Hey;

Long time lurker here. I usually hang out in either the Bronco or Bullnose sections, but I ventured here and I'll tell you why.

First, I haven't found an Excursion yet. I've looked intermittently for the past little while, but I've recently gotten more serious about pulling the trigger when the right one comes up. The only thing that I'm being picky with is the fact that I would like either a Limited or an EB and no 5.4's. This thing is going to primarily be a tow rig for my Jeeps. Second duty that it would have would be as a weekend family hauler, either just people or a small camp trailer. I don't need it as a DD and honestly, I probably wont even drive it in the winter. (I live on the East coast of Canada...winters suck, they're salty and it kills vehicles). Even if I did use it as a DD, work is only about 5mins away. But when it would get used, it would be working. The current Jeep is a 2 door JK Wrangler on 40" tires. Weight comes in right around 5k.Add another 1200lbs of trailer and a little extra for gear, we're sitting at 6500lbs. Now, biggest reason for an X rather than a truck is longer distance solo trips; I'm going to use the back as a modular (so it can all be removed at the end of the weekend) sleeping/camping quarters. This way, I wont have to worry about a tent or that stuff....I'll just be truck and trailer.

Here's where I'm hitting a dilemma....diesel or V10? In my area, Excursions are kind of rare. Finding one for sale is a "once in a while" thing, and finding the one you want (lower gearing, right trim level, options) is going to be damn near impossible. Even though they are uncommon, they always seem to be for sale for right around 5k. Now, one came up recently (2000 Limited 4wd v10) pretty cheap... but while I was immersing myself in research, it got away. Womp. But, I want to be able to jump on the next one that comes up in a similar way. There's another one that's in another province over (which is not accessible right now) with a 7.3 that made me really question this....

Am I going to hate the v10 while towing and be wishing for a diesel? Is the maintenance and extra work of a diesel worth it based on my intended usage, or would I be totally content with a v10 for now? So I guess this brings me to my two and a half options.... Option 1; Hold out for the diesel and hope that one comes up close enough to jump on for the right price, Option 2; Just get the next good V10 powered truck I can find and live with it and accept the fuel economy and power as "is what it is" and option 2.5 is take that v10 truck and diesel swap it eventually.

Any insight from people is appreciated... especially from guys who have owned v10s and diesel trucks of this vintage or have experience with them. Everytime I look up towing experience, camper trailers seem to come up, but not so much cars or open deck trailers.... so some real world experience with these trucks in that regard would be much appreciated too.

Thanks!

 

The v10 won't have a challenge with your jeep and trailer. Car trailers dont have the aerodynamics of travel trailers and 6500lbs is light. If you have any challenges in terms of acceleration just get a re-gear.

 

I completely agree with the above post. Your Jeep and trailer are just over half what my 12' tall, 41' long, 8' wide and 12,000lb (unsure of the exact Canadian measuring units here....) TT weighs, but the Jeep doesn't have the aero drag that the TT does. My V-10 EX on 35"s with 4.88 gears for an effective of 4.39 (very close to the factory optional 4.30) doesn't have any problem dragging the big TT all over the Eastern states and a couple Provinces up North, about 40K towing miles with this TT on the hitch so far. Gears are the most important thing to consider for the best gasser towing EXperience, followed by some good custom tunes. With only 6500lbs on the hitch even the more common 3.73 gears with stock sized tires should provide OK-ish towing performance, but deeper gears will deliver even better results.

 

Awesome. Thanks for the replies.

Recently I towed the combo of Jeep and trailer with a 2018 Tundra; tow package truck and the 5.7. I thought it did exceptional but the economy hurt... About 11mpgs for the total trip, which is about 25L/100km's. That said, when you break the costs down, it was only about 15$ extra in fuel compared to driving the Jeep to the location and driving home. Plus I had a trailer for it to go on if something happened. My driving habits, especially while towing, keep me at about 65 mph.

Can a V10 Excursion dragging 6500lbs on a trailer get somewhere close to that? I've searched a bunch and keep coming up with 8mpg... But that seems like it's people who are towing significantly bigger travel trailers and the wind drag on those would be a huge factor, I think. Honestly, I have no problem regearing the axles myself... It would give a good opportunity to do a total overhaul so everything is fresh and reliable. If I am fortunate enough to find one of these things, I'd eventually like to have a little 2" lift and make it the family adventure wagon... The Jeeps work ok for that but damn kids take up a lot of room.

Last; anything to look out for while searching? Bad years, known problems, etc?

Thanks again!

 

Since you have settled on an engine. Get the newest V-10 possible...2005.

 

Not really settled... Just going by what's come up for sale here recently in the past year. I have yet to see a diesel X for sale locally that wasn't 15k. I know enough about the 6.0 to know that if it wasn't properly maintained, it's probably a bomb, so I'm pretty relegated to the 7.3 or the V10. The last 3 that came up for sale have been 2000-2003 trucks... I just don't want to get my hopes up on a truck and learn that it's a bad year for something

 

Sounds like you are mechanically inclined. If so, any year v10 is fine. The early ones tended to blow plugs. Helicoil or timesert is usually the fix.

finding an 05 will likely be well out of your price point. The difference between 05 and 04 is the headlights and grill.

upgrading the earlier years may be more cost effective especially with a limited budget. I think you will come well north of 8mpg given your towing depending on terrain and your speed.

 

And ill chime in here as well, I have a 2000 Excursion V10, and you will not have to worry about maintaining 65 MPH, unless you want to. With that load i do not see an issue being able to do 75+ if the road conditions and trailer are suited for it properly.

The V10 Excursion is deceptively quicker than it appears, its not a sports car that is for sure, but for a big giant armored iron monster, it moves like someone is back there kicking its *** and whipping it when you push the pedal completely to the floor, though when you floor it on the V10, remember your fuel flow is much like a flushing toilet until you let the pedal back up...

 

Since you said that you do not plan on using your Ex in the snow, consider a 2 wheel drive. I've had one for 21 years and have not gotten stuck, yet. I would, however, consider a limited slip diff. I have a TruTrack and it works flawlessly. You can cut the cost of the installation when you replace the gears, as WE3ZS suggested. I went with the 4.56 with OEM size tires. In my opinion, try the new gears with the stock tires first and if you don't like them, you can always go with the bigger tires at a later point.
Looking forward to seeing your progress.

 

Fuel mileage can vary greatly from a long list of variables, but I think that 11 MPG should be possible with your Jeep on a trailer based on my EXperiences. My Ex back when it was all stock (32" tires)with 3.73 gears got 6.5 to 7 MPG towing our then 9,500lb toyhauler, after the change to 4.88 gears while still on 32" tires the towing mileage increased to 9 MPG with no other changes and all at the same speeds, weights and over the same route (PA to SC and back). The increase was mostly due to being able to hold OD much more, those downshifts on grades really suck the gas down. Currently we pull a 12K TT with the 4.88s, 35" tires, 5Star's 89 Octane Performance tune and an Aeroturbine (Jones) 3030XL muffler and see between 7.5 MPG (back roads and small towns with lots of stop and go) to 9 MPG (all Interstate Highway) towing at 65-ish. I have logged 2 trips over 400 miles at 9.5 MPG, perfect weather and light traffic. Since our EX is a dedicated tow rig it doesn't see much unloaded driving but it has made the 450+ mile trip to/from Philly/Columbus a few times at 65 MPH and 14.5 MPG.
There aren't really any "bad" years to watch out for, early ('00-'02) V-10s had only 4 threads for the spark plugs in the heads and had a factory torque of only 11 ft/lbs, not a good combo..... Blown plugs are a well known issue for them but moving the torque up to 26 to 30 ft/lbs seems to greatly improve their reliability. If a plug does blow there a few very good repair kits available, Cal-Van, Time Sert and Lock N Stitch (Spelling?) are all top shelf, Helicoils are not recommended for that job. By '03 the thread count was increased and blown plugs were no longer an issue. Otherwise all years of the gassers were pretty much the same other than updates to the dash cluster early and in '05 the front end saw a facelift with new bumper, grille and headlights.

 

The v10 is no slouch, provided it has the right gears. Try to find one with the optional 4.30 or swap the gears to that and it will do fine.

 

Mine has the factory wheels, tire size, and 3.73 gears and it is much quicker than i expected it to be when you give it the full gooosh.

 

6.8 FTW, I went 6.0 and prefer the 6.8 between the two. The 6.0 has insane power (I've done more than I ever should have) but the 6.8 is just more fun being I don't have to worry about the black smoke driving around if I get on it even just a tad.

 

Also dont have to worry about blowing a turbo, i have a friend who has a F350 with the 6.0 and he for unknown reasons has had to replace the turbo numerous times.

 

Buy the cheapest POS you can find.
by the time you get all its issues sorted out and set up just the way you want it you will be an excursion guru.

they are easy to work on, parts and options widely available due to the huge supply of f250s from that era. All excursions are built off the same platform so Reconfiguring them is easy. You can Even bolt on the 2005 + f250 linked front suspension.

Common wear stuff like seats, bumpers, lights, ect is easy and affordable to fix

but the motor you want, fix the rest.