Once I cleaned up all four terminals and reconnected the batteries, my baby roared to life.
No more transmission faults.
No more blinking THEFT light while driving to work.
All was good, for about two weeks.
Took the family camping in late September. When it was time to pack up on Sunday, I had no problems staring the Excursion up at the parking lot & driving to our site. After I finished loading up though, was a different story.
Crank, but no start.
This morning we’re discussing next year’s vacation budget, and the wife tells me she wants to go to Disney in Oct 2021.
And she wants to tow the travel trailer (that we don’t yet own) and stay at Fort Wilderness.
That gives me three years to turn the Excursion into a tow monster while saving enough cash to purchase a trailer and fund a two week stay at the Magic Kingdom.
Realistically, I want to buy and be able to tow the trailer in two years so we can do some local shakedown trips.
Luckily, the Excursion left the factory with a 10,000 pound towing capacity.
Let the shopping begin!
Legal jibber-jabber
So the first thing I do when I get a new vehicle is run through the maintenance.
This way I know when the last oil change was done and it gives me a chance to find any sketchy repairs that were done by the PO. I did find some work that was not quite sketchy, but not exactly right either.
When I bought Fessick, he had 220,000 miles on him. The steering wheel looked like the previous owner never washed his hands. It was black & crusty, with only a small area of gray visible on the lower portion of the wheel.
Also, when he rolled off the assembly line, cars weren’t equipped with solar tinted glass. When I get into the truck after work, it’s about 130 degrees in the cabin
Update June 2019
A lawnmower in the box fits behind the third row.
Update May 2019 – according to the fine folks at the Excursion Cult Club on Facebook, an Excursion can carry 21 bales of hay or 220 dozen Krispy Kreme.
It’s insane how large Fessick is.
One evening while returning from dinner at the in-laws’ house, we saw a dresser on the side of the road about a half-mile from our place.
Dropped off the wife & kids. Tossed the car seats in the minivan and returned for the dresser.
I folded the middle row flat and slid the dresser in the back door. So yeah, a dresser, upside down on top of the folded second row.
Our primary tent is a yurt. When it’s packed up, it’s eight feet long. (Our camping set-up is ridiculous, it will be detailed next summer.) The Excursion is big enough that both kids fit, in car seats, on the big side of the middle row. I built a Z-shaped bulkhead that goes from behind the wife’s seat to behind the kids’ all the way to the ceiling.
From bottom- EZ-up, yurt side walls, shelf for roof rafters
Legal jibber-jabber
Birthday party for the oldest last weekend, and we invited over her entire class. I was going to have to cook for a bunch of strangers. Instead of the boring usual dogs and burgers, I chose to make dogs for the kids & smoked chicken thighs for the grown folks
Lately I’ve been smoking chicken thighs for several reasons
Legal jibber-jabber
Earlier I mentioned that the Excursion is far from a modern vehicle.
I, however, am “the very model of a modern major-general”
Not really, I’ve never served. But I do like my modern communications devices. Two things had to be installed, USB ports for charging and a mount to keep my iPhone visible and stable while driving.
Continue reading “Phone install”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.
Modern Anachronist 