David vs Goliath Tug Of War Battle!

Imagine, if you will, heading to what is universally viewed as the Super Bowl of Tug-Of-War events in a huge Ford Excursion that’s been unbeaten all year. Only, when you roll through the gate, there’s a couple of behemoth machines waiting for you, both of which dwarf your Excursion and have a lot more tires putting power to the ground. You might think your winning streak has come to an end, but for Chris Pursell, this was just another day in the pulling pit.

First up for Pursell is a massive 5-ton truck, only this isn’t just your run-of-the-mill 5-ton. As if the platform in stock configuration wasn’t formidable enough, the owner has added a second cab, stretched the frame four feet and added another axle, giving him a total of 8 powered wheels, for what should literally be tons of pulling power. However, strapped to Pursell’s Excursion, the 8 wheels might as well have been two, as the Ford seemingly effortlessly pulled the 5-ton backwards to take the win. Up next, a massive 5-wheel “Flying A” with legit monster truck tires and a massive frame that dwarfs the Excursion, but once again, there’s more to this that appearances, as the mighty Ford has no trouble dragging the monster rig.

So what’s the secret to the Excursion’s pulling power? Surely it has a ton of horsepower from a modified engine and turbo combo? Actually, no. Under the hood is a stock 7.3 diesel powerplant that sounds like it may be turned up a little, but honestly seems to be pretty tame. The secret actually lies in three areas, on of which is glaringly obvious, while the other two are pretty low key. First, the massive weight rack out front. With a few tons of weight hung out over the front of the nose, the big SUV is able to put down all of its power without wasting it on spinning the tires. And speaking of tires, the ones on the Excursion are relatively small, but they’re a super soft compound that allows them to grip even better than the massive tires on the other rigs. And finally, the last key is the transmission, geared super low to allow the engine to get up into the meat of the torque and horsepower curves and put down a lot more power than a standard gearbox.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is the reason this Excursion is likely to go a long time before taking an L on the business end of a tow rope!