Conversely, when you see a deal, grab it!
I’m a child of the eighties and as such, nothing looks more bad-ass to me than A LOT of cool switches. (Have you ever seen the space shuttle cockpit?)
At the same time, nothing looks worse than a mish-mash of unaligned switches of different styles.
Luckily, the lazy engineers in Dearborn came to my rescue.
It’s not hard to see that Ford reuses many components across models. Why design 10 rear view mirror controls, when you can make one fit into 10 different vehicles?
The lower dash panel from an F-650 fits directly into place in the Excursion.
This panel is designed for the upfitter market. Ford doesn’t actually build dump trucks and the like. They sell cab and chassis trucks to other companies who attach the working bodies. Ford gives them a convenient and consistent way to mount all the controls needed.
In my case, I know some auxiliary lighting, a trailer brake controller and and air compressor controller need to get mounted. Who knows what else I’ll think of.
I’ve been on the fence about buying one of these panels or building my own panel.
Building my own would give me the flexibility to make a truly custom panel that fit my needs. And when I make changes, I would be able to build a new one so it never looked unfinished. It would also present the challenges of figuring out how to mount it
Buying this panel makes it easier to mount, but it will look like everyone else’s panel. Also, I’m going to have a lot of dead space until The world’s slowest build is completed.
I had just convinced myself to build my own panel when a member of the Excursion Owners Club offered a panel and eight switches for really good price. I jumped on the offer and was the first one.
When it’s completed, it will look like a factory install. It’s going to look ridiculous though when the only thing installed is a trailer brake controller and a bunch of switches connected to nothing.
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Modern Anachronist 