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Kevin's (slow) Excursion mod/upgrade thread

Kevin B.

Kevin B.

Not often wrong. Never quite right.
Moderator
Location
Stinkwater
So the verdict is in, and the verdict is that we like the track bar. There's just enough lateral movement without it to affect the steering, and it's janky. It's driveable, but nothing I'd wanna do on the interstate unless I absolutely had to.

So I slapped it back together with an assist from Carl and his bigger welder (thanks!)...

20200705_100657.jpg

... and I rattlecanned it with etching primer and something calling itself "appliance epoxy" which may or may not be more durable than your basic Rustoleum. I wasn't able to really get a good pic of it under the truck so you'll have to trust me when I tell you that there's a beautiful shiny black custom track bar under there fastened to the truck with hella rusty bolts, because I want to be Carl when I grow up.

Then I took it out to that pothole party that is the section of 7200s behind the dump, and I'm pleased to report that what was a 5mph road is now a 15 mph road, even 20 mph in sections, which is much more better.
 
Kevin B.

Kevin B.

Not often wrong. Never quite right.
Moderator
Location
Stinkwater
Got it out for the first real shakedown since the lift, headed up over the Idaho border with TRD270 in search of dirt and solitude. Found both.

20200726_074724.jpg

20200726_074602.jpg

Issues discovered:

Holy crap this thing is tall. No fawkin' way is that RTT staying up there. If I thought it was a PITA setting it up and taking it down before, it's 3x worse now. And also the ladder doesn't reach anymore. I could get an extended ladder, but naw. I was kicking around the idea of putting it on a trailer, and I think that's probably the direction that will go. I'd just sell it, but the wife likes it so...

Putting the track bar back on made a world of difference, but there is still something funny with the steering. I can't tell if it's bump steer or just the wider tires + greater backspace giving me more steering feedback? I dunno. I've never ever paid a lick of attention to the steering stabilizer on any previous rig, most times I've even taken it off, but I'm sure the one on this truck is shot anyway so I may replace it. Might even grab one of those dual stabilizer setups?

I've got a squeak, that I thought was a leaf spring bushing but has started to sync up with my wheel rotation speed. Wheel bearing or u joint, I dunno. That's one of those maintenance things that doesn't really affect how awesome I look while I'm driving it so I'm going to do the right thing and just ignore it until it goes away or gets worse.

It's also down a bit in back. I'm going to make sure I didn't overtorque the bolts in front and that I've got full flex up there, and then I'm probably going to ignore that and pretend it's not there.

Overall, super minor issues. Gonna call that a successful shakedown.
 
mbryson

mbryson

.......a few dollars more
Supporting Member
Location
Bountiful, land of rocks
Is there some kind of compact stepladder you could get to tuck the tent back together? Might still be a bit challenging on the space on the roof of the truck. (I've thought more than once about putting a tent on my pickup roof but it already pays every fuel mpg penalty possible... I don't need more drag)
 
Kevin B.

Kevin B.

Not often wrong. Never quite right.
Moderator
Location
Stinkwater
mbryson said:
Is there some kind of compact stepladder you could get to tuck the tent back together? Might still be a bit challenging on the space on the roof of the truck. (I've thought more than once about putting a tent on my pickup roof but it already pays every fuel mpg penalty possible... I don't need more drag)
Click to expand...

I was packing a little stepladder with me when I had the tent on the Broverlander, and I've been using that. It's just a pain, completely defeats the purpose of the RTT in my mind. If I were going to keep the RTT on the Excursion, the first thing I'd need is to source an extended ladder for the entrance. I cribbed up a little base for it that worked for the weekend, but is not at all an ideal solution. The second thing I'd do is get sliders and a rear bumper on post haste, and use those as a base to build rack ladders on each side and probably the rear, or at least quarterpanel arches with step pads. Even then I don't know that I'd like it, I really don't wanna have to climb around like a monkey setting the thing up and tearing it down. I just don't feel like RTTs are well suited to being that far off the ground, at least not this style.

I honestly have not noticed a huge MPG hit with the tent on the F150 or the Excursion. Maybe because both are mostly bricks already. Going to 35s was a much bigger MPG hit, that one took me from 12 to 10.5 mixed. It's not bad enough that I need to regear yet, but I am thinking about a tuner to see if I can fix the shift points.
 
Kevin B.

Kevin B.

Not often wrong. Never quite right.
Moderator
Location
Stinkwater
Bum shoulder makes it hard to get work done, but I go in for surgery in couple weeks to get it fixed and then I won't get anything at all done for a while, so I'm trying to knock out what I can while I can. I've had a near-violent shudder on deceleration for a while now, it got worse on the RME trip last month so something had to be done. Turns out the angle shims that were recommended with this set of springs were a bad idea and had my driveline angles woefully out of wack. I trundled the barge over to @frieed's this morning and he helped me pull the shims out. Vibrations were greatly decreased on the drive home, enough that I can live with it until I recover from surgery and can crawl around on the driveway again. Thanks again for the assist, Eric, I owe ya.

I discovered just how nondescript this silly truck is - leaving Eric's I spotted a familiar rig parked on the side. I flipped around to get another look, and sure enough it was one of @cruiseroutfit's many Cruisers. I texted him to ask if he was at the Iceberg or Les Schwab, thinking I was being clever and sneaky. I got home to find a message from him on Facebook timestamped a minute or two before I'd texted him - totally busted me creepin' :rofl:. Not a ton of giant gold land whales with a Trasharoo on the rear hatch in Sandy, I guess.
 
Kevin B.

Kevin B.

Not often wrong. Never quite right.
Moderator
Location
Stinkwater
pennsylvaniaboy said:
Bump, any updates to this? Is there a reason you lifted so much for just 315's?
Click to expand...
Mostly because those Procomp springs were the quickest and least expensive way to get some elevation. After I swap the front axle I'll fine tune the height. Or maybe by that time Josh will have worn me down and I'll be running 37s anyway.

No updates yet, been kinda focused on other stuff. Sliders and bumpers are next on the list but the price of steel last summer kinda made me not want to buy any :D. I'm saving my pennies, maybe get something done by this summer.
 
Kevin B.

Kevin B.

Not often wrong. Never quite right.
Moderator
Location
Stinkwater
Kevin B. said:
Yup. Basic NAPA joints for me. If I have this particular axle long enough that they'll need serviced again, I'm gonna be cranky anyway so...
Click to expand...
So, about that...

I'm on the hunt. I don't want to deal with a donor truck in the driveway, but if anybody knows of a Superduty getting parted out, lemme know. Bonus points if it's already geared 4.30 or better and if there's a matching rear with a locker or limited slip then I'll be your best friend.
 
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