Ford Excursion Update : General Grabber Tire Reveiw

When my 2002 Ford Excursion Limited with a 7.3L diesel motor was new to me, the shoes it was wearing were a set of 285/75-18 Toyo M/T tires.  I've never had a vehicle with tires this large.  They were pretty used up at the time and I new they'd need to be replaced sooner than later.  To Toyo's credit, the tires lasted  far longer than I ever imaged they would.  In addition, they drove better on the daily commute of 32 miles than I expected.  When snow hit the area where I live, I had no choice but to drive the Toyo's through the snow covered streets and they performed really quite well, given they were 85% done.  With the center tread mostly gone, hitting any standing water on the road presented a white knuckle moment. The only real issue that I have with the Toyo's is the noise they generate on the freeways.  The howling is quite significant. Obviously with a heavy vehicle and a diesel motor capable of generating significant noise, this isn't a quiet vehicle but the howling of the tires is annoying.

I began researching tires to replace the Toyo's.  My first thought was to replace the tires with an all terrain tire of the same size.   The search proved difficult since there are very very few choices for similar sized tires that have a load rating capable of dealing with this large head vehicle.  The load rating needed for this vehicle is E. 

Load Range	Ply Rating
A	2
B	4
C	6
D	8
E	10
F	12
G	14
H	16
J	18
L	20
M	22
N	24

 Many larger tires are delivered using the alternative load index shown below.  

Code	Weight		Code	Weight		Code	Weight		Code	Weight
60	250 kg (550 lb)		80	450 kg (990 lb)		100	800 kg (1,800 lb)		120	1,400 kg (3,100 lb)
61	257 kg (567 lb)		81	462 kg (1,019 lb)		101	825 kg (1,819 lb)		121	1,450 kg (3,200 lb)
62	265 kg (584 lb)		82	475 kg (1,047 lb)		102	850 kg (1,870 lb)		122	1,500 kg (3,300 lb)
63	272 kg (600 lb)		83	487 kg (1,074 lb)		103	875 kg (1,929 lb)		123	1,550 kg (3,420 lb)
64	280 kg (620 lb)		84	500 kg (1,100 lb)		104	900 kg (2,000 lb)		124	1,600 kg (3,500 lb)
65	290 kg (640 lb)		85	515 kg (1,135 lb)		105	925 kg (2,039 lb)		125	1,650 kg (3,640 lb)
66	300 kg (660 lb)		86	530 kg (1,170 lb)		106	950 kg (2,090 lb)
67	307 kg (677 lb)		87	545 kg (1,202 lb)		107	975 kg (2,150 lb)
68	315 kg (694 lb)		88	560 kg (1,230 lb)		108	1,000 kg (2,200 lb)
69	325 kg (717 lb)		89	580 kg (1,280 lb)		109	1,030 kg (2,270 lb)
70	335 kg (739 lb)		90	600 kg (1,300 lb)		110	1,060 kg (2,340 lb)
71	345 kg (761 lb)		91	615 kg (1,356 lb)		111	1,090 kg (2,400 lb)
72	355 kg (783 lb)		92	630 kg (1,390 lb)		112	1,120 kg (2,470 lb)
73	365 kg (805 lb)		93	650 kg (1,430 lb)		113	1,150 kg (2,540 lb)
74	375 kg (827 lb)		94	670 kg (1,480 lb)		114	1,180 kg (2,600 lb)
75	387 kg (853 lb)		95	690 kg (1,520 lb)		115	1,215 kg (2,679 lb)
76	400 kg (880 lb)		96	710 kg (1,570 lb)		116	1,250 kg (2,760 lb)
77	412 kg (908 lb)		97	730 kg (1,610 lb)		117	1,285 kg (2,833 lb)
78	425 kg (937 lb)		98	750 kg (1,650 lb)		118	1,320 kg (2,910 lb)
79	437 kg (963 lb)		99	775 kg (1,709 lb)		119	1,360 kg (3,000 lb)

Many of the options I found were not rated high enough to support the load and capacity of my truck.  I visited the Les Schwab store in Wilsonville Oregon during their big Fall tire sale.  The previous time I visited the store I was told that the best price on large Toyo's was during that sale.  The quote for a set of 4 Toyo ATII tires was outrageous.  My next visit was to America's tire in Wilsonville Oregon.  A.J. helped looking up a series of options to address the load problem and noise problem.  It boiled down to two choice:

• General Grabber - 35 x 12.50 R18
• BF Goodrich All-Terrain T/A KO LT325/65R18/E 127 R

I've had a set of BFG TK's before and found them to be amazing tires.  The set I had on my previous Ford Excursion were siped before they were installed.  The total miles I got out of this set of tires was horrible.  I attribute this to the fact that a vehicle this heavy should not have siped tires.  As you can see from the 127 weight rating, this large set of BFG's would more than handle my Truck.  The other option, General Grabber's, are more traditional looking M/T tire.  The General Tire provides a look and capability that is more in line with a lifted 4WD Excursion.  The design of the tire is such that typical road noise is greatly reduced. 

Review So Far

After two days of driving, my one word review is amazing.

Why?  First, driving down the road (pavement) at 35-45 mph, there is no noticeable road noise.  Driving down the freeway at 60-75 mph there is very little whining from the tires.  The tires drive very smooth.  They probably need a little more air.  The initial installation pressure was 50 psi.  I believe I'll settle on 60psi rear and 55psi front. Yesterday, on the drive home from work, the rain was falling and the location just before getting on the freeway where there is a large puddle of standing water was just ahead.  With the old used Toyo tires I'd avoid this water.  This time I accelerated through the deepest section of the puddle and nothing.  No feeling of instability and very little side splash - the tires seemed to simply pump the water right through. 

When I get the chance to drive off road, I'll provide additional data.

Car Stereo Story

Last December our beloved 2003 Ford Excursion, Eddie Bauer Model, came to a sudden end.  I was driving home from work, sitting in traffic on I-5 northbound rolling at about 2-3 mph, when a Toyota Tacoma pickup struck directly from behind going 55 to 60 mph.  It was an intense experience for which I'm still recovering.  It took a few weeks to disassemble the SUV enough to figure out how bad the damage was.  From the outside, it didn't look that bad, but upon thorough inspection the SUV was seriously damaged.  They eventually declared the vehicle a total loss.  Determining how much the vehicle was worth was a burdensome journey through insurance purgatory.

For the next 5-1/2 months we searched all over the western united states to locate a comparable replacement Excursion.  Finding an Excursion with a 7.3l Powerstroke Diesel motor that wasn't insanely overpriced or didn't have 220,000 miles is more of a challenge than you imagine.   Eventually we located a 2002 Ford Excursion Limited with a number of after market options we would probably never pursued.  Initially we were cautiously excited - how did we get to find this specific vehicle at  this specific price.  The reports were clean and the vehicle drove like you would expect.  We made and offer, it was accepted, and picked up the vehicle the following day after retrieving our funds to complete the transaction.
After the purchase we had the vehicle completely inspected and reviewed at Electronic Injector Services in Sherwood Oregon.  This place is an exceptional service center and source of knowledge about all things "diesel."  There were a few things they identified, all related to what happens to these vehicles after they reach 115,000 miles - about 1/3 of their life if well maintained.  Shortly after this, we had the front brakes replaced and they I drove to Cottonwood California towing a tandem axle trailer to pickup my daughter's jeep.  The total weight of the trailer, 92' Jeep Cherokee and contents of the Jeep easily exceeded 6000 pounds and the "new to us" Excursion was amazing.

Now that the journey to find a replacement was done the next goal was to replace the 11 year old factory audio system with something current.  We drove a number of current model year Suburban's, didn't like them, but admired the electronics included in the LTZ package.  With this in mind we started shopping for a head unit that would provide similar capabilities.  The features required were:

• Bluetooth phone with effective noise management
• Bluetooth audio
• GPS navigation
• Satellite radio
• HD radio
• IPod interface

Entry in to this market for current products is not cheap.  After several weeks and several trips to Car Toys,

we decided upon a Kenwood DNX690HD.  It had all of the features found in the list above and was relatively close to what we were hoping to spend.  The features of the unit are truly exceptional.  The user interface is very well designed and organized.  It is easy to navigate from one function to another.  The context nature of the touch screen interface is very nice.  The audio output seems quite good as well.  After nearly 3-4 weeks of use this unit it was time to address the problems:

• POST - Power on self test
• iPod audio drop
• Bluetooth phone connection time
• Bluetooth phone interaction

Every time you turn the unit on, it takes an incredibly long time for the unit to reach the point of operation.  I realize it is a complicated unit, has lots of capabilities, but 20-30 seconds to get to the point of radio output seems extreme.

The iPod user interface is the best I've ever seen.  It is intuitive and the hierarchical search capability really makes it easy to navigate a large music collection with ease.  The problem is that once it starts playing music, it will eventually stop producing audio.  The interface indicates the iPod is operating correctly, the song is continuing to play, and it's possible to select another song, album or play list.  The only problem is that no sound is produced.  The only way to correct the problem is to power off the unit.  Since there is no power button, this requires stopping the car, turning off the ignition and opening the door.  Not particular easy to do on a long road trip or safely at an intersection.

The Bluetooth interface Kenwood selected/implemented on this unit is horrible.  On my daily commute to work I put my phone on the cup holder in the truck (Bluetooth mode already enabled as it is all the time) and start the ignition.  About the time I'm a mile from home (in a neighbor hood setting that is 25 mph) I notice the phone is still not synced to the head unit. By the next mile, it appears to be ready to use and is so I open the recent call history data to select a number and call home to ask my wife a question.  That works pretty

well.  After the conversation I hang up and drive some more.  I realize there is one more topic we needed to discuss and I open the recent call history again..  This time it's not there but there is a button to indicate a "download" request.  After trying that several times and never having it work I pick up the phone and navigate to my dial shortcuts and press the icon which is a picture of my house.

After having enough of this I took the vehicle back to Car Toys.  The initial response was to offer to update the firmware.  I indicated that had already been done.    Chris the installer suggested getting rid of the Kenwood and selecting this unit. After some time, they offered to swap the unit out for a Pioneer AVIC-X950PH.

 There was a small differential cost in this swap but well worth it:

• POST - Power on self test - approximately 8 seconds
• Bluetooth connect - 4-5 seconds after the above
• Audio output far more crisp and powerful

After getting the Kenwood unit installed, I replaced the 4 door speakers with some Kenwood 3 way speakers which sounded much better.  The Pioneer AVIC-X950PH really shows the range and capability of the new speakers.  Included with Pioneer I had them add the wiring so when I have time and resources I can add a sub-woofer without have to pull the dash.

The user interface for the Pioneer unit isn't quite as nice as the Kenwood.  It gets you to everything you need but isn't as visually appealing.  The equalizer control from the Pioneer is really nice.  There are several predefined profiles as well as two user defined profiles and they are easy to get to in any of the audio modes.  

The conclusion to this discussion is that the vehicle now has an audio/video system that works exceedingly well.  Car Toys did the right thing and sent us away happy with our 5th system installed and working well.

UPDATE: 2013-09-03 - This system is absolutely amazing.  I've made a few calls to Pioneer support to get questions answered and they have been awesome.  Since I've had more time to become familiar with this unit I can report that the Ipod search/interface is fantastic.

Ford Excursion/F250 Steering Story Conclusion

In my previous post about my 2003 Ford Excursion with 7.3L diesel motor I talked about the poor handling of the vehicle due to steering problems.  After getting the front sway-bar links replaced with high quality Moog parts the situation did improve a little and for a while.  The problem seemed to be degenerating though and eventually the vehicle became a job to drive.  We headed up the Ape Caves on the South side of Mt. St. Helen's and the drive along the two lane Lewis River highway was exhausting.  The slightest glance at the scenery resulted in a shift in direction which required immediate response.  I read an article on a Ford owners blog which described one possible action was to check the pressure in the tires.  The last several sets of tires I've run on this rig have been inflated to 55PSI in the rear and50PSI in the front.  This has been the standard.  I attempted to check the pressure at home and none of my tire gauges would work.  It seem obvious that the pressure in the tires was considerably higher than I've usually run them.  I stopped by Discount Tires on the way to work and had them check the pressure - 75 rear and 70 front!  Every tire install in the past involved them asking me what to set the pressure but this time it didn't happen and I didn't give it a thought - I should have.  I had them lower the pressure to 55 rear and 50 front.  Immediate the car drove a bit better but still had excessive play in the steering column.  If you sat in the car with the motor off and no music playing you could hear to interesting noises as you run the wheel back and force from left to right.

TIE ROD END

TRACK BAR

I made an appointment at my favorite car place, Advanced Automotive in Tualatin Oregon, to have the situation assessed.  When I dropped off the they gave me a ride to my place of work using my car and immediately I told "this steering is like a carnival ride - changing directions unexpectedly."  I was so used to it that I didn't really think it was that bad - just tiring to drive.  After inspecting the steering they replaced the tie rod end at the pitman arm and the other longer tie rod.  Both apparently were unbelievably loose.  The car is finally nice to drive again.  There is a tiny amount of play left in the steering column that I'd like to be rid of but the cost is probably not worth the benefit in performance.  We drove to the beach a few days ago and the big SUV handled great - no complaints and no exhaustion.

Sway Bar Links on 2003 Ford Excursion

Several months ago I had a new set of tires (Faulken Rocky Mountain AT) installed on my 2003 Ford Excursion with a 7.3L diesel motor.  As a matter of course, I usually get the alignment checked and corrected when I install new tires.  This time was no different and I drove straight from the tire install to my favorite repair shop (Advanced Automotive) to get the alignment done.  When I went to pick up the car I was told that my sway bar links were badly worn and needed to be replaced.  In addition, I was told that the front u-joints were in need of repair as well.  None of this is terribly surprising, the vehicle has over 128,000 miles on it and running gear is bound to suffer after high mileage.

While driving the vehicle for the next couple of weeks I noticed that the new tires didn't help improve the tracking of the vehicle.  Neither did the result of getting the alignment adjusted back to specification.  I started researching what impact bad sway bar links would have on vehicle handling and discovered that much of what I thought was being caused by the tires and alignment had nothing to do with either one.  Ever time I changed lanes, running through the normal groves and berms in road way the car would lurch in the same direction as the body leaned through the change in road surface.  All of this seems to be related to the fact that the sway bar links were worn out.  I ended up buying a set of Moog sway bar links (left,right) and having them installed by Advanced Automotive.  These new sway bar links are an order of magnitude better design than the original Ford sway bar links.  Each end of the link is a proper ball joint with Zerk fittings to keep them properly lubricated.  The technician put the Ford factory sway bar links in the boxes and set them in the back seat so I could see them.  It's no wonder handling was poor - the sway bar links were completely trashed.

The truck handles so much better now that it doesn't wonder due to body sway.  In addition, the noises from the front end when hitting normal bumps and transitions is gone.  I should have moved on this much sooner.  I'm thinking of getting the rear links replaced as well since I have no plans on getting rid of this truck any time soon.