Hey all!

I'm in the market to get rid of several projects and focus on good old Mugly.

Alaska is a hard place to find a good conditioned 7.3 but not a hard place to find a high mileage, XLT truck. I'd like to find a long bed xlt in running condition, and mix and match the two trucks into a good version of the two.

Is swapping over the interior a huge PITA? Will I need to swap over the interior electrical harness or will I find plugs for the addition accessories inside the XLT vehicle?

Hope my questions makes sense.


Thank you!

 

What specific parts of the Lariat do you want? Most of it is just window dressing so it's just a hard parts swap. If you want to swap power, you're going to have to add wiring. The plugs or pigtails won't be there.

 

When I Bought my v10, it was a Frankenstein truck. XL, Lariat Seats, Harley Badges and paint. I am not sure what all switching out the seat entailed, but the heater on both driver and passenger don't work, I figured this was because there was no wiring for them, but there was for the power adjust? But it could very well also be that the PO just didn't want heated seats.

 

I don't have any specifics planned yet, I just want to know what all I can "easily" swap over from the Lariat and into the XLT if I got a high mileage work truck.

 

Glad to see you're back! I don't envy your task there. If you were to get a low-mileage 7.3L Superduty in Washington, you'd be looking at between $15K and $20K. If I remember your situation, you have more time than stacks of Bemjamins. This is one of those situations where it sure would be nice to find a well-maintained 5.4L Lariat with about 200K miles and swap everything over - it should be real cheap to find one of those.

 

I honestly think that the harness in an XLT is pretty much already there for the Lariat trim options. I have an XLT which is Factory original but has almost everything you would get in a Lariat. The only things I'm missing is an adjustable pedal, 6-disc stereo, fully automatic A/C controls, heated seats, lighted passenger side vanity mirror, and an overhead console.

Here are a few links where the differences are discussed in greater detail, and the differences can vary from year to year...

FTE: Differences Between an XLT and a Lariat

TheDieselStop: Difference between Lariat & XLT PSD (99-03)?

 

Thanks for the information.

As a reminder for everyone. I have a high mileage, beat to hell F 250 which has impossible to replace emotional value. I'm getting to a point in life where I need to get off my *** and fix it or move on. It just sits for no reason, now.

I had a chance to pick up a 600.00 high mileage CC long bed 7.3. Unfortunately I was the second person to it and it wasn't available again.

If I can pick up a cheap, non salvage title truck, I'd like to mix and match what I want to keep from the old truck and get a solid truck out of the two. Either that or completely gut and rebuild the original, I just hesitate to do that with the actual value of the truck being close to none.

 

And the power adjustable seat harness, and the sensor and harness for outside air time, and the sensor and harness for the compass reading.

In other words, the electrical stuff that makes the difference between XLT and Lariat. The seats/panels/trim is all bolt on stuff that's easy. Wiring is where it gets fun.

If it were me, I'd decide what wiring options you really want and just add wiring yourself. Heated seats, outside air temp, direction, is easy. Auto AC or adjustable pedals get expensive, but are those really needed?

 

My '02 XLT came WITH the power adjustable seats.

 

My 02 didn't. If the option wasn't ordered on the XLT, the wiring won't be there. I ordered my 02 from the dealer built the way I wanted. I didn't care for power seats so I didn't get them. I've had the seats and floor out to install sound deadening and I know that the wiring for power seats is not present on my 02.

I guess that means you need to figure out what accessories the XLT has before making the decision.

 

Thanks for the information. I think short term I'll just keep an eye out for a cheap donor truck and just see how the cookie crumbles.

I'm constantly juggling the idea of just dumping money into the truck versus starting over. Ugh, adulting!