Would 2020 Ford Transit make a good towing vehicle ???

[Betik]

the existing one I think it maxes out at 5,000lbs, but I am hoping the new one can go to 7,000lbs to compete with the sprinter. Ford is already saying that it will have a 4 wheel drive option, so I am praying on the towing capacity going up......



2020 Ford Transit Van – New Engines and All-Wheel Drive

 

[tabbibus]

Decked out 2020 explorer will top at 5600. I suspect flex may be similar.

 

[Dixie Highway]

Transit van is much different platform than Explorer or Flex. RWD live axle, plus the little Power Stroke is an option on there.

 

[2kwik4u]

My Uncle has one of these for his business I drove about a year ago. I was REALLY surprised at the power the turbo V6 had. Drove it for about 200 miles that day. Essentially I was a chauffeur for some business clients he had to the race track and back for a corporate event......anywho, I'm 6'2" tall and the front seat didn't go far enough back to really be comfy. Cruised on the interstate really smoothly, had a good confident acceleration with 14 people in it. He has an upgraded stereo in there, so the tunes worked out really well for the event. Overall it was a pretty nice ride. I want to say it got around 13-14mpg for the trip as well, which isn't bad considering the weight it was hauling around.

I could totally see getting one of these as a tow vehicle for a 24ft boat if the capacities worked out and they had an AWD/4WD option for sketchy ramps. Family of 4 with some friends for vacation would be totally doable. in this thing.



*edit*.....as a comparison, I had driven the below "beast" to Florida from KY for work just a few weeks prior to driving the Transit......The Transit was a CONSIDERABLY nicer vehicle overall. Felt much nicer to drive, had much better power, and was much more attractive. I think the baby sprinter was FWD only, and had a very weak V6 from Daimler-Benz-Fiat-Chrysler-Dodge. Granted there are clearly some trim level differences between the two, my preference on driving dynamics alone would be the Transit.

 

[Betik]

The 2020 will have an all wheel drive option for sure. The real question is how much towing capacity it will get.

 

[2kwik4u]

The 2020 will have an all wheel drive option for sure. The real question is how much towing capacity it will get.

I suspect they won't be all that impressive in the standard Transit Series. I was just noodling around on the Ford Website, and it looks like the highest capacity is a 10k GVWR chassis. With a presumed 6k curb weight that only leaves 4k for cargo/etc. Not much higher than a standard fullsize pickup really.

Here is the 2018 Transit Towing Selector. I see some 7k capacities in there. Might not be as bad as I thought.

 

[BrandonG]

Im curious to see what trans they are going to offer, if its the truck 10 speed it may be ok for towing but if its an FWD transmission mated with a AWD transfer case I'd stay away. The Ram Promasters use a FWD transmission and they have very good longevity in those vans if people are really loading em heavy for work.

 

[Dixie Highway]

Im curious to see what trans they are going to offer, if its the truck 10 speed it may be ok for towing but if its an FWD transmission mated with a AWD transfer case I'd stay away. The Ram Promasters use a FWD transmission and they have very good longevity in those vans if people are really loading em heavy for work.

The current Transit platform is RWD, my guess is they’d use a RWD based AWD system rather than have completely different platforms for the RWD and AWD models. In addition it looks as though the 10 speed auto will be standard across all engine options. No AWD diesel though.

 

[Liveto99]

I just got a extra long high roof 350 last week the tow capacity is 7200lbs. This is such a great truck and drives so well I love it. This one is for the business but now I may get one to make a RV out of. In the old days with 2 wheel drive we would just mount a hitch on the front to use it on a boat ramp, worked great and also was great for moving trailer in tight yards and such with the turn axel so close to the trailer hitch when needed.

 

[Liveto99]

 

[Jgorm]

I wanted a e350 extended with the v10 for a while, but they are so hard to find i ended up with an excursion. The e350 v10 with 4.10s is tested at 10k lb towing. The transit is cool, but not a full 1 ton. The sprinter is cool too, but has that tiny weak diesel. The best option is the quigly or ujoint 4x4 conversion on a v10 e350ext. I much prefer the v10 over the 7.3 and current have both.

 

[bronze_10]

A v10 with 4.10 gears? That's gotta hurt the wallet at every gas station u see.

 

[Liveto99]

I understand for climbing mountains. But otherwise the v10 and the 7.3 both pull great. And the 7.3mgets good mileage.if you want a beast get a 550 truck.