Finally got this beast off road. 16' Platinum

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Utah Driver

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I bought this last year from my dad. Finally got to take it off road in Moab. It's a heavy beast. LOL. One weakness I found is that huge muffler that hangs off the back. I looked at some other newer SUVs for reference and they do not have that. Just something to be aware of. If you do some serious off roading you'll probably smash the hell out of the muffler. I scraped the air dam under the front end quite often. The over all ground clearance was pretty good for the roads with the built up high center. I did some hot rodding in 4L and it was really a blast to drive. One thing that I was really impressed with was the downhill assist mode. This is my first vehicle with such a feature. I was at the top of a big hill with loose gravel on top of slickrock and big holes. I turned the downhill assist on, took my feet off the pedals and drove all the way back down the hill without touching the brakes once. Very nice! I attached a couple of photos of my adventure. Of course pictures don't really show how steep something is. If you zoom in it looks like the wheels do not travel straight up in the wheel well. I dunno. I thought I heard some grinding in the front left that I have to get checked out. Anyway, thanks for looking. For reference I have 20" rims. 20210306_155002.jpg 20210306_154141.jpg 20210306_154314.jpg 20210306_155555.jpg 20210306_160908.jpg
 

Langer

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I bought this last year from my dad. Finally got to take it off road in Moab. It's a heavy beast. LOL. One weakness I found is that huge muffler that hangs off the back. I looked at some other newer SUVs for reference and they do not have that. Just something to be aware of. If you do some serious off roading you'll probably smash the hell out of the muffler. I scraped the air dam under the front end quite often. The over all ground clearance was pretty good for the roads with the built up high center. I did some hot rodding in 4L and it was really a blast to drive. One thing that I was really impressed with was the downhill assist mode. This is my first vehicle with such a feature. I was at the top of a big hill with loose gravel on top of slickrock and big holes. I turned the downhill assist on, took my feet off the pedals and drove all the way back down the hill without touching the brakes once. Very nice! I attached a couple of photos of my adventure. Of course pictures don't really show how steep something is. If you zoom in it looks like the wheels do not travel straight up in the wheel well. I dunno. I thought I heard some grinding in the front left that I have to get checked out. Anyway, thanks for looking. For reference I have 20" rims. View attachment 40987 View attachment 40988 View attachment 40989 View attachment 40990 View attachment 40991


That looks like a blast!
 

Traveler

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Thats great! and beautiful pics. I took my 07 Eddie Bauer on a couple trails in CO last year. I had to remove the running boards for their own good, but other than that bone stock. I was truly impressed with the AdvanceTrac RSC system. Though the total lack of skid plates kept me wary.
 
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Utah Driver

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This was the back road into Arches National Park. (Willow Springs Road). It's the route to take when you are too cheap to pay at the gate. ;) . I highly recommend. When you enter the park and get to a crossroad, there is a 4X4 road that heads North to the arch "eye of the whale". Anyway, I thought about the fore mentioned running boards since I have automatic ones. I made sure to turn them off so that they would not deploy. I was afraid that maybe I'd get in a situation where I'd get out to look at some rocks and then the running board would deploy and get dented. First world problems. LOL.

This road isn't that bad. It is just enough to make this urban assault vehicle feel like it can run with the jeeps. :33: . I was thinking that the extended expedition might be too long. I've done some stuff in Moab in my old Durango where I've drug the receiver hitch in the back and had a front wheel off the ground. This time in the expedition I thought I was dragging the hitch but it was the muffler. I wasn't even close to the hitch. I contemplated letting some air out of the tires but since it has 20" city rims and it is also very heavy I decided that I better not. Attached a photo of the muffler hanging down. It does have some flex in it but if I would have had more passengers than just my wife and possibly a roof rack it would have gotten crunched. I noticed a brand new Yukon in Moab that didn't have the muffler hanging down. Maybe an oversight by Ford? I'm probably just obsessing......

Cheers

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Cyclone

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For what its worth. There is a Transfer case skid plate available for SSV FL1Z-7E063-A. It was pretty cheap. Under $30. Plus you have to get some hardware clips.
 
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Utah Driver

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I decided to put a 10" lift on this. LOL. But seriously I did some research on the Expedition and exactly what it happening in 4L and 4H. I'll have to post the link later. I didn't know about the clutch in the transfer case. The other biggie is that the "one wheel slipping" function can't be turned off. The noise from what I thought was an front axle not engaging was actually the brake controller. Good to know.

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Machete

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I think you’re going to come to the realization that these are not off road nor overland trucks. That truck won’t last long driving out there, not without putting serious money and customizations at least and still it wasn’t designed for that use.

I love the color.
 
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Utah Driver

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I definitely wouldn't want to drive through any mud with the big diaper under the engine and transmission. :)
 
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