Does anybody know if any other factory cross bars (expedition/edge/explorer? or other oem)fit into the excursions? Or do i have to buy after market to have usable rack system?

 

I would guess no, only because of the added ***** the excursion has. Every fiber of the diesel excursion was crafted in the pits of hell by Satan himself, to create the absolutely most bad-*** vehicle possible. To add a "part" from a lesser vehicle, such as an expedition or explorer, would greatly diminish it's ability to unleash pure ***-kickery both on and off the road, to every other vehicle it encounters. I'd recommend contacting a few dealers, maybe looking for some new old stock parts, before contaminating that 9200lbs of raw power you have there with piddly crap.

 

Nice, I believe it

 

I can tell you when I moved my Whelen Edge from my Expedition to the Excursion, while the tracks were the same width, they are farther apart than the Expedition. I didn't need to modify my setup, just had to widen the feet on the Edge.

For that reason alone I doubt anything else would work since they would be narrower between the rails. If you could fashion a new cross member you could probably use the same feet...but if memory serves the cross members on an Expedition are oval aluminum...not gonna be easy to find the same shape longer.

I'd be confident aftermarket products like a Thule rack, etc. would work since the feet would be the same and most of the cross members are wider than required, but OEM would be pretty tough I think.

 

I have all four of my cross bars for sale. Pm me if interested. Also to note, the smaller ones r discontinued.

 

The original cross bars are too low for ratchet strapping, say a canoe on top. the thule kit is about $400.00 for the 4 posts that work on the ex rails & 2 58" black tubing for up to150 lbs. I was hoping another factory system from a bone yard would work, but that looks slim

 

Also look at the Yakima systems. The round bar options can be had for really reasonable prices off Craigslist for the bars and ebay for the mounts.

 

B4 I switched mine out, I got a strap under the 2 big cross bars.

 

All of the factory bars look pretty weak...do you find them sturdy under pressure?

 

I don't remember who, but one member had widened Explorer factory bars to fit. They sit higher, and look pretty cool.

 

Sturdy enough to hold my luggage doing 80 mph in a canvas bag.

 

There is nothing magical about the roof rack. All you need is a square of metal about 1 in square with a threaded hole in it to fit the main bar slots and then you can mount anything you want to it. Look at the nut plates that hold the small bars on. All you need is more of those and you can bolt any type of bar you want to it. You can use the same method to bolt stuff between the the two main cross bars using the slots on them. So no reason you can't make any type bars fit the Excursion Rack.

Perry

 

Those threaded "slugs" (my technical term for them) is how I mount my Whelen light bar...I run Allen bolts through the center of the light bar rubber feet then through a piece of aluminum plate right into 4 of them...the rubber feet give it a bit of vibration protection...they hold the monster on there no problem.

I have seen some local radio operator around here run 2 metal straps across the roof with a square metal panel in the middle where he mounts his HAM antennas (I guess that is his soution for a "no drill" roof mount antenna).

 

i have all the cross bars from 2 excursions just sitting in my garage.I don't need them and would be willing to part ways with them

 

I think it was landyot, radius rod guy who had the modified Explorer roof rack bars. You'll have to search yahoo with "Landyot rack" to get to the pics, I am blocked from the link here at work.

Perry is spot on. You can make almost anything you need to go on top and use the threaded base plates to bolt it down. If you don't have the threaded metal tabs, you can buy them from Yakima.