SMB Cutaway Project?

[daveb]

Originally Posted by BroncoHauler

Both for aesthetics and I think it would be much safer, especially if someone had a bike carrier or something in the trailer hitch. Those bumper mounted brake/turn signals could easily be obscured.


Herb

Wonder if it would cause a weak spot in the fiberglass punching a big hole in that location? The other thing is the walls closely hug the shell and is one of the reasons there is more room than the steel body Fords have but I'm thinking they could set up some kind of extra lighting.

[carringb]

Some Jeep tailights would even look good there, and wouldn't require anything other than some threaded inserts and a hole for the wiring.

[JoeH]

Wow, that looks awesome. The wheels, however, look a little too ornate. Almost Gothic.

[Viva]

Originally Posted by daveb

Wonder if it would cause a weak spot in the fiberglass punching a big hole in that location? The other thing is the walls closely hug the shell and is one of the reasons there is more room than the steel body Fords have but I'm thinking they could set up some kind of extra lighting.

Point taken on the space concern (I like the Jeep taillight option!), but no, it's no problem molding cutouts such as this into fiberglass. I mean, it's not like you'd just cut a hole and done, but if you are planning for them it's plenty sturdy - in fact sometimes even more sturdy as any little curved area adds strength (like a rib or stringer does).

[rallypanam]

Looks good, but seems like it was a missed opportunity to not bring the penthouse to the front of the cab...

[eddyturn]

I thought being April 1st, that this was some kind of joke. Guess not. Very cool but need to get out and buy some Powerball tickets.

[rltilley]

The Spring 2015 issue of the Overland Journal came in today & there is a one-page article on the cutaway Sportsmobile.

[86Scotty]

Originally Posted by rltilley

The Spring 2015 issue of the Overland Journal came in today & there is a one-page article on the cutaway Sportsmobile.

Well, steal it! Copy it! Paste it!

[eddyturn]

I just wonder about the flexing of the 2 body parts when doing stuff like rock crawling. I'm sure they've tested it and deemed it worthy. Yes, I'll bet it will be very pricy but finding a van with low miles and in good shape to convert is proving to be a challenge. I find lots of higher mile vans and many seem to have the sliding doors and I want those barn doors. I wonder when they will put this unit on their Web site so we can read more about it? Soon, I hope.

[pffan1990]

I just saw something very interesting on Ford's commercial page regarding the 2016 Ford Econoline Cutaway. First off, I spend lots of time playing around with the Build & Price feature of the site with all their vehicles. It is fun to play around and see what my own special ordered Ford would look like and at what cost. Some options when you select them, a popup will come up to inform you of what effecting changes it would make to the vehicle such as requiring this options or not available with that option, etc. Well the Ford Commercial part of the site has that feature for the 2016 Econoline Cutaway E350 and E450, however, the feature is not and never was available for the Stripped Chassis and Medium Duty vehicles.

Well I got on the 2016 Econoline Cutaway and started 'building' my van. I selected the optional 6.8L V10 and a popup came up saying that the transmission is changed from the 5-speed to the 6-speed TorqShift auto transmission. Uh what? I didn't know Ford had upgraded the V10 engine's transmission to the 6-speed!!! No announcement to my knowledge, just a quiet upgrade. So that means the Sportsmobile SMB Classic Cutaway will have the 6-speed auto! Also, like on the 2016 Transit, the Vermillion Red color has been dropped and replaced with brighter-shade Race Red, which I'm thrilled about. I didn't know if anyone else noticed this but thought I'd let you all know. If this has been brought up before, then I apologize for repeating it.