Ford Escape e/x Build

OuterLimits

I control the horizontal and the vertical
monty.jpg

As you peruse these overland forums, you will find gaggles of Jeep builds. Trifectas of Toys (Landcruisers, 4Runners, Tacomas). Messes of Montys. X-Terras, Rovers, Subarus, Suzukis galore!

Allow me to cleanse your build palette with "something completely different".

This build is a about simplicity, reliability, and economy. This build is about maximizing strengths and minimizing weaknesses. But mostly, this build is about driving what ya got!

I cannot offer you the “shock and awe” of a transverse mounted LS1 V-8 conversion. Nor will I relish you with the pageantry of a 3 story, 12 person Roof Top Tent. A Wi-Fi enabled milk frother is right out!

Hopefully I can share one man’s vision of a simple adventure vehicle and perhaps a bit of entertainment along the way.

Not one to rush into something so tantalizing… Let’s begin with a little 4-play.

I have owned maybe a dozen vehicles in my lifetime , including such classics as a vintage Jeep Grand Wagoneer and a FJ60 Landcruiser. As a previous traveling road warrior, I’ve driven hundreds (perhaps thousands) of rental vehicles. I have a pretty good idea of my vehicular likes, needs, and wants. Over time my requirements regarding commuting, family, traveling, camping, mpg, and comfort, have changed. As wants and needs changed, vehicles changed. They all had a “sell by date”.

In 2006 it was time for a new daily driver, with some added capability to get beyond the tarmac. It needed to confidently handle the perpetually wet and snowy roads of the Great Pacific Northwest.

I stumbled onto a 2005 Ford Escape (4WD) at a local Ford Dealer. It had previously been a 1 year rental, but was in great condition, with an affordable sticker price. It is nimble, gets decent mpg, and was a blast to drive. It is labelled by Ford as “4WD”, but some take great offense to that.

Some say it is more like a FWD biased AWD. Info on the drivetrain says it runs FWD till it detects wheel slip (1/6 turn), then automatically shifts 1-99% of power to the rear wheels (as needed). It never felt quite like that to me. When off road or in the snow, the rear seemed to be engaged without any noticeable slipping up front. WTH?

Escape enthusiasts found the 4WD operated a bit differently. They would attach a scan gauge to the computer port to determine when power was sent to the rear. They found all 4 wheels are driven under initial acceleration. Between 35- 45mph it would transition to FWD (depending on acceleration load). It seems to be more accurately described as an AWD that becomes FWD at highway speeds. It works brilliantly.

Sporting Goodyear Fortera Triple-Tred tires, it would go wherever I pointed it on the always wet, sometimes snowy, roads of the Great Pacific Northwest. The traction was impressive. It was the perfect setup.

After relocating to sunny, drought forsaken, Southern California, It was time for a re-vamp. The endless freeways are mostly a nightmare of traffic congestion, tailgaters, and road rage. I am going to lose my mind. There must be more to this state than concrete, congestion, and a$$hats. I needed to get out!

It’s was time to explore in Death Valley, tour the Mojave Road, and throw sand roosters in the Pismo Dunes. In other words “It was time for a BUILD!!!”

Without further ado, I proudly present to you the

Ford Escape e/x (econo/expo)

crazy4x4.jpg

technical_difficulties.jpg

Cough, cough... Without further ado, I proudly present to you the

Ford Escape e/x (econo/expo)

eEscape.jpgeEscape2.jpgeSnowScape.jpgeP1010266.jpg
 
Last edited:

OuterLimits

I control the horizontal and the vertical
Pros-

* It's paid for!!!

* Reliable- This is the most drama free vehicle I have ever owned. As it heads into its 12th year on the road, I just do preventive maintenance and replace perishables.

* Comfortable- The vehicle is a good fit to my carcass. Especially my noggin. I have been amazed at how many recent SUVs and trucks don't even bother with a driver's seat that has vertical adjustment. When driving these rigs, I'm looking out the top 2 inches of the windshield. Arrrgghhh! Worse, it seems you can't put a vehicle on a SoCal car lot without a sunroof. Boom! There goes another 3 inches of precious headroom.

* Good visibility- The seating is upright. The windows are spacious. The visibility 360 degrees is superb. Compare this to all the new rigs with high beltlines that nearly touch the roof line. I drove a current model of a popular pickup truck that had all the visual attributes offered to a Sherman Tank driver. Can you say claustrophobia and blind spots?

* AWD works great on wet roads, snow, icy conditions, dirt, sand, and gravel. Combined with the low CG, it's a blast to drive on and off the road.

* Small size makes city driving and parking a breeze. In the dirt, I can squeeze around obstacles, and have an edge with turn radius.

* Decent MPG. Face it, compared to my FJ60, the Escape sips like a Prius. The FJ60 had a 200 mile range on fumes. The Escape clears 300 miles with reserve.

* Bigger tires- The stock Escape handles a bigger tire than many other CUVs (RAV4s, CRVs, Subies), even even when they sport a basic lift.

* It's paid for!!!

blazing saddles.jpg

Lamarr: You said "paid for" twice.

Me: I like "paid for"

Cons:

* No lo-range. This is the biggie. Steep hills and slow crawling are right out.

* Limited ground clearance. At 8-9" it's not horrible, but deep ruts and big rocks are a problem.

* Towing capacity. At 3.5k it can't compete with the big boys. But within its own category it beats out most of the other CUVs that max out at 2000 lbs or less.

* Limited space/carrying capacity. It's a small rig and space is at a premium. I did a camping trip with 4 people, tents, sleeping bags, camping gear, cooking kit, bikes, and other toys. Using a topper, we managed to get everything in, but there wasn't room left for a roll of Certs. (note rubbermaid box on top of bikes). But, that said, it did manage a weekend outing with 4 campers, gear, and toys. Not too shabby.


em_0677.jpg

(Disclaimer- Build projects may be presented out of chronological order to maximize intrigue and suspense. No animals were harmed during the making of this build).
 
Last edited:

OuterLimits

I control the horizontal and the vertical
Wheels-

Time to talk wheels. The existing wheels were Motegi MR7s. It was a decent wheel, but I was tired of problems with tuner lugs. Time for a wheel with standard lugs. I have always liked the utilitarian look of steelies. I did a bit of research and found that steelies from some Mazda cars should be a perfect fit.

I ordered up an as-new take off wheel and mounted a tire. I took the tire/wheel home and proceeded to test fit it to my Escape. It fit in so many ways, but would not clear the brake caliper. D'oh! (note to self: test fit wheel before bothering to mount tire).

esteelie test.jpg Esteelie.jpg

I have also been a fan of rally cars since I was a kid. If I can't run steelies, how about set of sweet gravel wheels for the Escape? After more interweb research, I found the Sparco Terra wheels. Perfect! I ordered up 5, to allow a full size spare, and waited.

sparco_terra_lg_pdpfull.jpgsparco_terra_lg_pdplip.jpg

When they arrived I couldn't wait to see how they would look on my rig. I stood up a wheel in my gutter next to my tire. Nope, wheel too low. I figured I'd go to the garage a get a couple of boards to raise up the wheel, so I could see it centered in my tire.

Dread!! When I got back out to my rig, the wheel had rolled down the gutter and scraped up against the curb. There isn't even visible a slope here, but the amount of paint damage on the rim was amazing. The paint is WAAAYYY TOOO soft!

The stock color wasn't my favorite anyway, so off to the local powder-coater they went. MY first instinct was to go black, but the whole "murder" look is getting a bit long in the tooth. I decided on a dark gray to match the body cladding. I didn't want gloss, so I requested a matte finish. When I got the wheels back I was a bit shocked. The gray looked a lot lighter and the wheels were not matte. It was more of a heavy texture to the finish. Hmmm.

I asked the coater to grab his paint sample book. I matched up the thumbnail chip to my wheels. Same color, WTH? I discovered something interesting that day about the way we perceive colors. The paint chips in the book at the powder-coater are little thumbnails of paint, surrounded by white paper. This contrast between paper and pigment makes the gray look darker than it is. Take that same color gray wheel and surround it with a black tire and now the gray looks much lighter than the book. If I ever have wheels painted/coated again I will bring a piece of black construction paper with me. I will cut a hole in the black paper to allow viewing a paint thumbnail with a frame of black (like a tire). Live and learn. It is like a medium battleship gray. The color has really grown on me. Glad I didn't go black.

Next problem is the heavy texture on the wheels. It looked pretty cool, but I was worried about being able to seat the tire bead. I also figured it would be hard to keep clean (Turns out I was right on both accounts).

I asked powder coater guy if there would be any problem with the tire seating. "Nah, it should be fine". OK, off to America's Tire for mounting. I asked tire guy if there would be any problems with the tire seating. "Nah, it should be fine". OK, mount them up. The Cooper/Sparco partnership looked great! I went home and proudly parked my rig. Beautiful! The next morning, D'OH!!!! Five flat tires!!! It wasn't fine. It wasn't just leaking around the rough bead. The tires were also leaking around the valve stem seats. AAARRRGGGHHH!!!

I had to carefully hand sand the bead smooth, without cutting down to bare metal. I repurposed my garage swivel stool to spin the wheels for sanding. The valve stem holes were a conundrum. How to sand the bottom without sanding the sides? After a bit of thought, I cut down some wood dowels and glued small circles of various grit sand paper to the end of the dowels. Lots and lots of finger spinning the dowel in the hole to get things smoothed out. It took 2hrs/wheel and 10 hours total to get the wheels sorted out. After remounting, all 5 hold air!!!


TIRES-

The right tires can make a huge difference in how a vehicle will perform. Arguably tires can make the single greatest difference in capability, without costly modifications. Since this rig is also my DD with 99% of its life dedicated to tarmac, I needed a tire that was civil on the road, provided good mpg, yet extended my capabilities when the pavement ended.

After too many hours on the interwebs, I chose the Cooper AT3. It seemed like an ideal all-arounder. I initially purchased the size matching the OEM tire , 235/70R16. I have a stock suspension and didn't want any problems with rubbing, gearing, or speedometer. After mounting, it was apparent that not only do some Cooper tires run smaller than listed size, they may also be smaller than the measured specs on their website. They looked absolutely silly as off-road tires on my Escape. The fine folks at America's tire agreed with my assessment and swapped them for 235/75R16. Much nicer size. It measures just a hair under 30 inches diameter and fills the wheel wells nicely!

The AT3s are not quite as civilized as the Michelin LTX MS2, but it is a better dirt tire. I have been satisfied with the results so far.

em_0692.jpgem_0693.jpg

3_1146.jpge_1148.jpg


em_0690.jpg


The "Fugitive" was beginning to look and function like a right proper desert explorer!

lucerne.jpg

More build to come soon! (Teaser- Roof Rack)
 
Last edited:

jpat30

Adventurer
Welcome back man...thanks for putting this back up and I am honored to be the first comment...haha. As I stated in another thread i thoroughly enjoy your writing style and build itself. I love different and unique vehicles that are outside the mold...no offense, but I can only take so many jks on 37s😛. Jk there jeep guys and gals. I'm sure there are other folks out there too who are interested in what you are building. So keep on keeping on and thanks again.
Jeremy
 

OuterLimits

I control the horizontal and the vertical
Welcome back man...thanks for putting this back up and I am honored to be the first comment...haha. As I stated in another thread i thoroughly enjoy your writing style and build itself. I love different and unique vehicles that are outside the mold...no offense, but I can only take so many jks on 37s. Jk there jeep guys and gals. I'm sure there are other folks out there too who are interested in what you are building. So keep on keeping on and thanks again.
Jeremy

Jeremy,

Thanks for the support man. Got some more goodies to post when I dig up the pics.

Cheers, TR
 

balexander87

Observer
Love it! Looking forward to seeing the rest of this and getting ideas. Great tip on using the ScanGauge to check %torque to the rear. Got me curious if I can do the same thing on my '08 VUE. Hmmm...

Cheers!
 

OuterLimits

I control the horizontal and the vertical
Love it! Looking forward to seeing the rest of this and getting ideas. Great tip on using the ScanGauge to check %torque to the rear. Got me curious if I can do the same thing on my '08 VUE. Hmmm...

Cheers!

Thanks for the kind words. Hopefully you can pinch a few ideas and give us a clear VUE of your rig. ;-)
 
Last edited:

SHOBout

New member
Your escape looks great, I got rid of my full size recently for one and I couldn't be happier. Glad to see someone else using one as an adventure rig!
 

OuterLimits

I control the horizontal and the vertical
Your escape looks great, I got rid of my full size recently for one and I couldn't be happier. Glad to see someone else using one as an adventure rig!


SHOBout, Thank you. Like most of life, It's all about compromise. You find something that checks enough boxes for you, then go out and make the best of it!

Cheers
 
Last edited:

kojackJKU

Autism Family Travellers!
I almost bought one instead of my first Patriot. Great little rigs...my folks have one as their pull behind on their motorhome. They like it. Fugitive, you can get the rig up a couple of inches...There is a lift available for it. Plus you can get some nice front guards as well. awesome choice in rig....
 

OuterLimits

I control the horizontal and the vertical
I almost bought one instead of my first Patriot. Great little rigs...my folks have one as their pull behind on their motorhome. They like it. Fugitive, you can get the rig up a couple of inches...There is a lift available for it. Plus you can get some nice front guards as well. awesome choice in rig....

Kojack, Thanks for your interest and input.

The suspension solution is currently being implemented and will be documented here later down the road. The suspension conundrum has caused me the greatest amount of angst of any build option. To Lift or not to lift? That is surely the question. There are pros and cons for both.

There are a few places that show the OME springs on their websites, but when I contact them, no joy. ARB no longer lists the OME Escape springs on their web site.

I've seen some great vids on the Patriot. It seems more capable than many give credit. Drive it like you stole it!

Cheers
 
Last edited:

OuterLimits

I control the horizontal and the vertical
ROOF RACK Phase I

A roof rack is all about extending storage and sometimes even adding capability (ala RTT). A roof rack is like the icing on an overland cake. A roof rack is a declaration to the world that says- "Yeah, that's right. I'm probably into overlanding!"

As a solo rig, the Escape has ample storage by itself. Start adding bodies and gear to the logistical planning, and space disappears quickly. I have successfully been using a Yakima hard topper to increase my payload. It provides secure storage, keeps gear from prying eyes (and sticky fingers), and keeps gear dry.

e1030936.jpg

That said, the topper is not good for everything. A spare tire, a muddy shovel, and a few jugs of gas don't mix well with the Yakima.
I needed a roof rack.


This seemingly simple add-on, turned out to be quite a challenge.

I began scouring the interwebs for bolt on roof rack solutions. The Escape has proper roof rails and with the sheer number of these rigs on the road (including Mercury Mariners and Mazda Tributes) somebody has to have a nice bolt-on solution. Anyone?... Anyone?... Bueller?... Ferris Bueller?

Well, it appears that turn-key is out. I am stuck with the stock crossbars. Time to adapt and overcome.

First step- Determine how much rack do I really need?

I found several roof racks that might do the job. I laid out the external dimensions of each using blue tape on my driveway. Then I grabbed the gear that I expected to toss up top during an extended or technically challenging outing.

Items I REALLY do not want inside with me on a sweltering day in the desert:

-Full Size Spare Tire (stinks)
-5 gal gas can (stinks, safety hazard)
- Trash bucket (stinks)
- Poo bucket (affectionately dubbed "Deuce and a Half" ;) (Smell from Hell!)
- Misc recovery gear (smells fine, just need convenient access)


e_0435.jpg

The Baja Rack "Mule" got the nod. It was the smallest that would carry my gear, and was a good match to the length to my existing roof rails, and the width of my crossbars. I ordered up one Mule "To-Go!"

mule.jpgmule2.jpgmule3.jpg

Upon arrival, the mule appeared to be up to the task. I placed it down on level ground and it rocked a bit. I don't think they bothered using a jig to square up the rack before welding. It is a little off on one side, but not noticeable If you don't know where to look.

It was time for a test fit on the ground to see if it would accommodate my gear.

e_0444.jpg e_0443.jpg

I need to sort out a new container for the recovery gear, but the rest fit like a glove.

I then mounted the rack to my cross bars using the provided hardware. So far, so good. I also purchased the optional tire mount. When I do put a tire up there, I want it to stay up there, till I say so. I will use the supplied tire mount, as well as a ratchet strap. (Belt and suspenders philosophy).

After mounting, I wasn't completely pleased.

I like a roof rack to be snugger to the roof line. Using the supplied mounts, on top of the crossbars, was a bit high and was aesthetically kinda meh.

e_0604.jpge_0608.jpg


Forget looks! It's performance that counts right? I loaded her up and performed a dynamic load test. This was very sophisticated and involves me grabbing the rack with my hands, and using my ample mass trying to wiggle the whole freaking mess in in the X, Y, and Z axis.

X? Check!
Y? Check!
Z? Not so much...


The roof rails are strong. The cross bars are strong. The roof rail to crossbar bracket is made of some kind composite plastic and had an unnerving amount of up/down flex to it. Would it be OK? Probably. Was it worth the risk? Probably not.

Time to go back to the drawing board.

(Roof Rack Phase II coming soon)
 
Last edited:

OuterLimits

I control the horizontal and the vertical
Great build ! The first gen escape was a great vehicle. Is this the 6 cyl or 4 cyl ?

Came across this for lift - https://www.carid.com/2005-ford-escape-lift-kits/
I have also seen BDS make a 2 inch lift for the escape ... Have seen gen 1 escapes lifted with the BDS lift.

Vhercules, Thanks! It's been a simple, reliable rig so far.

I have the 3.0 liter 6 cylinder. 3500 lbs and 200ish HP is a fine match.

I struggle using CarID search results. They seem to toss in all kinds of incompatible parts. The only item on that page that will fit the Escape is the H&R springs. The rest of those goodies are for other rigs. Leaf spring blocks for a coil spring rig? ;-)

Over the last couple of years every lift kit for the Escape has gone away, with the exception of the H&R springs. BDS, OME, sadly all gone.
I started my build about 2 years too late.

Cheers
 
Last edited:

Forum statistics

Threads
185,527
Messages
2,875,533
Members
224,922
Latest member
Randy Towles
Top