Buying an Excursion at a Dealer

[RAD69]

After years of wanting a deisel Excursion to tow my 32' camper, I recently decided now is the time. I have trolled the forums and i've been through tons of 7.3 vs. 6.0 threads and I finally decided to get a 2005.

I found an 05 Eddie Bauer with 90K at a Chevy dealer and they have a sister Ford dealer. My question is, besides the complete service history that I got, would you have a ford dealer do or test anything before I buy it? Is there anything I should do myself?

BTW - I plan to do ARP studs/head gaskets/blue spring/banjo/EGT delete/tune etc. shortly after I get it.


Thanks for your help!

[Fishermedic]

Originally Posted by RAD69

After years of wanting a deisel Excursion to tow my 32' camper, I recently decided now is the time. I have trolled the forums and i've been through tons of 7.3 vs. 6.0 threads and I finally decided to get a 2005.

I found an 05 Eddie Bauer with 90K at a Chevy dealer and they have a sister Ford dealer. My question is, besides the complete service history that I got, would you have a ford dealer do or test anything before I buy it? Is there anything I should do myself?

BTW - I plan to do ARP studs/head gaskets/blue spring/banjo/EGT delete/tune etc. shortly after I get it.


Thanks for your help!

Welcome to the forum! If you've done some reading then you've seen how important it is to get something to monitor the truck, Insight, Scangauge or now the Dashboss looks good too. Buy one of the three and take it with you for a test drive so you can see what kind of shape the truck is in BEFORE you buy it.

The service history is good and you should get an OASIS as well. Ask what other info they can give you to verify it's history, maybe a Carfax, get in touch with the previous owner. The more info you can get your hands on the better!

Good luck and post up some pics, everyone likes to see a new truck on the board!

BTW - I think you mean EGR delete. Though to delete the EGT...

[RAD69]

I plan to get an Insight CTS for monitoring, I seriously did not think of getting it NOW and taking it for the test drive. Great advice!

I was trying to be brief, but yes, I have an oasis report. Some of the service items are not self expanitory, so I need to follow up with the dealer. This X is at the dealer it was serviced at and they offered me any info I want. The good news is that it had all scheduled maintenance on time and it has not had any turbo, EGR, injector, or head gasket issues...

And I did mean that I want to delete all Exhaust Gas Temps... Oh wait, then it will not be running, so I guess I'll delete the EGR instead. Hehe - the R is right next to the T. My bad...

[jeeplj8]

I think you are doing everything right on this.

On your list of mods, I would giver serious thought to suspension upgrades. my 03 front springs were toast, so i repalced with superduty springs front and rear. truck drives SO much better now, and tows much better. 32 ft trailer will put some weight on your rear springs.

[RAD69]

Yeah, I only mentioned reliability mods. I just started to read about the suspension, I have a lot more reading to do. The one I test drove had sooo much more body roll than my Suburban. I havent figured out what rear sway bar the 05 has, is it the a 32mm? Or is that only the Hellwig? Then I read the superduty springs may raise the height a lot. Then I read the Landyot kit is no longer made. Yeap, lots more reading to do...

I read a post where someone claimed the X does not tow well at all. I have owned 4 Suburbans with no complaints, I sure hope this works out for me...

[Fishermedic]

Check out the Excursion forum and you'll find threads on the suspension and the VB spring swap. You'll find a ton of info here if you start looking.

[Thecapn]

Let me add in my $0.02. I had a similar situation to you. Purchased my'05 EX from a Chevy dealer that was next door to the Ford dealer that the original owner bought and had all service and maintenance done at. I had done a ton of research before finding and buying this perfect looking example. I even took it to the original dealership to have them do an inspection on it, clean Oasis, clean inspection.

I had ordered the Edge CTS. I installed it immediately when it arrived a week after owning the truck, turns out that my ECT to EOT delta was almost 30 and I therefore needed a new oil cooler and was concerned for my EGR cooler and head gaskets and turbo!

Fortunately I had also purchased the Ford 3 year extended warranty, following advice from others in this forum Expensive, but cheaper than a new oil cooler and the front suspension work I had done at the same time. Within the first 3,000 miles I have also needed a new radiator (broken plastic fitting) and now need the pinion and rear differential seals replaced.

I love this truck but would reccomended getting your own aftermarket gauge for it BEFORE you buy it and test drive it at 65 mph to get good readings. Seriously consider the extended warranty. Google ford ESP to find the Conneticut Ford dealer that offers this at the lowest price. The dealership may not check this truck out as thoroughly as you like!

Having said all of this, if you are planning to go ahead with the mods immediately then the usual 6.0 problems would get taken care of anyway and you would probably void your warranty! I also debated going this route but figured that the warranty was cheaper, I was happy keeping the truck stock for 3 years until the warranty was over and then make the mods I wanted once I was on my own.

Perhaps you can be specific about the things you would like the dealership to check for and ask that their 6.0 expert does the inspection. Or maybe there is a local independent Ford truck guy you can take it to?

Hope I helped...

[Term3]

I've had no issues with towing a 10,000 lb. loaded to the hilt equipment trailer with a sway control hitch. I believe the stock rear sway bar is 28 mm. I've searched forums and the Internet about Excursion mods for a long time and the person to talk to is Cary at CT Performance email: ctperformanceinc@yahoo.com he does a LOT with Excursion suspensions to make them handle and ride better. I believe he replaces the rear sway bar with one from a F-350.

[jesilvas]

Congrats on the purchase.
As for the travel trailer end of it, I'm sure you know to get a weight distributing and sway control hitch for such a big trailer. You may need a bigger receiver hitch too, but I'm not sure what class receive those came with. My 2000 F350 is only a Class III
Just don't skimp on the towing portion either. I'd hate to hear after all the motor work that the trailer came around and flipped over behind the truck

[RAD69]

Originally Posted by Term3

I've had no issues with towing a 10,000 lb. loaded to the hilt equipment trailer with a sway control hitch. I believe the stock rear sway bar is 28 mm. I've searched forums and the Internet about Excursion mods for a long time and the person to talk to is Cary at CT Performance email: ctperformanceinc@yahoo.com he does a LOT with Excursion suspensions to make them handle and ride better. I believe he replaces the rear sway bar with one from a F-350.

Yeah, I will get in touch with him. I have not even picked it up yet and I can tell that this truck is gonna cost me a lot of cash. Sigh.