Just wondering how these monsters do off-road in stock form.
Not necesserily talking 4' deep mud holes or near vertical rock-climbing, just the average woods trail (no fear of scratches!) or gravel road.
How do they compare to the king, the Range Rover?

So anyone who's put his tires off road, let loose on the input...

thanks

edit...forgot to mention, I'm talking about the older versions, not the new square ugly plastic ones...

 

I've taken my father's 2003 4x4 Expedition EB off-road a bit. Believe it or not, it can outperform my 2002 F-250 4x4 (only because the stock tires on the F-250 are crap). The AdvanceTrac keeps traction in conditions that my F-250 would not advance (going up an incline in slippery crap). The ground clearance is sufficient if you don't overdo it. It handles nice, keeps a grip, and goes just about anywhere you want. Gravel roads? No problem - if they're not too bad, you might forget you left the pavement. Trails through the woods? It begs for more! Great maneuverability; corners on a dime. Powered through some really, really deep mud tracks on a back road we took it on -- the road was so bad, without a 4x4 you had no hope of getting through. The Expedition didn't even blink.

With that said, my biggest concern with the Expedition off-road is ground clearance. Unless you have a serious lift (rather off-character for this SUV, IMHO) be mindful of the terrain. I'm not saying the truck sits low, but it's not as high as my F-250.

By the way, the Navigator is not based on the Expedition chasis, rather the Excursion chasis, which is based on the F-250. Never drove the Navigator/Excursion, but if they're anything like my F-250, drop them in 4x4 and go. Turning around might be hard in a tight spot (big turning radius) but otherwise, these trucks are solid.

And the Range Rover is far from "king" -- I can't stand those SUV's. They might do well off-road, but I personally would rather sit in a Chevy on road than the Range Rover. I know we're friendly with the Britts, but blech!

 

Gee, I'm glad you asked because I haven't had a chance to brag about what a stock Expedition can do. In the last year I have used my stock '97 Expedition 5.4L, 4x4, 110,000 miles, optional air suspension and 17" wheels, to do the following:

Mud: pulled a Toyata 4 runner from a mud hole where it was suspended by it's bumpers. No wheel spin on my part. then went and pulled out the 5 ton tow truck from another mudhole that the Toyota owner had first called to rescue him. The tow truck was buried to the frame both front and rear. I pulled him out without spinning my wheels, which left several bystanders losing bets because they thought there was no way my vehicle could do it.

Snow: pulled my 5000lb travel trailer up a 7% grade into NM state park on six inches of fresh snow with no wheel slippage.

Ice: on solid compacted ice I pulled a Chevy Suburban 4x4 (I loved it) out of a highway culvert and up to the road.

Rock: road cross country in Utah to climb a 30 degree rock face, cross a sand dune, and exit a road that had a sigh facing the other way which said: Road impassable.

Sand: pulled my 5000 lb travel trailer (it's lifted 3 inches) 6 miles over beach sand to a nice quiet spot on the Gulf of Mexico.

Up until this winter I had Micheliln LTX M/S tires in stock size. After 60,000 miles on those, I switched to the new Bridgestone Dueler Revo A/T with AQII. The Bridgestones are even better in all conditions.

My next vehicle will be an 2004 Expedition, for sure!
Hope this encourages you to get off the road... responsibly and treading lightly on nature.

 

off-road performance is extremely important to me. A car that sucks on road but that can go anywhere will be preferred to a road SUV, as good on road as it can get.

Are you sure the Navigator isn't based on the F-150, which is the same as the Expy?? I've seen F-150 with Navigator front end...and I'm pretty sure the X is the only superduty based SUV...

Had the Range Rover had a decent engine, I wouldn't even be asking this...but the Nav is definitely a "superior" truck. So quiet, big, and almost powerful. I just had doubts about its offroad abilities. From what you said, sounds like an Expy/nav + decent tires (BFG All Terrain or so) could go just about anywhere (for a stock truck, that is!)

tsdrallyer, do you have any locking devices? l/s or lockers?????

 

The Navigator is more like the Excursion than the Expedition. Of this I am 100% certain. I will not say that it is based on the Excursion as I am not absolutely certain, but its dimensions et. al. are more comporable to the Excursion.

Regarding the "go anywhere" comment you made, You got that right! Just keep in mind that they're big & heavy, but I've never been let down... hell, my dad's Excursion yanked my F-250 out of the snow and didn't even groan. Then my dad proceded to go in & out of the snow bank that snatched my F-250 just to show me how his truck could out-do my big bad pickup... damn, I need better tires.

 

navigator based on an X? I honestly thought it was based off of the same frame as the Expy. I have seen them side by side and they match up pretty well. There are some definite sheet metal differences though

 

The original Expy came out in 1997. The Navigator appeared a year later (1998) which does use the same frame as the Expy.

The Excursion is based on the F250 or F350 (I believe 250) and didn't appear till a couple of years later, thus couldn't be the bases of the Navigator. The Excursion is longer than both the Expy and Nav.

Hope this helps---Bob

 

I stand corrected. Here's some data on the trucks:

Information // Expedition // Navigator // Excursion
Length // 205.8" // 206" // 226.7"
Width // 78.7" // 80.2" // 79.9 in.
Height // 77.6" // 77.8" // 80.2"
Weight // 5686 lbs // 6041 lbs // 7190 lbs
Wheel Base // 119" // 118.8" // 137.1"
Rear Leg Room // 38.7" // 38.6" // 40.5"

It would seem that the Navigator is indeed closer to the Expedition in height, wheelbase, rear leg room, and weight than it is to the Excursion. My bad.

Also another correction: "my dad's Excursion yanked my F-250 out of the snow" -- I must have had a brain fart. Dad's got an Expedition, not an Excursion. Too much late night typing, I guess.

 

Zorro,
My Expy has the stock limited slip differential. No mods of any kind to any of the engine or running gear.

I do always have a full tank of gas when attempting to tow, so there is more equal weight distribution over all four wheels. And I've got 55 years driving experience offroad. My first drving lesson was in 1947 in a 1926 Ford panel truck in deep Florida sand.... so that helps.

 

I have an '03 XLT 4x4 FX4 and it handles itself very nicely off-road, thankyou.

I've taken it through some serious snow and a fairly deep mud and so far it's gone through both without any trouble at all and have not had to use 4x4 LOW yet.

The snow only proved to be an issue once it got all the way to the hubs.

Hope that helps.

 

I was impressed with my wife's this past winter. A friend of ours has a hunting camp way back in the mountains, and it made it there. His camp is about 1 1/2 miles up a logging road, once you cross the creek. It is mostly up hill. We went up there after a fresh snow fall (4-6") and the Expy. performed great. I have the Michelin (not very aggressive) stockers on it.

Steve S.
54 F-100
77 F-250 Supercab
79 Bronco (wife's)
99 Expedition (wife's)

 

In WV Just about a month 1/2 ago, we recieved a good 30 inch snow fall. The expy did better than expected in this, i took off across my field flaying in the snow, snow in areas was over the bumper, but it kept chugging along,, although SLOWLY..
Sand seems to be a weakness for mine, and I think its because it has the smaller motor, but as long as Im moving, no problems.

Ron
99 XLT 4.6 (puny motor)

 

The Expy has a plastic gas tank. I purchased the Ford skid plate set after purchasing my XLT. Some models come with these standard.

 

Once I got the running boards under the mud, I realized I was stuck. Took a F-150 to move it 3 feet, then a 2500HD to pull the F-150 out. Got to the car wash, and an hour later there was no damage to anything.