How do I clear this message from from the radio of my 2021 Ford Transit work van

[Rodent]

On 5/16/2023 at 12:19 PM, Rob Hall said:

Wasn't bad...would make a neat camper van.

Yes they are nice, especially since they are available with 4WD.

I have some friends that got into the business of converting Sprinters into campers. The nice thing about the Sprinter is the diesel engine. There are some really high-end diesel heaters available. Combine that with batteries and solar, and you don't need propane. They have stopped installing cooktops in their vans. With a decent electric system, a 2-burner inductive cooktop works great and it only uses counterspace when you use it. They are currently rehabbing a 2018 (?) RAM 3500 Overland camper. They removed the propane and installed a diesel heater. New cabinets, and it will have an induction cooktop like the Sprinters.

[Rob Hall]

I’ve been thinking about a van camper conversion.  Would be fun for summer and fall weekends around the Great Lakes.  

[Rodent]

8 minutes ago, Rob Hall said:

I’ve been thinking about a van camper conversion.  Would be fun for summer and fall weekends around the Great Lakes.  

I know some folks based out of Vancouver, WA. if you are interested in a fresh conversion. It would be a Sprinter though. Not sure what they are building or what they have for sale. They are in escrow for a new house right now.

Kristina will even teach you the "This is the way we grind our poo" song that goes with using the composting toilet.

[Danno]

The one that drives me crazy with its stupid irony and its random [but always at a bad moment] is when the entire touch screen is blanked out by a message that warns that taking one's eyes off the road [to fiddle with the touch screen] can be hazardous. Guess what? Your peripheral vision picks up the sudden and highly visible CHANGE in the touch screen, but you have to LOOK at it to read the message, then you have to LOOK at it to find the little (almost tiny) touch button to click it OFF!   

Makes perfect sense, doesn't it?

 

Warning!  Do not hit bridge abutments or drive off a cliff into the ocean. Click here.

 

 

 

[BlackSheep214]

Think twice before investing in the Ford Transit. We have one in our fleet. Good luck finding major parts for them. Nobody has them anywhere. 

[iamsuperdan]

On 5/19/2023 at 6:49 AM, BlackSheep214 said:

Think twice before investing in the Ford Transit. We have one in our fleet. Good luck finding major parts for them. Nobody has them anywhere. 

 

Like what? I think the Transit is one of the only vehicles we see in for service that almost never has extended wait times for parts. 

Getting a new van is a challenge, but fixing the old ones is a snap.

[Ace-Garageguy]

2 hours ago, iamsuperdan said:

 

...fixing the old ones is a snap.

Not to pick on Ford vans, but the front door hinge pillar design on the current full-size vans is one of the worst I've ever seen. Not only are the hinges not in a line perpendicular to the ground, causing the doors to open at a wonky angle, it's clear the designer of the door pillar had no working knowledge of metal fatigue.

One shop I work with has a bodywork contract with Lockheed Martin's Marietta plant, and we've been repairing fatigued hinge pillars at about 40,000 miles on their entire fleet of these trucks. The pillar skin is very light sheetmetal, the reinforcement behind it "floats" and does very little, the stiffening ribs are too far from the load point, so the washer behind the upper hinge attachment fatigues and pulls through the pillar skin. 

Our fix includes fabbing a 1/8 inch thick load-spreader plate inside the pillar, that does what Ford's sub-optimal design doesn't. They never break again.

Only other pillar design I've seen fail like this was on the mid-1980s Isuzu pickups, when I owned a fleet-services company, and my repair then was almost identical.

EDIT: And yes, they get used hard. But they're, you know...trucks. 

Edited May 20, 2023 by Ace-Garageguy

[BlackSheep214]

21 hours ago, iamsuperdan said:

 

Like what? I think the Transit is one of the only vehicles we see in for service that almost never has extended wait times for parts. 

Getting a new van is a challenge, but fixing the old ones is a snap.

We have the newer Ford Transit vans. The AWD front tierod or axle is one nobody had them. Local mechanic had to call to a Buffalo dealership for the last one in stock. Most recent the latch for the sliding door is another. That part won't come in til August. 

[BlackSheep214]

Kinda takes Found On Road Dead to a whole new level with today's new Fords.