I had been 'casually' browsing marketplace looking at what is out there, Excursion wise. Everything in my neck of the woods tends to have rust issues. So I moved the search radius slightly south. A 2004 White Eddie Bauer 2WD with the 6.0 popped up into my search results from Arkansas. About 210k on the clock. It was lovely from the ad photos, seemingly rust free, reasonably priced, and lower miles than my other rigs. So I reached out to the seller, who was happy to disclose what he knew about the truck.

I pulled a Carfax to fill in the blanks as much as I could from the previous two owners (owner 3 had receipts from owner 2, so I am looking at all of that history too). Family and I drove a rental 6 hours, spent the night, and drove it home.

I'm excited to have one that is finally free of rust and rocker issues. I'd like to keep it that way! Hope to start going through the truck in more detail this week when I have the time. I also have the problem of having two other Excursions. The original plan/agreement was to sell one of the other ones once we bought the new one, but I'm not sure how I'm going to decide between the 7.3 and V10, even with their less than perfect cosmetic issues.

Here are a couple of pictures from the ad:

 

Congrats on the new EX

As much as I love the 7.3 and would never give it up...you should get more for the 7.3 and the v10 is plenty reliable. That will also give you the option of diesel and gas. It's a tough call and I don't think there is a wrong choice.

 

Congrats!

As someone who owns a 7.3 and 6.0 Excursion, I'll tell you upfront you won't get rid of any of the three.

I bought my 2005 Excursion October 2013 and planned on selling Rudolph the 2001 Excursion. I tried and a few people looked at it but I couldn't bring myself to sell him. Too much sentimental value. So needless to say, I have a 2001 7.3 Excursion, a 2005 6.0 Excursion, and now a 2005 6.0 F350.

Enjoy the new rig!

 

Yes, I do like the option of having gas and diesel. I've actually been driving the V10 more lately than the other one, due to a lot of little things needing to be done on the 7.3

Biggest project on the V10 was dropping the tank, replacing the fuel pump, and replacing the rusty hitch. Stranded once because of this (and almost once due to the starter solenoid under the hood). Other than that, its been pretty reliable for the last 50,000 miles with regular fluid changes, brakes, etc. Been a bit of a learning curve, but haven't had to use a shop for any of it.

 

Thanks! This is the guilty feeling that I'm getting - selling either of them probably wouldn't give that much of a financial gain.

Before everything came together for the new Ex, I had started replacing the skid plate on my 7.3 It was getting really rusty, and I was worried I was going to lose it going down the highway. I found a donor a year ago and finally got around to painting it up, sanding and undercoating the truck as best as I could. Plan to use some fluid film under there too. Just waiting on the parts to come in for the hutch mod before I button it all back up.

So, while it might not make sense to keep all three, it will be hard selling the 7.3 after putting all the time in doing some of these fixes! It's the first one I bought 5 years ago that started the journey...


New skid primed for paint.

Old skid had some serious rust cancer.

Underside wire brushed and ready for primer/paint.