Ford Club Wagon. Good Tow Vehicle?

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: I used to drive an E350 with a 460 as a newspaper delivery van. It would get loaded from floor to ceiling, front to back all the way to the windshield with tightly packed newspaper bundles. It sagged and waffled badly like that but it would climb hills and stop at the bottom if you gave it some advanced thought. It was a 220 mile round trip. I could barely make it back on one 27g tank. The thing did it every night for the 4 years I worked there and it never broke down. After the 1/2 way point when the thing was loaded with a normal, sane amount of weight it would drive like a family car. When it was empty it would break your teeth on bumps but you could lay rubber until you decided to lift off (if you were an immature 22yr old, that is... It would look like fireworks in the winter with the studs in :)

I remember renting a Club Wagon to deliver some supplies down to the crew at Dover Downs. Our work van was already there.. so I went down to the rental place and they gave me a HUGE 13 passenger van. On the way back, coming up route 1.. I got cut off by a new Mustang heading into the tollbooth. Nailing the throttle out of the booth.. I stayed with him all the way to 85.. and then the rental fuel cut hit and it felt like somebody had thrown an anchor out the back.

I bet the mustang pilot was NOT happy that a van kept up with him

914Driver wrote: IIRC Mental has a cool one.

You do and he does.

LOVE IT.

5.8L AOD. A/C power locks & windows. I would actually recomend the club wagon over the cargo becuase of the windows. Better visablility and less of a creepy factor. Plus it seats 7 (12 on occasion) and is great for loading up folks with a single DD and avoiding DUI's. Also great for towing/rudimentary RV at the track.

Holds 2 bikes inside, hauled a 1993 Lincon MKVIII from Iowa to OK. Towed a trailer when full of boxes to OK from CO. Cost me all of $850.

The downs are it gets awful mileage (13 with a trailer and around town), and the AC cannot keep up when it has a full load of peaple inside. You do share space with smelly toold and what not and loading/unloading an engine gets challenging.

The ups are they are usually cheaper than a pickup and more versitle. Ability to sleep in it. carry more crew than truck, and even though wind makes it all kinds of fun on the freeway, I do think the wheel base makes it a bit more of a stable towing platform.

Thanks for all the replies guys. I didn't realize the club wagons came in 150,250,and 350. I would want at least an e250 but probably an e350. I drove plenty of e350 cargo vans at my last job ,most having the 5.4 v8. I've got an expedition now but would much rather have the versatility of a van. The wife and I do camping and I'm getting tired of tents and want to outfit the back of the van for sleeping.Does anybody know how tough it is to install side windows and a bench seat into a cargo e350?

Buy a E350 Chateau, they come with 4 captains chairs and rear bench lays down as a bed. Seats 7 and can still hold a huge load of stuff. It is Ford's "Conversion" and there are 7.3 turbo diesel versions

ReverendDexter wrote:

Toyman01 wrote: Avoid the 6.0 diesel. The horror stories about them are legendary. Any of the other engines are pretty good.

The horror stories come from that motor being introduced before the fuel here was clean enough for them. There's a couple other issues, but nothing really any worse than any other motor on the road. Any that are still on the road should be fine at this point, and they have a huge advantage over then 7.3 in that they have a variable-vane turbo.

Haven't driven the 6.0 but I gotta believe the variable vane turbo is a god-send. The old 7.3 pulls like a freight train...once the turbo spools up. Off turbo it is a turd. To me it makes driving on anything other than interstate an unsatisfying experience. Exit a turn, hit the throttle, wait for turbo, boom there it is, time to slow down for next turn already, repeat ad infinitum...

Local county mechanic support truck blew two 6.0 turbo diesels in 24,000miles, and 8, yes 8 turbos in their F550, gave up and installed a 5.9 Cummins, it rocks now.