Expedition EL vs Suburban No chevy or ford bashing please.

AGGIE00 · Apr 2, 2012

Dmace said:
I just don't like the older style, nothing against it's reliability. We had tons of 98-2003 Tahoe and Suburbans all over 200k driven more off-road than on road while Land Surveying. Good trucks!

I get a lot of looks over my survey chariot being a 2500 diesel.

Dmace · Apr 3, 2012

AGGIE00 said:
I get a lot of looks over my survey chariot being a 2500 diesel.

Ha ha!
What they don't know is you have 300lbs of 4ft granite bounds and 100lbs of 4ft rebar in the back.

yelbike · Apr 21, 2012

I figured I'd show you guys what I bought after all the discussion. Thanks everyone for the advice, we've had it for about a month now and it fits the bill just right.

Sorry if the image does up load, this is my first time uploading an image.

jeffsw6 · Apr 21, 2012

Nice looking truck! How does it tow?

Also curious about how it rides on those thin tires. I don't see how these newer vehicles can ride smoothly with the giant wheels and low-profile tires, my girlfriend's Mustang is a rougher ride than any truck I've ever been in!

DieselnHooters · Apr 21, 2012

AGGIE00 said:
We are purchasing a new expedition el after having a gmc yukon. The yukon has been nothing but trouble after 100k miles with the most costly repair being the transmission. We,ve repaired the ac 4 times, new instrument cluster, dvd player out, abs motor, transmission, starter, battery, and water line to back window.

it could have been worse , you could have bought GM bonds and watched your $ being siphonned away to the unions by the bailout nazis

yelbike · Apr 21, 2012

So far I've only towed about 3500 lbs (car hauler with a small amount of lumber and insulation). You really can't feel it much out back, I haven't put a brake controller yet, still deciding which one to go with. I think I like that max brake.
I bought it sight unseen, I didn't realize the rims were 22" (factory should have been 20" chrome). The ride seems fine to me, I guess its what you get used to.

jeffsw6 · Apr 21, 2012

If you want the stock wheels for some reason, the tire shops in my area all have used stuff. You might be able to let them know that you have those big wheels and you would like to trade for stock ones, and if some kid comes in with a wad of cash and trades in his factory wheels, you could swap yours and the tire shop could then sell your wheels to the next guy.

That is how I got my last set of tires. Some guy bought a new truck, went straight to the tire shop, and got new tires and wheels. I happened to be in later that day and they had brand new "used" tires they sold me for $50ea!

timswi · Apr 21, 2012

yelbike said:
I figured I'd show you guys what I bought after all the discussion. Thanks everyone for the advice, we've had it for about a month now and it fits the bill just right.

Sorry if the image does up load, this is my first time uploading an image.

That's sharp..Very nice.

yelbike · Jul 7, 2012

Well I did our first real trip with the expedition last week, about 250 miles round trip. I reset the onboard computer during the trip and I got up to 19 MPG around doing approximately 70mph most of the trip. By the time we got home I did around 17 MPG with a little combined city driving at our destination. I was pleased with the results.

Well this weekend, same destination, but we brought our travel trailer(3300lbs dry,so 4000lbs loaded at most). MPG was around 12 and falling doing 60-65 MPH. I pulled over to check if something was wrong. I even disconnected my brake controller in case it was dragging the brakes(I really didn't think it was!). No difference. I made it home and I was down to about 8.9 MPG. Very dissappointed. I guess its not a great towing vehicle. I'd hate to see the the mpg with a full 9000lbs trailer which is what its rated for.:confused3:

Dmace · Jul 8, 2012

The thing about a travel trailer is the aerodynamic drag is far harder on fuel mileage than the weight. I average 15.5-16.5 in my truck empty and 11-12 towing my 6x10 10k dump trailer even loaded to 7-8k lbs. But towing my 27ft TT (5k lbs empty 7k gvwr), I only get 9-10 mpg. All hand calculated each trip. Granted, when towing the TT I typically have three more people plus stuff in the bed but overall gross weight is definitely higher with the dump trailer than the travel trailer.