EL question
 

hello, all.
I am considering an excursion, but now that the new EL's have come out, I like them as well. My main question is, how well do the EL's tow? i am leaning towards an '04 or '05 diesel 4wd excursion, and I am planning on purchasing a travel trailer in the next few years, as well as an enclosed car trailer in the future. I realize that the diesel X will probably be able to out pull the expy, but does anyone here regularly pull a 7-8 thousand pound trailer, and if so, does the expy do a good job? Also, most of the X's I am looking at are in the mid to upper $30k's. What is a realistic price for a 4wd EL Expy? I don't really need all of the bells and whistles, but rear dvd would be nice. (ie, I don't need navigation, etc)

thanks in advance,

For that weight I would consider a good pre-owned V10 Excursion or a PSD. Both will be cheaper than the new EL.

They (EL's) seem a bit hard to find. I did some searching for one in WA, AZ, southern CA and couldn't find one in inventory.

I am in Houston, and there seems to be plenty on dealer's lots here. (at least according to autotrader.com) The advantage to these is that they are new, and I could get a better interest rate on them probably.

Although I can't actually answer your question, I found this site on the web talking about the same thing.


http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fu...d/19192988.cfm

They may have some insight as well. I will say that the '07 EL with towing package is rated at 9,000 lbs. With a trailer the sixe you are looking at, you are getting close to that and add anyother gear for camping and you are right at it. I have an 07 El and to me it has a lot of pulling power. My dad has a f-150 with the same motor and hesaid the Expy feels better than it and he pulls a 7,000 camper. So, in short, I think the Expy would be a better choice for all around use and the occasional pulling, but if you intend to be pulling it a lot, like every other weekend or more, you may want the PSD. The Expy certainly would ride better when not pulling a trailer with the new suspension. If you do go with the Expy, also get the rear load leveling suspension. And as far as price, I can only attest to my area in SC, but you should be able to get a 4x4 XLT EL with towing and rear DVD for close to the mid $30K. I got my EB EL 4x2 with almost every option for $39,500.

The problem can come down to wheel base, as a general rule you don't want more than twice your wheel base from the ball/hitch point to the rear axle of your trailer. This can stick you with a pretty short trailer vs. a PSD.

What's the wheelbase on an EL?

It is 131". So if you don't want anymore than twice that before the trailer axle, you can have up to 21' before the axle and problably would have at least 11-15 after. So the trailer could be as long as 32-36 feet. That is a pretty big trailer in my opinion.

You also loose somewhere between 5 - 10 feet of trailer length between the ball and the trailer (tongue length) that isn't included in the trailer measurement but has to be included in that calculation.

I would wonder if the 'twice the length...' rule of thumb isn't pushing it for the Expy's. I sure can tell my boat is behind it where I couldn't behind my F350.