Renting a Transit Van for a Funeral?

Happy Thanksgiving all

My family has been very busy, and the update is below. Yes, I am still working on videos for the YouTube channel. However, our family caught a nasty cold at the funeral, so my production ability has slowed way down. Yes, I am still work on videos for the YouTube Channel. Now, onto the post.

Introduction

My wife and I were sitting down at breakfast a couple of weeks ago when she got the dreaded call, “Dad is not doing well!” Unfortunately, her father’s health has been failing due to Parkinson’s and dementia. We felt the fog of the day. Later that night we got the call that her dad had passed away.

We needed to get back to her home, which is a good 12-hour drive. She has a number of items in the house that we have failed to retrieve over the years. Our van needed to get serviced, so I suggested, “You know, this trip is going to suck, how about we make the best of it and rent a 15-passenger van? We will have space, I won’t have to rush servicing the FAV (family adventure van), and we can haul all the stuff home that has been at your dad’s house for years.“ I got on the phone with Enterprise, and we had a 15-passenger Transit van reserved with the medium roof. Our trip was set 24 hours after receiving the news. Every family of 5 needs a 15-passenger van, right?

The van is big. I code-named the van BAV. In fact, the first thing I said when I sat down in the van was, “Man, this is a big ass van!” I pulled it out of the parking spot in the garage, and then I had to drive down the parking garage. I did pretty well, but then I had to back up on one turn because I turned too early. Thankfully, I watched the mirrors so there was no musical shrieking metal rapping with concrete. I call that a big win!

Yeah, we stopped at Wall, SD for a break. The van has a 4 hour seat for me, which is unfortunate, because the van drives great otherwise.

What didn’t we like

I want to get the bad news out of the way before the good news. So, what are some of the things that I did not like?

The driver’s seat was not the most comfortable. The seat will move backward and forward with old-school locking mechanisms. This is perfectly fine, but it would be nice if the seat could tip forward or back. When we stopped the first time, my butt fell asleep and well…. I almost fell on it when I got out of the van. I don’t think that SBD (Sleepy Butt Disorder) is a fun thing to experience. Then again, the old SBD (Silent But Deadly) is not great either. If I ever bought one of these vans the first thing I would do is upgrade the front seats to prevent SBD.

The climate control was a bit frustrating. You have the temp control in the front of the van, which is really nice because you can set the temperature. However, there is a dial for the rear of the van that is only at the front of the van. So, the people way in the back of the van, you know, 30 seconds behind everyone else, have to shout for the temperature to be adjusted. I guess on the tech side it is cool that rear climate control voice-activated, but our FAV has climate control by the middle seat. You might not think that this is a big deal, but a few hours into the trip and we discovered that the kids had found a rolling sauna. All of a sudden, the kids declared mutiny, “We are dying back here! Can you turn the temperature down?” I was comfortable in the front with the 65-degree setting. Once I figured out how this worked, we did not have a problem. However, Ford put a control in the back, even if it is just the simple dials like the front.

The stupid warnings…. UGH….. we started one morning after there was some dew on the van. The downside was when we finally got rolling, the dew was setting off one of the radar sensors, and it kept triggering…. and triggering….and triggering while I was driving to the gas station a half mile away. I guess the Ford Transit has something against morning dew. I wiped the bumper, and then it was done. Good NIGHT, that was annoying. Thankfully, it was an easy fix, and the radar is cool, but if I bought one, I would buy one without that crap and install a front camera.

Overall, I grant that these are nit-picky things. However, I am writing on the internet so I am probably a nit-picky person. I will let you decide on that one.

What I like

This thing is a big ass van! We had many nicknames for it. When we were with the family, we called it the party bus. That was pretty epic. Sometimes I would call it the kidnapper van or the murder van. It was funny until I took my nieces and nephews to a park where they could play basketball and pickleball….. I was like, “If I get pulled over, this could be bad. We all have different last names, and how am I going to explain this to a police officer?” Well, thankfully, I never found the answer to that question. It went just fine, and the kids had a nice break from the adults who were engaged in the funeral planning and the like.

The big van means that there are big windows! I have no idea how that would be in the winter and if the AC could keep up, but you can SEE! I mean, you can really see! The kids loved that they could all have a window going down the road. In fact, we had the last row for our stuff, and so each kid still got their own row. They would stretch their feet, enjoy their personal USB charger, and daydream as we went down the road. They loved it! My oldest daughter said it was the best road trip ever. If you are going to a national park with a family…. well, this might be better than renting an RV as you could sleep in the seats.

It is surprisingly quiet! I was worried that this van, being a cargo van, would be pretty loud. The sliding door would make an annoying rattling sound, but if the door was closed well then it was fine. Closing the door well means that you channel your inner rage and you CLOSE the door with authority. I guess this is Ford helping people get their road rage out before they get on the road.

The touch screen is really nice! Sometimes large displays can be overwhelming, but Ford does a nice job. I could glance down and check the maps, or the podcasts, or even quickly select another podcast without taking my eyes off the road. It is also really nice for the passenger to select different music. However, that could be a downside as well…..

This is the screen from the passenger side. The best part is your copilot can operate the screen while you drive. There is no lockout feature, which is AWESOME. Thank you, Ford!

Now, as a driver…. please let the passenger work the screen while you drive. I really don’t want Ford to get sued, so they have to change it.

This is a shot of the screen from the driver’s side. If I was in review mode I would have taken a pic with the screen on. However, I was still in funeral mode and not thinking 100% with clarity.

I love all the cup holders! I think there were cup holders for the cup holders. I think that Ford installed cup holders to hold cup holders because there is so much room for cup holders.

There are three in the center of the dash, both driver and passenger have a big cubby/drink holder, and there is another drink holder on the top of the dash. They all work!

The doors even have drink holders and a ton of storage. Ford really did their work and it was appreciated by my family.

The many cup holders might be to guarantee that someone does not drive the van for more than 4 hours. Did I mention the SBD because of the front seat? Yes, I do like to whine. You can have so much coffee on board that you will have to stop every 5 minutes. It is awesome! I was tempted to fill the coffee cup holders to the max, but I was scared I would be walking like Kramer after his coffee settlement. Imagine the cool stories at the gas stops?

They had a USB-C phone charger on top of the dashboard! It was sooooo cool! You plug your phone in, and there is a cubby for it on the dashboard. It is great because the phone gets charged, Apple CarPlay does its thing, and the phone is out of the way.

The up-top backup camera. The camera is high. It is mounted on the top of the roof. I am pretty sure that the altitude is so hight that you will have to get a separate weather report for the camera. The nice thing is you have a very good view of the backside of the BAV.

I was SHOCKED at the mileage. Our Odyssey does really well, but it is an M-FAV (Mini Family Adventure Van). This one is a BA-FAV (Big-Ass Family Adventure Van). I figure with our Honda, we will get 24mpg on the low end and we have done as well as 30mpg (not often) with a good tailwind. This van got 17.5 with the cruise set between 75-78. On the way home, I got 15.7 MPG with the cruise set at 75-80. I know that this is not earth-shattering mileage, but the size of the van, the amount of precious…. how do you say politely…. CRAP, we were hauling back. I thought the mileage was impressive.

The toggle between the different dashboard displays. It is cool that you can set the screen on the dash to show your data.

This is just the clean display of the speed. I like this setting when driving around town. However, you can have your directions on the dash, or many other options that you scroll through using the right toggle on the steering wheel.

This is the display that I kept up most of the time on the freeway. I figured out how to reset it so I could see how long it took us to drive home, the MPG, total miles, and distance to empty. It is nice just to glance down and notice that data.

The gas mileage. I was surprised. Now, this is not M-FAV mileage, but this is a BAV so I was impressed. On the way out with the cruise set at around 75, we got 17.3 MPG. I didn’t do the calculation so I am just running off the computer, but that seems very close. Cut a guy some slack okay? I mean I was processing the funeral. On the way back with the cruise set at around 78 we got 16.3 mpg. I know that is not earth-shattering, but did you see the size of the van? We had it loaded pretty full in the back. I’m not going to complain considering we were driving uphill, headwind most of Wyoming, and then some cross winds from Billings onward.

The amount of stuff this van can move! Now you can take the seats out, but on the rental it is not advised. If you need to exchange the van for whatever reason you will have to buy the seats if they are not in the van. Read the rental agreement. I saw the agreement, thought about it for a bit, and decided the risk was not worth it as our total mileage was going to be close to 2K.

The rear most seat does not come with pull tabs. In fact, the rental company filled in the hole with metal plug because they don’t want people removing the seats. Where is the trunk monkey when you need him? “Honest, I didn’t remove the seats…..”

These are the pull tabs that allow you easily remove the seats, but from what I can tell it should be a two person job. So, if you bought one you could easily remove some seats and still have room for the family.

This van could double as a pickup truck. It is amazing. You can see all the crud we got in the back of the van with the seats in the van? The kids still had their own row of seats. There is not much cargo room behind the rear seat, but I was able to stuff shoes, and odds and ends under the seats while playing Jenga/Tetris with the larger items. I was shocked how much I could fit with some planning. I am happy to report that nothing shifted the whole way home. We even have a medium magazine rack with tabletop packed in the midst of that stuff. So, don’t dismiss the passenger van if you are researching a family van or potential camper van build.

We used the smaller jump seats to hold some luggage as you can see our cooler fitting perfectly on one seat with a carryon bag on its sides holding the cooler stable.

What is my verdict?

Overall, if the van had better front seats, I would have loved the thing! I liked the van, and I was happy we could rent it. It drove nicely, and we made some good memories with it. Thankfully, we drove through the Midwest when it was above freezing the whole way. That is just insane to experience in November. I made a joke that, knowing my father-in-law, he checked the weather before he died. It would not be beyond the realm of possibility that he made a deal with God that everyone would get there safely. I don’t mean that to sound cold, but that is who he was. He wanted everyone to be safe, and I could see him make sure that the timing worked out for everyone.

When I reflect on my father-in-law, I remember how much he wanted the family to be together. My family has always been a priority for me and this van served to make a really great memory during a sad season. It helped us to honor his legacy. I think about the memories and the joy of everyone being able to really have their own space, and still be together. This is definitely something that will stay on my radar if we decide to do more cross-country trips.

Thinking back, I have to say that I enjoyed driving the Transit BAV. The crosswinds in Wyoming really sucked, but slowing down and paying attention was a successful counter measure. I never felt like the van was going to blow over. It just wanted to wander out of its lane.

This is where my geeky brain engages I talked to someone who had a Quigley van last summer. I think that is an option that I might want to explore. I plan to give them a call to kick some tires. This could be a great option to sneak away for a night and do some nighttime photo shoots. I catch myself throughout the day researching things like: how to keep seats in a camper van. Or what bumpers for the Transit Van. Or Chevy conversion vans. The romantic adventurer thinks it would be fun to fly into Quigley, pick up the van, head to NJ to see my mom, and then drive it back home. Who knows what the future holds?

I will say that if you are looking for a great road trip vehicle, or something to take to a national park then I highly recommend the Transit Van. It might be a bit of a pain to park if you go to the park in the peak tourist season, but everyone in the van will be able to see the sights. If I planned to build a van, or do another long road trip this would be my top pick. My second pick would be a Chevy with the 6 liter.

Stay tuned because this crazy man might just buy a BAV of his own! Or I might just be dreaming about more adventures. Have you ever used a Quigley Van? You have any great stories about the Transit BAV? What about the Transit AWD? If you do please share them in the comments.

Until we meet again, be safe, look for opportunities to be generous, and get outside.

(Updated 11/27/2025)