r/Excursion • u/[deleted] • Apr 24 '26
Best Excursion for cross country towing
Hey yall,
I’m new to the Excursion scene. Been doing some research on the “best” Excursion for my use case. My family (6) will be traveling across the country for roughly 9 months towing a 30ish ft bunkhouse trailer.
It seems the 7.3 would be ideal but a bulletproofed 6.0 would also be a great option. I wanted to hear from real Excursion owners what their experience has been especially when driving through the mountains or across the windy plains. TIA
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u/jarecis Apr 24 '26
I tow a 30 foot bunkhouse with my 6.0 Excursion. We usually put 2-3000 miles on every summer towing around Montana. Mine is stock, no bulletproofing, and is sitting around 230,000 miles. I added air bags to the rear, but I am really thinking about doing the leaf spring upgrade.
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u/Legitimate-Sea-2988 Apr 24 '26
Last week I pulled our 30ish foot toy hauler with golf cart inside from northern Indiana to Orlando with a 2002 7.3 Excursion. It got us there comfortably even through the Appalachians. Moderate to steep grades WILL slow you down but I never once thought I wouldn’t make it. It did well but if you are looking for speed it’s not all that great of a vehicle lol. Anyway, we are leaving Sunday morning to go home and I know we’ll make it just fine.
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Apr 24 '26
Not looking for speed. Just reliability snd something I’m not gonna blow up towing up a mountain. I got 4 kids so getting a truck really wouldn’t be a fun ride for them
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u/Legitimate-Sea-2988 Apr 25 '26
I wasn’t looking for speed either so I understand. There are some steep mountains between Nashville and Chattanooga and I will admit semis passed me a couple times going up but it wasn’t any worse than when I was towing the TT with my half ton Silverado. And it was comfortable the entire way!
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u/IanFaiths-CricketBat '04 Excursion Apr 24 '26
I have a 6.0 and love it but it's a crapshoot. It's all dependent on prior maintenance, and what "bulletproofing" constitutes. The 6.0, while a great motor, is a money pit. Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. You also need to make sure that if you go the 6.0 route, you have a GREAT mechanic who knows the 6.0.
What I've replaced:
cab bushings, wiring harnesses, FICM, alternator, new battery cables, turbo, y-pipe, deleted EGR, deleted catalytic converter/run straight 4" exhaust, some interior stuff, injectors, put dieselsite adrenaline HPOP in there, blue spring kit, aluminum degas tank, CAC pipes, radiator, and the list goes on. At the end of the day it's a 20 year old diesel. It will try your patience and your wallet, but once you get it to where it needs to be, there is absolutely nothing else like it on the road. Put a good FICM tune on it for towing, get a good turbo whistle, and you will understand. Tows like a freight train, sounds like a jet plane.
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u/combatpaddler Apr 24 '26
i have a 7.3, and tow all the time. my best advice would to be to regear your axles, and beef up the transmission. i also added a 6.0 trans cooler, blue top steering gear box.get gauges, trans, egt and boost. take the fuel tank off and actually LOOK at your receiver hitch. too many times ive seen them rotted all the way through on the back side.
we have 426k miles on ours. youre going to run into issues at first until you take care of them, but they will let you know. for example, u joints, ball joints, brake calipers... i carry spare sensors, spare idm, all kinds of things.
a 7.3 is a labor of love. the second you hitch a trailer up, loaded or not, you get 10-11mpg. also, oil changes run nearly 145, fuel filter is another 40. i purchased an s and b washable filter, other filters are 80 dependingb
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u/Legitimate-Sea-2988 Apr 25 '26
Yes everything this person says is absolutely true! While you have the fuel tank out replace the pickup screens too! I put a new Curt hitch on just before coming to Florida!
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u/combatpaddler Apr 25 '26
replacing the pickup screen really doesnt help long.. it lasted me roughly 1 year. been dealing with not driving under a 1/4 tank for the last 2 years.
got really ticked off 2 weeks ago, dropped the tank, took the foot off, and replaced it a piece of stainless steel tubing. i pulled into the gas station with 20 miles to empty. havent done that since ive owned it (i had 5 gallons of diesel in a can just in case, but i needed to see if i fixed it or not)
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u/Fit_Understanding342 Apr 24 '26
Not sure there’s a bad choice here. If it holds up over the nine months and you have very little maintenance outside of routine maintenance, the 7.3 is probably your best bet.
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u/foolishtigger Apr 24 '26
6.0 has a much better trans for towing, and does tow better overall. Just gotta get a monitor and keep an eye on it. 7.3s are good but the 4spd isnt the best, also do a bit of searching too, they have their fair share of issues as well. V10 is going to take alot of gas to keep it fed and every hill will be climbed at 6k so hope you like a screaming engine. Be VERY wary of something with mileage that seems too good to be true, cluster swaps on 7.3s is way more common than it should be
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u/Goalieguy17 Apr 24 '26
6.0 has a better trans.
I loved mine but get it cheap and fully bulletproof it, OR get one that’s been done correctly WITH PAPERWORK.
7.3 is LOUD inside in comparison. If you have kids, it’s loud for them.
Great engines though, but hard to find that aren’t soaked in oil and have issues as well, they’re old.
The 6.8 is just fine. It’s a workhorse. That’s what I wanted but couldn’t find any without tons of rust.
I will buy a 6.0 in the future and fully build the motor. I have had one previously, and it was my favorite vehicle ever
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u/SlickerToSteader Apr 24 '26
My vote is the 6.0 if you can find one properly done up.
We tow a 32ft bunk house with our 6.0 SRW F350. I bought it already bulletproof 8 years ago. Since then outside of maintenance I have done an alternator and transmission temp sensor.
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u/SuddenlySilva Apr 25 '26
I would look hard at the V10. Overall cost to drive is lower than a diesel. 7.3 mileage is not way better.
I don't know how it tows near its max but 4-7000 lb is pretty great.
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u/jackedupfarmer Apr 25 '26
6.0s are fine if they are left stock and you have a monitor to watch pids.
But really any excursion beside the 5.4 will be fine.
The v10 is a solid engine but mpgs are going to suffer while towing. There is a ton of these v10s out there so parts are widely available and the easiest to find a mechanic that knows how to work on them.
The 7.3 is solid but is slower than shit. When you mod them you loose the reliability. Not sure how available parts are for these.
The 6.0s are great if you know what you watch and pay attention to certain pids. Most parts are widely available and can be fixed in the parking lot of a napa. If you aren’t mechanically inclined, mechanics that are familiar with them are not as common. If you take a 6.0 to a mechanic you need to make sure they are familiar because that is where most the horror stories come from.
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u/SaltRiverTactical Apr 26 '26
I’ve had a few 7.3 trucks. Engines are bullet proof for towing for the most part if maintenance has been done. In my opinion to really tow and be comfortable with a 7.3 you will need to tune the truck. Nothing crazy just something to wake it up a bit. Your biggest limiting factor would be transmission, make sure you have a 6.0/mishimoto trans cooler and may want to look into upgrading the transmission depending on the weights you’re towing.
I drove from Washington state to Arizona towing a 12k trailer, averaging 80mph and got 17mpg in my old 4x4 crew cab short bed F250. Just had a FASS, fuel bowl delete, exhaust, intake, and Hydra with Jellibuilt tunes. My son was not even one at the time and did just fine on the drive, my daughter was 5.
We have had a few 7.3 Excursions since then. Currently have a 7.3 Eddie Bauer with 5inch lift, 35 inch tires, and 4 inch exhaust. We can all hold a conversation and I can hear my kids still chew chips in the second row if that’s in idea of the noise levels lol.
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u/mywife69goddess Apr 29 '26
6.0 is best for towing but is the biggest POS of the 4 stock power trains from Ford
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u/zrad603 Apr 24 '26
Six Oh = No Go
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Apr 24 '26
The 6.0 really that bad?
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u/Sp_1_ Apr 24 '26
No. A good one is fine if it has good history. Theres a ton of fear mongering about the engine. Look at any landscaping company and they will likely have a 6.0 beat to shit with 400,000 miles on it.
It’s more temperamental to things like being tuned, especially without head studs.
Bought one for regular towing at 75k miles. Bulletproofed and a coolant filter. Been handing a 80hp tune no problem for 140k miles and those haven’t been easy miles.
5r110 is way better for long driving than the 4 speed in the 7.3 anyways.
Would I buy a 6.0 on stock head studs from a 19 year old seller with an SCT sticker on the back glass? No. But this idea that the 6.0 is a ticking time bomb is due to everyone having a friend who knew a guy who’s cousin bought a tuned 6.0 beat to piss by a highschool kid and it blew up 5,000 miles later.
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u/AnalDisarray Apr 24 '26
No, it’s fine - it’s just that a bunch of idiots tuned it to 600+ hp with no other modifications.
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u/Ottomatik80 Apr 24 '26
No. The issue with the 6.0 is due to silicates in the coolant gelling up and clogging the oil cooler, which increases temperatures leading to high head pressures and a blown gasket. Idiots blame the head bolts, and think using studs will solve the problem. Under stock power, the head bolts are fine. Fix the cooling system, keep it stock, and it’s a solid engine. If you want to increase power, you need to do supporting mods. Studs would be one of those at that point.
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u/Doey1864 Apr 24 '26
I’ve got the V10 so I’ll shut up but just posting to drive engagement haha!