My van was ordered from my local friendly Ford Utah dealer on September 1, 2000. The build date was September 26th. The van was then shipped to Quigley Motor Company from Ford. Quigley Motor Company received the van about October 25th (4 weeks*). Quigley completed the 4x4 conversion and released the van to T.E.A.M. Inc. on November 13th. Some interior work, Transferflow fuel tank (total 54 gals), American Racing wheels, and a side window were installed by T.E.A.M. Inc. I flew to Harrisburg Pennsylvania to take delivery on the 29th of November. Bob Rhoads from Quigley was kind enough to pick me up and drive me to Quigley to take delivery of my van. At Quigley Bob gave me the VIP tour of the plant. Total time from order date to pickup, 90 days. Why did fly to Pennsylvania to pick up my van? I didn't want to "lose" my van in Ford's "black hole" other wise called shipping. Taking delivery at Quigley saved me that fear of shipping and gave me 3 days and 2087 miles to bond with my new Van. The trip westward home was very uneventful. The first 450 miles were on back country roads with a lot of stop and go driving (what the doctor ordered). My average fuel mileage for this first leg was about 16 mpg. For the second leg I mixed side roads and freeway driving for about 600 miles. Again the fuel mileage was about 16 MPG. In Des Moines at 1029 miles I had the oil and oil filter changed. From there I drove to Laramie WY. keeping my freeway speed around 60 to 65 mph. Averaged just a little under 18 MPG!!!! From Lariamie to Evanston WY. I hammered, my freeway speeds were around 70 to 85, my fuel mileage dropped to less than 14 mpg. Speed kills mpg. I did a problem with my transfer-flow system, it started in Indiana. It was a simple fix. I'll give details later. The van is a dream to drive at speed. This is my first diesel and it is taking me a little bit of time to get use to the noise level at start up and driving at slow speeds. The power is awesome! This power is the reason I got a PSD, power for highway cruising and towing.
11/29/02
I now have over 38,000 miles on my van; the engine at cruising speeds is a very soft purr. Other than having the wrong grade tire (C rated) installed by T.E.A.M which developed into a nasty shake at speed, the Van has been mostly trouble free. It is unfortunate that it took 18 months, (32,000 miles) several tire balancing by three different shops, calls between my Ford Dealer and Quigley that no one could figure out the problem. It amazes me that no one said "hey you got the wrong grade tire on that van"! My Ford dealer finally switched out a set of wheels and tires from a new van to my van for a test drive, the shake went away. I replaced the old C rated tires for a new set for E rated tires. Cost $187 per tire. E350 Super Duty MUST have E rated tires. The van now ride like a dream at any speed. The other hagging problem was the Transfer flow fuel system. TEAM installed a vent tube from the aux tank lower than filling neck. This caused a air lock preventing filling of the aux fuel tank. A metal tube was installed backward at the filling neck. It took me a couple of phone calls to TransferFlow and a couple of hours crawling around under the van checking the vent line before I was able to fix it. My fuel mileage on a bad day, pushing a headwind, loaded with all my toys and towing a 5500# travel trailer, is 10mpg. On a good day, highway cruising no towing I will get 18mpg. My overall average is 14mpg.
10/20/05
79,000 miles: Not all has been well with my van. At 63,000 the vacuum pump went bad. Not good thing, the vacuum pump is what power assist the brakes. $160.00 and three days waiting for the part (weekend).
At 70,000 miles my transmission went bad. (Blog) To make thing worse the transmission failed 2200 miles from home. One thousand miles from the USA, in Baja. Stateside losing a transmission is not a big deal other than having shell out around $3000.00 for a rebuilt transmission. In Mexico it is a big deal, especially in Baja Sur. E350 diesel vans are not sold in Baja, diesels in general are not sold in Mexico to the general public.
I was able to contact
a Ford dealer in La Paz Mexico about 60 miles north of where my van
failed. They were able to order a new transmission from the Mexican
mainland for me. The cost was a cool $4,600.00 installed. Four
weeks later the van was ready. Why four weeks? The transmission failed
just before Christmas. Mexico goes on vacation during the
Christmas/New Year holidays. Between shipping and the Ford dealer
shutting down for the holidays I was lucky to get the transmission
installed in four weeks.
I have also replaced the CPS (cam position sensor), the VSS (speed sensor) for the transmission and will be replacing the tires in November 2005.
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 Basic cargo van. |
 Yes it is Silver? |
 Gutted, Front axle removed |
 4x4 axle being raised into place |
 The Van is now a 4x4 |
 Day One, Gettysburg. Visiting Gettysburg is a bonus,
if you go to Quigley you must go to Gettysburg. |
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Installed by Nick |
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Three windsurfers
& rigs, One Dirt Bike, Two Mt Bikes, Beach chairs, Dog and
Wife.
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Day two, One thousand miles.
Des Moines IN. First Snow and Oil Change