Well just wanted to start a thread for the newest member of the family. Bought a 2011 F-250 King Ranch from Prestige Ford out of Austin back in January. They took care of all of the registration and everything. All I had to do was get a weight Cert. and smog check and send the proof to them and they took care of the DMV mess. Saved about $15K by buying it there over here in Cali. Saved enough money for about half the conversion. Many consider it a waste of money but the way I look at it is, a loaded Cadi is over $80K here in Cali and the Range Rover, Cayenne, and others cost over $100K and none are offered in a diesel. Heck my parents paid $74K plus tax and license for their POS Denali Duramax that is falling apart. So Autos by Tim in Oklahoma did the conversion. I had someone drive it out for me, but flew out myself and spent an hour or so there going over everything when I picked her up. I was beyond impressed. They do extraordinary quality. The wiring, reprogramming, and the body work. My favorite part of the conversion is having the Ex 42 gallon tank back. These new 23 Gal. tanks suck butt. Best I've gotten it to say so far is 688 miles until empty. On the way home I filled up in Las Cruses New Mexico, and didn't fill up until Indio, CA and still had an 1/8th of a tank. Anyways here's some before and after pics. So again special thanks to Tim, Martin, Darryl, and the guys. Awesome job.

 

Didn't even know you could do that.
Very cool, looks awesome!

 

I didn't post all the progress pics of the conversion to keep them exclusive to Custom Autos by Tim. On the King OE coilover conversion I did a slight build thread somewhere but not a pictured step by step. The buckets had to be removed by torching/drilling out all of the factory rivets and replacing with Grade 8 hardware. When the buckets were removed there was a ring on the top that had to have the factory welds cut and removed to drill the keeper holes to attach the Kings to. It is quite tedious but well worth it. Only thing I don't like how I did it, was I should have clocked the shocks so the hose lines face 45* toward the rear instead of 90* to the frame. For the 2.5 King Res. in the rear we had to notch one of the under bed rail supports. On the Ex they had to notch out a factory cross member. The tires are Goodyear Duratracs 325/60R20 (35x13) and barley kiss the arms, a 12.5 will clear. Plans are to paint the bumpers to match the two tone, and a set of OE 17" powder coated on 37" BFG KM2s for the winter.

 

Very nice man. Darren32 and I both run Carli Pin-Top King 2.5's so we know what you are talking about. I was close to getting the King Coilovers up front and decided against it. Ver happy with my setup. The conversion looks great. I saw a thread a while ago (possibly yours) on a site about the Excursion conversion. Well done.

 

Wow, that is amazing and really looks nice. I didn't know you could do that.

 

That's amazing really. I loved the seating and storage of my Excursion but hated how it towed. Now I love the power and control from the SD but miss the seating and storage way in the back. You need to take yours back to the customizer and have them put an eight foot bed on the back. That would look awesome with a long fifth wheel attached.

 

lol They've actually mostly been knocking out 6 door truck conversions lately. I have other rigs for towing. My final go was when I kept having to clean all my kids stuff in and out of the cab of the truck. Now I can just throw there baseball/softball crap in the back and leave it there all season. Man the other awesome thing is this thing is nimble as heck with all the steering improvements that Ford has made mixed with the Ex's shorter wheel base. Only thing I can stand is that Ford went back to vacuum boosted brakes instead of hydro boost. They use the vacuum to work the hill decent. I can't stand it. The pedal shutters. They should have just used a more aggressive tow haul programming using the torque converter. Everyone loves that and the TorqShift can take it, so it makes no since to change another system that worked fine before. Unless that is the real reason they were having steering failures, was due to the Hydroboost overloading the systems. But the could have just added coolers, bigger pumps, or beefier steering boxes. They added a steering cooler anyways on the '11s.

 

Very nice!! You have some of the most awesome rigs.

 

So took a trip down to Hollister Hills to watch a buddy in an event over the weekend. Promised the kids to let them drive one of the rigs and it was far too muddy to take anything else so we just went the Excursion. I let all 3 of my kids drive age 9-14. The middle one was the one I was worried about but she did pretty well. The 14 year old did really good and the more intermediate obstacle coarse. Nothing over the top, but no Range Rover or Escalade would have walked right up the washout @ 5:35. Enjoy.

 

While they look super cool and I would love a 2015 Ex, the price of admission at/over $100K is just nutz.

More power to ya'

 

Thanks, its way better than a $100K Escalade, Rover, Porsche, Audi, or Lexus. I wouldn't have been able to do it if I wouldn't have a big enough tax return in 2011 from my loses during the crash. It afforded my the Conversion.

 

Welp, guys, that there's dad of the year, we're all just fighting for second place now.....

Mucho kudos to you, OP, for having a one of a kind and really sharp looking amazingly capable set of wheels, and for making memories your children won't ever forget
It might be time for me to start throwing the keys at my soon to be 14 yr old and seeing what she can do

 

Couldn't agree more!

 

You better hurry. I started with teaching her the stick shift on the FJ45 with an NV4500 when she was 12. A couple months back I had her start on the Ram 2500 with the 6 speed. Autos are a walk in the park now. Their buggy I'm building out of a Mazda Miata will have paddle shifters. Total Cadillac for them. lol

Advice though, never teach in a closed quarters. I was teaching my Step Son by letting him pull my '96 F350 Powerstroke out of our shop like 9 years ago. After I had him start it, he dropped the clutch before I could tell him to make sure the shifter was in neutral. Thank goodness it was in reverse, the tailgate was down, and it was only 2' from a box truck. It hit the steel loading deck and just started chirping the tires smashing the tail gate. I calmly told him to put in the clutch and turn off the truck. Dumbest thing I ever did. I told him it was all my fault and thanked the Lord it wasn't worse. Now I only teach in wide open spaces. lol