Meet Fezzick

I bought Fezzick last month.

2001 Ford Excursion XLT, 7.3 liter diesel, 4WD

The largest SUV ever built, he weighs 4 and a half tons empty.

I’ve needed a new vehicle since my son was born, as my F-150 only has three seats and now I couldn’t carry the whole family. The pickup was headed toward a catastrophic end, so my truck shopping kicked into high gear in the past few months.

I was originally looking for a truck with four doors and an eight foot bed, but all the ones I could find were either complete beaters, or priced out of my reach.

I then started looking at SUVs with decent towing capacity. I figured I could buy a 4×8 or 5×10 trailer for the yurt and Home Depot runs. We’re planning on getting a travel trailer in a few years, and I don’t want to have to shop for a new truck again that soon, so I was trying to find something with at least a 7,000 pound towing capacity.

Eventually my internet shopping lead me to the behemoth from Dearborn. From the tailgate to the rear of the front seats is eight and a half feet. The towing capacity is 12,000 pounds. There is comfortable seating for eight. Seriously, grown men can sit in the third row. With the diesel engine, the Excursion gets about 15mpg, according to my calculations, or, about the same as the F-150 being replaced. The 44 gallon fuel tank gives me enough range to get to Chicago on a single tank

When I brought it home, my son immediately fell in love with “Daddy’s Monster Truck”

Being a 2001 truck, there are a lot of modern features that weren’t available when Fezzick rolled off the assembly line. No Bluetooth, but I have a cassette deck. (Anyone have any tapes I can borrow?) Being 17 years old, there are a number of things that need repairing (rear wiper, who needs that anyway?). Additionally at least one of the previous owners was a complete knucklehead. I’ll need to correct his “improvements “. I’ll be documenting the progress on all three of these fronts here.

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