As a 2 WD 7.3 owner with a Jayco 338 RETs TT not a lick of cement for 100 acres I wish for a four wheel drive every time I come home with the camper. Ever seen a Cadillac Escalade hooked to an ex that is hooked to an 11000 pound camper that is stuck in wet grass? Not funny to me but my better half is still laughing about it.(My truck had to pull your out hahahaha)

 

Hey, I'm all for the 4X4 if I can really get away with swapping out springs to increase payload. My husband is not a grease monkey so how much would something like that run us here in CA?

 

That depends on where you are in CA.

 

Southern, the "OC." I'm a real housewife. Like real, real. Not what you see on t.v. lol.

We have a pretty reasonable mechanic.

I'm finding some 4X4's but they have 3.73. How difficult (meaning how much $$) is it to swap that out too to get this coveted 4.3?

 

This has been a great read. I have been looking at changing out gears as well. We have a diesel with much larger tires and it's throwing me out of the power for our 27' TT as well.

I've been quoted 800 -1100 here in Oregon by reputable shops for the labor. The gear sets plus "mini install kit" for front and a "full install kit w bearings" for the rear total roughly $1000.

I think that most of these guys would tell you, if wasn't crass sounding, "not to worry about it" regarding the towing weights / ratings / capacities you are reading, compared to what you are towing.

Your TT weights are well within the capacity of really any Ex, even the 5.4 would work, but be pushing it.

These vehicles are muuuch stouter than the Expedition you've experienced.

Coming from a current 05 6.0 diesel owner, I wouldn't hesitate one bit to be driving one with the v10. The 5.4 would not make the cut for me though.

For the price range you are looking at, albeit a NICE decent mileage v10 will pop up soon.

Last but not least, a reminder, you are in good hands on here.

Joe

 

Thanks Joe. Yes, I am really glad to have found this forum.

Another question, I am seeing quite a few with lifts for sale. Is this something that would be good, bad, or indifferent for towing?

Primary reason for buying an EX is for towing but would also double for around town soccer mom stuff. I have my minivan but I know I'd want to drive this instead however I might feel pretty silly being 5 feet off the ground.

 

Ummm, please re-read (or read for the first time, if you skipped it) post number 29 above.

4.30's are not "coveted" by PSD owners, notwithstanding one certain exception.

Stewart

 

In fear of giving TMI you are adding another can of worms into your equation. A lift COULD be a benefit & it COULD be a BIG problem.
LIFTS Plus Side : The weak spring issues MAY have been taken care of for you.
LIFTS Minus Side : You still might have the stock rear spring pack. People do some REALLY crappy work & CRAZY crud on their mall crawlers that could end in a tragedy towing a TT. Most do a lift to run larger tires, larger tires effect the final drive ratio effectively turning your 3:73s into 3:50 or 3:05 or WORSE !! ( the previous #s are made up just for the point) BEWARE of lifts in your situation & knowledge level.


BE PERPAIRED to spend 2K to rebuild the frontend on almost any X you find as well.

 

I like to think of these big wagons as Legos for grownups. They were built (and de-rated based on their Super Duty bloodlines) to meet a perceived niche in the giant SUV market. Softer and lower ride height than a pickup to make them more "civilized" and able to fit in more residential garages. Great, I'm sure there were/are thousands of owner who really appreciate Ford's efforts to gentrify a 3/4 ton people mover, but I'm not one of them (and I'm in good company in this forum's community! ). Fortunately for those of us who wish to work these big wagons more like the trucks they should have been (in our humble collective opinions) there is a huge pool of SD parts to dip into and plenty of safe capacity to be had.



Mrs. Mouse, I bought my EX in totally stock condition almost 6 years ago with intentions of keeping it for about 15 years until we retired and moved up from TTs to a large Class A RV. It did do the job back then and we all loved it right away. But I knew (and learned more here!) that it could do it (towing with a full load of our crew onboard) a little better with some changes. So I started to do my homework and read tons of info wherever I could find it (mostly here ) and started to formulate my Lego plans for it. I'm frugal (everyone else says I'm cheap, I daily drive a Geo Metro ) so I went at the plan piecemeal as I found the absolute best deals I could to check off items from my plan's list.
New springs: A coworker gave me his 20k mile take off springs from when he lifted his pickup. $ Free with about $70 spent on new U-bolts.
Hensley Arrow WD hitch system: Bought used off CL for $650, spent another $100 on new bearings, seal and paint. (MSRP is $3200-ish!)
Rancho RS9000XL adjustable shocks: $ Free (basically) Crazy Rancho promotion where if 4 shocks and a lift kit were bought together they sent you a $500 gift card, I sold the cheap lift kit for cost and the card covered the shock's price. Got the tip from a member here!
'04 Lariat 18" rims: Bought off CL for $600 with decent tires that I ran for 2 years.
Hellwig rear sway bar: $190 Bought during an online sale.
Banks stainless headers and Y pipe: $890 Bought during a Black Friday online sale, best deal EVER on these.
SCT tuner and 5 custom tunes from 5Star Tuning: $350-ish during a great Memorial Day sale.
4.88 axles: $1200 from an ebay seller (after a no bid auction ended), complete axles including brakes and steering components with the gears installed along with a locker in the rear. Got the lead from a member here!

Every one of these items improved our EX's towing/hauling abilities and made long hauls more comfortable and enjoyable. And doing it slowly over time didn't break my budget and as they were done the ever capable EX just became more capable! So don't be too concerned about the costs of the various upgrades we have spoken of here, none of them are actually required to do what you need, they just make doing the job easier and more efficient. As your grease monkey confidence increases (exposure to this community will do that ) and you log some towing miles you may decide to do an upgrade or two, and we will be here to help.

A look at the published numbers show that a V-10 4X4 EX has a curb weight of 7306 (approx.) vs it's GVWR of 8900 for a payload capacity of 1594. While the diesel (using the 7.3 numbers here) 4X4 has a curb weight of 7706 (approx.) vs it's GVWR of 9200 for a payload capacity of 1494. The 4X4 front axle has a design rating of 5200 and the rear axle is 6830 for a combined axle capacity of 12030. The limiting factor in the EX reduced (compared to the pickups) GVWR and resulting payload is the springs alone. Your 800lb family and 900lb tongue weight is actually higher than the payload of either model EX shown above, it is actually not that simple due to the actions of the WD hitch which does transfer some of that TW back onto the trailer axles, but you would still be right at the listed payload. Obviously from the axle design limits there is still a ton (actually a ton and a half ) of safe axle capacity available to you with certain spring upgrades. Now all of this DOES NOT change what is printed on the door sticker for your factory weight ratings and you will need to be comfortable to work and play in excess of those numbers to get the most from your EX. I completely understand both camps here, those who are only comfortable working within the posted ratings and those who are comfy with modifications to access higher capacity within the components safe limits.

 

Impossible to give a solid answer on the lift and it's effect on towing. it would need to be a case by case determination based on the quality of the lift and what other supporting work was done along with it. Examples would be simple taller lift blocks and shackles added to increase ride height and fit taller tires with the stock 3.73 gears. That would be worst case for a towing rig, taller blocks on the stock EX rear springs would lead to serious axle wrap (a bad thing) and increased wandering (more badder) due to the added leverage and taller tires would reduce the effective gear ratio like Harley said above. (As an example my 4.88 gears are effectively reduced down to 4.39 due to my 35" tall tires being that much taller than the stock 31.5" tires).
On the other hand a lift gained by changing over to heavier duty springs and then a swap to a numerically higher gear ratio, like my rig has would be a plus in the towing department.
However, going to heavier springs doesn't equate to the increase in ride height that me rig has, I added some extra bits to mine solely for the additional ride height to fit the 35" tires. All of that is not needed if the only goal is to move to the stronger truck springs, that can be done with only 1" to 2" of height increase with stock tire sizes if that's more to your liking.

 

Lifting a vehicle changes the handling and stability characteristics of the vehicle and will require extra attention and design considerations when you tow with it.

Unless you understand how and why these modifications were done I would advise against buying a lifted vehicle for towing. If you really want one I would suggest the help of somebody with experience in this area and have your own lifted.

I am not condoning the practice but just to illustrate it is possible to do I will admit to towing a large enclosed trailer that was absurdly over the 10,000 legal weight limit with my lifted Ex on 37" tires. I have spent a fair amount of time, engineering help and money to make it a safe endeavor. I would argue it handles the task better then a stock Ex towing at 10k. But that is just one idiots opinion, your results may very

 

☺ Gotcha, just coveted by V10 owners.

 

My husband and I saw this one and said YES!!! You'll see why...

Cars for Sale: 2005 Ford Excursion XLS in Thousand Oaks, CA 91360: Sport Utility Details - 413722916 - Autotrader

 

The technical specs have been covered pretty well. We purchased the Excursion for pretty much the same reason. We have two Golden Retrievers, a kiddo now the wife and myself.

The trailer we picked up is weighs around 7,500, with a gross of 9200. To get it comfortable we swapped some KYB monomax shocks, added a Hellwig rear sway bar, Airbags otherwise completely stock. I did add the 5-Star tuner at the recommendation of others and it does help with shift points.




2001 Ford Excursion V10, 3.73, 5-Star Tuned pulling 2006 Pilgrim M-267BHSS

 

Here's my .02

I use to have a 36' TT that weighed about 9k loaded up. I pulled it all across Texas including up the Davis mountain (which I believe is the highest elevation in Texas) with our 04 excursion. It had the 6.0 PSD and 3.73 gears, 4 wheel drive. It was always loaded with wife, 3 kids, 2 boxers and our extra gear. It was also my wife's daily driver.

I didn't do any spring swaps. I did add RAS which worked well, imho. I'm sure someone from the weight police will chide me for being overloaded. I'm of the belief that the excursion's capabilities exceed the ratings on the door jamb. It is basically a 3/4 ton truck with a topper shell. That being said, be sure to get a good WDH, not the round bars with chains. Also, make sure you have LT tires on the Ex.

I have since upgraded to a fifth wheel so I no longer have the ex as a TV, but if I ever went back to a TT, I'd buy another one in a heartbeat. I personally would not hesitate to pull that Jayco with the Excursion. I can only speak for the diesel, as I've never owned the V10. But only you can decide what is best for you and your comfort level. Good luck with your search