Ford Transit Van Build | Installing the Aluminess Rear Ladder & Tire Mount on your Back Door

[@williambarnes7704]

Very good. Great to now know solution to fix door closing.

[@krdmoto]

thank you for the video! Greetings from Texas!

[@blazingwanderers]

Thanks for watching!

[@onionhead5780]

Good intel report. Thank you.

[@JoshuaMartian-go3tm]

Since installing this Aluminess tire rack and having it on for a year, has there been any issues as far as water leaking in or sand or cold thru that cut rubber gasket? Has the door cracked or any issues opening or closing? Would u buy this again if y needed to or go with Owl or Rover vans tire mount?

[@blazingwanderers]

So, we have now had our rack on for 2 years (we installed it spring 2022), and so far no real issues. We haven’t had any leaks or dirt coming through. The inside frame of the door is relatively clean overall. We have also slept in cold weather and I didn’t notice any cold drafting in. Our van is also very well insulated, including the back doors, and so it is very comfortable to sleep in the back. The only issue we have experienced was just in the past few months when we had the tires rotated, which included taking off the back spare and rotating it with the other tires. We found that doing this caused the left door to shift ever so slightly making the right door hit the plate when closing. It’s very subtle but we will have to adjust the left door hinge a bit- on the to-do list! We are not as familiar with the Owl or Rover models, but in general we have been very happy with this tire rack/ladder mount and would be likely to order again if we had too. Hope this helps-thanks for watching!

[@JoshuaMartian-go3tm]

@@blazingwanderers Yes, yes, helped very much! Appreciate the detailed response. Very 👍 grateful. Here’s a sub for what it’s worth. 😉

[@brlowe1]

I just watched some other install videos after seeing how you had to adjust your hinges and I see that everyone else mounted the plate on the outside of the hinge and not between the hinge and door. So I think that is why you needed to make that adjustment that others are not making.

[@blazingwanderers]

Brandon--thanks for the insight! We went out and looked at the door hinge, and the instructions, and I think you are absolutely right here. The instructions were just on a black and white print out, and hard to see the detail. We also watched another KZbin install, but it was a black hinge on a dark painted van, and so also hard to see the difference! I am sure we are not the only ones to make this mistake, but great catch on your part. We will do an update in the future here to the video! thanks!

[@brlowe1]

@@blazingwanderers I glad I was right as I was looking at my van with the Adventure Wagon kit installed and I think the A-Frame blocks access to the upper hinge and I was worried about how I was going to install these and adjust the hinge. No I can let that stress go. I saw your comment about this in your build thread on the forum. Glad I could contribute. Keep the build videos coming. I'm looking at putting my AVC floor in this weekend.

[@mrgcav]

Nice Job. The the ladder looks to be too narrow to climb and too short for the high roof. Plus to use the ladder you must take the Tire off. It would be better if the tire could swing out of the way on its own hinge without dismounting it.

[@blazingwanderers]

Thanks! We use the ladder all the time…. You step on the bumper first than onto the fold down foot steps, then onto the ladder rungs (no tire removal needed). We could have opted for the swing out tire, but honestly, it hasn’t been an issue AT ALL!

[@Jason_Voorhees.]

Brackets go on top of the hinge.

[@blazingwanderers]

Yes- we figured that out afterwards! 😊

[@Jason_Voorhees.]

@@blazingwanderers nice, glad you got it worked out!

[@swagonman]

Sorry, you installed the hinge plates wrong. The plate doesn't go between the door and hinge. It goes between the bolt heads and the hinge and, therefore, does not move the door at all. Would have saved you a lot of hassle.

[@blazingwanderers]

Yes-chalk it up to poor detailed instructions from the manufacturer and beginner skills!!

[@swagonman]

@@blazingwanderers But if the video isn’t corrected, maybe it should be taken down. People watch KZbin to learn how to do it, and this one teaches them to install the ladder incorrectly. So it is worse than the manufacturer’s directions. Right?

[@blazingwanderers]

Good suggestion- we can work on amending the video to correct this

[@leonardsackett9568]

You misread the instructions. The door hinge brackets GO ON TOP of the hinge NOT UNDER the hinge. On top the door gap does not change with bracket installations. Safe travels

[@wesrc]

Thanks so much for this video very helpful, I am looking to do the same thing. Quick question, how were you able to manage holding the door when the hinges were removed in order to add on the brackets? I see you had someone helping you but is there a trick to holding the door up while you tighten up the brackets to the hinges. The door seems really heavy to just have some one sit there and hold it?

[@blazingwanderers]

Hi there! Thank you for watching our video! I will warn you, though that we found out a few months afterwards, that we sort of put it on wrong😂. You don’t have to take the door off to put the bracket over the hinge! Our key learning was to look up the aluminess instructions online versus the paper copy they send you. The black and white copy was really hard to read, and that is what confused us the color pictures online were much more helpful.(after the fact!) I do intend to update this video based on these comments shortly, but we’ve been busy finishing up a Van build, and working on remaining videos! To be honest, though the door was not that heavy to hold, since we only did one hinge at the time. However, the rest of the process is pretty much the same. We really like our door rack and we have used it several times to climb up on the roof to access our solar panel and awning.

[@janwiktorczyk970]

Looks like other spotted it - but you should proabaly remove the video - you installed the brackets incorectly.