I'm thinking about throwing in the towel and go shopping for the lowest mileage '05 Excursion I can find; that or jump ship over to a 3/4 ton suburban. Even if I get the Reese dual cam set up right, the Expy really struggles with the travel trailer. Im supposed to be leaving for Florida tomorrow morning, according to the weather man I will be driving through a tropical storm the whole way down 95. That doesn't sit well with me. As uncomfortable as it will be, I may squeeze all the kids and car seats into my crew cab diesel and go to Florida with that. The piece of mind I have towing with F250 over the Expy is priceless.

 

Did you ever pull the trigger on this?

I was facing the same dilemma. I have a 32'+ 6800lb+ KZ that I tow with my 09 EL. I had the dual cams, and while they were better than the standard friction sway control it wasn't enough. Power or stopping is not an issue - I stay below 2k RPM most of the time and can stop on a dime.

I recently upgraded to a Pro Pride P3 (Hensley type) and it has made all the difference in the world.

 

Here's a guy who is entrepreneuring his way into the market.

Custom Autos by Tim ...The Stretch Truck Company!

 

Those are some pretty impressive trucks butpricey. You buy a $45k to $50k truck then give it to him along with another $30+k, thats to much for my wallet. Chevy just reintroduced the '14 silverado on a new stronger, more rigid high strength steel frame. It pushed up the payload and towing capacity of their trucks. The Tahoe and suburban are getting the same upgrades for model year '15. Unless Ford pulls their head out of their a** and comes up with a large SUV package with a decent legitimate towing capacity, I will probably hold off and go with an 2015 3/4 ton suburban. I have driven Fords my whole life, as has my father. But if they can't see the writing on the wall, they will lose my sale.

 

Maybe its just me, but investing a couple grand in a hitch that you can use forever and resell for just about what you bought it for sounds like a good investment to me....

I had not heard that about the GM SUVs, that is exciting news. I had a 1/2 ton Yukon XL and it was frankly pathetic from both a towing as well as quality perspective. A Ford friend tells me that it will be years before we see any meaningful redesign for the Expedition (2018). We will see if the competition from GM moves this at all.

 

Oh by the way, on the Florida trip I squeezed the whole family into my F250. I just didn't trust the Expy, too dangerous. Moving forward we are just going to take two vehicles on our road trips, the F250 towing and Expy carrying the family. It's a pain in the a** but a necessary evil until we get a more capable tow vehicle.

 

No more GM 3/4 ton SUV's after 2013... this was the last year. We are too small a market segment to support.

 

I believe it was only eliminated from the fleet vehicle line up, they will still be available to the retail consumer.

 

How about a 2015 excursion with a 6.7 powerstroke, now that I would jump all over

 

I think the Expedition EL in a 3/4 ton variant would work, but our Ford talking head says "it's redundant" because the new Expy will match the old Excursion, "in theory" . Sorry... that's just plain ole BS.... no way.

We know Ford does not have the automotive wisdom to market a diesel like VW, Audi, or Mercedes. It took the Italians to put one in the Cherokee.

The 6.7 weigh's 1100 lbs wet. , 5.0 Ford 490 lbs so the 6.7 needs a SD frame.

 

<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <wontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--> The Suburban 2500 is discontinued for both civilian and fleet markets. Its also been redacted (cut from) the civilian Chevrolet website.


<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <wontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> I didn’t know I was a "talking head". I must say your cynical opinions are unfounded. Degrading hard-working engineers by saying they don’t have the necessary wisdom. If you have doctorate in mechanical & automotive engineering, please submit a resume to us.

Diesel fuel prices are steadily increasing; one result of smaller cars heading in the diesel direction. Currently, highway diesel costs more per-gallon than unleaded gasoline. Supply and demand.

Also the new Expedition and F-150 must meet the new government fuel economy standards that go into effect in 2016. Dropping close to 700 lbs in weight should help the cause.

An Expedition Hybrid with parallel electric-drive is on the way, as are other methods for increasing fuel efficiency, while offering high towing capability. Diesel is being considered, but if fuel prices keep climbing, then you can write that off.

Ford cannot control fuel prices; we just try to fight them by offering customers the best solution for the moment. We change as the market changes.

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Any chance of seeing the Excursion or something similar being brought back? :-)

 

I’m sorry to say, but there are no plans for another Excursion (UN137) or Excursion-like vehicle.

The UN137 started with strong sales, but every year that followed, sales numbers consistently fell. There toward the end the, the UN137 saw a sharp drop in sales, that, combined with high manufacturing costs and rising fuel prices, sealed the vehicle’s fate. The UW137 program was closed.

Production resources used for the three quarter-ton Excursion, were returned to the F-250 Super Duty.
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Being a 6.0 owner I would have to argue that the reputation of the 6.0 played a big part of the free falling sales numbers. My F250 is an'06 with 49k miles on it. I'm fixing to drop $4k in the near future to remove and/or correct all the known problems that engine has so I can get at least 200,000 miles out of it. I really can't believe Ford has managed to dodge (no pun intended) a class action law suit with all the problems that engine has. God knows you pay enough for the diesel option, expecting some longevity out of it.

 

As I said earlier, offer up a new Excursion based on the new F250 with a 6.7 in it and I will be all in.