We love our Expy. When the whole family is together, the seven of us fit nicely. We can easily put the child seats in the rear. I'm 6'2" 220 lbs and can sit in the 3rd row rather comfortably.
With seats folded down one day, I transported a 25 cubic foot side by side fridge and 8' of upper cabinets with the hatch down.
Travel Trailer: 2010 Dutchmen Sport 27B Tow Vehicles: 2005 Ford Expedition 5.4L V8 4x2
2005 Ford F250 Crew Cab Super Duty 6.8L V10 4x2 4.10 open diff
APT wrote: From everyone I have heard from child seat forums to RVers, the Expy EL 3rd row is more spacious, both legroom and seat width. Unfortunately, there is no 3/4 ton Expy EL. The Expy has a little more payload, but loaded up Suburbans have on the order of 1200 pounds of payload, not much for a large family and a TT large enough to house them.
Which is why I'm planning to purchase a 3/4 ton Burb. And both access and seating comfort should be better with second row captain's chairs that I will get. Longer legged people can stretch out putting them between the middle row chairs.
Why not a full size van? Even my 5th row has captains chairs and a flat floor. And even an E150 van has double the payload of a 1500 Suburban.
Bryan
2000 Ford E350 DRW Wagon (14-pass all captains chairs)
V10 w/ Banks PowerPack, Diablo Predator, 4.56 LS, ~350,000 miles
New Desert Fox in the works!
There are plenty of reasons why full sized vans depreciate so much - no one wants them. The fanciest OEM ones now have lower equipment than Expy XL and Suburban LS, despite the XLT and LT trim levels. I like quad captains chairs with heated (and cooled in some cases) leather seats, 3-zone automatic climate control, large touchscreen display with backup camera view, and 4WD.
I'm fine the the 3/4 Ton Burb. Really wish Ford had an Expy EL with the equivalent of the F150 HD package, including Ecoboost.
A & A parents of DD 2005, DS1 2007, DS2 2009 2011 Suburban 2500 6.0L 3.73 pulling 2011 Heartland North Trail 28BRS 2012 VW Passat TDI
I'm 6'3" and have been in the third row of the Expedition EL and the Suburban 3/4 ton. The lower floor of the Expedition due to its IRS is kinder on my knees.
I like both these rigs to be honest, I just wish Ford still offered a SRA EL (like the Ex) with a 3/4 ton payload capability.
08 F450 Lariat CC 4x4, 4.30s
prev: F350 6.0 4x4, Chevy 3500 6.6 4x4, Dodge 3500 5.9 4x4
next truck: back to a srw one ton
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The Expy has a little more payload, but loaded up Suburbans have on the order of 1200 pounds of payload, not much for a large family and a TT large enough to house them.
