Beautiful, great find !!

 

I'm soooo jealous of you Texas guys and rust free rigs

 

Nice looking truck!

From the pictures, I'm willing to bet I can guess what dealership you bought it from.

A year ago, they had a nice 2002 F350 they were very proud of.

 

Isn't that radiator hose "through the belt" stock? What's the problem with that? Mine is the same so I'm just curious what the issue is. Thx.

 

That radiator hose is a real pain if you ever have to change a belt on the fly, or if you have a belt come apart on you. You have to take the hose off to get the belt on/off. Nothing like spilling very hot coolant all over everything in addition to a belt emergency.

 

Congratulations, looks great!!!

Treat her right and she should serve you well

 

Thanks guys for all the helpful input. I totally agree with you on getting rid of the front axle lift blocks. I am having a new ProComp 4" Suspension kit put in as we speak. It wont add much to the lift of the vehicle as it sits but it will add to the safety of my family. Since my original post, I have discovered a few necessary repairs that I want to tackle very soon.

_ Front passenger light socket is melted causing low light from headlight.
_ Door Ajar Light is on causing running boards and interior lights to stay on for a long cycle. I believe it is the rear hatch's fault.
_ Fuel in the engine valley. Ordered Guzzle's Fuel Bowl Reseal Kit.
_ LED interior light conversion kit. Ordered.
_ Engine seems to crank over slow to me. Its better when warm (but I feel it could be better but I am new to the diesel world). Will work to assess.

 

If you haven't installed the Pro Comp, dont. They are junk, junk, junk. Take it back if its not too late. Not trying to be condescending, just trying to save you some future headaches.

Go with Icon or BDS if you want an all spring lift kit. You can also go with factory X/Y with modified B codes with a drop brackets. You get what you pay for and the Excursion is a heavy truck. Do yourself a favor and do it right from the start.

 

What in your opinion is "junk" about the pro comp springs ?

I happen to know the engineer at pro comp who spec'ed them and the factory where they are made, I'd say overall they have better quality control and detailed specifications then many of the smaller independent spring importers simply because they have more resources to manage their spring program, in fact they supply a large portion of the name brand lift companies with their springs.

In my opinion the pro comp springs are amoung the best available until you get into the custom made race stuff.

Their shocks on the other hand, I have never been a fan of how they do their valve setups but that is just personal preference.

 

Pro Comp suspension R&D shop, CNC mandrel tube Bender, CNC lathes and mills, basically they have the best equipment money can buy and a team of talented engineers and fabricators who are wheeling enthusiast and racers. This is just the facility where they build the prototype kits for each vehicle. The place is nicer then many of custom shops I've been to around the country.

 

Go look on jeep forums or other offroad forums and they have a reputation of being junk. I had them on a truck I bought and it rode like crap. Personal friendships and pictures of CNC machines proves what? They have a reputation that a simple Google search will confirm. How many negatives do you find about ICON or BDS?

 

I owned 2 of the largest jeep and off road forums in existence for over 10 years. I would not say your representation of their springs reputations are accurate.

But I digress, aside from what you have read on the Internet, what do you personally know or have experienced with the springs that make them junk ?

Aside from knowing the engineers who designed them, I also know what material they are made from, what processes are used to make them and have seen their testing procedures, I also had the privilege to take their newest jeeps and suspension designs to Moab for a week each year and put them through their paces testing under various circumstances.

If you have them on your jeep and they ride like **** then change your shocks. Springs support the weight, hold the axles in place and determine the ride height of the vehicle, 90% of your ride quality comes from the shocks not the springs.

The flaw in your do a google search therory is a vast majority of people do not understand this basis workings of suspension tuning. Shocks = ride quality, springs = payload support

 

Do yourself a favor and do a search to see how many folks pirate4x4_camo has helped (including me) with especially suspension related items.

I believe you'll find more than anecdotal information and come away with a new respect for his knowledge and understand after reading some of his very detailed explanations and recommendations

It's okay to have a difference of opinion. Often it is those polite discussions where many of us learn as we try to keep up and follow the explanations.

 

As far as reputations go, I think much of the negitive posting about pro comp is really rooted in dealing with 4wheel parts stores. Some good knowledgeable guys work at a few of the stores but many of them don't know anything more about your vehicle then what the computer tells them and that is maddening when you need advice or are trying to build a custom vehicle.

Hopefully Polaris who recently bought Transamerica for 665 million and plans on investing more into them will overhaul the 4 wheel parts stores and fix their customer service issues.

And in case you are not aware, Transamerica is the parent company for 4wheel parts stores, 4wd stores, pro comp, poison spider, G2 axles, smittybilt , rubicon express and a few others. They also distribute over 150 other companies products. All told they either make or distribute about 70% of the aftermarket parts sold to the off road/jeep market. Either directly through their stores or as the main wholesale parts supplier to independent stores and shops.

 

I had Pro Comp springs on a truck I bought and it drove poorly. The springs had sagged. Sagging is payload support correct? People are free to run what they like. I am not a suspension expert like yourself, but when I replaced the Pro Comps on my Dodge 2500, the sag was gone and never returned even with a several hundred pound front bumper. Maybe their leafs are better. The names in Cummins community are Carli and Thuren. ProComp is never recommended. Last post for me here. I hope the Procomp servers the OP well.

On a side note, your contributions are much appreciated. If I ever need help, I hope I can reach out to you in the future.