ExploringNH
Explorer
ExploringNH's 2000 Ford Excursion build - Now with more pop-top!
1/8/2015 - Work on pop-top roof started.
Current state of chaos:
After building a 4Runner for tight NH trails and a Defender 110 for a trip to South America, I knew what I wanted next. Something big and comfortable. I am done with the long days offroad crawling over rocks and bouncing around just to end up back where I started. My interests now lie solely in exploring and long trips. This means more time on pavement and less time on hardcore trails. In the end, I decided on a Ford Excursion. Based on the Ford Super Duty platform, the Excursion is a heavy duty truck with an SUV body and solid front axle. Plenty of space inside for a sleeping platform, fridge, and anything else I will need on the road.
Purpose:
Extended camping, exploring, and road trips in comfort while maintaining the ability to tackle most trails, obstacles, and challenges we may encounter. Must retain ability to tow a trailer for personal use. Must be able to be driven easily by anyone. No poor road manners acceptable. Must be self-sustainable for up to 4 days. All of this for a reasonable budget.
Vehicle:
2000 Ford Excursion
6.8L V10
44 gallon stock fuel tank
4x4
Limited
Once I decided on the vehicle, it was a matter of finding one for the right price. With a low budget I ended up looking for about a month before I found one that was worthy of taking home. The truck had a few issues when I brought it home. The range sensor on the transmission was bad (a common problem) which made shifting difficult and resulted in no reverse lights, a check engine light, and transmission errors. About $50 later and 20 minutes of time and all was resolved. The front end needed a couple of balljoints (super common on Super Duty trucks) and the rear brakes needed new calipers, pads, and rotors. All said and done, I put just under $400 worth of parts into the $3250 truck.
The downside of this truck is that it is BIG. It will not fit down a lot of New England trails. That won't be a huge problem because that isn't the type of wheeling that I intend to do with it. This truck is going to be built for mainly dirt road and mild trails. Occasionally I will encounter a tough spot but I hope to build the vehicle enough to be able to deal with it. I've been wheeling for years and know the limitations. Every vehicle has it's downsides and the downside to the Excursion is simply size. There is no way around it. The modifications chosen have taken this into account. The 44 gallon tank will provide impressive range even with the low mpg of the Triton V10. The Sterling 10.5 rear and Dana 50 front should provide adequate for the 37" tires given that we are not excessive on the throttle and bouncing around. A rear selectable locker will be added in the future and the front and rear will be re-geared at that time.
Parts acquired:
37"x13.5"x18" Toyo Open Country tires
6" Zone Offroad lift with Nitro shocks and stabilizer
Buckstop front and rear bumpers
Cobra 75 WX ST CB Radio with Firestik antenna
Planned Modifications (immediate):
Winch
12v fridge freezer
Dual battery
Roof Rack with 50" LED bar and aux lighting
2005 style grille/headlights
Compressor
Sleeping platform
Tires/Lift: With the vehicle being so large I needed to find a tire size that would allow me to tackle the terrain and handle the weight. The 18" wheels were not my first choice but they are a compromise. A 16" wheel will allow more airing down for a larger footprint. The 18" wheel will allow for a better on-road ride. Unfortunately, no one makes a ~37" radial tire in a 16" wheel size anymore. 17-18" is the new standard. I believe that choosing a tire size is the first step for any vehicle build. Everything else is based around it. For the type of driving and terrain that this vehicle will see, I feel that a 37" tall tire is the best compromise. To fit the 37" tire we will be running a 6" Zone Offroad lift. This lift is supposed to fit a 35" tire but we will be cutting and trimming a bit to make it all work. I wanted to run as low of a lift as possible and still be able to clear the tires. Keeping a low center of gravity and low overall height is important. The Zone lift was chosen because of a few factors. One is price. It is very reasonably priced for what you get with the kit. The front lift is a full leaf pack which was important for this build. The factory Excursion pack is soft from the factory and doesn't age well. My truck is sagging quite a bit and with some off-roading, I would be bouncing off of the bump stops most of the time. A new front pack will bring the truck up and back to having a decent ride. The pack has a fair amount of leafs which should provide a nice progressive rate. The rear is an add-a-leaf setup which will be mated to a fresh pair of factory Ford C-code rear springs.
Interior: After spending quite a bit of time sleeping in vehicles, ground tents, and roof top tents, I decided that I wanted to build a sleeping platform inside the vehicle for this build. A roof top tent is great because it takes up no interior space and is very comfortable and cozy. The downsides are that it is cold in the winter, takes a long time to set up (10-15 minutes), and raises the vehicles overall height and center of gravity. It is also inconvenient to set up in the rain and in non-secure places. I feel a lot more comfortable sleeping inside the truck in a sketchy or busy area than deploying a very conspicuous roof top tent. Having a sleeping platform inside the truck takes up valuable space but that is a compromise I am willing to make for 0 setup time, warmth, security, and inconspicuousness (is that even a word?). The platform will be built with storage underneath to keep recovery gear, spare fluids, work gloves, and all of the other stuff that finds it's way into our vehicles. The goal is to keep the platform as low as possible to allow for as much headroom in the sleeping area for sitting up, getting dressed, and spending time. The height will be determined by the tallest item that has to be stored under the platform. The third row seat will be removed but I will be keeping the second row. I need the vehicle to be functional for everyday use as well as long road trips. Some sort of heater will be added to the interior to help cut the edge on cold nights. In the future a water tank will be added for showering or cooking. A small inverter will be added to power laptops or other small 120v items. A Cobra 75 WX ST CB radio will be added to allow for communication on group trips. The Cobra CB was chosen for it's small form factor. Everything is in the handle and it can all be hidden away under a seat when not in use. A 43qt fridge/freezer will be added to store drinks and food. A small fridge will be enough for me and I will probably go with an Edgestar because I have had great luck with this fridge in the past. It holds plenty of stuff to keep us stocked between re-suppplys. In all honesty we are never more than a day or two from food and even when we are, we don't need to keep most drinks and food cold and can plan around it. An extra battery will be installed to help with the overnight loads of the fridge. In my experiences a single battery has no problem powering the fridge in even scorching temperatures for a couple of days without killing the battery. A second battery will just add some peace of mind and the capability to leave the truck unattended for several days without worry or to run lighting at night with the truck off for an extended period. In all honesty, if the truck is left for a week, it isn't worth it to leave the fridge on. Whatever is in it will likely go bad.
Bumpers/winch: The bumpers are more of a luxury than a necessity and I have no problem admitting that. The factory Excursion has adequate tow points front and rear from the factory. A winch was a necessity for this build since there is a high probability of solo travel. A Warn hidden winch mount is available for the stock bumper at a cost of about $500. I didn't like how it pushed the factory bumper out and made the truck look like it had a fat lip. Access to the winch is limited with this setup and it wasn't ideal. To find more excuses to upgrade the bumpers, the factory rear bumper was damaged when I bought the truck and needed to be replaced. The front grille was the old style and I wanted to upgrade to the newer headlights and grille. This upgrade is nothing more than cosmetic. All of these flimsy excuses added up and led to the purchase of a set of Buckstop front and rear bumpers. These will provide a lot of strength and protection to the front and rear and allow for easy and accessible winch mounting up front. The rear bumper will have integrated LED lights that will be on a toggle switch to provide extra reverse lighting or just for lighting up a campsite behind the truck. The front bumper will have some 6" LED lights mounted into the frenched light buckets. Buckstop bumpers are very well built and have a great reputation and who can argue with the looks (I'm sure some will, haha). Don't get me wrong; steel bumpers are great but if I had a very small budget, they would not be included. As long as you can fit a winch, I consider them a "Phase 2" addition. Not to be added before a rear selectable locker. In our case we needed a rear bumper anyway and couldn't fit a winch nicely behind the front bumper. Instead of spending $500 to make the front useful and $280 on a new factory rear bumper, it made sense to just go ahead and put that money into good bumpers since we would eventually end up with them anyway.
Lighting/Rack: Having extra lighting has a lot of uses. Most people picture driving at high speeds with lights blazing down the highway or off-road desert tracks. Where I live, that isn't possible. First, pretty much all of these lights are illegal for on-road use. Second, in NH there is almost 0 high speed driving. Everything is twisty and visibility of the road ahead only lasts for a couple hundred feet before a hill or bend blocks your view. The lights will be used for off-road trails, inclement weather on back roads where the likely hood of a passing vehicle is slim, and for lighting up camp sites or work areas. We will have 360* lighting provided by small LED lights. These will not be super bright scorcher high power LEDs. They will only provide enough light to set up camp and do what we need to around the vehicle. Low power consumption is important as is small form factor and low weight. The roof rack is designed to hold an occasional load but will mostly be up there as a low profile way to protect the roof line from trees and hold a 50" dual row LED bar for the front. This bar will provide our forward lighting. After having run a 50" dual row Rigid bar on the Defender I knew it was a mandatory inclusion for this build. The 7" HID lights will not be included this time as they proved fairly useless. They allowed for a big throw of light but took too long to warm up to be useful for most situations.
That is all we have done so far. We will continue to acquire parts over the next month and plan to have it all installed in late January.
1/8/2015 - Work on pop-top roof started.
Current state of chaos:
 |
| First Draft Mockup |
After building a 4Runner for tight NH trails and a Defender 110 for a trip to South America, I knew what I wanted next. Something big and comfortable. I am done with the long days offroad crawling over rocks and bouncing around just to end up back where I started. My interests now lie solely in exploring and long trips. This means more time on pavement and less time on hardcore trails. In the end, I decided on a Ford Excursion. Based on the Ford Super Duty platform, the Excursion is a heavy duty truck with an SUV body and solid front axle. Plenty of space inside for a sleeping platform, fridge, and anything else I will need on the road.
Purpose:
Extended camping, exploring, and road trips in comfort while maintaining the ability to tackle most trails, obstacles, and challenges we may encounter. Must retain ability to tow a trailer for personal use. Must be able to be driven easily by anyone. No poor road manners acceptable. Must be self-sustainable for up to 4 days. All of this for a reasonable budget.
Vehicle:
2000 Ford Excursion
6.8L V10
44 gallon stock fuel tank
4x4
Limited
 |
| Day 1 |
Once I decided on the vehicle, it was a matter of finding one for the right price. With a low budget I ended up looking for about a month before I found one that was worthy of taking home. The truck had a few issues when I brought it home. The range sensor on the transmission was bad (a common problem) which made shifting difficult and resulted in no reverse lights, a check engine light, and transmission errors. About $50 later and 20 minutes of time and all was resolved. The front end needed a couple of balljoints (super common on Super Duty trucks) and the rear brakes needed new calipers, pads, and rotors. All said and done, I put just under $400 worth of parts into the $3250 truck.
The downside of this truck is that it is BIG. It will not fit down a lot of New England trails. That won't be a huge problem because that isn't the type of wheeling that I intend to do with it. This truck is going to be built for mainly dirt road and mild trails. Occasionally I will encounter a tough spot but I hope to build the vehicle enough to be able to deal with it. I've been wheeling for years and know the limitations. Every vehicle has it's downsides and the downside to the Excursion is simply size. There is no way around it. The modifications chosen have taken this into account. The 44 gallon tank will provide impressive range even with the low mpg of the Triton V10. The Sterling 10.5 rear and Dana 50 front should provide adequate for the 37" tires given that we are not excessive on the throttle and bouncing around. A rear selectable locker will be added in the future and the front and rear will be re-geared at that time.
Parts acquired:
37"x13.5"x18" Toyo Open Country tires
6" Zone Offroad lift with Nitro shocks and stabilizer
Buckstop front and rear bumpers
Cobra 75 WX ST CB Radio with Firestik antenna
Planned Modifications (immediate):
Winch
12v fridge freezer
Dual battery
Roof Rack with 50" LED bar and aux lighting
2005 style grille/headlights
Compressor
Sleeping platform
Tires/Lift: With the vehicle being so large I needed to find a tire size that would allow me to tackle the terrain and handle the weight. The 18" wheels were not my first choice but they are a compromise. A 16" wheel will allow more airing down for a larger footprint. The 18" wheel will allow for a better on-road ride. Unfortunately, no one makes a ~37" radial tire in a 16" wheel size anymore. 17-18" is the new standard. I believe that choosing a tire size is the first step for any vehicle build. Everything else is based around it. For the type of driving and terrain that this vehicle will see, I feel that a 37" tall tire is the best compromise. To fit the 37" tire we will be running a 6" Zone Offroad lift. This lift is supposed to fit a 35" tire but we will be cutting and trimming a bit to make it all work. I wanted to run as low of a lift as possible and still be able to clear the tires. Keeping a low center of gravity and low overall height is important. The Zone lift was chosen because of a few factors. One is price. It is very reasonably priced for what you get with the kit. The front lift is a full leaf pack which was important for this build. The factory Excursion pack is soft from the factory and doesn't age well. My truck is sagging quite a bit and with some off-roading, I would be bouncing off of the bump stops most of the time. A new front pack will bring the truck up and back to having a decent ride. The pack has a fair amount of leafs which should provide a nice progressive rate. The rear is an add-a-leaf setup which will be mated to a fresh pair of factory Ford C-code rear springs.
 |
| 37" Toyos at stock height |
Interior: After spending quite a bit of time sleeping in vehicles, ground tents, and roof top tents, I decided that I wanted to build a sleeping platform inside the vehicle for this build. A roof top tent is great because it takes up no interior space and is very comfortable and cozy. The downsides are that it is cold in the winter, takes a long time to set up (10-15 minutes), and raises the vehicles overall height and center of gravity. It is also inconvenient to set up in the rain and in non-secure places. I feel a lot more comfortable sleeping inside the truck in a sketchy or busy area than deploying a very conspicuous roof top tent. Having a sleeping platform inside the truck takes up valuable space but that is a compromise I am willing to make for 0 setup time, warmth, security, and inconspicuousness (is that even a word?). The platform will be built with storage underneath to keep recovery gear, spare fluids, work gloves, and all of the other stuff that finds it's way into our vehicles. The goal is to keep the platform as low as possible to allow for as much headroom in the sleeping area for sitting up, getting dressed, and spending time. The height will be determined by the tallest item that has to be stored under the platform. The third row seat will be removed but I will be keeping the second row. I need the vehicle to be functional for everyday use as well as long road trips. Some sort of heater will be added to the interior to help cut the edge on cold nights. In the future a water tank will be added for showering or cooking. A small inverter will be added to power laptops or other small 120v items. A Cobra 75 WX ST CB radio will be added to allow for communication on group trips. The Cobra CB was chosen for it's small form factor. Everything is in the handle and it can all be hidden away under a seat when not in use. A 43qt fridge/freezer will be added to store drinks and food. A small fridge will be enough for me and I will probably go with an Edgestar because I have had great luck with this fridge in the past. It holds plenty of stuff to keep us stocked between re-suppplys. In all honesty we are never more than a day or two from food and even when we are, we don't need to keep most drinks and food cold and can plan around it. An extra battery will be installed to help with the overnight loads of the fridge. In my experiences a single battery has no problem powering the fridge in even scorching temperatures for a couple of days without killing the battery. A second battery will just add some peace of mind and the capability to leave the truck unattended for several days without worry or to run lighting at night with the truck off for an extended period. In all honesty, if the truck is left for a week, it isn't worth it to leave the fridge on. Whatever is in it will likely go bad.
Bumpers/winch: The bumpers are more of a luxury than a necessity and I have no problem admitting that. The factory Excursion has adequate tow points front and rear from the factory. A winch was a necessity for this build since there is a high probability of solo travel. A Warn hidden winch mount is available for the stock bumper at a cost of about $500. I didn't like how it pushed the factory bumper out and made the truck look like it had a fat lip. Access to the winch is limited with this setup and it wasn't ideal. To find more excuses to upgrade the bumpers, the factory rear bumper was damaged when I bought the truck and needed to be replaced. The front grille was the old style and I wanted to upgrade to the newer headlights and grille. This upgrade is nothing more than cosmetic. All of these flimsy excuses added up and led to the purchase of a set of Buckstop front and rear bumpers. These will provide a lot of strength and protection to the front and rear and allow for easy and accessible winch mounting up front. The rear bumper will have integrated LED lights that will be on a toggle switch to provide extra reverse lighting or just for lighting up a campsite behind the truck. The front bumper will have some 6" LED lights mounted into the frenched light buckets. Buckstop bumpers are very well built and have a great reputation and who can argue with the looks (I'm sure some will, haha). Don't get me wrong; steel bumpers are great but if I had a very small budget, they would not be included. As long as you can fit a winch, I consider them a "Phase 2" addition. Not to be added before a rear selectable locker. In our case we needed a rear bumper anyway and couldn't fit a winch nicely behind the front bumper. Instead of spending $500 to make the front useful and $280 on a new factory rear bumper, it made sense to just go ahead and put that money into good bumpers since we would eventually end up with them anyway.
 |
| Buckstop Baja and 2005 style grille and headlights |
Lighting/Rack: Having extra lighting has a lot of uses. Most people picture driving at high speeds with lights blazing down the highway or off-road desert tracks. Where I live, that isn't possible. First, pretty much all of these lights are illegal for on-road use. Second, in NH there is almost 0 high speed driving. Everything is twisty and visibility of the road ahead only lasts for a couple hundred feet before a hill or bend blocks your view. The lights will be used for off-road trails, inclement weather on back roads where the likely hood of a passing vehicle is slim, and for lighting up camp sites or work areas. We will have 360* lighting provided by small LED lights. These will not be super bright scorcher high power LEDs. They will only provide enough light to set up camp and do what we need to around the vehicle. Low power consumption is important as is small form factor and low weight. The roof rack is designed to hold an occasional load but will mostly be up there as a low profile way to protect the roof line from trees and hold a 50" dual row LED bar for the front. This bar will provide our forward lighting. After having run a 50" dual row Rigid bar on the Defender I knew it was a mandatory inclusion for this build. The 7" HID lights will not be included this time as they proved fairly useless. They allowed for a big throw of light but took too long to warm up to be useful for most situations.
 |
| MSPaint of roof rack. 50" LED goes in front. |
That is all we have done so far. We will continue to acquire parts over the next month and plan to have it all installed in late January.
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