2003 Ford Excursion Limited 4x4 6.0 Diesel One Owner

2003 Ford Excursion Description

I ordered this 2003 6.0 Excursion Limited and am the original owner. After 266,000+ miles, with diesel finally cheaper than gasoline, it's time to sell it. As you can tell by the mileage, it has been used heavily, but never abused. It seems like just about everything that goes wrong with these trucks has already happened once with this truck and with one kid off to college and two others with driver's licenses, I just don't need as much passenger space as I once did.

If you've ever wondered what Rhino-lining your truck would look like after five years, this is it. It was supposed to be all blue, like the bottom, but I don't think they cleaned the gun very well the first time it was sprayed at Gulf Coast Rhino Linings. I brought it back a few years later, when I added the Bushwhacker fender flares and Road Rhino bumpers and removed the lower rocker cladding. They re-sprayed the lower section in blue and you can see they have a different color. Rhino Liner makes a rhino shine product that makes it look all freshly-sprayed, but I mainly did it because I live in Wisconsin and wanted to keep the truck from rusting out. If you want to see what it looks like with Rhino Shine on it, just hose it down. The original hood & roof paint started cracking (it was originally black) at around 95k miles and Ford didn't want to honor their 100k-mile paint warranty.

At that point, I had to decide if I wanted to re-paint it and have one of the kids drop a bike on it the next week or do something else. I eventually settled on having it lined and I've been really happy with the outcome and never worried about the finish since then. It still has lower rocker rust as shown in the photos and it's lived it's entire life in Wisconsin. The oil pan rusted out in 2011 and has been replaced and the truck was sponsored by several companies when I did the XB spring swap in 2010 and started using it for a lot of promotional work with OPTIMA Batteries.

It has a Magnaflow stainless exhaust system (I had the tip powdercoated black), BMF SOTA 20-inch wheels on Michelin tires. It also comes with three BFG KO tires- I had one that needed to be replaced and they're out of production after BFG released the KO2. I didn't want to buy a new set of tires for a truck I'm selling, so I found a really nice set of Michelins for $300 on Craigslist that are on there now. It also comes with a mounted set of BFG Commercial TAs on the original wheels, which I used during the winter (salt) months, to keep the BMFs looking nice. When the 20s are on, the left front rubs a little on hard left turns, but the right never does, which I chalk up to Ford's inconsistency in their assembly process. Nothing rubs with the stock wheels and tires.

It has a Hellwig sway bar in the rear, Rancho shocks all the way around (I had the rears replaced again last year), It also comes with a really nice adjustable aluminum hitch that is probably welded into the receiver from corrosion at this point, so I couldn't take it out if I wanted to. The front windows are tinted to match the factory tint on the rears and it has an Edge Tuner that I mainly use for watching temperatures at this point. I ran it on level two when I first had everything done for about a year and I noticed better power towing a loaded car trailer through the Rockies, but I never saw better mileage with it, so I set it back to zero since.

I had the driver's armrest and several driver's seat panels re-done a few years ago, as they were wearing out from use and they're all in pretty decent shape now. I also had the high pressure oil pump fail about a year ago and when that happened, I bought the 6.0 kit from Bulletproof diesel with the relocated oil filter. Problem was, the relocation kit mounted on the factory bumpers, which had been replaced by Road Rhino bumpers, so I had to have a shield custom-fabricated to protect the filter and it's done the job.

The transmission was replaced just before I went on the 2011 Hot Rod Power Tour long haul, which was around the 200,000-mile mark. Every once in a while, it doesn't want to start when it's in park, but if I shift it into neutral, it starts right up. I've also noticed an increasing slip/stutter in the last year, especially during the cold winter months and it diminishes as everything warms up. My friends who work for torque converter companies tell me the symptoms are typical of a torque converter that might need to be replaced at some point. I did take my family out to North Carolina in it over Easter break this year and had no reliability issues with it.

It also comes with a Yakima roof rack that is removable. I can still fit the Excursion in my garage with the roof rack off and the big wheels/tires on, so the clearance is somewhere less than 7 feet. I could once coax 20 mpg out of it, if I was really conservative on the highway, but it typically gets about 13 around town now and about 15-17 depending on how fast I'm driving (usually 75ish). My wife usually sees better fuel economy when she drives it on the highway.

It obviously comes with two fresh Optima batteries that I installed earlier this year (they are matched, late-2015 production) and Powermaster just installed a new alternator on it for me just after Easter. Modified truck owners seem to spend their entire ownership making their truck look all hardcore and off-road capable, then when they sell it, they talk about how little they actually used it. My truck really hasn't spent much time off road and all the time it has spent on a racetrack has been on road courses, usually doing car to car photography with me hanging out the back end. It has spent a lot of time towing and tows very well and has a range that exceeds my bladder.

The DVD player still works and I've never regretted ordering the second row captains chairs, which turned out to be a highly-coveted option. The lock on the back hatch doesn't work anymore and the front passenger door latch sticks a little from Rhino liner overspray. The side mirrors have been hit at least once each, but the mirrors themselves are functional and intact, just some of the plastic molding has been broken off. U-joints have been recently replaced...again, same with ball joints. and probably some of the other typical wear and tear items.

The worst accident it's ever been in was when it was parked in my driveway and my neighbor forgot to chock the wheels on his utility trailer. It rolled across the street and my shackle mount punched a hole in his trailer and his trailer scraped some of my Rhino liner off. He offered to pay to repair it, but I knew he'd freak if he found out how much it cost to re-spray and color match bedliner (the places in Wisconsin wanted to charge me 3x as much). I didn't want to start off a relationship with my neighbor on a sour note, so I just let it slide. The Road Rhino bumpers are super-heavy and have some surface rust on them, but they'll probably outlast the rest of the truck.

The back-up sensors still worked when the stock bumper was removed and Road Rhino doesn't offer much in the way of mounting hardware with their bumpers, so I ordered LED lights for the rear plate, except when I thought I had ordered a pair, I only ordered one, so I had to order another. I still have it in the bag, just never got around to installing it. I also have a winch roller fairlead mounted on the front, so I could put a license plate on the winch roller fairlead. Problem is, I have really cool vanity plates and someone stole the plate off the front of the truck along with the mounting plate. I haven't gotten a new license plate yet and now I probably won't, but I did get a new mounting plate.

I'm sure I forgot some other stuff about the truck, but it's ready to start up and drive you anywhere. I won't add up the cost of the modifications or bullet-proofing a 6.0 in some effort to justify the minimum bid, but I would encourage you to comparison shop if you are concerned about the value. If you buy another 6.0 that isn't bullet-proofed, that should be the first thing you do to it. If you think a 7.3 is a better option, research the shortcomings of that transmission. I've had friends replace the transmission on their unmodified 7.3 Excursions at less than 100,000-mile intervals. The head bolts on the 6.0 can be problematic, but I've never had head bolt/head gasket issues on this truck, because I never beat on it and didn't turn up the boost to ridiculous levels.
When I modified the vehicle, I did it not with the intent to chase a horsepower/torque number, but to increase the lifespan of the truck, shooting for 400,000 miles. All maintenance was performed regularly and you can pull up the vehicle history at any Ford dealership, as most of the work was either done by Ford technicians or at Wild Rides in Racine, Wisconsin, who is also familiar with the truck. I knew they weren't making Excursions anymore and if you want a full-sized diesel SUV with a suspension that is beefier than a half-ton, these are the newest trucks available.
The truck is for sale locally and I reserve the right to end the auction early. Thanks for looking and reading all of this. If you have additional questions or would like specific photos, please don't hesitate to ask.