Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob Denman
Thanks for the info. 
But it seems odd... 
I would have almost bet money that Ford would have done some "parts bin engineering,"; in order to save some coin... |
That would require Ford having usable parts in their bins, but the electric Transit is the very first vehicle of its kind at Ford as far as I know, so it seems very unlikely engineers had much existing components to work with.
In order to haul about 4,000 pounds of cargo in eTransit, Ford needed an independent rear suspension with around 6,000-pound capacity. That’s equivalent to my E-350’s live rear axle which is rated at 6,084 pounds (limited by tires in my case).
Notice the eTransit is only available with Single Rear Wheels (at least for now) unlike gas Transits. While SRW limits cargo capacity, I expect it was more difficult to design an independent rear suspension that would work with duallies.
Anyway, I’m just glad to see additional research and development towards heavier-duty independent rear suspensions using single wheels. Both are huge steps towards future RVs that drive and handle a little more like SUVs and less like commercial trucks.
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