Interior height - nice in Ford Transit 350HD Platform

Hi,

I went to a local RV show last week and saw a number of Class B commercial conversions.

One that was kind of interesting was a Paseo built on a Transit 350HD chassis.

Most of the van was standard conversion stuff, but what struck me was how nice the couple extra inches of interior height were vs the sprinter van conversions. Being at a show, it was quick to walk and stand in each one.

I am 5-11, so some conversion heights start to cut it close, this was significantly better for me.

The high roof did allow me to design a bed platform at 30" elev. and have the normal overhead cabinets and still retain the ability to sit up in bed without hitting my head on the bottom of the cabinets. Also nice for head room if you have an indoor shower.

Not so nice is it does not look as good as a Sprinter IMO. Extra height is also noticeable when driving. I hit more tree branches. Have to be careful.

Suggest you drive one for a comparison.

Thanks for the insight about height and branches.

When you are at an RV show, it is easy to loose perspective on what looks "normal" or not. Two days at the show and a 40ish ft Tiffin class A with literally the entire side of the bus slide out seemed almost as normal as a 4 door sedan.

In the past, I thought the Transit, especially the higher roof models looked kind of - not quite right. Interestingly, this one was in a dark sort of charcoal color and it all seemed to blend together fairly cleanly. I don't wash my car often enough to have a charcoal colored van, and it would be way to hot, but it looked nice inside of the tent.

It is interesting that we have so many 2500s converted to RV type use by DIY, but at the shows, the vast majority are 3500, no matter the level of conversion.

I am starting to think about the idea of doing a sort of 2 stage RV setup. Setup the van for 4 -5 seats plus sleeping for 1 person (when traveling alone) and when traveling with more, tow along a small, open floor plan toy hauler for the rest of the stuff. I really liked how easy it is to walk things up a ramp into the wide opening of even a small toy hauler trailer.

Even though I don't really have any toys to take along, ease of loading luggage and supplies would be so much improved over small side doors.

The 3500s are an absolute minimum for having some conversion in the van and to pull even a modest toy hauler trailer. I still need to do some research on the ability of the Ford vs Sprinter for towing - and stopping. There is a lot of exaggeration going on in the trailer and truck marketing on what they can really do, not just on flat ground, but also going up and down hills.