Excursion build plan.
Allow me to introduce my 2000 Ford Excursion, happily known as “Beach Truck” or “BT”.
I have had the truck since new in January 2000. The BT came with the 5.4 and is 2WD. It has been a lot of fun over the years, rode around on big shinny rims for 6-7 years with a big stereo and tvs everywhere, but soon function became important so a Fabtech 6” lift was installed and 35’s. This made the truck a lot more fun to drive, i no longer had to worry about friends driving it and curb checking expensive chrome wheels. My old friend BT is now very tired, has a ton of miles (way more than I thought I would get out of the 5.4L) For the last few years the truck was only being used basically to drive to the beach and tow the boat to the lake for some wake boarding. Any kind of distance traveled or road trips, camping and the like were done in my 2008 RR. As life changes we recently bought a house and I just sold the RR. Time to build the BT to handle all the Rovers duties AND THEN SOME. Things I enjoyed about the RR was I could get in and take a road trip any time, I love taking routes less travelled and dirt road or driving through national parks, my kids are totally into the nature drives (7year old daughter, 1 year old dogo argentino) I want to be able to drive to the Grand Canyon taking as manny off highway routes as possible while keeping my family safe and comfortable in a big truck. Ok now here is my plan, or the start of it at least. Please keep in mind I BASICALLY HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT. The ideas I have come up with are based on things I have read on forums and talked to some people about, but I have no actual experience in doing a build for a truck I want to be able to drive across the country off the beaten path, so please send helpful useful opinions my way.
Keeping in mind money is a factor (just bought a house) I was trying to find a way to build the truck in stages, however I feel like gearing is the fist place to start and that does dictate the tire size so if anyone wants to chime in on that feel free.
I want to go with a Cummins 12v and a P pump, I like the idea of it being simple to work on and my buddy gets 20 mpg in his old dodge with a 12v. MPG are important! Even if I never get 20MPG but get better than 14-15 that the RR got I will be happy. I have seen some reasonable priced 12v online and before installation I would plan on fixing the possible dowel pin issue. If there are any other things important to do prior to installing the 12v please chime in.
OH AND I LIVE IN MIAMI FLORIDA, IF ANYONE CAN SUGGEST A GREAT DIESEL SHOP PLEASE DO!
I would like to, in theory have an Allison 6 speed, not sure what kind of module or programing that would involve but I think Destroked has a kit for it. Again i have not actually bought any of these things I have simply heard great things about this trans and I feel the 6sp will help in MPG.
I don’t plan to do hardcore trails, but I do plan on taking trips away from civilization and need it to be build to last, so I think having the possibility of LOW LOW gearing would help crawl over stuff rather than bounce/smash down the trail. For this i was looking at a NP205 and a NWF Black Box for the TC.
Since the truck is now 2WD and I have to buy or build a solid front axle I was thinking of getting a Dana60, but do I buy a used one assembled (found a few in local junk yards for less than 1k) or do I buy the housing (cheap on ebay) and buy the shafts I want and gears and so forth? I also would love to do a Dynatrack free-spin hub kit. The used is probably way less money but I want to hear some opinions on it…Maybe my ideas are overkill so let me know if any of this is ridiculous. I plan on doing ARB front and rear and I will obviously re-gear the rear to match the front. I am under the impression the rear is strong and with some gears and a locker we would be good, but if I am wrong please let me know.
The brakes on my truck are terrible, I have SS lines but need new pads and rotors and a fluid flush, I was thinking of trying Stoptech rotors, I have used them on car applications and I am assuming they are also great for a truck, this is way less money than going with a big brake kit.
Now for the suspension I was looking at Carli Suspension, for the truck, I want it to handle well on and off road. My plan (which has one huge flaw) would be to keep my 35’s (90% tread left) and when I can afford it move up to 38’s keeping the same suspension height and just cutting to make it fit so to keep the center of gravity low. Problem is changing the tire size affects the gear ratios, and I don’t want to buy gears twice or buy bigger tires now…dilemma…
The trucks body is in great shape, just has a small bit of rust bubbles on the roof that I am seeing the body shop about today. I plan on having it fixed and then having the roof, grill and bumpers Linex’d. I will be using the factory front bumper with the winch adaptor, I know it makes the bumper stick out a bit but it will do for a while.
So this is the start of my ideas…Please let me know if I am headed in the right direction.
Allow me to introduce my 2000 Ford Excursion, happily known as “Beach Truck” or “BT”.
I have had the truck since new in January 2000. The BT came with the 5.4 and is 2WD. It has been a lot of fun over the years, rode around on big shinny rims for 6-7 years with a big stereo and tvs everywhere, but soon function became important so a Fabtech 6” lift was installed and 35’s. This made the truck a lot more fun to drive, i no longer had to worry about friends driving it and curb checking expensive chrome wheels. My old friend BT is now very tired, has a ton of miles (way more than I thought I would get out of the 5.4L) For the last few years the truck was only being used basically to drive to the beach and tow the boat to the lake for some wake boarding. Any kind of distance traveled or road trips, camping and the like were done in my 2008 RR. As life changes we recently bought a house and I just sold the RR. Time to build the BT to handle all the Rovers duties AND THEN SOME. Things I enjoyed about the RR was I could get in and take a road trip any time, I love taking routes less travelled and dirt road or driving through national parks, my kids are totally into the nature drives (7year old daughter, 1 year old dogo argentino) I want to be able to drive to the Grand Canyon taking as manny off highway routes as possible while keeping my family safe and comfortable in a big truck. Ok now here is my plan, or the start of it at least. Please keep in mind I BASICALLY HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT. The ideas I have come up with are based on things I have read on forums and talked to some people about, but I have no actual experience in doing a build for a truck I want to be able to drive across the country off the beaten path, so please send helpful useful opinions my way.
Keeping in mind money is a factor (just bought a house) I was trying to find a way to build the truck in stages, however I feel like gearing is the fist place to start and that does dictate the tire size so if anyone wants to chime in on that feel free.
I want to go with a Cummins 12v and a P pump, I like the idea of it being simple to work on and my buddy gets 20 mpg in his old dodge with a 12v. MPG are important! Even if I never get 20MPG but get better than 14-15 that the RR got I will be happy. I have seen some reasonable priced 12v online and before installation I would plan on fixing the possible dowel pin issue. If there are any other things important to do prior to installing the 12v please chime in.
OH AND I LIVE IN MIAMI FLORIDA, IF ANYONE CAN SUGGEST A GREAT DIESEL SHOP PLEASE DO!
I would like to, in theory have an Allison 6 speed, not sure what kind of module or programing that would involve but I think Destroked has a kit for it. Again i have not actually bought any of these things I have simply heard great things about this trans and I feel the 6sp will help in MPG.
I don’t plan to do hardcore trails, but I do plan on taking trips away from civilization and need it to be build to last, so I think having the possibility of LOW LOW gearing would help crawl over stuff rather than bounce/smash down the trail. For this i was looking at a NP205 and a NWF Black Box for the TC.
Since the truck is now 2WD and I have to buy or build a solid front axle I was thinking of getting a Dana60, but do I buy a used one assembled (found a few in local junk yards for less than 1k) or do I buy the housing (cheap on ebay) and buy the shafts I want and gears and so forth? I also would love to do a Dynatrack free-spin hub kit. The used is probably way less money but I want to hear some opinions on it…Maybe my ideas are overkill so let me know if any of this is ridiculous. I plan on doing ARB front and rear and I will obviously re-gear the rear to match the front. I am under the impression the rear is strong and with some gears and a locker we would be good, but if I am wrong please let me know.
The brakes on my truck are terrible, I have SS lines but need new pads and rotors and a fluid flush, I was thinking of trying Stoptech rotors, I have used them on car applications and I am assuming they are also great for a truck, this is way less money than going with a big brake kit.
Now for the suspension I was looking at Carli Suspension, for the truck, I want it to handle well on and off road. My plan (which has one huge flaw) would be to keep my 35’s (90% tread left) and when I can afford it move up to 38’s keeping the same suspension height and just cutting to make it fit so to keep the center of gravity low. Problem is changing the tire size affects the gear ratios, and I don’t want to buy gears twice or buy bigger tires now…dilemma…
The trucks body is in great shape, just has a small bit of rust bubbles on the roof that I am seeing the body shop about today. I plan on having it fixed and then having the roof, grill and bumpers Linex’d. I will be using the factory front bumper with the winch adaptor, I know it makes the bumper stick out a bit but it will do for a while.
So this is the start of my ideas…Please let me know if I am headed in the right direction.