Do most of you with shelved/racked out unfitted vans feel the 250 is good enough? Or is it just not enough to handle the weight when loaded up with tools/inventory?

Intend to do long wheelbase and probably the extended body. Medium or high roof. Def not the low.

Thanks.

Tools and normal equip we use I’d say is pretty insignificant. I would think about if you would ever need to tow something like a lift, trencher, or walk behind dozer something like that.

I have a transit with medium roof and long wheelbase
It’s the 150 and even loaded up it’s great.
I have ranger design aluminum shelves and the sortimo partition. Both chosen to reduce weight.
In general i try to keep it stocked and when i push the gas it flies. It makes my old Nisssan NV really slow

I’d like to go full sortimo.

Try and nail down what your base cargo load is, between that and the cargo capacity you’ll have an idea which way to go. While your doing that pay attention to where your weight will be placed. Heavy items typically get kept near doors but you don’t want to be doing that with the rear doors because it’s horrible for weight distribution. Long wheelbase would compound this would it not..

Better yet tell your sales guy to put 1500 pounds in the back and take it for a drive. Sounds like a pain for the sales guy but better this then you finding out after that your not happy. A friend brought me along for a test drive a couple months ago, wanted my opinion, gave the sales guy my licence and told him I was going to grab the dump trailer and skid steer. He was happy, wanted to know how it went after.

I was in this situation 2 years ago on a truck purchase, went 3/4 and it took my tool weight fine but when it came time to pull a trailer it went straight back to the dealership for rear airbags.

Hope this helps

Ya I want to get this right as I will be special ordering it optioned out exactly how I want. I don’t want to get a 350 and have it ride like a lumber wagon if a 250 is all I need. There might be times here or there where I’m hauling a trailer with it for personal stuff. Like moving my pontoon boat or something. Hmmm

Look into putting air bags on the rear suspension of it. See what’s available for capacities and go from there. I had 10,000 pound bags installed with the connection points in the rear bumper licence plate top bolt holes. Keep in mind this was a truck but I kept a Milwaukee 12volt compressor under the back seats and it had no issues putting 100 pounds in them. I think it cost 750.00 installed at the dealership, was cheap not having the compressor built in. Ran them at 5 pounds when I wasn’t towing, wouldn’t know they were there. I would tow 15-20k pounds and that’s when I would put a good 80-95 pounds in them and it would level the load right out.

Weigh your current rig at any truck stop.
Compare that to the sticker on your door or SPECs from the internet.
That will tell you exactly how much your crap weights.

Look at drive ratios.
Are you doing mountain driving or are you zipping on flat highway speeds?
do you need 3.31 or 4.1 on your rear diff?
Looks like your options are: Final drive 3.31:1, 3.73:1, 4.10:1

Personally, I do mostly highway driving in my van at around 70-100MPH.
I hardly ever tow anything.
I'm also over a mile high (ASL), so N/A engine is not optimal (turbo or supercharge would be better to compensate for thin air).
YMMV


Most of all, rent it or take it for extended test drive.

I own a 275gal IBC water tote. That thing weighs ~2,400lbs when full.
You can get a used tote for free to $100.
If you don't have a forklift, install it empty (only little over 128LBS) -- strap it down -- fill it with water -- drive around -- drain and remove when done.
Or buy a pallet of bricks/blocks/cement/pellets. Drive it around and then return it. Yes, make sure HD will load it on a pallet.

Good idea with the tote. I also have a 275 gallon tote and a place right down the road with a 2.5” water line that is like a car wash. Drop 25 cents in and it’ll run for about a minute.

250 is all you need. (honestly for what we do a 150 is more then enough)

I had a 250 Transit Diesel (had to get rid of it because of city ordinance) I bought that because I had big plans of building it out and it was going to way a ton.

There isn't a huge difference in ride quality between a 150 and 250. Get the 250, don't even bother thinking about the 350. We honestly don't carry around a lot of stuff that weighs a lot.

Cool I was hoping someone could say from experience that the 350 is way more then we would need. Good this saves me $$$

We only purchase 1 tons for our electricians. But the parts and wire tend to be at least 500 lbs more per van. I've never weighed the tech vans verses the journeyman's vans but my guess would be in the neighborhood of 500-1000 lb difference. I believe you just get updated springs, shocks, etc. that can handle the additional 1000 lbs payload. That's the only main difference. For us, it ensures that we will get at least 10 years out of the van without the need to replace springs, shocks, etc. We buy Chevy Express vans. So I would say tech's could easily get away with 3/4 ton.