Excursion build up

[Duty calls]

My poor old reg cab 2000 F350 was alittle underpowered with the 44" boggers and the 5.4..... I also needed some more cab room, so I picked up a 2000 Ford Excursion 4x4

Its a V10 with 191000 kms..( about 120000 miles).Its a base model with rubber floor and cloth benches, but it also has power locks/windows, CD player, Cruise, A/C, keyless entry..all things my f350 didnt have.

I ended up getting it for $5800 including a fresh paint job and a brand new 9500 lb winch

so the plan is to swap this stuff






on to this








I will be posting pics of the lift/bumper/flare swap as it progresses

[f250rollinon37s]

sweet. i love me some big old fords

[section525]

That tailgate/bumper combo looks sick.

[Restoman2]

No....Just build up the excursion like the f350! Keep the old truck the way it is.

[blown xj]

going to be a sweet looking excursion!!

[Redbeast9]

Looking forward to see how this turns out! Whats the diffrence in the wheelbase and weight?

[Dr.Danger]

Originally Posted by Restoman2

No....Just build up the excursion like the f350! Keep the old truck the way it is.

X2, I love a single cab long bed 4x4. It's a shame they don't make too many of them anymore.

Either way should be a cool project.

[redpitbull44]

Originally Posted by Duty calls

I will be posting pics of the lift/bumper/flare swap as it progresses

Please do. I am getting ready to buy an Excursion and do a 60/80/H1/37-40" tire type build with some pretty trick bumpers and sliders. Basically a turn right anywhere family vehicle that is still low enough for the wife to get in and out of easily. Of course, I have to get that interest free loan back from the government first...

[Restoman2]

Would you take lots of pictures when you do the flares? I'm doing mine soon and don't know if the inner fender needs to be modified.

[BlueBreadTruck]

Your f350 was always one of my favorite trucks.

This thing is gonna look badass. Do you plan to swap the front d60 in place of the excursion's d50? will your fender flares work on the rear?

[fishforlife2007]

swap the shit and the excursion will truely be the king of suv's.

[Duty calls]

I'll try to answer all these in 1 post

Originally Posted by Restoman2

No....Just build up the excursion like the f350! Keep the old truck the way it is.

That's too much to spend on the excursion and I don't have enough room in my driveway

Originally Posted by Redbeast9

Looking forward to see how this turns out! Whats the difference in the wheelbase and weight?

The wheelbase is exactly the same as the reg cab long box.....that's why i picked an excursion over a 4 door short box truck, which is 20" longer. It does weight quite a bit more than my truck though...I think it will be about 800-1000 pounds heavier. I will weigh it when i'm done

Originally Posted by Restoman2

Would you take lots of pictures when you do the flares? I'm doing mine soon and don't know if the inner fender needs to be modified.

I found a good thread on the rear flares here

http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/10...ed-flares.html

Originally Posted by BlueBreadTruck

Your f350 was always one of my favorite trucks.

This thing is gonna look badass. Do you plan to swap the front d60 in place of the excursion's d50? will your fender flares work on the rear?

Yes....I plan on swapping the complete axle assemblies with the leafs all in 1 shot. I have alot into these axles with the gears and lockers.

The rear flares will work if i modify them to open with the rear doors...see link above

[86 slo-vo]

im liking where this is heading....

[bowtied_micky]

Go over to powerstrokenation.com and get in touch with Tarm. His knowledge of the excursion suspension is amazing. Just a great guy to talk with before you start turning wrenches.

micky

[redpitbull44]

I am trying hard not to get jealous over here. This is exactly what I am planning on the flares! DAMN DUDE!!!!!
DOCUMENT EVERYTHING!!!!!! I will be watching closely. I haven't done much other than reading and looking at these Excursions. I can't wait to see this thing done. If I lived closer, I'd be there every day to help work on this thing.

[89PBR96]

I like the Truck man looks good the excursion looks just like my 03. I can't wait to see it done. Those flares will look great.

[cammok5]

what lift is on the 350?

[Duty calls]

Originally Posted by bowtied_micky

Go over to powerstrokenation.com and get in touch with Tarm. His knowledge of the excursion suspension is amazing. Just a great guy to talk with before you start turning wrenches.

micky

Thanks i'll take a look

Originally Posted by cammok5

what lift is on the 350?

6" Icon all spring

[Duty calls]

Ok, so I finally got some time to do some work on the excursion and superduty.

First thing was to get the duty a bit lower and easier to work on so the boggers came off





no more V10 vs Diesel debate....this 5.4 with 5.38 gears and 32" tires will out pull any of you hahah

anyways on to teardown

lots of fender clearance by the way


Lots of water in the flares..maybe need a drainhole


The front end parts are an easy swap so i didnt take too many detailed pics, just mark and cut away the fenders. I went way above the recomended line by bushwacker to try to force the flares up and back a bit for more front tire clearance.




everything was heavily coated with rustcheck before the flares were bolted on

how do you like my rusted away side steps

[Duty calls]

This bracket that holds the front spoiler under the bumper is actually welded to the front spring hanger..it will need to be torched off at a later date


front end done beside the picked over superduty





started on the back and ran into problems

went to take the rear bumper off and the there are some studs tacked to a piece of sheetmetal to keep them from turning. The sheetmetal had rusted so bad it broke and i had to end up cutting one side of the stock bumper bracket off to get the bumper off. Then I went to remove the trailer hitch and ford somehow screwed a bolt with a perfectly round head into the frame...I guess it is for safety, but i had to drop the gastank and grind the heads off them to get the hitch off.

After that, we were exhausted so tomorrow we'll start working on cutting the rear fenders and seeing if the rear bumper will even fit...the rear section of excursion frame looks different then the f350s

[Dr.Danger]

Looks like you are getting a good start. I'm really digging the Superduty grille on the Ex, it looks shit tons better than the old one.

[KyleQ]

Way cool man, I'd love to do exactly what you are doing to that Excursion

[Blue_blooded]

I still cant believe you actually got an alien patrol bumper.

I miss my lifted SD it was a 2 door long box like yours. Had the v-10 and xlt package running on 36" IROKS.

[TARM]

Hey Duty Calls,

I try to pop in here ever so often. Mainly 7.3 and full sized SD stuff and Excursion so the traffic and topics are a bit limited here.

Man everything looks great. Your 350 looked awesome as well. Nice setup. It will be awesome on the X.

You are doing a full swap over from the PU to the X correct: Suspension, axles bumpers

BTW my powerstroke X will drag both your new x and the old PU of yours around by just taking my foot off the brake. Just kidding. They both look great and gears are huge equalizer Anyways truck pulling almost always comes down to who weights more.


I see you found out the hitch was not meant to come off. They are bolts but they are those ones, the name is not coming to me right now, but they twist off when you take them off. The Hitch is not the same as SD PU and there are no aftermarket offerings. It is also a integrated pack of the impact system so make sure it goes back on. Thats the reason why there is no aftermarket ones BTW. Just use some grade 8 bolts will be fine.

You are running 6" icon. You will likely need to change the blocks out or play with them to get the rake correct in the rear. The X is much more rear heavy than the SD PUs. You will loose a inch compared to the PU in the rear maybe two. Really those springs are a bit too soft for the X. We normally put the bottom two leafs for the X onto the stock PU rear leaf packs to get it perfect. But the Icon will work and they will give a good ride. If you plan to load it heavy to pull with a full tongue weight you will likely want to get a set of air bag because it will squat. But with out a big load it will have a sweet ride. IIRC, Icon uses a full 6" lift spring in the front and then they actually give a 5" spring for the rear to give a more level rake. The X is already ass heavy. But if you kept the PU blocks I think by adding either the PU or the X blocks it will get you a good rake without the prerunner look. Go by visual look as if you put the X level by measurement it will look nose high becasue of its top lines. Usually 1-2" rake looks best. I would error on the higher side as it will help when you have it loaded.


BTW the X has a weird rear top shock mount. Its not a standard eye. But a metric 10mm deal that PITA and seems to never stay tight. Do yourself a favor and convert it over with this here .

That way you can use your current shocks with out modding and will be stronger.

The axles and everything else is a direct bolt in. The X has a D50. You have a 350 so yours is a D60 (the F250 till 02 had D50s. All F350 have D60)

As I can see you already have the front flares on. I am about to install these as well. Stilling in my garage. Just finishing up the 7.3 motor build. Expecting about 600/1200 at the rear wheels. That shoudl surprise more than a few sports cars and ricers. Need that extra power as when the flares go on, they are sitting right next to some Interco M16 40x14.5x20 mounted on Fuel Hostage 20x12s. 4.56 from and rear for the 7.3s power band will next. The larger meat will be effectually like dropping 100 hp. With 33s and 3.73 I am hoping it would just break into the 12s in the 1/4.

When you do the rear flares from talking to a couple guys that have done it, its really not much harder than the front. You do have the extra step of breaking the seam between inner and outer fender. Then measure up roughly 2" not sure if you will want to check your lines as you look to have gone a 1" or 2" higher than normal up front. But just check inside the fender before cutting higher. Sometimes ford puts stuff up in there you would not want to cut thru. You do a have a entire AC and heating box and lines back there. AC lines and stuff are on the passengers side. On the door have it open and that will help you line up your cut line by marking it on the inside at the door frame points. I guess if you really want to do a top end job you could fill the opening created buy the cuts to seal the flares inside. You mentioned drain holes on the front give the cuts on the rear I would add them there for sure if any chance of water.

I too am in the salt belt up in the Shenandoah range in Va so everything is getting major rust sealer coverage.


Honestly it looks like both our Xs are going to be close to each other in setup. I will be about 1.5 shorter than you when finished. Running 2" smaller tires. Yours is a bit more aggressive. Tread tire size lift


I am running 4.5" hanger lift with V code springs [I](those are what you SD PU frnt leafs are) Then in the rear I actually went a step farther. I purchased a set of almost new 08 leaf springs. They are a full 8" longer and the axle mount is centers. The per 08 leaf are offset. They are set up to be 8" shorter to the front than the rear. It makes for a stiffer ride and less travel. So I figured I would take advantage of being able to get very good springs for $200 total. They had about 15K on there still looked new. I do have to move the hanger mount forward 8" but thats not a big deal. I am pulling the big thick second stage bottom leaf the stock leaf packs have. That way like your Icons I will have one rate all the way thru the full travel. Will have much more flex. I will add two leafs from the X and blocks for rear lift. The X is like having 1K lb load in the bed of a PU so you need that to make up for the extra static weight. It does not add any real stiffness until you are almost bottomed out though as they are very short. Blistens front and rear. But the X does better with a different valving. So if you need new shocks give OBSWIZ on PSN a PM about them. The last thing will be a traction bar.


Do you plan to actual off road your X, flexing etc..?

Do you have plans for traction bar in the rear?

Two questions are related as the ones most used for our full size reduce clearance and cause some binding IMO.

Planning any sliders? The steps look like they don't have much life left in them. LOL

I have been working on fabbing up a more centered single ladder style front shackle with a jonny to use like an eye for a straight bolt on the front end of the ladder. Wouldn't mind having a pinion skid plate as well. I think someone on here was talking about offering them for the 10.5. More like you find on the trail rigs on pirate.


Have you settled on gearing yet for the V10? I was looking at it and maybe a 5.13? That would put you @ 71mph@ 2000 rpms Not sure on the power curve of the v10 maybe 4.88 would work and put you @ 75mph thats about 5 mph higher than stock with 3.73. I am going with 4.56 but I have plenty of power.

You may want to look into a valve body and tq converter. That is the two biggest weakness of the 4r100.

[redpitbull44]

Originally Posted by TARM

Wow Dude. Stick Around. You are the best God Damn Newbie I have ever seen.


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