2020 Ford Transit AWD

Highlander

The Strong, Silent Type
I have had an European Transit AWD without lift and 225/75R16 At tires for almost 10 years. With this I've done almost 100,000 miles in África and the entire Panamericana. Believe me I have driven tracks which were a lot worse than the ones on your pictures. You will be fine. Because of the small tires you just need good skidplates.

Fair enough.
In the west a lot of public lands roads lay through mountains and hills. Some of them are quite stiff and just for confidence I would feel safer to put it in awd low, which is not available in the Transit.
I am very curious how did you deal with situations such as stiff hills without a low rang?
 

Highlander

The Strong, Silent Type
Lift and tires are the most common modifications made regardless of the vehicle marque, maybe you haven't spent much time on this website? The whole site is about "aftermarket solutions".

Well. I do read a lot and also post too. Though I am not as experienced as you guys are,
Only ones I drove a transit van. From Queens to Brooklyn :D

but isn’t it better to need as less after market stuff as possible?

Btw has your van got ford’s terrain management system?
 

sg1

Adventurer
Fair enough.
In the west a lot of public lands roads lay through mountains and hills. Some of them are quite stiff and just for confidence I would feel safer to put it in awd low, which is not available in the Transit.
I am very curious how did you deal with situations such as stiff hills without a low rang?
The European Transit had a 6 speed manual with a very slow 1 gear. I could drive up hills at 6 mph at about 1800rpm. I only had a 140 HP diesel. I don't know how a 10 speed EB would perform.
 

Highlander

The Strong, Silent Type
The European Transit had a 6 speed manual with a very slow 1 gear. I could drive up hills at 6 mph at about 1800rpm. I only had a 140 HP diesel. I don't know how a 10 speed EB would perform.

The new 10 speed ratios are as fallows;

1st - 4.689
2nd - 2.985
3rd - 2.146
4th - 1.769
5th - 1.520
6th - 1.275
7th - 1.000
8th - 0.854
9th - 0.689
10th - 0.636
Reverse - 4.866

+ 3.73 axle gear ratio (with an optional LSD)


While this may not be too bad it would be great if vendors figure out some kinda of a low range kit...
 

sg1

Adventurer
Right now I'm traveling and don't have access to good internet. But off the top of my head the gearing of the first gear seems to be very close to the first gear with low range of the Sprinter.
 

kstarr

New member
Find me one them with low mines and not a POS. :)
Well, it's no $150,000 Sprinter, but it's definitely not a POS. 2006 AWD Savana with 59k miles.
 

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Farfrumwork

Well-known member
Right now I'm traveling and don't have access to good internet. But off the top of my head the gearing of the first gear seems to be very close to the first gear with low range of the Sprinter.


It's pretty close...

Sprinter with 'low' range has an overall gearing of 20:1 in 1st (first gear w/o low is 14:1), the 10spd awd ecoboost transit has an overall gearing of 17.5:1
^^ both with stock tires

I think a typical E350 setup would be ~22:1 in low (but I'm no E350 expert and know there are lot of variants to be considered)

Who's going to swap the first low geared transfer case into an AWD transit?
 

mgmetalworks

Explorer
Who's going to swap the first low geared transfer case into an AWD transit?

Someone with deep pockets and a thorough understanding of the electronics in the system that have to be dealt with...not to mention the challenging mechanical fit issues and limited availability of (Ford compatible) passenger drop T-case assemblies or components. As they say, anything is possible but IMO, there are much better ways to have a low range in a Transit.

It's an electronic-nannied AWD system with some obvious limitations as we've seen by previous posts, don't let your expectations get too high for aftermarket upgrade offerings.
 

plumber mike

Adventurer
Has anyone started in on increasing clearance by addressing low hanging fruit in the undercarriage?
I know the off-road guys get into shaving axle housings and relocating shock mounts. This may be the easiest considering it doesn’t look like it takes too well to larger tires.
I’ve taken 2wd econolines places they probably shouldn’t go. My hope was the same for the Transit, but I’m getting the feeling reality is looking a bit different.
I’ve been saving money to buy but still not sold. Finally had a chance to check out 4wd sprinters. That's an expensive tin can, and the dealer said they don't need to discount them from MSRP. It had some cool options that we probably won't see on the transit (like the pre heater) but not enough to justify the cost.
 

luthj

Engineer In Residence
AWD full sized vans typically sell for 50-100% more than typical 2wd vans of the same condition.
 

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