Van 2.0 Order

TLDR: We ordered an extended length, high roof, AWD 2021 Ford Transit Cargo Van.

We have a dedicated article on our order here. That article contains a lot more detail on what exactly we optioned and why.

We went into the vehicle ordering process after a few years of driving a large camper van and with some awareness of the available Transit options. Based on this, we had a few hard requirements:

  • All Wheel Drive: This vehicle would spend a lot of time at the beach and needed some snow capability. We've owned a wrangler and aren't kidding ourselves that this thing is going to be a rock crawler, but limited off road capability was a must.
  • Extended Length: For two adults doing a week or two at a time we could make a regular length work. For two adults, two cats, full time, an extended was a must for us.
  • High Roof: Similar to the length, for more limited use we could make a medium roof work, but not for full time.
  • Cruise Control (Adaptive): Van 1.0 didn't have cruise control. So we knew at order-time we had to have cruise. A years later, we'd modify that need to be adaptive cruise.
  • BLIS: Driving a large vehicle sucks, especially in heavy traffic and metro areas. We knew from Van 1.0's lack of blind spot aids that we wanted this for Van 2.0.

We had a few softer requirements:

  • Swivels: They vastly add to the usable space in a camper fan. This is only soft due to aftermarket availability.
  • Ecoboost: Based on our forum research and owning low-pickup vehicles, the Ecoboost was a strong preference for us.
  • Slider and Rear Windows: This is soft requirement because you can add windows after order. But we knew we wanted a slider window for driving visibility. We cared more about having that from the get-go than installing an aftermarket window with vents down the road.
  • Mudflaps: Turns out these are not options but can be purchased from the dealer separately. We ended up going with an after market product for the rear. We still haven't settled on an option for the front (the factory well liners and our lift and tire related mods make this non-trivial).
  • Powered Sliding Door: We had mixed feelings on this due to concerns with long term reliability. We ultimately went with it and its been great for over a year. If it ever breaks, its going to be a real challenge to fix and may just become a normal sliding door.

Some items we initially considered but ruled out:

  • Dual Alternators: It sounds great and is probably and OK option if you go with a 12V house system. Based on the unclear controls Ford employs for its use, a better option is a dedicated aftermarket 2nd alternator. This allows use of more sophisticated controls like the wakespeed 500 that allow tailoring the alternator charge for LFP systems. For a 24V system like ours, the second factory alternator is a net-negative since it inhibits our ability to install a usable 2nd alternator for direct charging. We will note that the standard factory alternator is 250A, which is very capable on paper.
  • Long Arm Side Mirrors: We thought these might help to eliminate blind spots. The forum consensus was to skip these unless you plan to do a lot of long trailer towing. Years in, we would agree. We're very happy we skipped them.

We worked a very helpful and knowledgeable forum member and dealer representative, @crewvanmaninfo to obtain the ford ordering guidelines and to work through our options list. Once we had our list well defined, we solicited feedback from in this forum post. Nothing we heard were deal breakers, so this is the list we went with for the order.

We obtained quotes from @crewvanmaninfo's dealer as well as a highly rated local dealer, Sheehy Ford Lincoln of Gaithersburg (MD). A lot of people on the forum order from @crewvanmaninfo and travel to TX to pick up their vans and report a great experience. A lot of people on the forum have reported trouble ordering from other dealers, or never got their vans at all. We went with our local dealer, Sheehy. Price wasn't a discriminator. Our major reason was we didn't want to find ourselves far from home if there was a last minute issue that needed fixing at delivery.

This decision worked out tremendously for us and we would recommend Sheehy to anyone (especially in the VA/DC/MD area). Specifically, we would recommend working with Nick Constantine, who handles their commercial and fleet sales. He was great to work with throughout the process from order to delivery.

excited These are the faces of two people who have forgotten how freaking hard it is to build a camper van.

Tips, Tricks, and Resources

  • We recommend using a spreadsheet for this process. Ours is here.
  • The Transit Order Guide and Price List are the documents you need (the correct year of course).
  • Take your time and exercise extreme attention to detail.

What We Would Do Differently

Nothing. There might be a small option here or there we could have skipped, but there aren't any options we regret having or not having ordered. We'd also go with Nick at Sheehy again for the order.

Timeline

Note, this doesn't reflect full time effort. It's mostly evenings and partial days, limited by other work, shipping times, etc.

  • Reached out @crewmanvan for the 2021 ordering guide (11-8-2020)
  • Solicited feedback on our options list via the forum (12-8-2020)
  • Submitted build order to @crewmanvan (12-12-2020)
  • Submitted build order order to Sheehy (12-15-2020)
  • Received quote from @crewmanvan (12-20-2020)
  • Received final quote from Sheehy (1-18-2021)
  • Placed deposit with Sheehy (1-20-2021)
  • Accepted delivery (8-14-2021)