The Ford Transit comes with pitifully small 235/65-R16 tires and at a diameter of just 28″, it really limits the Ford Transit’s off-road abilities. At about the 21,500 miles mark, the stock tires were ready to be replaced. Instead of replacing them with the same size we went bigger with 245/75-R16 tires at a diameter of 30.5″. This is about as large as you can go on the Transit with minimal modifications.

When ordering our custom Ford Transit van one of the first things we had to decide was what trim version we would get. The cargo version of the Transit comes in a 150, 250, 350, and 350HD variant. The higher the number the more the van can carry and tow. As first time van owners we had no idea how much our van conversion would weight so we went with the largest payload capacity we could get without having dual wheels in the back. We didn’t want dual wheels in the back as that would take up much needed interior space. So we went with the 350 version which has a maximum payload capacity of 4,270 LBS according to Car and Driver or 4,120 LBS according to Ford.

An adventure van always needs more storage, you can never have enough, that’s probably the one thing we have learned while using Gidget.

Easily accessing surf related items from the back doors was an area that needed improvement so we added some mesh pockets to the back door.

Originally we installed the bed perpendicular to maximize the space in the living room of Gidget. This was never ideal as we are both pretty tall (Matt 5’11” – Tricia 5’10”), but we could have made it work. After the original install it squeaked like crazy so we even redid the whole platform.

When we installed the folding bench seat, we were left with a large gap between the bed and the seat. This created the perfect opportunity to turn the bed parallel in the van to give us more sleeping room. Third time’s a charm, right?

The biggest con of getting the cargo version of the Ford Transit is that it only comes with two front seats. With only two seats it makes hanging out in the “living room” hard to do. It also prevents us from taking friends with us on adventures.

So we added a Freeman Handi-Flip folding bench seat. Now Gidget has a total of 4 seats with seat belts.

We had help with the install to make sure it was safe. If you decide to install an aftermarket seat we strongly encourage you have it done professionally.

For extra storage and a place to mount the solar panel we decided to install an Aluminess roof rack and ladder. From order to install took about 2.5 months. Actual installation took about 5 hours at the Aluminess headquarters in San Diego.