Well, I've had a fun time with my Excursion here recently.

It all started with this:


I had just got on the interstate pulling my 24' trailer and the skid steer (total of about 8k - 9k pounds) and noticed a weird shake right at 70 mph like my tires were out of balance. I thought that it was just time to get them in to be balanced. It wasn't 2 miles down the road and BAM, it sounds like a tire blowing out. I said sounds like because the truck still drove just fine. It wasn't hard to control or anything like that. Of course I started pulling over right away. Got out and noticed that the tread of the right rear tire had peeled off but the tire was still holding air. I was glad that I was ok but was really upset that it had torn the truck up so much. As you can see, it tore the back quarter panel up pretty bad, broke the tail light and knocked out both bulbs, chipped the paint above the wheel well in a couple of places and broke the side marker light on my trailer.





I decided to continue on as I was supposed to meet my dad and was able to take the back roads off the interstate and keep it at 20 - 25 mph. Oh, I moved the skid steer all the way to the rear of the trailer which took a bunch of weight off the rear of the truck.

I helped him move some stuff at his office with the skid steer and loaded about a half a dozen empty pallets to bring home.

He followed me home and again we only did 20 - 25 mph the whole way. Soon into that slow trip, I started noticing smoke coming from the front of the truck. It smelled like brakes burning. I had been chasing what I thought was some kind of problem with the front brakes for a few days and thought it was still something going on with them. Slowing down at the next stop light, my dad was able to see from behind the truck that it wasn't coming from the brakes, it was coming from under the middle of the truck. We pulled over and looked and it was tranny fluid leaking on the exhaust manifold! I quickly got the fire extinguisher out just in case. (Never needed it though.)

I had just read on here about someone on here having the same problem so I then knew what was probably going on.
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Well, while I let it cool down, my dad went and got some Mercon V. Got the fluid back up to full and then proceeded to slowly limp home.
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First up was to get the tire replaced. I didn’t want to spend the money on a full set of tires right then so I called around and found a used tire to put on there for a while.
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Next was to get it to the tranny shop. I could drive it without a trailer behind it and it would never leak so I just drove it over to him.
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Basically he put a new pump and seals in it for $804. It’s been fine ever since and I’ve had plenty behind it to test it.
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Right after that, I decided that I needed some way to monitor tranny temps. Decided on the ScanGaugeII and bought it for $170 at Auto Zone. The guys there had no idea that they even sold them. Lol
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I have it sitting just above my brake controller which is in the storage bin to the right of the steering wheel which to me, works very well. I don’t have a picture of this but will get one soon.
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After I drive some with the scangauge to get an idea of what the temps are, I plan on putting in a 6.0 cooler.
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Then I got to the tire store again to swap some tires around. I had them put the 2 best matching tires on the rear and the odd ball tire and the worst of the other 3 on the front. I had a slow leak on that one and they found that it was leaking on an old plug. They re-plugged it for me. I had planned on going like this for a couple more months. Pulled a couple loads like that and just didn’t feel safe anymore as the tire that blew out really didn’t look any worse than even the back two at that point.
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Got a quote on some 285/75/16 BFG AT KOs in load E and it was $980 installed for all four. Yikes! I told him to order me 2 and I would replace the two worst ones first. Got them on and that was a HUGE mistake! The truck was ALL over the road and that condition was amplified with a trailer behind me. Maybe it was the different sizes or maybe because 2 were highway tires and 2 where all terrains? Don’t know but I called my tire guy back and told him to get the other 2 quickly.
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Before I could get the other 2 on there, I had a guy call me that I had met before. He owns the spring shop here and I’ve had him do work on my Durango and one of my trailers. He said he had some stumps for me to do. I asked him if he wanted to trade work, that I wanted my Excursion resprung. He was actually excited that I would offer something like that. He added a leaf to the rear that Sunday morning and later that afternoon, I ground out 39 stumps for him. He’s also going to redo the front and add a leaf there too as part of the deal.
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Next day I get the other two tires on and the wandering problem is gone instantly. That was a big sigh of relief.
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Here’s the new tire and the added height:
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I figure that with what he did and the RAS, I’m sitting just over 3” taller than stock.
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Shot of whole truck with tires:
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Oh, I pulled the tail light and replaced both lights and they work fine. I still need to replace the housing as it is cracked but it’s mostly red.
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Then there was the problem of the messed up fender. I ripped the plastic fender liner off then pulled the metal down and out and got it back as close to original as I could. I sanded it down just a little then taped off a line from the wheel well back to the tail light. Then I sprayed it with a rubberized undercoat spray. I think it came out ok and ok is all I needed as this really is just a work truck. At least this way, you don’t really notice it as it is all black instead of having chunks of paint missing. I didn’t get a picture of it before I drove down a dirt driveway but here it is:
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The only other thing I can share is the signage I had put on about a week or two before all this fun started. I think it came out great and the very next day after I had it put on, I got a $800 tree job so it was definitely worth it.
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VERY long post but I hope you enjoyed.
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And someone painted over your phone number. How are you supposed to get people to call you for tree removal now? I have a couple trees I want gone. That's some tough luck you have there.

 

It just doesn't stop. Something in the tranny has grenaded and stopped up the filter, twice.

I have an appointment with Brian at BTS for him to build me one of his special trannies on May 18!! Expensive but should be worth it.

 

It will be worth it. Hope things settle down with the truck and business gets great.

 

Well, that's the only good thing is that business IS great. I'm running WIDE open. I put 900 miles on the Durango the past 5 days working 12-14 hour days. Man do I miss my truck!

 

Dang man! The truck's a trooper... You should have had some E-rated tires on there from the get-go though and it wouldn't have happened!

The KO's iwll take a hell of a load man. Good tires and you'll never get 'er stuck. You did a good job pullin' the fender. Although, if you get some time you could always bang 'er out a little more and bondo it, then throw on some bedliner...

-rockstate

 

Great write up. I hope things level out for you. Your Ex should be a little tougher when she gets hooked-up properly. Keep us posted.

 

Your Durango is doing the job, My 2000 Durango now has the life of the spare SUV since I got the Ex. The worst part about the Dodge is it will suck down a tank of fuel in a heartbeat but when a daily driver has a problem we count on it.

 

The Durango actually gets better mileage than the Excursion even when towing. I got 8.56 on that last tank towing the stuff in those pictures and the Excursion would get about 8 or just under. Empty, it gets about 14 in town but sure is a blast to drive with the 4.56:1 rear gears behind that 5.9L V8.

 

My 5.9L has the 3.55 gears and on a good day averages 17. It amazes people I know that the 6.0 Ex gets better mileage than the D. My D usually get 10MPG when towing my car on the trailer, it handles the load without a problem. You are definitely loading it more than I do mine so 8 mpg is not bad.

 

I had the 3.55s in mine and after the swap, I lost 1 mpg on the hwy and the city mileage was the same BUT it turned it into a beast. It will actually out accelerate my Excursion while pulling up to about 8,000 lbs. More weight than that and the Excursion wins.

YouTube - 2000 Dodge Durango SLT 5.9L with 4.56:1 gears

 

That D is moving, I thought mine would fly! I would change the gears but in a few years my son will turn 16 and it will be his truck to drive. How is your tranny holding up pulling those loads? I blew mine at 55,000 miles towing an SUV on a car trailer. My 5.9 has been solid except for the intake valley pan.

 

My tranny went at 88k miles only months after I bought it. It has a tranny built by Martin Saine which is the Mopar equivalent of a BTS tranny.

The engine has been trouble free except a water pump and fan clutch.

 

Watch for oil in the intake, the 5.9L valley pan gaskets blow like crazy.

I had my tranny built by a local shop, he modified it for towing.

 

Just ordered the 6.0 tranny cooler from partsguyed.com for $232 shipped. Leave out Monday morning for the tranny rebuild.

Man do I miss my truck. It's really crappy to have just spent almost $1,000 on those tires and then have to be driving the Durango 2wd non limited slip rear end with hwy tires and get stuck on hard dirt. lol