The suspension on my 2000 Excursion/6,8l/4WD is rather sloppy after nearly150 000 miles, so it is about time for an upgrade. I am thinking that I would like to lift her around 4-5 inches at the same time. I run her 90% on road, but occasionally on birth roads and off road. I can see there are different manufactures and solutions, any recommendations would be highly appreciated.

 

Do you ever tow anything?
With the lift are you planning on taller tires? If so, remember the 6.8 really likes to rev and if you have the more common 3.73 gears and go with something like a 35" tire it will be a dog. If big tires are the plan, also plan for new gears to keep the effective ratio at least to where it started off or better.

 

 

 

Thanks wpnaes, What would you recommend to do to fix the suspension then? I bottoms out even in small speed dumps at low speed, just replace the front leaf springs?

thanks,

 

Start Here:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...excursion.html

Scroll down to the links to suspension posts. I highly recommend reading them ALL, as it will give you the knowledge you need to proceed. The Excursion's suspension issues are not usually a single silver bullet fix, but rather a totality of several minor out-of-spec issues that add up to poor performance. Unfortunately, in most cases, they ALL have to be addressed to add up to a great handling truck.

The issue you describe is common to many of our 15-18 year-old trucks, as over time the springs (which didn't have a ton of travel to begin with) have sagged and many see frequent use of the bump stops - if the bump stops are even still present. Worse, the sag affects caster, which out-of-spec on the low side has been determined to be detrimental to handling on these trucks.

Many, if not most here who have upgraded have gone down the ATS Spring route of upgrading to F250-spec springs, specifically V-, W-, or X-code clones in front and modified B- or even C-code clones in the rear. I think hapiness is pretty much universally reported, but with suspension being a subjective "feel" thing, YMMV. Personally, I just ordered some ProComp springs and Bilstiens to try out and see if I like them.

Understand that a 4"-5" lift is not just a "bolt some new springs in" project, it will require an adjustable track bar, maybe a dropped pitman arm, dropped track bar mount, extended brake lines, new u-bolts, and extended shocks. Then an alignment from a very knowledgeable shop that can get the caster to 5* or more.

 

 

 

23" all around, except rear passenger side which is close to 24". Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it.

 

 

I replaced the bump stop 2-3 years ago, the new one are still find but a bit harder than the original. I will drive around and double check the measurements. So if they are not sagged much, maybe new shocks will do the job?

 

 

Thank you very much for your assistance and advice pirate4x4, I will replace the hard bumpers that I have. An specific recommendations for the shocks?