Suburban 2500…6.0 vs 8.1 vs Excursion V10

mrad wrote:
I have a 2003X with 4.30 gears. My TT is between 10,000 and 10,500 loaded. I also got a 5-star tuner which helped the towing significantly. The V10 does a pretty good job towing the rig. Two years ago we went from Minneapolis to Colorado to Arizona. Could hold 55mph on all hills except loveland pass (down to 45). MPG on that trip varied from 6.8-9.5ish if memory is correct. Overall we averaged mid 7's.

Around town I get 9-10 mpg. I did hit 13.4 mpgs one time on a freeway trip, but it's rare to get over 12mpg. I hand calculate everything and it's always lower than the readout.

You will need to make mods to the X. They did not put heavy springs in the rear. I have a RAS and it does okay with my 1150 tongue weight. I also needed to add teh 6.0L tranmission cooler. With the stock cooler, I was constantly running 195-205 on flat terrain when temps were in the mid 80's and about. Now I rarely see 170.

The ride is nothing to be desired. My wife hates it (our previous tv was a 94 suburban). I have been looking for an 8.1 suburban myself and have wondered what the value of my X would be compared to the suburban. I am guessing the suburban would have a better ride.

The X does pull great, I'm just a little dissapointed in the ride when we are not towing, and the mods that were needed to allow it to tow our TT.

That was my only concern with the Excursion. The ride. The 2wd Ex still uses the twin I-beam front suspension that debuted in the 1966 F100 :).. I did test drive a 4x4 7.3l PSD Excursion.. I wasn't impressed with the suspension it really wondered all over the road. At the time I still had my V10 SuperDuty and my truck handled much better than the Ex and it was much much quicker…I always figured it was just THAT excursion that had some worn parts and what not. And I was not paying 16,500 for a 160k mile limited slow poke 7.3…

thanks