Experienced as in trained to drive multi-ton US Army trucks over any terrain or someone who has lots of miles in other large civilian vehicles? There's a large different between the two. Excursions for into the US Army truck category better than the civilian vehicle category.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Put a PowerPC "sticker" on my mom's car... hopefully she won't mind
- Thread starter PowerMac G4 MDD
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Not exactly, considering that they are considered SUVs. A van is even larger than that, yet vans fall more into the civilian/commercial category. That isn't to say that vans are only used as civilian/commercial vehicles, but they are more of that type. And a van or pickup definitely outranks an SUV in terms of heavy duty vehicles.
While they were marketed as an SUV, Excursions weren't typical run of the mill SUVs, those are Explorers and Suburbans. Excursions were built from the F250 chassis, not an upscaled station wagon or light truck. Because of this, their body was a F250 truck with a built in non-removable cap. They're much more dense and heavy and a typical van or F250 it was derived from. Because of this extra weight and overly powerful power train, most civilian vehicles are not of a similar class rating. The best possible learning experience for learning how to properly drive one, is either US boot camp or EMS training.
On a related note - the Excursion weighs so much (over 3.5t) that in the UK it would be classed as a Heavy Goods Vehicle and would be subject to lower speed limits and require a commercial vehicles license...
Definately not a Sport Utility Vehicle.
Definately not a Sport Utility Vehicle.
The first time I drove a car by my self was when I was 9 or 10 and I pulled my mom's 2004 Honda Pilot out of my Grandpa's driveway onto the street, in reverse. My uncle was in the passenger seat and made sure i didn't hit into anything, but i did the pedals and steering wheel. (I probably sound pathetic, lol) The honda will most likely be my first car, and it is in beautiful shape for 11 years old. Drives perfectly, just got new brake disks and tires. It's only issue is the the subwoofer in the back is broken, but I will be fixing that with my dad sooner or later
Even more amazing is their exceptional fuel economy, getting 32 MPG in the city makes it seem like a compact car...
Mainly around my neighborhood, but since I have a learner's permit I can drive just about anywhere with my parents in the car. And honestly, I'm really happy you know what a '3 on the tree' is. Thats still the only car I feel extremely comfortable driving. I feel fine in my parents, but there is something about that truck that makes me much more relaxed. Fun story, a while back we converted it from a 6V system to a 12V with an alternator, but we didn't upgrade the horn, it is ridiculously loud. We were testing the alternator at night by driving around town, and a little Camry tried to cut us of-*HONK*. nope nope nope said the little Camry, as it went 2 lanes over.
I'm trying to upload a video of the horn, cause its VERY loud.
This is the truck running, stopping, starting.
Even more amazing is their exceptional fuel economy, getting 32 MPG in the city makes it seem like a compact car...
I think you're being sarcastic here. But if not, how did you get an Excursion up to 32 MPG in the city? I don't even think it'll idle that low. Or are you measuring it at meters per gallon?
True, they are definitely not typical SUVs... however, I hope you are not implying that my family was incapable of properly driving such a vehicle. No matter what your training is, if you have to unexpectedly slam on your brakes, swerving is going to happen. No, we didn't go off the road or out of our lane, but it caused the truck to momentarily weave left and right.
That's interesting that you feel comfortable with such a gear-shifting system as that!
Way to show the Camry who's boss; we once drove up next to a Corolla at a stop light. The two lanes were merging into one, so my brother was going to get ahead of the Corolla next to him. We knew the Corolla wasn't going to want to let us in (jerk L.A. drivers), so my brother floored it once the light turned green---what's funny is that the little Corolla tried to do so but couldn't catch up! xD Tip: If a Honda Accord (from the same era as your car) can beat you in a "drag race", your car is a piece of cr@p
. My favorite car of ours was my dad's 1972 Mercedes 280SE 4.5 liter, which I practically grew up with. He had bought it used in the 1980s; it had a light blue-metallic exterior and dark blue vinyl interior. It was pretty advanced for its time, as it had automatic transmission, electric windows and sunroof, and seat-belts in front and back. If I am not mistaken, the gasoline valve was located behind the rear license plate---I loved that car so much, and have many fond memories of riding in it. From time to time, I would completely detail it with a car wash, a vacuuming, leather cleaner, & Armor All........
sadly it was stolen from right in front of our house in June of 2011. If I were to come face-to-face with whoever defiled it, I would do everything short of killing the b@st@rd.
----------
Luckily Hondas last a century! (minus certain small things).
Nice---what are your future plans for the truck?
(BTW, here is a quick clip of me attempting to drift in our leased Honda Accord. It was my first time doing it, but it felt natural after all the years of drifting on my bike and playing driving games: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPdKjteE9wA).
(BTW, here is a quick clip of me attempting to drift in our leased Honda Accord. It was my first time doing it, but it felt natural after all the years of drifting on my bike and playing driving games: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPdKjteE9wA).
I actually may consider having one of those sticker/vinyl companies create some for me; I don't think I have ever seen a PowerPC sticker in public before. It would be really neat to have one, and maybe some FreeBSD stickers as well.
I have a 98 k1500 ECSB with a 5.7L Vortec 350. Awesome truck, bad mileage! But gas is $2.63 currently so I can fill up for just over $50 from E. Next I hope for is a 99/00 k2500 crew cab short bed but they are kinda rare.
The only sticker I have on my truck that is tech related is a Apple. Well there is a skullcandy too.
The only sticker I have on my truck that is tech related is a Apple. Well there is a skullcandy too.
What's even crazier is that I saw $1.99 gas on our way to Arizona! If I do much driving before I go to college, it will be in our 1996 LandCruiser. Whenever it is I have my own car, I will definitely stick a PPC sticker on the window
.Yeah the Honda really is durable, besides the speaker being broken, the only other things that are broken are the vent covers for the back seat heater/cooler, which my sister and I broke when we were young. Off the top of my head, my parents have had a Mercury Mountaineer, two BMWs (idk what class though), the Pilot, Cadilac CTS, Accura TSX, a BMW 328i, and the most recent car we have is a Cadilac SRX. I went in the order that we got the car, in case anyone was wondering. Also, my dad has a Montie Carlo SS from the 80s sitting in the garage. It needs a lot of work, like 4 new tires and a battery. The roof cover (the cloth thing) is falling out. He also needs to fix the seatbelts because the last time he used it (several years ago) he needed paper clips to keep the belts locked in place. It's a nice maroon color, and I believe it's AM/FM, but don't hold me to that. We are probably going to sell it soon, since all it is doing is collecting dust.
Nice man, totally jelly! Regarding what you said earlier, yeah, I don't know why I'm comfy with that system, I'll have to get used to a again since we are putting one in with a lower gear ratio and over drive, something a bit more modern.
Anyway, right now, the cab is stripped and sitting on the frame. Everything is out and most of the body parts are soda blasted, aside from the cab and frame. Recently, we bought a sandblaster to do the frame, we are still sending the cab to be soda blasted. I should setup the blog I had. We are also getting ready to transplant a 235 Straight Six into it (much like those on a jeep) with two Rochester carbs, vroom. Over 24hrs of work was put into the engine by me, now it is basically brand new, bored, vatted, new crank, new rods/lifters, and new pistons. I even tapped all of the threads before putting new bolts in.
I remember walking up to the parts counter at Autozone and asking for plugs and wires for a '91 Ranger 4-cylinder.
The guy went and got the wires first, brought them out, opened the box and made a really funny face along with some sort of comment that he must have grabbed the wrong box since there were 8 wires in it. I assured him that was correct. He made an even weirder face when he saw that it called for 8 spark plugs.
It took a little bit of an argument to get them to sell me the full set of 8 wires and 8 plugs.
Fortunately, I discovered that Amazon sell car parts, and quit(for the most part) dealing with Autozone and the other parts stores a while ago for everything but emergencies.
Not too long ago my daily driver('04 Lincoln LS) had a bad ignition coil. Since-like most newer cars-it's coil on plug and it's a little bit difficult to access the coils(but not hard to change them once the access panels are off) several other LS owners advised me to go ahead and do all 8 coils along with the spark plugs while I had it apart. Autozone wanted $50 each for ignition coils and $8 each for plugs. I ordered all 8 coils(same brand as Autozone sells) and 8 NGK Platinum Iridium plugs(the OEM plugs, other than the fact that they don't say Motorcraft on them) for about $125 on Amazon.
There's a fun little modification that can be done to the Lima 2.3L and 2.5L engines found in Rangers of that time. Rearrange the spark plug wires to change the firing sequence. Only one or two wires need switched. Only downside is worse emissions. Upsides include slightly more power and fuel economy.
Wow, that's a pretty involved project! Restoring a car sounds really fun, except for all the little parts you have to buy.
It would be fun to get some clunker to do anything you want with. We actually realized that UTVs are rip-offs (or at least just so expensive), so I think I have convinced my dad to just buy some cheap 80s or 90s car as a recreational vehicle. What's funny is that it's more fun to recklessly tear-up the terrain in some cr@ppy 80s/90s car than in some advanced and expensive UTV (by terrain, I mean the place where that drifting video was shot). I'm sure a $1,500 90s car is more worth-it than some $10,000 UTV---at least for that area. I'm trying to find a cheap rear-wheel-drive one for under $2,500...
(I'm his older brother.) What he said about it being so heavy that it swerved wasn't really correct. It was fine until that one time. I remember being in the truck on PCH when we had to stop suddenly. The truck's suspension had been damaged or degraded somehow, causing it to swerve unusually and dangerously when stopping. It was the first time we experienced that problem. It was a fun SUV (if you can call it that), but the Suburban handled a lot better on roads, had a better turning radius, and used less gasoline.
----------
on a related note - the excursion weighs so much (over 3.5t) that in the uk it would be classed as a heavy goods vehicle and would be subject to lower speed limits and require a commercial vehicles license...
Definately not a sport utility vehicle.
LOL, not surprised. That thing was ridiculously big.
Last edited:
We don't have emissions checks here in the Commonwealth, so that part wouldn't have been an issue. More power would have been welcome, as I think the thing was only about 95hp when new, as would have better fuel economy. I was it 2-3 times a week between Frankfort and Louisville(~50 miles each way of interstate driving, plus about another 5 miles of non-interstate) and I think it only ever managed to get into the low to mid 20s. The V8 in my car does better on the same drive. It routinely gets 26-27.
When my dad first bought the truck, the dealer told him that he would need to need a new muffler because the current one "had a hole in it." I rode behind him on the way, and the thing was so loud that it was making the windows in my car rattle. I climbed down and looked at it, and there was no "hole" in the muffler-everything behind the cat was missing! Fortunately, whoever did the work did at least spare the cat, as that would have probably been almost as expensive as the truck to fix. With a new tailpipe and muffler(installed the day after he brought it home from the dealer) it was as quiet as could be.
I recall being the only other passenger in the car when that happened. The story I was describing was (I believe) NOT on PCH. The suspension on ours wasn't bad actually; I have seen many with sagging shocks, but ours was okay. You know that vans do the same thing, right? I am sure the car was affected by age, but it's not uncommon for a heavy vehicle to sway in those circumstances. In fact, it's 'a thing' with vans and other heavy vehicles. I myself have seen vans sway on the freeway.
Hypothetically speaking, if I was completely wrong about the story, it's at LEAST true that Excursions are not particularly safe vehicles. In fact, those big, old Ford SUVs are a little notorious for their safety issues.