so planned a 1000+ mile road trip with some friends. I decided to take the Expedition instead of my Excursion mainly because i just had a windshield put in it and the one in the expy has a few chips.

But this was the first LONG road trip i've taken the expedition on, i'm very happy overall.

Some observations,
First: as i thought my Odometer is off slightly due to the 265/75 16 tires. My truck came from the factory with 255/70 16. When comparing my GPS to the ODO after traveling a true 770 miles on the GPS my odometer registered 713 miles. I knew the speedometer was off by about 4-5 mph (slow) but never did the math till now.

Second, it was a combination of steep mountains and very long grades. Even with the 3:73's (lowest gearing optional in the expedition) i had to lock out O/D a lot or i lost A TON of speed on hills. one way to combat this was speeding up alot before a big hill and that way i could crest at the speed limit or alittle above. All of this said the truck has plenty of passing power and power in general. It of course is the lower HP 98 version but it does well!

First tank of gas. all highway from Anchorage,AK to Fairbanks,AK i was able to get 15.1 MPG. Now i expected alittle better then this but i was driving too fast (above 70) and not taking it easy on the mountains. overall i'm pretty happy with that number.

Second tank of gas. this was from Fairbanks to the Arctic circle and back. this was rough gravel roads, muddy roads, part pavement speeds from 25mph to 100mph 90% O/D locked out running around 60-65mph. I was able to get 13.8 MPG and i was very happy with that.

She also rolled over 92k miles on the way up here..should roll over 93k on the way home if all goes as planned.

For being 15 years old she runs like a top! i would have no concern driving this truck to FL and back to AK today. Regular maintenance and care goes a LONG way to the life of a car/truck!! She will be due for a oil change when i get home..i already bought the oil and filter

so pictures of this adventure to follow...and vids but the hotel wifi sucks. I'll kinda go in order but not perfectly.

 

double post

 

Lord Gas prices are bad up your way, and I thought $3.60-ish was bad...

 

at home in anchorage and even in fairbanks the prices are not nearly as bad. we have been stuck around $3.90/gal for a long time.

when you get out into remote places (and anything on the road system in AK is not remote) the prices skyrocket!

 

Man! A Nail in that coffin. I always thought that Alaska was pretty adn would be a nice place to live, but With Gas prices like that, no thanks

 

ha! you think gas is bad try EVERYTHING else...but wages are higher also to make up for the cost of living.

i'm born and raised so i dont know any different, i would never live anywhere else. although i do have a few places i like to vacation


FINALLY made it home! almost 20 hours of drive time and 1,149 miles!! whew i'm tired!!

 

Seems like more of a tour of gas stations than landscape!

 

haha! i have more pics and vids dont worry!!

filled her up tonight and washed all that crap off. looks much better now

okay..more pics in no real order!




















tonight...all clean!!

 

Just a minor FYI for you regarding your 90 MPH passing video. Police have been know to ticket drivers that has posted these kinds of videos because the video itself is considered proof of a speeding violation.

Vancouver Island Speeding Motorcycle Seized (VIDEO)

 

if they want to try and go through that much effort, go for it. to make a safe pass you need to get out, get past the slow moving car/truck as fast as possible and get back into your lane of travel as quickly as possible. rest of the trip the cruise was set and going within 8 mph of the limit.

 

bought new snow tires today. 265/70 16 bridgestone blizzak studdless snow tires.

they will be mounted friday

 

the new blizzaks are mounted! cant wait for it to snow now. i'll get some clean pics if the weather ever works out.

changed oil the other night around 6k miles on that oil and it still looked pretty good not totally black.

on sunday we headed out to wasilla to visit friends..out there a family member is buying a house so we stopped by to check it out.





and today she rolled 94k!! so i have officially put over 30,000 miles on her since buying it 3 years ago. I LOVE THIS TRUCK! hardly done any repairs and it just goes and goes!

 

94,3xx as of today...last night i washed it up and i should have known it would rain.

anyway pics with the new snow tires...and no snow

 

well i still have not fixed the A4WD setting, i did order a new HALL sensor for the t-case and it showed up so i plan on replacing it and seeing where to go from there. updates on that later.

about to roll 95k miles, i ran her through the car wash today also.

we had our first snow and i was able to test out my new blizzak snow tires. FANTASTIC! i must say, few pics from this afternoon.

 

you need to fix that paint on the plastic bumper thing, its horrid!