Allan

I have an F-250 and an Excursion and I think we are going to start towing more with the excursion instaed of the F-250 bacause of the room it offers. I have a 33' Daytona and was wondering if anyone on the board has made any modocations to their Excursion to make it tow better than it did when they first bought it. I notice when my brother inlaw tow's with his Excursion, the rear end of the truck sways more & with my F-250, I can go any speed and make lane changes with a rock solid ride. Any comments on this would be helpful

PhantomChaos

The sway with the Excursion sounds like the load on the hitch is too light. On my Ex, I took off the factory hitch and added a Class 5 (15,000lb) hitch, plus added air leveling bags on the rear. Other than that........it pulls great.

http://www.vxi.cc/phantomchaos/2000-New-Truck.htm

Allan

Tanks for the info. What brand tow set up did you use. I went to Quality bumper today and they told me they had no other hitch set up then was on the truck now. I really like the way your truck looks.

birdog

I think most of the "sway" is the tires. I tried the Excursion
size tires on my S.D...........Drove terrible.....took them
back off.....I think they are only 50 lbs tires...I run my rears
at 80 lbs.......Stiff sidewalls make all the diff in the world !!

Sydwayz

iTrader: (1)

You can't go wrong with BFGoodrich All-Terrain KO tires and a set of airbags. My Tahoe changed DRAMATICALLY when I went for both of those. About to do the same to my Avalanche 2500.

jafo

We purchased a 2K PSD 'X' las December- it replaced our 2K F350 dually V-10. The V-10 is a good engine, but I hated the gas mileage. We love the Excursion- I wouldn't have any other vehicle.

There is a separate section on ford-diesel.com website just for PSD Excursions, and there is an enormous amount of info to inhale there. The suspensions were under-done by Ford on these trucks (a little better in the V-10- less weight up front). It's a shame to have to spend more money on a $46K truck, but in the end it's worth it.
Abbreviated version to make one tow/ride better- V10 or PSD-

Rancho 9000, Bilstein, or Monroe shocks all the way around- the stock ones suck! Probably the best money spent on an 'X'

Hellwig rear anti-sway bar- the truck does not have one from the factory, and this makes a big difference in roll control.

Change to 'U' or 'V' code springs up front- there is less than 2" from front spring to bump stop, even on a new one with the stock springs. The 'U' codes will set the truck almost perfect level. Stock rear springs are adequate, but the Ride-Rite rear air bags will level a heavy tonque load.

Any tire is better than the stock Firestones, but I'm not going to replace them until they're worn out. I haven't had any trouble from them so far in 30K miles. I run 65 PSI all the way around. I've been told the Michelins are too soft in the sidewall for this truck.

You will not find an after-market hitch for an 'X' from any mfg. The factory one is a structural part of the rear sub-frame, and the after-market boys don't want the liability of messing with that. I didn't either. You will have to take the route Nort did and weld or bolt in a new one if you want to change it out. I believe the F250 after-markets will work. I think Nort went with a Titan?

Minimum performance upgrades? If your 'X' is a PSD- Super Chips MicroTuner, (60hp mode for towing, and definitely add the pillar gauges), or Western Diesel chip, at least a Walker Big Truck muffler to replace the restrictive stock one, and a K&N air filter. It doesn't hurt to do the fuel line and fuel tank mods described on that web-site. The Ford designed fuel system sucks (literally) for this engine; their quick-disconnects cause a lot of air to be sucked in. These mods quiet the truck down a lot, and increase mileage up to 2-3 mpg.
I am not familiar the results for any of the upgrades to the V-10, although there are quite a few available, including superchargers.

skygod

I have a 2001 Excursion with a 6 inch lift, 35 inch tires, K&N filtercharger, and 4.56 gears. I tow a 29 Baja Outlaw that weighs around 8,000 lbs full of fuel (150 gals) with no problem. It tows better with the larger wider tires. Eventually I plan to add air bags, but it tows fine without them. The ability to carry 8 people and all our gear is awesome.

Allan

So far pretty good feed back. Thanks you guy's. Please keep it coming. by the way mine is a V-10.