Bought a used 2017 Limited EL 4x4 from a dealer in Dec 2019 with 82K miles. I had been meaning to share some things I encountered along the way... Last month I traded it in on a new SuperDuty diesel.
Consider this post my Expy brain dump... it will cover pricing, performance, towing and a few upgrades I did along the way.
Pricing -
I paid $25,500 in Dec 2019
I got $26,500 on trade in Sep 2020, plus about $8K in dealer and factory discounts on the F-250 diesel 4x4, 4door I got.
I put 8K miles on the Expy. The dealer that has it was asking $30K. I think it already sold.
Upgrades -
Ranchhand Legend grill guard. Worked great, looked great, however you must cover your front parking sensors or turn them off every time you get in and put the truck in Drive. I used the Ranchhand provided covers. Clean the sensor with alcohol pad before applying the cover and they'll stay stuck on.
SCT Tuner - pretty good upgrade. The EcoBoost is already strong, running a performance tow tune woke it up even more. I also bought a performance 170 degree t-stat from Reische Performance. Part number FORD-50, but never got around to installing it. From what I learned, it was recommended if running other than stock tunes on the EcoBoost. Still have it, new in box.
AFE - hi flow air filter. I suspect it improved air flow, it certainly changed air sound! Cant say the filter alone improved seat of the pants performance since I did SCT tune and filter at same time.
Fuel - I primarily ran 93 octane. Just for kicks I ran a 70/30 mix of 93 and e85 for a couple tanks. Mpg dropped to 18 hwy, but it was quite spirited. On straight 93, I easily got over 20mpg hwy. Towing my 6500# trailer, I was getting 13mpg.
20 Inch spare - I put new tires on it while I had it... Continental Terrain Contact H/T. Wanting 5 identical tires, I was able to find a decent wheel at Discount tire that would store in the factory spare location. Simply buying another OEM 20 inch wheel doesnt work. The center bore opening for the OEM wheel is too small for the device that secures the spare under the rear end. OEM spare is a 17 inch wheel. Still have that too.
Continental Terrain Contact H/T tires - I chose these as a happy medium between Standard load and heavy E rated tires. The Terrain Contact H/T is an XL tire (extra load) and runs max psi of 51#. Load index 117. 70K miles warranty. They road smooth and quiet, while providing some extra strength while towing 6500# travel trailer.
Tow mirrors - I did quite a bit of research on this one... it seemed the best option out there was the aftermarket Trail Ridge brand, part number TR00078. Problem was Trail Ridge reported they only fit 2011-2015 Expy's. I even called them and spoke to a real person. When I looked at OEM mirror compatibility I found the same mirrors for 2011-2017 Expy's. I decided to take a chance and bought the Trail Ridge mirrors on AMZN for $368 with free shipping. They were a perfect fit and bolted up easily with tight fit, seal and finish. The only modification I had to make was to the connector. There was a very small tab on one edge of the mirror connector that prevented it from inserting into the Expy female socket/connector. 60 seconds and an Xacto blade, tab trimmed and connector securely snapped in to the trucks female connector. Everything worked as intended... Signal indicator, power adjust, puddle lights, memory and heating. NOTE: this aftermarket mirror is not power folding or extending, but it did the job I needed it to do and they looked good on my Oxford White Expy. Although the Expy is gone, I still have the original OEM mirrors. I'm not allowed to post in classified ads yet.
LEDs - I replaced the Puddle light and license plate filament bulbs with LED
Hitch - I bought a Equalizer 10K for my setup. It was installed and adjusted by the RV dealer at time of RV purchase. They basically set it up at what some say is the default... 4 washers. That didnt work for my rig as it did not transfer enough weight to front of tow vehicle and I found rear wheel weight was being exceeded.. Several measurements, adjustments and trips to the CAT scales and the proper set up for me ended up being 7 washers, just below the max of 8. This gave me the proper midway measurement at front wheels, while not overloading rear. I had zero sway and total control.
Why did I trade the Expy - Although it had plenty of power for pulling and stopping my TT, payload capacity was limited. My expy had the heavy tow package, so it was rated at 920/9200 tongue/trailer. Once I had the hitch set up properly. TT max weight was 7200#, so I never got close to the Expy max or combined max, but I was within 300# of rear axle max with 2 avg size adults on board with most of our gear in the TT. If I brought my 2 grown kids along, a good part of the remaining #300 was taken, leaving even less payload capacity and more stuff to put in TT. So now I roll a PowerStroke.
Let me know if you have any questions about my Expy. Heres a shot where you can see the mirrors and Ranchhand.
Consider this post my Expy brain dump... it will cover pricing, performance, towing and a few upgrades I did along the way.
Pricing -
I paid $25,500 in Dec 2019
I got $26,500 on trade in Sep 2020, plus about $8K in dealer and factory discounts on the F-250 diesel 4x4, 4door I got.
I put 8K miles on the Expy. The dealer that has it was asking $30K. I think it already sold.
Upgrades -
Ranchhand Legend grill guard. Worked great, looked great, however you must cover your front parking sensors or turn them off every time you get in and put the truck in Drive. I used the Ranchhand provided covers. Clean the sensor with alcohol pad before applying the cover and they'll stay stuck on.
SCT Tuner - pretty good upgrade. The EcoBoost is already strong, running a performance tow tune woke it up even more. I also bought a performance 170 degree t-stat from Reische Performance. Part number FORD-50, but never got around to installing it. From what I learned, it was recommended if running other than stock tunes on the EcoBoost. Still have it, new in box.
AFE - hi flow air filter. I suspect it improved air flow, it certainly changed air sound! Cant say the filter alone improved seat of the pants performance since I did SCT tune and filter at same time.
Fuel - I primarily ran 93 octane. Just for kicks I ran a 70/30 mix of 93 and e85 for a couple tanks. Mpg dropped to 18 hwy, but it was quite spirited. On straight 93, I easily got over 20mpg hwy. Towing my 6500# trailer, I was getting 13mpg.
20 Inch spare - I put new tires on it while I had it... Continental Terrain Contact H/T. Wanting 5 identical tires, I was able to find a decent wheel at Discount tire that would store in the factory spare location. Simply buying another OEM 20 inch wheel doesnt work. The center bore opening for the OEM wheel is too small for the device that secures the spare under the rear end. OEM spare is a 17 inch wheel. Still have that too.
Continental Terrain Contact H/T tires - I chose these as a happy medium between Standard load and heavy E rated tires. The Terrain Contact H/T is an XL tire (extra load) and runs max psi of 51#. Load index 117. 70K miles warranty. They road smooth and quiet, while providing some extra strength while towing 6500# travel trailer.
Tow mirrors - I did quite a bit of research on this one... it seemed the best option out there was the aftermarket Trail Ridge brand, part number TR00078. Problem was Trail Ridge reported they only fit 2011-2015 Expy's. I even called them and spoke to a real person. When I looked at OEM mirror compatibility I found the same mirrors for 2011-2017 Expy's. I decided to take a chance and bought the Trail Ridge mirrors on AMZN for $368 with free shipping. They were a perfect fit and bolted up easily with tight fit, seal and finish. The only modification I had to make was to the connector. There was a very small tab on one edge of the mirror connector that prevented it from inserting into the Expy female socket/connector. 60 seconds and an Xacto blade, tab trimmed and connector securely snapped in to the trucks female connector. Everything worked as intended... Signal indicator, power adjust, puddle lights, memory and heating. NOTE: this aftermarket mirror is not power folding or extending, but it did the job I needed it to do and they looked good on my Oxford White Expy. Although the Expy is gone, I still have the original OEM mirrors. I'm not allowed to post in classified ads yet.
LEDs - I replaced the Puddle light and license plate filament bulbs with LED
Hitch - I bought a Equalizer 10K for my setup. It was installed and adjusted by the RV dealer at time of RV purchase. They basically set it up at what some say is the default... 4 washers. That didnt work for my rig as it did not transfer enough weight to front of tow vehicle and I found rear wheel weight was being exceeded.. Several measurements, adjustments and trips to the CAT scales and the proper set up for me ended up being 7 washers, just below the max of 8. This gave me the proper midway measurement at front wheels, while not overloading rear. I had zero sway and total control.
Why did I trade the Expy - Although it had plenty of power for pulling and stopping my TT, payload capacity was limited. My expy had the heavy tow package, so it was rated at 920/9200 tongue/trailer. Once I had the hitch set up properly. TT max weight was 7200#, so I never got close to the Expy max or combined max, but I was within 300# of rear axle max with 2 avg size adults on board with most of our gear in the TT. If I brought my 2 grown kids along, a good part of the remaining #300 was taken, leaving even less payload capacity and more stuff to put in TT. So now I roll a PowerStroke.
Let me know if you have any questions about my Expy. Heres a shot where you can see the mirrors and Ranchhand.
