[JRTJH]

One concern with the 2005 Excursion is payload. The GVW is around 9000 lbs and the diesel 4x2 weighs in at 7300 while the diesel 4x4 weighs 7700. That gives you a payload of only 1300 lbs with the 4WD Excursion in its standard form. Granted, it can tow like an ox, and carry all your family in relative comfort, but you're still going to be pushing the GVW with almost any RV with a tongue weight of over 6 or 7 hundred pounds.

One of the reasons the Excursion became a dinasour is because it just couldn't carry the payload it needed to carry to remain competetive even with the F250 crew cab. The F350 dually simply outcarried it even though both could conceivably tow the same weight (given the same diesel, transmission and rear drive). Part of that is customer demand for "cushy ride" and part is because of the design of the rear suspension with long springs calibrated for that ride.

So, do your homework, use the numbers that you know you have and that you suspect you'll add with the RV and compare different vehicles.

You "KNOW" how much your family weighs, you know how much stuff the kids drag into the car when you travel, you know what else is added. Take that figure, and add 150 lbs for a WD hitch. That's your "known weight" that you will always have in the truck. Then add 11% to 15% of the GVW of the trailer you're considering.

Those two figures when added together, need to be less than the "available payload" of the tow vehicle you are considering. If you're "close" then only you can decide, but if you're 6 or 7 hundred pounds over, you already know you're in trouble before you even start hitching up.

Look around, take your time. Realize that camping season, even in GA isn't going to be ramping up until around Easter, so you have time to study the situation and come to some good "ground rules" for what you need and what will/won't work for your family.