This big beast earns its name as it uses its diesel torque, ground clearance, and knobby 37-inch tires to battle snow and gravity.
Ford gives its SUVs names that make you picture going an adventure in them (except the EcoSport), whether you want to make an escape from 9-5 cubical life or be an Explorer for a day or two or go on a rugged Expedition into parts unknown. Unfortunately, the demands of work and family duties often keep many Ford SUV owners confined to paved suburban streets. But the family in this gone-but-not-forgotten Blue Oval rig was able to make an Excursion into the snowy wilderness.
The footage comes to us courtesy of the YouTube channel Music of the Mountains Productions. It’s unclear exactly where the family is taking its winter trip, but one thing’s for sure: They picked a great place to test the abilities of their Excursion. The snow is a few inches deep and much of it is hasn’t been driven through yet.
Fortunately, the Excursion has the hardware to handle Mother Nature’s cold shoulder. It’s lifted high above its massive 37-inch tires, which make contact with the heavy powder through their chunky tread blocks. The Excursion matches its grip with grunt. Under the hood, there’s the tried and true 7.3-liter Power Stroke diesel V8.
After winding through some curvy, snow-lined paths, the family comes to a sort of fork in the road. We say “sort of” because the trail they’re on keeps going to the right. They decide to go left, where it seems no one has driven and made the ground a little easier to traverse. That’s no sweat for the people in the Excursion. After the back end steps out for a second, the driver stays on the power and gets to higher ground while spraying dark smoke and pristine white snow the whole way. When they get temporarily stuck again, the driver reuses their earlier strategy to keep moving deeper into the arctic playground.
The Excursion forges ahead and carves more tracks into the snow for future vehicle-bound adventurers to follow. It keeps going until it takes its passengers to the top, where they enjoy the view of the sun gleaming through the clouds and rolling white hillocks stippled with green below.
This family committed itself to going on an adventure. Sometimes they took the hardest way through, but that’s OK. They picked the right vehicle to get them far away from it all.
Derek Shiekhi's father raised him on cars. As a boy, Derek accompanied his dad as he bought classics such as post-WWII GM trucks and early Ford Mustang convertibles.
After loving cars for years and getting a bachelor's degree in Business Management, Derek decided to get an associate degree in journalism. His networking put him in contact with the editor of the Austin-American Statesman newspaper, who hired him to write freelance about automotive culture and events in Austin, Texas in 2013. One particular story led to him getting a certificate for learning the foundations of road racing.
While watching TV with his parents one fateful evening, he saw a commercial that changed his life. In it, Jeep touted the Wrangler as the Texas Auto Writers Association's "SUV of Texas." Derek knew he had to join the organization if he was going to advance as an automotive writer. He joined the Texas Auto Writers Association (TAWA) in 2014 and was fortunate to meet several nice people who connected him to the representatives of several automakers and the people who could give him access to press vehicles (the first one he ever got the keys to was a Lexus LX 570). He's now a regular at TAWA's two main events: the Texas Auto Roundup in the spring and the Texas Truck Rodeo in the fall.
Over the past several years, Derek has learned how to drive off-road in various four-wheel-drive SUVs (he even camped out for two nights in a Land Rover), and driven around various tracks in hot hatches, muscle cars, and exotics. Several of his pieces, including his article about the 2015 Ford F-150 being crowned TAWA's 2014 "Truck of Texas" and his review of the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider, have won awards in TAWA's annual Excellence in Craft Competition. Last year, his JK Forum profile of Wagonmaster, a business that restores Jeep Wagoneers, won prizes in TAWA’s signature writing contest and its pickup- and SUV-focused Texas Truck Invitational.
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