I understand your view however I'm 34 and just not quite ready to drive a coversion van and actually were quite hard to find a conversion with the v-10 and 1 ton however this is what I found for now so we'll deal with the rest down the road. By the way one of the conditions for the newer T.V. was I have to go to Rushmore has anyone around this area Wisconsin, Minnesota ever gone and what would be a good route to take. I guess it will be trial by fire on the whole space issue. However I have a wife and 2 kids who get car sick so our travels per day are usually controlled by their cooperation so to speak. Thanks Greg

 

Greg,

I totally understand and I do wish you the best...really...so please do not take my post any other way...

As far as Rushmore...I've been there from Indiana...

My route was I-90 across Minnesota and South Dakota. In fact I made it 750 miles that first day from Fort Wayne to Sioux Falls SD...but like I said we travel long days...

One thing I can offer up is a few items/places to stop along the way. In South Dakota you must stop at the Badlands as well as the consumate tourist trap Wall Drug!

We stayed in Rapid City SD which is slightly off the Rushmore path. BUT what we did was take a motor coach tour of that area Mount Rushmore Sightseeing Tour Packages and Fort Hays Dances with Wolves Film Set It was really neat actually...the tour starts at the Dances with Wolves movie set. You get a breakfast and dinner as well as a guided tour bus...you see Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Custer State Park and Sylvan lake...I can highly recommend this tour...one of the most memorable parts of the tour for us was this BIG motor coach going thru the TINY tunnels on the Iron Mountain Road and Needles Highway...INCHES to spare...we learned a lot about the area from the tour bus driver...more so than I could have ever learned just driving thru the area. Plus I was tired of driving and figured I'd let someone else do the driving!

You are about 1.5 hours from Devils Tower from Rapid City...think Close Encounters of the Third Kind...

BTW...I'm 44 and not ready to drive a full size van either...but it is hard to deny it makes a nice TV with incredible payload if you can find the right one.

Good luck...we truly enjoy and cherish our family time together inside the truck traveling for our vacations...memories I know our kids will always remember...you cannot put a price on that...

Joe.

 

Thanks for the awesome info. Hey what model prodigy do you have? I have the P3 The new truck has an older model I'll have to look and see if the wiring harness is the same for mine. How was your Ex towing in SD? Do you happen to know if your friends did any upgrades to the 8.1 as in exhaust and air intake and also if it had any effect. Thanks a bunch Greg

 

Greg,

My Ex did awesome in SD...that was easy compared to Wyoming and Colorado. The real peaks are in those two states...

My Prodigy is the older version. If I were to do it today I would go P3 for the ability to monitor sourced current...my Prodigy only displays output voltage...having insight into current is so much more useful to know when brake magnets are wearing or failing...the voltage will remain constant regardless of current (well except for a dead short when voltage will drop)...wiring for the P3 and Prodigy may be a different brake controller end connector...but even if you have to change the whole harness...it is literally a 2 minute job to unplug one from the Burb and connect the other...it will take you longer to screw in the screws to mount the P3...

As far as mods on the 8.1L...that motor is a torque hound and you've got the 4.10 rear end...I'd be very surprised to learn you needed to mod it...GM did a great job from the factory of making a great towing motor...give her a try in stock form before you think about modifying her...I think you will be happy. Both my buds tow 9000# TT's with theirs...one has 3.73's and the other 4.10's...you should be just fine stock...

I've been thru the Rockies twice in 3 summers...my V10 does just fine even at the high altitudes I ask her to tow at...and honestly I'd be surprised to find your 8.1L to have any different results...I'm just not partial to the interior layout of GM's.

Let me know if you need anything else!
Joe.

 

I wouldn't say sorry to us. Those are fine trucks and without them the Excursion would have never existed.

Hard to argue with 340hp spinnin' 4.10 gears for a TV. I'd leave it alone but you may want to measure the intake temps. I know my Avalanche has about a 5°-8°+ difference between ambient and measured at the MAF. it could probably use a cold air intake but I prefer the filtering ability of the oversized paper filter.

I wouldn't do an exhaust either. Droning up a hill with a family susceptible to car sickness is a recipe for a short travel day.

 

Howdy, to all been along time since I have been able to post due to 2 deaths in the family a month apart,but I signed in to tell Stumpgc that the Ex's are out there we purchased ours about 6 months ago and now my woman won't hardly let me drive LOL she loves that thing we have owned 89' 4x4 suburb,00' 4x4 tahoe,but needed something bigger as like you (5 children)we have six children and tractors to haul so we needed to go with something bigger for the kiddies and to pull the trailers etc. seems to work out well and we got real lucky as our Ex. was locally owned by a lady who didn't push it real hard and had only 112,578 miles on it and for the price under $6000.00 they wanted to really get rid of it ... so they are out there if I happen to see one while rollin' in the Mack I'll be sure to post it. However I thanks to all who replied to me about the door keypad codes that was very use full info and hey it worked and 'we beat the man' you know the ones that wanna give top notch bull crap for top notch $$$ not that i'm against anyone makin' $$$,but please use some common sense when doing business charge reasonably for a reasonable job plain and simple. And finally how in the hootnannie do you post pics on here? Tom tomeckiab@yahoo.com

2001 Ex.
4x4 v10
nothing special YET!