Been away for a while but now I'm back and considering my 4th Excursion. My last was an 04 Black limited 4WD with 6.0. I'd done everything short of bulletproofing it. It tires me to think how much I did and how much I'll probably have to do on another. However, it is what we idiots do-some more times than others

Here's the story. I currently work on an Indian reservation in Montana. I got tired of running a business and fighting the government, I decided to do the last15 letting them pay me. If we ever open an "Around the camp fire stories" thread, it would be a goody.
Fast forward-I'm in Billings, MT and I have to drive 35 miles into the wilderness one way to work every day. Out here that's nothing. I had a 80 mile round trip at the last rez 30 miles from the Canadian border. Did we have snow? Tons. Was it cold? Minus 29 the first winter. Did I ever have issues going back and forth? No. Did I hit anything or have anything hit me? No-not in 7 years. So I took a position in what I would term civilization for a state of 1 million people, This little commute is on windy, side of the hills, narrow roads with shoulders that would roll you over if you erred much. I got here in January one year and landed in one of the worst winters in a while. Driving the X on such unfamiliar roads in heavy snow-rough roads by the way-worse when snow tracked was taking a toll on me as it was always night time, icy, poor visibility, pitch black dark facing idiots who don't know how to drive, forgot how to drive being in an "Under the Influence" state-having misaimed headlights and God awful LED headlights in old reflector housings. Some even had those ridiculous LED bar lights you can mount on your bumper. Being on a rez, I can't carry and shoot out headlights on the way to and from work. Additionally I had fought the headlight battle with that X. Anyway it got bad enough that I had had it. I went and traded it for an Explorer Sport. What a freaking idiot! The Explorer is fine but they just don't hold up under deer strikes. I'm here about a year before a huge doe runs full speed out of the brush right in front of me. Took out the hood, front grill lights-didn't hit a fender, condenser, radiator, radiator cross member, turbo tubes, air box, under the hood fuse box etc. It was a 16K mess. Took months to get that fixed. This was HALLOWEEN 2018. March 2019-Momma and 2 babies do the same thing. I had a grill guard so it was only 9K that time. Arise the sun this past Monday-another momma with baby in trail go across the road as the sun was coming up. Baby was on the side of the road and momma in the middle. I had both of them missed going between them when momma turned to look for baby. She reversed course right into me and baby came from the side. It's going to be about 10K. At least it was driveable thanks to the heavy duty guard. That's 3 strikes in 3 1/2 years...I'm thinking my luck and the Explorer's luck ain't so good and I have to dodge about a half dozen every week, Want to hunt deer-come here! Guys drive down the road and pick up road kill, The highway department will give you a free tag. You can't shoot them on the road but it's ok to get bombed by one and have a serious accident.-perfectly logical-correct?

Anyway, I looked at newer trucks and my jaw hit the ground. Houses used to cost less than these things now. You're in upper 40's to 50's for anything other than a strip down...and they are a bit of unknown characters. I hope to retire in a few years and the wife and I will travel.So-where do I end up-back thinking I may want to revisit the X world. You guys know they've never been easy to shop but now they are increasing in value. Not that I would entertain it but some people have hung 40k and 1 50k price tags on some under 100k miles. Then there's tons of ones with over 200K and 300K which I don't want to start one from that point. Starting lower and modifying along the way would probably be an easy 300k with a 6.0 that hasn't been abused, bulletproof or good enough to bullet proof. No stinking EGR cooler on the Mod list-it's time for a delete this time. The wife is going to be rough on me on the X hunt. She thinks traveling in an Escape is very comfy--not! and you sure can't haul anything with one. Great for around time and shorter range trips. Cross country-just shoot me now!

All of that comes to the point of invoking our famous X hunt. So if anyone comes across one that is an 04 or 05 6.0 4WD Eddie Bauer or Limited with say 120-130K or less please let me know. A really good one at 150K would be good but I'm not in a big hurry and I have a few blackmail items to work on to get my way without domestic terror

And thanks ahead of time. It's good to be back. It's not the path I would have intended but the X and this forum have always been home. Now I must go and hunt down my 2 large ring binders of mods I've done over the years. Somehow I think they got deleted in the last move as things in a box notoriously disappear in a move. I sure hope the next election will bring down gas prices but I won't get started on that one. I definitely have to get all my tools back out and primed for action

 

Welcome back- Does it have to be a 6.0?

 

6.Oh no, lol, problem children

 

It has a 6.0 but not mine anymore. I was ready to bulletproof right before I sold it-what an idiot. I never had the first bit of trouble with it. I do remember in 03 when I was at my friendly Ford service dept. Guy says you see all those crates over there? I counted 8. He said "those are all 6.0's going back to Ford."