Hello everyone. I am the new owner of a 2005 Excursion Limited 4x4 6.0 with 28k miles and 1 owner. This is one of my dream vehicles to own and it came true. I have been doing lots of reading and researching, but have come to a point where I need some advice about suspension upgrades. I have 2 choices and I am not sure on what rout to take.

Option 1. Throw the Carli excursion suspension on it and have a very nice and capable upgrade with a mild life. Pros would be convenient.

Option 2. Swap the axles/suspension to a 2010 f350 and have a nice upgrade and then down the road upgrade to possibly a Carli suspension for a 2010 f350. Pros would be Better suspension starting point and better components. I have a donor truck that I can get all of the parts for $2800.

I spoke with Carli and they said yes our Excursion suspension is very nice but a leaf spring will never ride as nice as a coil in the front.

Im at a cross roads option one is convenient and nice, but the option to swap to a newer suspension has its appeal also. It will be more work and more expensive in the long run, but it will be more unique and ride better.

what are your thoughts. Any input form people who have done a coil swap would be very helpful.

thank you

 

Welcome to the EX forum!


Congrats on finding that dream EX, 1 owner and only 28K miles, WOW!

The later model coil front suspension will be a great upgrade and provide a better ride. But, it is a lot more work vs a lift with all new leaf springs.

What are your use plans for this EX? Daily driver? Long haul road trips? Towing? Off road adventures?

 

Yeah I’m very excited about this project. My plans are to have a capable truck that can tow at times. I want the excursion to ride decent and also be able to handle light off roading. Nothing crazy. Ideally smaller lift with the best ride quality available but still able to tow my boat about 6500 lbs trailered for short trips or my tractor about 9000 lbs on a trailer if needed for short trips.

The ride quality is the main reason for the WANT of a Calri suspension. The Excursion lift form Carli can be optioned with air bags to bring load carrying back to factory specs.

This will not be my daily driver. I went with the Excursion due to the seating capability and the fact that it’s bad A. Family road trips with plenty of room for all plus gear. It might be used for the occasional MTB trip and spend a night in the back if needed.

The dream would be front end conversion to a 2011+, coil upgrade from 2008+, and an interior swap to a new style super duty. As for motor not looking to make more power just do the know issues of the 6.0 and keep it well maintained. Obviously that’s the dream and in time I will get there but not all at once.

 

Like your build plans. Was looking at the Carli also. Ended up going with the OME leaf setup as I'm doing mine in stages (not my daily). Tow a 6500 pound boat also to the keys and our lake place. Guess really depends if you have the coin to go all in or you need to do in stages. Mine is going in stages first was get a decent lift on to fit 37's , gears and lockers, steering, brakes, spicer x joints throughout, and bolt ons. Stage 2 is building a single turbo / upgraded short block for the v10 working on that now. Stage 3 Coil Over Conversion for the front.

Keep us posted and good luck!

 

If you’ve got the coin, the 08+ super 60 front ends are sweet. Bigger unit bearings, better brakes, better steering components ( impossible to have tie rod roll on the 08+ stuff because of the way the drag link attaches), they’re just better all the way around.

The rear ends are pretty much the same except the newer one will be wider to match the front.

As for an almost 20 year old rig with less than 30k miles on it, while that sounds pretty good, that’s means the truck spent a lot of time sitting, expect a few leaks to show up when you start driving it ( oil leaks, trans fluid leaks, differential seal leaks, power steering fluid leaks, etc). While certainly not the end of the world or anything, just don’t expect to take it on a cross country road trip and be trouble free like if it was a two year old vehicle with 30k miles.
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Im going the coil swap route. My new rear end has a lsd too. Im after the nice ride, and there disnt seem to be a better option. Plus larger brakes, steering gear and turning radius....almost a no brainer other then the pile of work and cost. Also i really like the excursions with 35" tires and i believe i can run them on the "stock" ride height.

Its a pile of work as i went through and painted and replaced basically everything. Kinda nice to have the axles out and build them up at your liesure (there was alot of liesure involved lol). Hoping to do the actual swap in spring once it warms up a bit. Knock a few other things off the list.

Im using axles from an 06. Got the rolling frame for 600, but have replaced almost all the wear parts with top teir parts. Im using new coil buckets. Probably about 4k cdn into the swap over all but once swapped it should be like a new truck.



I am no mechanic either so taking my time.

 

Instead of trying to remove the stock radius arm brackets and stock coil spring buckets from the 2008 for the conversion I’m going to use the PMF coil bucket and radius arm bracket. Also does the 2008 track bar bracket not work? Any info on what track bar bracket works best and what steering stabilizer bracket works best would be very helpful as I’m getting mixed info on these 2.

 

I would think it depends on how you use the truck. I bought my 05 in 09 with 23k on it. It now had 160k. I raced motorcycles and the toyhauler with the bikes and gear weighed 23k total.....so i set the truck up to towing...rancho 9000....bigger sway bars, air bags, RAS and 14 ply tires...Michelin.

 

Cool beans on the mileage! Rare.
Before starting, give a call to Junior at ATS Springs in PA. He helped me pair one of their springs with an RAS I already had and then told me to buy from Ford my front springs. He saved me money by incorporating what I already had and then sent me to someone else.
Just call him.