Nice little camper
 

I can't help it I always look at a vehicle and wonder can I sleep in there at 6'2" and 300lbs the answer is often no but I think with a few mods and the seats pushed forward at night this would make a nice little camper not great head room but better than most.

Think about this I converted the inside of a Geo Tracker so that with the passenger seat folder forwards there was a flat sleeping space 6'6" no I don't have pictures but it was funny as hell when the highway patrol knocked on the window in the middle of the night and my German Shepherd and I crawled out the rear he was more curious about my sleeping bench fab then telling me I couldn't sleep there.

FYI

http://www.fordvehicles.com/transitconnect/

I think it would be sufficient to sleep in.

It would be tight for a large man or two...not much room left to store your camping stuff. The highway mileage is surprisingly poor for a small vehicle with a 4 cylinder engine, think it might have something to do with what apppears to be significant drag with the raised roof, that makes it hard on the little 4 banger to overcome.

I've had a lot of experience with vans...Econolines, Chevy full size, Chevy mid size..etc.

There is a market for very light duty vans like the HHR or the small Transit.

I don't want to sound continually negative about the Transit, but from the first time I saw one, I felt Ford made a bit of an error importing this Transit version, considering they haven't brought over the larger Transit, which is a very useful vehicle.

Also the Transit price for what it is...seems awfully pricey, compared to a basic commercial Econoline.

Sorry to not be a fan of this light delivery vehicle, but Ford needs to knock down the price and look at using a small turbo diesel rather than the hard working, not particularly fuel efficient gas 4 cylinder for today's market.

It has a lot to do with the higher rpms it has to spin the highway - the milage differential around town between the Connect and an E-150 I would expect to be quite large.
I agree, the Transit is good (in fact very good), but it would be out of the price range for most US buyers, not to mention it would be even more gutless than the Connect with a gas engine (there is no gas engine currently engineered for the Transit, and Fords current range of V8's don't fit under the hood).
Thats in part to many things.

1. The Econoline platform really hasn't changed since the 70's, no development costs to recoup. Transit gets a major re-engineering every 5 years or so
2. Diesel engines in the Transit (option in a PSD in an Econoline for a good comparison)
3. For sale in Europe (i.e start including lots of taxes)

Having driven both - the Transit is a much MUCH better vehicle too.
As much as I think it would be a better vehicle, I don't think the market would buy that (look at sales of the Sprinter for example).

I will keep my 2005 chevy astro awd.......sleeps 2 and 3 dogs and all our gear when camping.......and has awd......and 18-19 mpg.......and is paid for!!!

There is plenty of room, but the front seats don't fold forward or down. You don't quite get a straight 6' between the back wall and the rear of the front seats. Diagonally you would fit though. I've got the U.S. wagon version. Would have gotten the van but it wasn't quite large enough for my normal large loads like plywood and my motorcycle. As it turns out having the rear seats has proven more useful.

I've seen one camper configuration with the bed as a platform above the seats. High roof makes that feasable. I think the bed folder up against the side when not in use. At 300lbs you'll need a strong platform though.

I've got an idea in my head to make mine a mobile movie theater. A projector on the overhead shelf, DVD player in the dash, and either a rear projection screen hung between open doors or an inflatable screen to rear project onto. I've already got the dash unit replaced and a monitor on the shelf. Just looking for a good projector that will run off of 12v DC.