I've done this swap 4 times on 99-04 super duties. Turning is better. Stopping is better. Bearings are bigger. Flex is better and custom suspension work is easier. It's better in every way and in my opinion the single best mod to do to the older trucks.
I’m with ya… flex is not better with the stock ford control arms tho… stock leafs flex better than them side to side. But with a simple arm swap you’ll get tons of flex out of this front end😎
I've been watching your videos for a future excursion purchase. Thank you for all your help. I heard you mention sterling axles. I proud helped meke thousands of sterling axles and Livonia transmissions
Brakes depend on what the axles came from. F350 I believe had bigger brakes than F250s at least 05 and 06. That's all 'I Think' but i had an 05 F350 and brakes were definitely bigger than my 01 F250 and 00 Ex. I eventually plan on coil swap for my Ex, and I already did the front pearch relocation and 2011 F250 rear leafs. I think 2011 was the year for the rear sensor issues.
Ya they removed the tone ring and center speedometer sensor in 11 I believe, it can be modified to work but, much more work. Ya I'm not sure, but to the eye and tape measure they don't seem bigger. I just wanted folks to know that's not the main reason to do the swap.
@@Geeks4x4 That's why I mentioned. I think your axles you mention came from an '05 F250. Those are not the bigger brakes that are an upgrade. If you are looking for the bigger brakes, you need to look for the ones that have them. My '05 F350 had bigger brakes than an '06 F250 I worked on.
@@Geeks4x4 I may have been mistaken. Searching the actual parts, it seems the F250 and F350 brakes are the same through 2010. The rotors are slightly bigger (Front 347mm vs. 331mm, Rear 340mm vs. 325.9mm) than the leaf spring versions, but they have different master cylinders. I'm assuming that's where the better braking power comes from. Looks like they have metric fittings on the 05+. I don't know piston sizes in the calipers to know differences there.
I know this is an older video BUT I am buying a 2000 ex and I do not do any off roading. It’s a towing rig and kid hauler. Would you recommend sticking with the leafs or doing coils? I am towing a roughly 8500 lbs camper during the spring and summer. Goal is to make the ride as good as I can while keeping my towing capacity up there. Did plan on adding bags to the rear to help keep things level as well. Would love to hear your take on it! Thanks!
Congrats on joining the ex family! Here’s my take, this is not a necessary mod but the truck does drive and ride better with it. I don’t feel like this one wandered or needs steering correction near as much as my leaf sprung 7.3 ex. Plus the turning radius is a huge upgrade for towing. You’ll want to upgrade to superduty springs either way, check out my playlist on suspension upgrades I did to my white truck. There isn’t a plain and clear answer on this but I can say this is worth doing but not needed for every build.
my 2004 Excursion has Dana 60 axle up front with coil springs and a Fabtech lift and Bilstein 5100 shocks and it rides so much better than stock.And ys the turning radius is much better too.
Hey I own a 2000 ford excursion and my front leaf springs are no long smiles I’m wondering if it’d be worth it to invest more into a coil over to keep my leaf spring from going on im fairly rough in my truck but it’s a daily that I use to off-road every now and then
It’s a full axle replacement, so it’s a lot cheaper to buy upgraded superduty springs (c,v,x codes) but ya coil swapping is a solid option that improves ride and turning radius
I had already done a shackle flip, My center hub to fender measurement is 25" front and rear. you can measure yours and I bet you may find I was about an inch higher in the rear then stock. 1.5 in the front
So... Stupid question, but maybe you know... I have an '03 2wd Ex. It's already coil spring setup because all 2wd models were. Do I need the coil buckets from a 4wd swapped in or will my 2wd coil buckets be large enough? And before anybody says "just buy a 4wd Excursion and save the money", I know what I have in my current Ex. It's a good truck. Even if I did buy a 4wd I'd still want the coil swapped front end, so why couldn't it be done to a 2wd model maybe even easier because the coil buckets are already in place...
There are no stupid questions here! But take what I say with a grain of salt because I have never personally owned a 2wd... What I have heard if that your factory coil buckets are lower than the 4x4 ones (email me lets measure once and for all Geeks4x4@gmail.com) I believe your control arm mounts work, still going to need track bar mount. Unsure of just about everything else for a 2wd....
The PMF website seems to allow just about any F250-350 axles for the swap? I was readimg there is a factory rear e-locker around 2013 and up. The only issue seems to be modifying the tone ring for the speed sensor?
yup your correct, you can pretty much swap any of the axles in, but the easiest electronic wise is the 05-07. I was lucky enough to find a set with in those years. I cant remember exactly but I believe that something in the abs is different for the front on the 08+ too. I would have loved to find that E locker rear!
Thank you for the video. Just want to be sure im understanding. If i want to swap the front axle for the purpose of after market coilovers for ride quality and turning radius, then i need to put wheel spacers in the rear to match the wheel width, or swap the rear axle to a similar year?
@Geeks4x4 I guess the best place to do that is junk yards? If so is there a particular year truck I'm looking for? Obviously a 4x4 truck so I can keep my 4 wheel drive
@@TruthSee-Ker I found my set on FB market place, but ya junkyards or people parting out wrecked trucks. Your looking for an 05-07 The 08+ do work but they changed something in the rear axle I have heard that makes it harder to set up the speedometer.
@@Geeks4x4 I love it 😂 I’m actually looking at a sweet excursion v10 right now, but the mileage is the only thing I’m debating on. It’s been well maintained and has plenty of replacement parts installed so I’m sure it’s fine, but 217k is steep. The diesel just doesn’t work for my lifestyle and short trips, and I couldn’t afford the maintenance
@@blown70charger99 awesome man, these v10’s are very good motors, if the price is right that mileage really isn’t that bad, guys with well maintained ones are pushing 400k. I totally understand the diesel, and honestly if I were buying one today I’d be looking at the v10 because you can buy a better lower mile truck for less money. But I love my white 7.3. This is the v10 and its impressive
Their custom, with a kind of boat side to bring them way up, here's a link to the build _ ruclips.net/p/PLgzp5MRo9ZDa-cR8sUEv8ACK3V13WX5X1 There a few videos that reference boatsides and sliders that you'll want to check out.
I've done this swap 4 times on 99-04 super duties. Turning is better. Stopping is better. Bearings are bigger. Flex is better and custom suspension work is easier. It's better in every way and in my opinion the single best mod to do to the older trucks.
I’m with ya… flex is not better with the stock ford control arms tho… stock leafs flex better than them side to side. But with a simple arm swap you’ll get tons of flex out of this front end😎
I've been watching your videos for a future excursion purchase. Thank you for all your help. I heard you mention sterling axles. I proud helped meke thousands of sterling axles and Livonia transmissions
That’s awesome man! Yessir we use the 05-07 axles to swap, the excursion comes with a sterling but the 05 is a bit wider so full swap😎
I’m in research phase for this build and this was very helpful.
So glad to help! I believe the swap is worth the work!
Brakes depend on what the axles came from. F350 I believe had bigger brakes than F250s at least 05 and 06. That's all 'I Think' but i had an 05 F350 and brakes were definitely bigger than my 01 F250 and 00 Ex.
I eventually plan on coil swap for my Ex, and I already did the front pearch relocation and 2011 F250 rear leafs.
I think 2011 was the year for the rear sensor issues.
Ya they removed the tone ring and center speedometer sensor in 11 I believe, it can be modified to work but, much more work. Ya I'm not sure, but to the eye and tape measure they don't seem bigger. I just wanted folks to know that's not the main reason to do the swap.
@@Geeks4x4 That's why I mentioned. I think your axles you mention came from an '05 F250. Those are not the bigger brakes that are an upgrade. If you are looking for the bigger brakes, you need to look for the ones that have them. My '05 F350 had bigger brakes than an '06 F250 I worked on.
@@Jim_LawrenceGreat info to know!
@@Geeks4x4 I may have been mistaken. Searching the actual parts, it seems the F250 and F350 brakes are the same through 2010. The rotors are slightly bigger (Front 347mm vs. 331mm, Rear 340mm vs. 325.9mm) than the leaf spring versions, but they have different master cylinders. I'm assuming that's where the better braking power comes from. Looks like they have metric fittings on the 05+. I don't know piston sizes in the calipers to know differences there.
@@Jim_Lawrence Super interesting, thank you for updating!
I love WHYs lol. Nobody ever says why they just do 😂
Had a friend tell me I hadn’t gone over why I did it so I had to!
I know this is an older video BUT I am buying a 2000 ex and I do not do any off roading. It’s a towing rig and kid hauler. Would you recommend sticking with the leafs or doing coils? I am towing a roughly 8500 lbs camper during the spring and summer. Goal is to make the ride as good as I can while keeping my towing capacity up there. Did plan on adding bags to the rear to help keep things level as well.
Would love to hear your take on it! Thanks!
Congrats on joining the ex family! Here’s my take, this is not a necessary mod but the truck does drive and ride better with it. I don’t feel like this one wandered or needs steering correction near as much as my leaf sprung 7.3 ex. Plus the turning radius is a huge upgrade for towing. You’ll want to upgrade to superduty springs either way, check out my playlist on suspension upgrades I did to my white truck. There isn’t a plain and clear answer on this but I can say this is worth doing but not needed for every build.
Still curious about the why/how of the rear suspension components, specifically shackle flip and stock leafs. Thanks!
Ha! The videos being worked on currently!
my 2004 Excursion has Dana 60 axle up front with coil springs and a Fabtech lift and Bilstein 5100 shocks and it rides so much better than stock.And ys the turning radius is much better too.
Sounds like a nice set up!
Hey I own a 2000 ford excursion and my front leaf springs are no long smiles I’m wondering if it’d be worth it to invest more into a coil over to keep my leaf spring from going on im fairly rough in my truck but it’s a daily that I use to off-road every now and then
It’s a full axle replacement, so it’s a lot cheaper to buy upgraded superduty springs (c,v,x codes) but ya coil swapping is a solid option that improves ride and turning radius
Did you lift the rear ended when you swapped the coils or is this stock excursion leaf springs?
I had already done a shackle flip, My center hub to fender measurement is 25" front and rear. you can measure yours and I bet you may find I was about an inch higher in the rear then stock. 1.5 in the front
So... Stupid question, but maybe you know... I have an '03 2wd Ex. It's already coil spring setup because all 2wd models were. Do I need the coil buckets from a 4wd swapped in or will my 2wd coil buckets be large enough? And before anybody says "just buy a 4wd Excursion and save the money", I know what I have in my current Ex. It's a good truck. Even if I did buy a 4wd I'd still want the coil swapped front end, so why couldn't it be done to a 2wd model maybe even easier because the coil buckets are already in place...
There are no stupid questions here! But take what I say with a grain of salt because I have never personally owned a 2wd... What I have heard if that your factory coil buckets are lower than the 4x4 ones (email me lets measure once and for all Geeks4x4@gmail.com) I believe your control arm mounts work, still going to need track bar mount. Unsure of just about everything else for a 2wd....
How much tighter is the steering after doing the axle swap
Now that I have the ball joints fixed night and day…. With 40’s vs 33’s
The PMF website seems to allow just about any F250-350 axles for the swap? I was readimg there is a factory rear e-locker around 2013 and up. The only issue seems to be modifying the tone ring for the speed sensor?
yup your correct, you can pretty much swap any of the axles in, but the easiest electronic wise is the 05-07. I was lucky enough to find a set with in those years. I cant remember exactly but I believe that something in the abs is different for the front on the 08+ too. I would have loved to find that E locker rear!
Hey what ever happened to the Escape hybrid? there was like 1 or two vids and just about suspension.
That's all I had to do with it, my mother in law is daily driving it currently. But it'll be my commuter when they find the right car for her.
Thank you for the video. Just want to be sure im understanding. If i want to swap the front axle for the purpose of after market coilovers for ride quality and turning radius, then i need to put wheel spacers in the rear to match the wheel width, or swap the rear axle to a similar year?
Yup you have it correct! If you can find a full set that would be the way I'd do it (did it) the rear axle was the easiest part of the swap.
@Geeks4x4 I guess the best place to do that is junk yards? If so is there a particular year truck I'm looking for? Obviously a 4x4 truck so I can keep my 4 wheel drive
@@TruthSee-Ker I found my set on FB market place, but ya junkyards or people parting out wrecked trucks. Your looking for an 05-07 The 08+ do work but they changed something in the rear axle I have heard that makes it harder to set up the speedometer.
@@Geeks4x4 awesome thank you!
Glad to know my videos are helping someone!
Why did you “bob” it? It looks kinda wrong to me but I’m sure you have a reason
Hugely improved departure angle. And wanted to build something very different.
@@Geeks4x4 fair enough, makes sense!
@@blown70charger99 it’s goofy looking and the more you stare the better it gets imo🤪
@@Geeks4x4 I love it 😂 I’m actually looking at a sweet excursion v10 right now, but the mileage is the only thing I’m debating on. It’s been well maintained and has plenty of replacement parts installed so I’m sure it’s fine, but 217k is steep. The diesel just doesn’t work for my lifestyle and short trips, and I couldn’t afford the maintenance
@@blown70charger99 awesome man, these v10’s are very good motors, if the price is right that mileage really isn’t that bad, guys with well maintained ones are pushing 400k. I totally understand the diesel, and honestly if I were buying one today I’d be looking at the v10 because you can buy a better lower mile truck for less money. But I love my white 7.3. This is the v10 and its impressive
What sliders are on that thing?
Their custom, with a kind of boat side to bring them way up, here's a link to the build _ ruclips.net/p/PLgzp5MRo9ZDa-cR8sUEv8ACK3V13WX5X1 There a few videos that reference boatsides and sliders that you'll want to check out.
so the 05 ex's all come with d60's stock?
Negative, the excursion never got factory coils/dana 60. it had the dana 50 and leaf springs its entire run.