Just bought a 2003 Excursion 7.3. My wife wanted an SUV but we (I) have way to many cars. I chose to sell my 2002 Porsche 911 instead of any of my Mustang SVO's. I guess you can say I like my Fords and I like 'em with turbos!

Anyways...bought the car from a dealer near Mobile, AL. I live in Fullerton, CA (SoCal). I am working on trying to get a transport to pick it up but I've gotten quotes from $850 to $1600 and all of them are promising the world (pick it up within two day, get it here within 5-7 days).

Does anyone have any experiance with shippers or know of anyone they can recommend? Cant wait to get the Excursion here and see it sitting next to my F350 dually (7.3 as well).

 

I had mine shipped from CA to MN. mark "@" unitedcartransport "." com These guys were straight up with me on how stuff works. They weren't the lowest bid, but weren't the highest. From what I've read the low ball bids never get your vehicle shipped...until they get more money from you. They told me max of three days for them to get a driver and my vehicle picked up, only took two. I was impressed after reading about how long it could take.

Just FYI, I listed the load on a couple of the sites where people can bid on loads. Most of the bids were higher than what I paid. I'd go with United Car Transport again if I needed too.

 

You should have been a member here a long time ago.

Congrats on the new X. When you get it you should post pics of your "stable".

 

I wonder if it's cheaper to just fly out there (one way ticket), get a rental car (one way) to Mobile and drive the Ex back to CA? You'll need a few days off work.

 

I thought about that. 2000 miles at 18mpg is $500 in gas. Tickets are another 500+. Then three days off work. I would love to do it this way but there is just too much other stuff going on right now.

I just requested a quote from United. I found out the FedEx and UPS also do car transport. It will be interesting to see what their pricing is but I'm sure they farm out the work as well.

Once it gets here I'll post up some picks. It's a 2003 7.3 Limited, all black with 98K miles. 100% stock. My dually is a 2002 7.3 XLT crew cab with just under 75K miles that I've owned since new. Big exhaust and intake. Other than that stock.

Glad to be here now and hope to gain alot of info from this board.

 

18 mpg? Damn that's good!!! Am I missing something lol...sorry rookie here is 7.3 Diesel?

 

I've heard of the 7.3 X's getting better than 18. With my dually I usually get 15-16 with no load. I'm only hoping what I've read about the X's getting better MPG are true. MPG isn't as important as having a reliable bullet proof vehicle and if cost were a concern, I'd get something else.

Anyone with 7.3' X's want to chime in on average MPG?

 

My 01 X (in sig) gets a solid 16-17 in daily mixed driving on summer blend. All highway I get 18-20, especially if flat and I keep it between 70 and 75. Wither fuel kills it. 13-14 in mixed driving and 16 or so all highway.

 

try posting a craigslist ad in the area the ex is now for an empty truck flat deck semi heading west. sometimes you can get lucky. you may need to get to a loading dock to unload though.

 

My wife is in Europe for business. Instead of her flying back to SoCal, she is changing her flight to arive in either Bermingham or better yet Gulfport where I'm flying into (not till next week though). I'll then drive and pickup the X and then it's road trip for a week across America. Havn't done that since I was a kid with my parents.

Should be a good time, probably cost me just as much as shipping it, plus putting another 2K miles on the truck but heck. But we'll get some good bonding time with the Excursion.

We'll take plenty of pics and post them here.

Thanks for the tips and advice.

 

I would probably drive it too. I ended up driving 4000+ miles for mine and that was with a flight to Denver! My buddy from Wyoming picked me up at the airport and then we drove 8 hours to Telluride. The next morning, I meet the owner, look the truck over and can't wait to drive it home. Several hours later, I just happened to find out her husband is an alcoholic and went on a binge. Oh, and by the way, he just FILED FOR BANKRUPTCY! No X for me My dad and I were now stuck in Telluride, CO with my best friend from Wyoming and we needed to be in DFW. Being such a great friend, he decided to drive us back to DFW and then head home. On the way, we were joking about how funny it would be if we found another one when we finally got back to Texas. That night, I found a deal on one in Cody Wyoming (2 hours from his house) and we just kind of laughed it off. After an hour of prayer the next morning, him, myself and my dad jumped in the car for another 1100 mile leg of the journey. It was pretty much downhill from there. That trip was an absolute blast...

We finally got back home, we just never imagined it would take 7 days and 4000+ miles! Man, I feel like a movie could be made out of that story, and I left so much out...

EDIT: I got 17.1 mpg on the way home from WY but as soon as I got here it went down to 14. I tried every driving style to increase fe but nothing worked. I finally splurged on intake, exhaust, and F5 chip. I'm now running 16 consistently, now matter how I drive. If Ford never makes another Excursion, I'll just keep fixing this one. No other vehicle like it for under $50k...

 

I see lots of auto-transport here in FL hauling cars back and forth
for "snow birds". Plus they ship used autos in FL w/o A/C back north.
They are typically a dually with a fifth wheel that holds 3-6 vehicles.

I think that is the cheapest - since the single driver is hauling
multiple vehicles.

I would NOT want "somebody" driving my Ex thousands of miles
and having fun with the power going up mtns, racing sports cars, etc.

I've had several co-workers have their vehicles "hauled" when they
move - so it's pretty common vs. hiring someone to "drive" your vehicle.

 

I think that's awesome that you're taking advantage of the situation! I bought my '02 Ex a few months back and would have loved to have my lady with me for the drive back, but the 3 dogs (1 just a pup) needed to be watched, so it ended up being more of a sprint to get home than a nice cruise. Enjoy the drive, and please do post pics!!

 

Well, I flew out to Gulfport then drove to Daphne, AL to pick up the X. At first glance it was better than I had hoped but after being with it a couple of days there are some issues but certainly nothing that I really regret.

First thing I noticed was that the front glass had some wierd streaking on it that couldn't get removed. Almost list a film. I'm going to post a technical topic on this one in a minute.

2nd, the paint looks great from far away and in the right light but when looking closer there are many small scratches. I'm thinking they can be buffed out but it's still a bummer.

Also all the accessory adaptors didn't work (all the fuses were blown). Easy fix...Done.

The backup beeper doesnt work. The "off" light is always on. I verified that all the sensors do the little ticking thing when you feel them. I'm thinking it's the speaker. Need to take that out and replace.

It appears it doens't have day time driving lights? My '02 dually has them and the daytime lights are on durning the day and when it gets dark the full on driving lights turn on. This one only seems to come on when it gets dark and during the day there are no lights on. I have the swith all the way to the left position.

Other than that the truck is awsome. So far we have gotten 18.5 MPG from New Orleans to west texas. We have been consistantly driving 70-75mph. Drives straight, cold A/C.

I'll post some pics if I can figure out how.

 

These are after the tint job today.