going up). I had forgotten to turn tcs off and it braked me to a stop. Granted I was also being lazy and hadn't aired down, but I'd hit that spot many times before and made it through by hauling @ss, albeit with rocks regularly crashing into the undercarriage. I think it's gotten worse there too, deeper, more rutted, easier to high center. Had to dig out both wheels, under the front axle and engine compartment, air down, and reverse out, but then I was fine hitting it fast after that with tcs off.

No such issues with the Transit AWD. Sailed right through in mud/rut manual 2nd, moderate to hard pressure on the accel (2.5-3k rpm), gentle boat-like steering to drift back to center when it starts heading for the edges. And best of all, mud/rut mode automatically turns tcs off, so it's easier to remember since toggling the awd button is a natural thing to do in a vehicle that has that ability.

Zero rocks hit the underside (VC lift, red springs, no front bilsteins, rear fox pro resis, 32" 265/75/16's), but some psi tests I did found that dropping just 6 psi front and back (on a 45 degree morning, might need more if hotter) makes a huge difference in ride comfort and the amount of vehicle rattling (not build rattle, vehicle itself), especially the headliner, which rattles and shakes like crazy on rocky rutted washboards at even just 10+ mph. I have my fox pros resis the way VC shipped (for an empty van), and haven't had time to experiment with different settings on them, but that'll be fun too.

Next set of tires I do will likely be 255 to let me remove the VC front spacers, but ideally at the same ~32" diameter if I can find something like that. The terrain contact 265/75/16's AT's are almost perfect (quiet onroad and tread designed to minimize impact on fuel economy, solid off-road performance), but I'd rather not run spacers, and while the slight rubbing with a locked wheel isn't a big deal (not pinch seem, fixed that, but inside edge where I don't want to grind), if I can both retain the 8.25" rear diff skid plate clearance (would be more without, but skid plate gets me over 12" obstacles), and also avoid rubbing the next set while ditching the spacers, I probably will. Not sure if I can find a tire to cover all of that, but we'll see. I'd rather stay 265 but I don't like even small spacers. Too much risk of stressing the steering components, which I've already had one warranty issue with. That could have just been due to a faulty oem steering gear and the wheel shake issue many stock awd users are also experiencing, and which mine had bad before the rack and pinion replacement (totally gone now), but I can't be certain, so ditching spacers seems worth exploring.

In any event, the van is one big toy for me, I enjoy tweaking it, pushing limits, making changes, debating upgrades. I hope you all feel the same. People can get downright religious over vehicle upgrades, which I've never understood. Live and let live! None of this will matter a lick when you're six feet under. Carpe diem!

Cheers.