Whoopee! New to me 2005 Excursion!

[JiminJersey]

The DW and self have been considering an upgrade from the 88 Bounder for a while. Looked here, looked there, looked over there again. DW had few constraints - no light colored bleached woodwork, no gold trim in bath and cabinetry.

Finally decided on this '05 Excursion, F/S by second owner just a few miles away from us. 6 new tires in October 2014. Four slides. 40,000 miles. Even has the outdoor BBQ setup.

I think we got a fair deal, and look forwards to hittin' the road later this summer.

[denlock]

Congratulations! Looks pretty nice!

[lsw9658]

It looks awesome! Congratulations!

[CLIFFTALL]

Congrats. Good looking coach.
Enjoy

[stuhly]

Sister to our 06 Providence. You will love it.

[SarahW]

WOW!! What a beauty! I hope you enjoy your gorgeous new coach.

[JiminJersey]

Thanks, all. We're getting more and more pumped. The differences between old "Harvey", the Bounder and this one are fairly extensive. With the slides out, its got a bunch of room to roam. When we first started looking, number of slides was not a big deal to us, but as we looked at more and more, their utility became obvious. When you're used to NO slides, it seems that ANY slides are "plenty". Also really liked the outdoor kitchen. It has the dinette for conversion to bunk, and the sleeper sofa, with loveseat across the aisle. Sleeping for four was high on the list, with a pair of 5 and 10 year old grandkids, who, after the last weekend down at Baltimore Inner Harbor, may or may not ever be invited along with GiGi and PopPop again...

We did a lot of research and a lot of looking. Our budget ceiling was $85K and we came in under that, thankfully. I tacked on a couple of grand for the literally new tires, less than 100 miles on them, and the full tank of diesel. The PO topped up before winterizing, and hasn't driven it anywhere else yet this season except our test drive. Also did fluids and belts last spring. Papers and documents are complete. That's what I like.

We're considering using the Bounder as a year-round semi-permanent setup at a local campground, for weekend getaways and such. No reason to let it just sit out in the pasture and grow weeds between the wheels.

[puttin]

Great coach! I think those were great from '05 to '08 especially. It look very clean. Can you post some inside pix too? Congrats!

[JiminJersey]

Update: So, finally, two months and 327 faxes, 1,398 phone calls, and 2,893 notarized signatures and initials later, our re-fi came through, and we were able to write a check for the Ex. Brought it home about 3PM but too much excitement at the hacienda for me to calmly evaluate, take some interior pix, and just plain sit for a moment. The two grandkids are here, the two dogs are barking at them and the dump truck that just showed up to drop 30 tons of rip-rap on our bulkhead, and it's 93 in the shade. I've been going through the 90 pounds of the You're Number One with Fleetwood documentation. I need to separate the wheat from the chaff - it looks like the two previous owners kept every single piece of operating instruction, warranty, owners manuals, decals, handy 800-numbers, and so on for every moving part on the coach. I'm almost positive the fridge has been replaced, probably twice, since there are two different model Norcold books, and a GE manual. Same for the TVs, radios, coffee maker, etc etc. I need to match current hardware with its documentation, and toss the rest, a lot of which is the original 2005 stuff. Awnings, inverters, CO detectors, Winegard, DishNetwork, Sony, Vizio, Panasonic, Dometic, Atwood, they're all there. I'll have to inspect tomorrow after work.

It's a Freightliner chassis, and I am curious since I got conflicting info from reading the Fleetwood brochures - the 2005 brochure says Spartan chassis and the 2004 and 2006 brochures say Freightliner chassis. I'm assuming it was an early 2005 build with a "leftover" FCCC chassis.

Anyway, tomorrow I'm gonna open the slides up, make sure the awnings go all the way out, and try to figure out why one end of one of the window blinds by the dinette seems reluctant to stay parallel with his twin...

(Oh, we did check all that stuff, but I haven't been in the coach for two months, and I need to learn how this beast operates. My Bounder is a stone axe compared to this F-18 Eagle.)

[Clayobx]

Hi, the day nite shades will have to be re strung. You can buy kits or Google and do them your self. Hardest part is removing the valance. I owned an 03 Excursion with the 330 Cat. Plenty of power. Real good coach. Added some chassis items to make life easy from Super Steer. My chassis was Freightliner. Not much difference from our Excursion to yours if I can help PM me.

[JiminJersey]

'preciate the info, Clay. I'll be looking into the shade question in a bit. The coach is dated July 2004, which explains the Freightliner chassis. But it's titled as a 2005. Not really a big deal to me. Busy now with all the other home improvement stuff the re-fi paid for (200' of chain link, retaining wall, bulkhead build up, topsoil, sod, 12x22 shed, etc etc..) Oy Vey.

[mchero]

I'm going to restring my day/nights with 50lb test fishing line. Makes them open/close MUCH more easy. Google it & you will find plenty information on the subject.


RM