Times are getting tough, i think i can say that for everyone so im selling my gorgeous excursion. I have a buyer in Portland who will be getting it tomorrow. I will still be in the ford family as i have my eye on a beautiful 03 navigator which will save me money in gas,maintenance and overall just being able to drive somewhere comfortably. I will hopefully someday get another EX but for right now i can't afford it. I will see you guys around. If your in the portland/washington area you might be seeing a 17inch lifted silver EX. Take care.

 

You sure you dont wanna trade it for a stock 03 V10? lol Hope your back and build something even wilder next time around man. Your truck will be missed if the new owner doesnt come say hi once in a while.

 

going to purchace a 03 navigator to save some green?

 

Well the X is gone. I ended up getting a 03 AWD escalade. I know i went to the dark side now. When i was talking about saving green i meant insurance money and gas money and maintenance.7MPG with a 45Gallon tank isnt fun to fill up. I will build another superduty at some point but not right now, my GF needs to finish med school before we can afford to go crazzy again. I will still lurk though and hope i can help some people out with some questions

 

No disrepect intended..... Just trying to figure out how my thinking can be so worng
(of course, I don't understand stimulus bills either... but that's because I must not fiscally sound enough to know how that helps !)

please help me understand the logic of losing money selling something to get something else ?

I am equally (and easily ) baffled by the "sell big cars to get hybrids" too
The math doesn't add up for me... unless there are issues with the current vehicle that somebody just wants to get out of it....

Can't see that much difference in anything save MAYBE a bit in gas mpg...
but if you sell something you paid $45k for at a loss of say 20K ...
you would have to get 50 mpg more driving 100K / year for a VERY, VERY long time to make up the difference....

Now, if you just want a new vehicle... go fer it ...
this still is the U.S. and Obamination 'nomics has not stopped us from getting want we want (yet!)
so far, they've only made it so we have to pay for others houses and vehicles of THEIR choosing


But BIG KUDO's on the med school - will be a GREAT investment with all us baby boomers "coming of age"

 

= = = =

These are tough times for everyone, so I dont think anyone will critisize you for trying to save money !

However, it looks like I am not the only one who disagrees with your logic and thinking as to selling your EX. Yes, I know, it isnt fair, because we have no idea what things are like "in your shoes".

My suspicion is your EX must have been a "maintainence hog". My own EX isn't used very much - we did NOT get it for transportation. Because we are of limited means, retired on a fixed income, we elected to buy a used Toyota RAV 4wd for our daily transport needs. Average about 26 mpg.

We have a FOUR TON motor yacht, on a nearly TWO TON heavy duty trailer, plus also have about FIVE TONS of "toy trailer". We travel a bit.

So, obviously, we HAVE to have something like the EX, which, incidentally, with a few hundred bucks worth of suspension parts to correct idiotic omissions, handles our heavy towing needs just fine.

We elected to "bite the bullet" and buy a low mileage ( 12,000 mi. or so when we bought it) EX, with a full extended factory warranty. So we wont have to spend a dime on it if it did start acting up, for another three years! Buying ANY car these days used, WITHOUT a full extended factory warranty is, in my view, an example of the old saying "penny wise and pound foolish". With todays vehicles being SO complex and expensive to repair, I just dont think it makes sense to buy without a full extended factory warranty, which, of course, means paying a LOT of money for a low mileage used car.

The reason I suspect your EX is a "maintainence hog" is your stating you believe you are getting only 7 miles per gallon. You did not mention whether that is under extreme heavy towing conditions.

My EX does get 7 mpg, but again, only when towing VERY heavy loads. On the few occasions when we have taken long trips with it, NOT towing, it runs around 15 mpg on the open road, about 13 mpg "in town". Of course it is a V-10; the diesel fellows get somewhat more.

So - my advice to anyone who has read your story, is to do some HARD THINKING before dumping an EX for something else. WHAT do you need it for ? WHAT could do a better job for the "mission" you have it for? Will there be any REAL over-all savings ?

Hope things work out for you, and you eventually wind up with a well-cared for low mileage EX. For what some of us bought them for, they are pretty close to ideal !

GOOD LUCK !

 

Just to fill you guys in, my X had 17inches of lift on 44in super swampers.7mpg is what i was getting. Even though the X was in great shape,i no longer have my drag vehicle to tow, and i am no longer able to lift 2 100lbs dobermans in my X.I will probably see double my MPG increase in the escalade,cheaper tires,cheaper insurance (its costs a pretty penny to full cover a monster truck, much more then even an escalade or a navigator) Trust me when i say i did NOT particularly want to sell it but the deal i got for my X PLUS cash that i recieved and the escalade, i couldnt pass it up.

I look at it like this, people are hurting everywhere. Not many people are going to be willing to shell over 20k for a 17inch lifted X. Just not going to happen, and my X has been for sale for a little bit. So if and when my GF and i decide TO sell the escalade it will much easier to do so then a HUGE X in this economy not to mention i got a fair amount of cash in my pocket as well which will help with school bills. I hope this might have made a few things clearer to some people

 

Yeah now your original post makes a lot more sense... with the lift and tires and probably lots of other mods I can see you saving a bundle with the new vehicle... Yes it is very hard to sell a highly modified vehicle due to a much smaller base of potential buyers....
Now you just gotta avoid the Mod bug on the new ride..... you better give all that extra cash to your GF before you spend it modding your new truck

 

Damn snurtle... I really loved your truck! It was like the "opposite" of mine.

Glad everything worked out for you! Somebody got a killer truck! (not you. )

 

Well i finally made it home and i hope i never offended anyone with my last post. I was trying to let some people know that it was not just a regular low miles v10 X or i WOULD have kept it.

soutthpaw, I had to buy my GF a coach purse and coach sunglasses on the way home.=(

The escalade was a MUCH smoother ride and was literally effortless to drive home. I will miss the X but like i said the older it got, the more money it will EVENTUALLY set me back not to mention, like you said the people willing to buy that monster in this economy is very very little.

Like i said before i will still frequent the board and try to help with some of my useless lifted X knowledge

 

I really shouldn't say anything in this area, because I just dont know-have no experience with those giant "mudders".

One would think that they would effectively lower your numerical axle ratio, or give it "higher" gearing, and thus any loss in mileage from their additional weight would be gained by lower rpm. Not clear how "lifting" would noticeably effect fuel mileage.

Bottom line - if you were only getting 7 mpg running light, then there was something VERY wrong with it, and if that assumption is correct, my suggestion is dont miss it too much - getting rid of it while you could still "unload" it without even MORE major repair expense was probably a damn good idea.

 

Most of the losses occur due to the increase in aerodynamic drag, the frictional increase and rotational mass increase from the gianormous tires.

 

I am guessing he regeared the differentials with 44's its almost a must do... otherwise it would be a total dog!!

probably would have faired better with the Diesels due to the higher low end torque... Monsta is right, rotational weight is equal to triple a static weight... each tire/wheel combo was prob in the 200lb range so that's 800lb x 3= 2400lbs of additional weight you are taking everywhere...

Extreme lifted trucks are just not good daily drivers unless you have an unlimited bank account to keep them maintained... I love monster trucks myself but I am also realistic... Having wrenched in a 4x4 speciality shop I totally understand his position... Getting in and out of a truck with 44's just get's old after a while if you are doing it every day... Can't imagine having to do it with my 2 kids that are carseat age!
One reason MY monster truck project... see sig is being done on a truck that will handle it well without the maintainence problems

 

You really can't see that it would take more energy to turn a 44" tire and get the vehicle up to speed as compared to a stock size tire?

 

First off regeared front and rear to 5.38. Secondly, Vehicle weighed in with me only and a full tank and 9,000 Lbs. Do you know how much rotating mass there is with 44inch rims? I hope you kidding when you say "if i was getting 7mpg something was wrong". Car when sold was in EXCELLENT condition