I can't find the picture of the final belly pan. I will put the Excursion on ramps to take a picture to show everyone. The area around the converter is exposed right now but would like to put a louvered panel over it.
The Excursion has been driven through some rather deep water with no ill effect. The only dirt and mud I have driven through was in Wyoming/Yellowstone. The belly pan is dirty but no collection of mud occurred. Unfortunately we did not see any snow when we traveled out west. We tried to make sure the plastic did not catch air and minimize openings for road debris.
For our first trip out west in September was to Colorado, then South Dakota and back here to Georgia. The Overhead reported 25.0mpg but had calculating is 2mpg less. I know the overhead is off but it is a good gauge that the belly pan is working. Normal mpg for the Excursion used to be 20-21 but at no more than 65mph. For the grill block we used carpet protection plastic. It is clear sticky plastic that doesn't leave a residue behind. It also allowed me to use my off-road lights that are mounted behind the grill. Since it was just plastic sheeting, we just cut out sections to regulate coolant temps. I made a plastic grill block when I returned from this trip. I have a full block and another that has cutouts for the offroad lights.
This recent trip was to South Dakota again and then to Jackson Wyoming and back to Georgia. I had a low of 19mpg on this trip due to a very crappy head wind (~22mph) in South Dakota. This is also my highest mileage trip also at 23.7 mpg. We drove from Jackson Wyoming to Lincoln Nebraska on one tank. The tank wasn't empty but the fuel was lasting longer than I was.
I love the Excursion. It is diesel with higher maintenance costs but I do my own work. The V10 Excursions only get 11mpg where I can get 20+ in the diesel. I know a few on the Ford Powerstroke sites will not believe the mileage increase but a belly pan and grill block have to add something.
I added some pics of the overhead and the Speedometer. The 25.7mpg reading and the Speedometer pics were in Wyoming or Nebraska. The overhead MPG meter is off and my MPG are hand calculated.
