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Ford Transit Cargo Van media event, Kansas City

By Bob Miodonski
A Ford Transit cargo van

A Transit cargo van races through a closed course in the parking lot of Kemper Arena in Kansas City as drivers test its maneuverability. Photo courtesy of Ford

BNP Media Plumbing Group Publisher Bob Miodonski listens to Tony Marshall

BNP Media Plumbing Group Publisher Bob Miodonski listens to Tony Marshall, a product manager for Knapheide, discuss the features of a Transit cargo van his company has upfitted. Photo courtesy of Ford

The interior of a Transit cargo van

The interior of a Transit cargo van provides a work area as well as storage space. Photo courtesy of Ford

A convoy of Transit van models

A convoy of Transit van models, in three different heights, hits the open road in Kansas City. Photo courtesy of Ford

A Ford Transit cargo van
BNP Media Plumbing Group Publisher Bob Miodonski listens to Tony Marshall
The interior of a Transit cargo van
A convoy of Transit van models
June 13, 2014

When a company such as Ford invites me to test-drive its new line of trucks, I understand the reason is not because I’m a truck expert. The real reason is that contractors who read Plumbing & Mechanical and Reeves Journal every month buy lots of pickups, vans and cube vans from Ford and other truck manufacturers.

So, when I flew June 4 to Kansas City to test-drive Ford Transit full-size cargo vans with other members of the media, I was in a distinct minority. All the other media people there write articles and blogs about motor vehicles all the time. They know much more about what’s under the hood than I do, and they throw around terms such as torque, quick-start glow plugs and torsional stiffness.

On the other hand, I comprised a distinct minority in another respect in that I probably was the only member of the media who once drove a cargo van for a job. This happened many summers ago when I drove the delivery truck of my dad’s dry-cleaning business. All these years later, I had a blast driving the highways and streets of Kansas City — in a heavy rainstorm and then bright sunshine — in vans that boast more creature comforts, maneuverability and fuel economy than my dad’s bare-metal cargo van.

I drove that delivery truck a dozen years after Ford introduced its Econoline vans in 1961. The Transit full-size cargo and passenger vans will take the place of those vans, which evolved into the E-Series, when they go on sale later this summer.

In Kansas City, we learned the Transit will get 46% better highway fuel economy than the E-Series when it’s equipped with a 3.5-liter EcoBoost engine. Other Transit engine options are a 3.7-liter V6 and or 3.2-liter diesel. The Transit surpasses the E-Series in payload, too. Its 4,650 lb. of maximum capacity increases payload at least 600 lb. vs. comparable E-Series vans. Maximum towing capacity – which fortunately wasn’t an issue in delivering dry cleaning – is 7,500 lb. on Transit.

Comfort, however, is a concern of everyone who drives a truck. A good-looking, comfortable vehicle can be a recruiting tool to plumbing-and-heating service contractors and other business owners. At 6-1, now and then, I could stand up straight in the cargo and work area of the Transit with a couple inches to spare where I would bump my head on the metal ceiling and rods of the old delivery van. The Transit’s seats were designed more as car seats than truck seats, our Ford hosts told us, and they felt much more comfortable than what I remember.

And, as promised, the Transit drove more like a car than a truck both on the public byways of Kansas City and a closed course in Kemper Arena’s parking lot, which was lined up with orange traffic cones. This was the case regardless of the Transit model, which come in three different heights: low, medium and high.

About the only creature comfort I didn’t get a chance to experience was the Transit’s sound system. That’s because the media member with whom I drove — the publisher of a magazine for owners and operators of limo companies — and I kept up a constant conversation about trucks, the media business and our families. This was, of course, when she moved to the front after she first took a backseat to test the comfort a limo customer would experience.

I would have liked to hear the Transit’s sound system because I can’t think about driving a van without remembering how awful the music was that summer when the only sound system was an AM radio, and I would have to listen to The Hollies, Gilbert O’Sullivan, and Tony Orlando and Dawn over and over again.

 


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KEYWORDS: service trucks

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Miodonski

Bob Miodonski is the former Group Publisher of BNP Media’s Plumbing Group, which consists of industry-leading print and digital magazines, websites and e-newsletters. Titles include: Supply HouseTimes, Plumbing & Mechanical, PM Engineer and Reeves Journal magazines; Bath & Kitchen Pro e-News; PVF e-News; Radiant &Hydronics e-news; and www.RadiantAndHydronics.com.

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