Swipe Right For Adventure – Ford’s New Transit Custom Trail Concept Vehicle
Features / Wed 24th Aug, 2022 @ 2:21 pm
We’ve been working with Ford for almost ten years, a relationship that started when we saw the all-new Ford Transit Custom on the M25 while driving to Wales in our somewhat beaten-up old van. The original design was a massive head turner, especially at a time when Ford were known as white vans for builders. The enormous success of the Ford Transit Custom is a testament to that design.
After turning our heads on the motorway, we sparked up a relationship that has grown over the last nine years, from the original short-term loans to longer-term vehicles that suited our needs of the time. Along the way, we’ve driven cars across Finland and been taken round the track at Goodwood in a classic GT40. Working with the Ford Press Team has been an absolute pleasure, and while we don’t see them all that often, it’s always a pleasure when we do meet up for a vehicle launch or at a show.
Four years ago, we were invited to the design office in Brentwood to speak with some of the top people at Ford Europe. We were asked to present what vehicle the active sports enthusiast would be looking for. It was the perfect opportunity to show them what mountain bikers, surfers, kiteboarders and active users might want.
Alongside IMB, we also publish kite and surf titles, and as top-level athletes in most sports, we did feel at least well positioned to put our ideas forwards. The concept was simple: sliding trays to make the most of the vehicle’s interior space and allow faster and easier loading and unloading.
At the same time, the concept needed to be modular. Campervans are great, but they don’t work when you want to get all your toys inside or if you need to pick up some full-size sheets of plywood from the builder’s merchants. So the idea we pitched to Ford was a customisable Ford Transit Custom with a modular storage system that you could dip in and out of according to your needs.
What impresses me about Ford is that while we must be a small section of the market, they genuinely care about the needs of active sportspeople. The meeting didn’t fall on deaf ears, nor was it dismissed as too difficult, despite our somewhat pie-in-the-sky ideas for creating a vehicle to suit a multitude of sports and people simultaneously.
Not long after that meeting, the world went a bit wild. Due to the consequential chip shortage, we carried on rolling our trusty orange Ford Transit Custom, taking it on adventures far and wide. From living in it for six weeks in Ireland in 2019 to driving friends to the alps for mountain bike adventures in the summer. Each time we were adapting the interior to make space and feeding back to Ford what we were up to.
Then out of the blue, I was invited to a meeting at the Ford Technical Centre in Dunton. It had been over three years since our last meeting, and to be honest, I’d kind of forgotten about it. After passing my lateral flow test and getting to Daventry, I was keen to see what Ford had been up to; we’d not had a lot of contact since the initial meeting as the world closed for Covid.
Barry Quested, Ford Of Europe Commercial Vehicle Operations and Conversion Manager, has been a key driving force behind this project; he introduced me to Dan and the team at bloK Products, a company that specialises in customising vans who Ford had been working with on the project. We chatted for a while, and then Dan went downstairs to set up the van for the big unveil for me. The idea was to show me the vehicle and see what we would need to tweak before we would take the vehicle and put it through some real-life adventures for more feedback.
It was quite a surreal moment; it was so long since the meeting and what we had discussed three years ago. I certainly had no clue what the vehicle might look like or how Ford and bloK Products had interpreted the plan.
The big reveal was nothing short of mind-blowing. Our idea of a transformer van for everyone that was modular and useful depending on the sport or activity or work you were doing had been realised. That is no mean feat.
Featuring a sliding bottom tray with storage boxes full of camping gear and space for whatever you fancied and a second half sliding tray with shower, fridge and solar power battery system, the interior was a great use of space. On the roof, there was a roof rack from Front Runner with a Front Runner tent, more storage boxes, an integrated camping table and an awning. There were even the distinctive orange sandboards to get you out of trouble; the overall look was pretty special.
Built off a Transit Custom Trail Double Cab as a base, with a Two Litre EcoBlue engine and six-speed manual gearbox. With 170 PS, it’s got plenty of pull to take you and your toys wherever you need to go. The vehicle has belted seating for five people, perfect for the family, and everything you need for an extended camping trip. The jewel is the ability to remove the racking in the rear quickly and leave it as an empty van so you can work during the week with a full payload.
Or, if you fancy, just take the shower out and the fridge and use the trays for your tools. Or put your tools in boxes and swap the camping boxes for tool boxes or boxes full of bike and kite gear. Whatever you want to do, the modular aspect makes it incredibly versatile.
We then went and had a look at how I’d configured my current vehicle; we discussed things to change on the new vehicle and worked out the best way forward. bloK Products took the vehicle back to Seaford where they are based, to make some tweaks and we had a long wait after that while Ford drove it to a few internal showings for the top management.
Needless to say, everywhere it went, it turned heads, we were lucky enough to be given the keys on the 23rd of June, now with two full trays to make bike loading easier and an internal surfboard rack added as per the feedback we had given them. Since then, we’ve been tweaking it ourselves and taking to various beaches and events around the country. It’s been a huge conversation piece everywhere we go, from random people filming it for Instagram to kiters and bikes in the beaches and woods showing genuine interest.
Internal van storage is always a nightmare, it’s time-consuming to put in, and if your needs change, then it’s hard to reconfigure things. With bloK Products and the new Transit Trail, that’s an easy problem to fix. We’ve filled it with gear, camped out in it, showered outside it, cooked dinner at the beach with it and loved every minute so far.
What’s it like to drive? Well, we’ve always loved the drive on the Transit Custom, and the new updated version comes with lots of swanky driving aids, making quite the difference. The Cruise Control will now hook onto the vehicle in front and do the braking and speed control for you, just remember to change gear if you need to. The blind spot mirror warnings are a nice touch, and the automatic dipping headlights make night driving easier.
With all the racking and fully loaded with toys, it still pulls for a van; the 170PS is the most powerful engine Ford put into a Transit, and you can definitely feel that power. The Trail also comes with Ford’s Mechanical Slip Differential as standard, which uses helical gears to transfer power to the wheel with the most grip, it’s not AWD, but it makes the FWD a lot better in slippy conditions; we’ve done a fair bit of off-roading and not had to get the sand boards out yet…
Long journeys are always comfortable in the Ford Transit Custom, and this new version is no different; jump in, set the sat nav and just ensure you have enough food, water and fuel to get where you are going. On that note, it’s worth mentioning the consumption. Obviously, all the bits on the roof reduce the economy; you can, of course, remove the tent and storage boxes if you aren’t using them; fully loaded, we are hovering around a combined fuel consumption of 31mpg over the last 2000 miles or so. I’m yet to do the maths to see if that’s cheaper than a hotel; I probably won’t do the maths either.
Getting the tent set up is really easy when you arrive at your destination; just unzip the cover, undo the straps and pull the ladder out and pull the tent down. It’s a spacious tent with plenty of room for two people to sleep comfortably and have room for some bags too. In addition, there is an excellent awning which is great when you want some shade or shelter from the rain. The built-in table that slides out of the roof rack is absolute genius.
As a vehicle for day-to-day use, we’re arguably carrying a bit of extra bulk, but at the weekends, when it comes alive, it more than makes up for it, find a nice spot to park up in the woods or at a beach and you have a fully loaded base camp that can keep your beers cold in the fridge with the solar panels providing plenty of power.
We’ve made a few modifications; mainly, the top half of the bulkhead is out so we can get longer surfboards in; with the bulkhead, you are limited to a 6ft board, perfect for kites and wing foilers but not so good for those summer sleds. We also added another bike rack; we can now get two bikes comfortably in almost the same space; the bloK Products bike rack is absolutely genius and exceedingly versatile; we can’t recommend that enough for travelling around.
So far, we’ve loved every minute of being in it, we’ve got a few big trips coming up, so we’ll keep you posted on what we change and how we get on. The big one will be driving down the coast of Morocco this winter if we can get a plan together for it and travel restrictions/fuel prices allow it.
By far and away, the biggest question we get asked is, “how much is it?” currently, it’s a concept vehicle, and Ford are already working on the next one taking our feedback into account. It’s an exciting time to be part of an ongoing project with such a prestigious brand. It’s even more encouraging that they are so willing to listen to feedback from people who use the vehicles on a daily basis for these kinds of sports and adventures.
In time it sounds like these vehicles will be on the showroom floor at Ford dealerships, and you’ll be able to use a check box to order your vehicle and the extras you want. We don’t know the timeline for that, but it does sound like this vehicle has caused enough of a stir to make that a reality.
In the meantime, if you have a van and can’t wait and want some sliding trays, the team at bloK Products will happily help you. You can check out their wide range of options for vans HERE.
And if you fancy a new Ford Transit Custom, check out the van builder HERE.
If you see us in the woods or at the beach, be sure to come and say hello, and we will gladly show you around!
A huge thanks to Barry Quested, Oliver Rowe, Dan Alcock, Len Keen and Holly Davey at Ford for involving us in this exciting project and also to Dan and the team at blok Products for doing a fantastic job of making some wild ideas a reality.
Wed 24th Aug, 2022 @ 2:21 pm
By Rou Chater
Rou Chater is the Publishing Editor of IMB Magazine; he’s a jack-of-all-trades and master of none, but his passion for bikes knows no bounds. His first mountain bike was a Trek 820, which he bought in 1990. It didn’t take him long to earn himself a trip to the hospital on it, and he’s never looked back since. These days he’s keeping it rubber side down, riding locally and overseas as much as possible.
