Another great reason for a Transit Base... (1 Viewer)

WAG2CRU

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Had to drop the MH off this morning and therefore had to drive through school traffic, made even worse by the wind.

I was stuck in traffic going uphill and it's the first time I've been crawling in traffic.

Three letters - HLA - AMAZING.......

I think you will find that the Hill Hold system has been available on both Fiat Ducato and Merc Sprinter for some time, nice to know Ford are catching up though.:Cool:
 
Jul 29, 2007
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B-i-l drove us to Manchester the other week, on a nice long hill in I think Glossop, we are stuck in a queue, after a while I realise he's holding it on the clutch!! I said Robert use the handbrake, he said I don't like hill starts. :Doh:

Ian
 

jonandshell

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I think you will find that the Hill Hold system has been available on both Fiat Ducato and Merc Sprinter for some time, nice to know Ford are catching up though.:Cool:

Ford have fitted it since 2008 at least! That's when our chassis cab was built.:Smile:

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Sep 26, 2013
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i think he was jokeing:thumb:
the duratouq is a good engine,far better than a valve dropping fiat/citrion/pug engine.:winky:

The 2.2 engine in the Peugeot/Fiat/Cit. van is made by Ford at Dagenham and I believe that it is the same engine that is in the Transit or at least almost the same.
The 3 litre engine is made by Fiat.
That's what I've read anyway.


Mike
 
Jan 31, 2009
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JUST BUY AN AUTOMATIC. dead easy on hills. BUSBY:roflmto:

Not nowadays. The advanced fuel economy fun and games on modern autos mean they cut power to the wheels while your foot is on the brake - so if you don't use the handbrake on a hill, when you take your foot off the brake the car rolls backwards for a second or two while it transfers power back to the wheels.

Wakes up the driver behind nicely. ::bigsmile:

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Jan 28, 2008
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transits might not drop valves but they do break rocker arms and it roulette time as to how much damage they do often just the frame but often the cam frame and in extreme cases the head as well
 

jonandshell

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Why does everyone slag off Transits based on knowledge gleaned from high mileage, badly driven, commercial fleet vehicles?
I did a pleasant 140k in my last work Transit with no engine or transmission issues at all.
Our current Nissan Primastars (Renault Trafic/ Vauxhall Vivaro) vans all need gearbox rebuilds at 60k and nobody seems to run Sevel vans on high mileage fleets, so they will appear better, won't they!
All I am saying is that a Transit base is no less able than anything else in the sedatery role of a motorhome chassis cab. In fact, Ford garages outnumber the Fiat ones and you'll get faster attention to faults than with other base vehicles.:thumb:
 

jonandshell

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Here we are, 2012/2013 van sales-

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Allanm

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I had a nightmare that I saw a FoMoCo sticker on my Peugeot engine.
When I woke up, it was still there.....:ROFLMAO:
Allan
 
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That's one of my personal bugbears. People who can't do hill starts and roll back... Needless to say after being bumped my first week after passing my test while driving in london, I now leave a good 3-4 meters between me and the vehicle in front when on an upward hill (and to be honest most other times)

I think technological advances are great so long as people use them as another tool in the tool box not an excuse to switch off brain.

One thing I would like to see automated on all vehicles is an automated way of putting on hazard warning lights when heavy breaking is taking place. If I have to do heavy breaking on the motorway usually due to some numpty pulling out in front of me I put hazards on to warn the people behind I am doing unusually hard breaking. Automating this would be handy as I can then keep both hands on the wheel whilst still giving that extra warning to those behind. Either that or an automated way of telling the f*&^ing idiot behind he is too close.
 

jhorsf

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Grommet cars and vans have been putting on hazards under heavy braking for years

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Aug 18, 2011
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Hungry Lebanese Aardvark! :thumb:

No, it's Hill Launch Assist.

When stopping on a hill and you dip the clutch and brake. A light comes on the dashboard to say that HLA is activated.

Then when pulling off, when you take your foot off the brake, the brakes remain on for up to a few seconds to enable you to move your foot to the throttle.

It means you don't have to bother with either the handbrake or quick feet. :thumb:

Just something else to go wrong.BUSBY:roflmto:

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Aug 18, 2011
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Due you mean as opposed to holding it on the biting point, wasting fuel and clutch surface?

EDIT: Just out of thought, do you remove the ABS fuse too? As surely, cadence braking is a lost skill. What about syncromesh, do you remove that from your gearbox so that you can double de-clutch?
:ROFLMAO:

Much preferred a fuller twin split crash box. BUSBY::bigsmile:
 
Aug 18, 2011
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Those things are dangerous. You can come round a curve/bend and see a wall of red. So thought one is "oh shit, pile up, how do I escape". But it's just a wall of red, same as brake lights, devaluing brake lights.

It's a warning not an emergency, so why not bright orange ?

If you are travelling at a safe speed it shouln not be a problem. BUSBY::bigsmile:
 
Aug 18, 2011
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Those things are dangerous. You can come round a curve/bend and see a wall of red. So thought one is "oh shit, pile up, how do I escape". But it's just a wall of red, same as brake lights, devaluing brake lights.

It's a warning not an emergency, so why not bright orange ?

If you are travelling at a safe speed it should not be a problem. BUSBY::bigsmile:

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Aug 18, 2011
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Aha! Just the point! ::bigsmile:

The HLA can make a better job of doing a hill start than I can by either holding or using the Handbrake.

Ain't technology great! :roflmto:

Until it fails. BUSBY::bigsmile:
 
Aug 18, 2011
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next it will be the auto park button so the vehicle parks its self.
mind you the number of people that cant perform this that could only be a good thing

Already available on Fords. BUSBY::bigsmile:
 
Aug 18, 2011
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transits might not drop valves but they do break rocker arms and it roulette time as to how much damage they do often just the frame but often the cam frame and in extreme cases the head as well

Not the banana 2.4 engine. BUSBY::bigsmile:

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jonandshell

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This thread keeps getting resurrected!

It must be the Sevel van owners with their inferiority complex!:roflmto:
 
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Wish more converters would use Tranny base vehicles. The Sevel vans are so much harder to drive - awkward seating positions, sticky crunchy gears, heavy clutches.

Unless I've just been unlucky in the ones I've driven. :Angry:

It seems impossible to find a motorhome I want on anything other than Ducato/Boxer/Relay bases.

I know they're probably cheaper for the maufacturers to buy in - but don't they realise there's reasons for that! :Sad:
 
Apr 27, 2008
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I think that taking your eyes off the road and having to move your body to operate the handbrake is dangerous, also to do this every couple of seconds when crawling in traffic is non-sense.

I used to reluctantly have to go on a Defensive Driving course every year in my old job. Every year they told me that when stopped in traffic, it's beter to leave the car in gear with pedal depressed and the foot brake on.

When I questioned it, I was given 2 answers. 1) so that approaching cars behind could see that you have stopped by a visible sign of brake lights. 2) if you did get shunted, then your foot would probably come off the pedal and the engine would stall locking the wheels.

Now, before anyone shoots me down, I didn't actually agree with point 2 at the time, it's just what I was told. But then I also didn't agree with the point that you shouldn't use the clutch/gears to slow you down as modern cars had brakes that were good enough for the job. At the time I was also was a race licence holder so I'd always educate them on weight shifting and how the gears assist with this! :roflmto:

To go back on point. I have HLA and you can be assured that I'll always be using it rather than waste my time putting the handbrake on every couple of seconds, or wasting fuel and clutch holding it. Put that with the fact that cars are starting to have it fitted as standard (I think some of the newer Golfs have it as standard, a colleagues certainly does), more and more people will use it and therefore make the Handbrake a thing of the past, especially as a lot of these are now electronic and only designed for use as parking, hence the term Parking Brake.

Doesn't Driving Instructors also tell you that you can use the Handbrake as an emergency brake? Try doing that on some modern cars. My Jaguar just beeps at me if I try and activate it whislt driving and if I try it on my Land Rover, I suspect the transmission will fall to pieces as it doesn't lock the wheels.

My Mercedes MH (manual) also has this feature. I have never used it though as I drive several vehicles and wouldn't want to get in the habit of using it.
My Land rover (Discovery) apparently has a feature that in an emergency a passenger can pull up and hold the handbrake switch while the vehicle is moving, and this will apply brakes on all four wheels (not the parking brake), put on the hazard flashers, and bring the vehicle to a stop rapidly. I have never tried this.

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GWAYGWAY

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Whatever! I like my Transit BUT I am upset that there are no more rear wheel drive ones, all front end drive now,, Cannot afford a Merc so I will have to stay with the present one now. Should be good for another 100,000 before its time is due. The only thing is the bodycab/ Chassis might rot out first.
Fords are meant for Paddy to Abuse and neglect, but rot away first.
 

jonandshell

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Waxoyl it!

We have ours and it ain't rusting!!!

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Nov 2, 2008
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As far as I am aware the new Transit is available as FWD, RWD and AWD across the range.
 

GWAYGWAY

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Ford will carry on making RWD Transits, but no body makers will be using them, Chausson only use the FWD version now, probably to do with the ease of building a body on an empty chassis rail with no prop shaft or differential to allow for, Same reason for the FIAT etc types.

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