Better measure your garage door

First comment, this van is big. No doubt about it. When we went to look for an Econoline conversion van we were warned that some older style garages aren't big enough for this van. Since our house is only a couple of years old we didn't feel we'd have a problem, but when we brought it home the van's antenna hit the garage door frame as we pulled in. It fits but barely. In addition to the height, this is also a long and wide vehicle. Seeing these driving around they don't look that big, but pull it into your garage and you may not have room for much else on that side of the garage. Luckily, we have an oversized garage, if you don't you may want to test drive one home and park it to make sure it fits.

While the size in the garage is a disadvantage, it is also a huge advantage. Our other vehicle is a Montero Sport and it has plenty of rear leg room but nothing compared to the Econoline van. Between the front seats and the second row it must be close to 5 ft. Also, there is enough room between the seats that we can bring in our upright vacuum cleaner to vacuum the area between the rows of seats. No car vac needed for this monster. The storage area behind the back row of seats at first looks small but once you start to fill it up you'd be amazed how much will fit. The area not very deep but is very high and wide. We recently took a trip with our family of four to Florida and this back area held 2 full size suitcases, a full size cooler, an overnight bag, the kids backpacks, an emergency kit, pillows for 4 people and we still had room for more.

I can't say enough about the ability to have a TV/VCP in a travel vehicle. Although we had a minivan for travelling before, it didn't have a TV and this made the trip so much more enjoyable for our family. Although it's nice to talk to each other it reaches a point when driving 24 hours each way, that it's nice to pop in a movie or 2 and the kids are happy for 2-3 hours. It also gives mom and dad some time to talk on their own. The speaker placement in our conversion package also works very well as the people in the back 2 rows of seats can hear the TV well but in the front seat it is much harder to hear. This was great as we could use the stereo/CD player in the front seat and the kids could watch a movie in the back without us bothering each other.

Remember that because this van is big, it is also heavy. It can take a long time to stop and you can't make the quick stops you can in a car. I feel that my wife and I drive pretty conservatively and we still went through our first set off brake pads in 28,000 miles. We now have an additional 25,000 miles and the brakes are starting to make noise again. It takes a lot of time to stop and this van wears brakes out fast. Our next set will be the heaviest duty brake pads we can find.

We have the V6 instead of the Triton V8 engine. It moves good but is slightly more sluggish then a friends van that has the V8. Regardless of the engine, this van is heavy and geared low, you'll never get quick acceleration. Once you accept the fact that you can't drive this vehicle like a sports car you'll be fine. Just a different type of driving. Our van gets about 15mpg in everyday driving.

We've made it through 2 Minnesota winters without traction problems. I'm sure the low gearing and weight helps the traction.

I haven't talked much about the conversion package because there are so many different companies out there that do the conversions. Ours is a Mark III and we're happy with it.

We really the van and the package except for 2 things.
First, the Goodyear tires only made it about 30,000 miles. At that point the tread was still good but they had developed uneven wear that caused a bounce on most roads. Ford said this due to the type of tire and weight of the vehicle. According to Ford these tires MUST be rotated every 6000 miles. If you don't you could have problems like we did. We replaced the Goodyear tires with Michelins and are much happier with them.

Second, the glove compartment is horrible. It's a tall skinny compartment instead of a short wide compartment like most glove compartments. This means that it probably holds a lot of volume but is impractical because you have to stack things in it. Then, when you open the door everything falls forward. Bad design.

If you need or want the size, and can handle the current price of gas for something this size, these vans make a great trip vehicle and are good for just driving around as well.