A Full-Size Review And Holiday Road Trip Guide with RV Rules!

2025 Expedition Max Overview

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to another In Wheel Time podcast. Alright, timeout for this hour's car review had a chance to drive the all-new 2025 Ford Expedition Max. I was assembled in Louisville, Kentucky. Here are the available trim levels, the active, the max active, the platinum, the max platinum, the tremor, the King Ranch, and Max at the King Ranch. We drove the Max Platinum. This is a standard or full-size SUV body on frame. Old school. Seats well, three rows that hold seven seats, including the driver.

Exterior Design And Tailgate Upgrades

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Exterior changes from last model year redesigned for 2025. You have to ask yourself though, first will the best fit in the garage? It's huge. It's an aircraft carrier. It's massive. So keep that in mind. And if that's what you're looking for, well, I'll tell you what, this should be at the top of the list. Exterior features include subtle design changes on the exterior because how do you mess with success? Let's keep it kind of looking like the one that's outgoing. Lots of horizontal design elements throughout the body. Grill more streamlined now, with a full front skid plate on this particular model. It's modern, it's attractive, the wheel design works for this. It has lower profile tires on it, which I noticed, so it's gotta be significant if you can notice the lower profile tires. Two-piece tailgate works well. I'll tell you about that more in a minute. Two-toned gate, though. I'm not exactly sure why they did that with the paint, but hey, if it works for them, maybe it works for us later on. What I liked, the new tailgate, uh it holds the cargo in. So if you go to the grocery store to put the groceries in, you know how the old tailgates work, you open up and slide everything in? Well, it also slides right out. If you happen to get jostled about on your way home from the grocery store. This one, it's a little short tailgate, probably about a foot tall, and it lowers when you open the the big gate, it lowers with it as well, so it works well.

Interior Space And Tech Highlights

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Uh interior highlights, all new interior for 2025, spacious cabin, quality services throughout, two screens now to accommodate the high-tech features that this comes with. It has a movable center console. Yeah, you can slide it back and slide it forward, not just the lid. I'm talking about the whole thing, which is kind of cool. It allows for big purses, cargo right up there by you. Uh cargo and trunk room, well, it's big back there with the third row down, obviously. What I liked about it, again, the spaciousness of it, because it's big.

Powertrain, MPG, And Towing

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Engine! Well, this comes with a three and a half liter high output EcoBoost V6 engine that turns out four hundred horsepower and four hundred and eighty pound feet of torque through a ten-speed automatic transmission. Till rating is up to nine thousand pounds with the right hitch on it. Miles per gallon? If I gotta tell you I will. Fifteen miles per gallon in the city is what it's rated. Twenty-two on the highway for a combined of eighteen, I got eighteen point two miles per gallon over four hundred and sixty-nine point eight miles. What I liked about it, the power. Plenty of it there right at your right foot. What could use improvement? Hey Ford, how about adding a hybrid powertrain? Just to up the mileage of it. Just a thought. Ride and handling. Well, this is an extra large vehicle, and it rides like one. Boy, I'll tell you what, that ride is awesome. So we could use improvement. I I don't know. Um I think they did a really good

Ride Quality And Pricing

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job considering its size and its weight. Boy, it's really nice. Alright. Here's what you've been waiting for. The pricing on this. Base trim price, $80,445. Price is tested? $85,970, clearly. That is before taxes. Base model price, you can get into one of these for as little as $57,400 if you call that little. Competitors, I'll think you know what they are. The Chevy Suburban or the GMC UConn XL. They're kind of go down the same assembly line, just a little bit different look. But $61,500 is where they start. But it depends on who you ask what is big. Sequoia starts at $62,425. And then there's the Nissan Armada. It starts at the bargain basement price of $57,520. And that is my review of the brand new 2025 Expedition Max.

Competitors And Value Check

SPEAKER_01 5:08

We're going to start with one for Jeff. Now, this is the road trip Chicago to Frankenmouth. Frank is am I saying that right? Frankenmouth?

SPEAKER_02 5:16

Frank and Chicago is right, yes.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

Yeah, Chicago. Frankmouth, Michigan. Now, this starts off in Chicago because they have all the big markets and ice skating and the downtown lights display. It's really a big city set up and it's really very Christmas oriented. But then the road trip takes you over to Frankenmouthmouth, Michigan. It's often called Little Bavaria. Now, here's they've got all the architecture, they've got horse dog carriages, they got non-stop seasonal music. But the main thing they have is Bonner's Christmas Woodland by Wonderland. Now, this is the largest Christmas story store in the country, and then you're year

Holiday Road Trip: Chicago To Frankenmuth

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in on holiday spirit. And then from there, we're gonna drop, then we're gonna go south where it's a little warmer to the Texas Hill Country. Now we're gonna start in Grapevine. Now, this is called the um self-proclaimed Christmas capital of Texas, but a couple of magazines and CNN and some other people have covered it as such. So they've got themed train rides and parades. They got all kinds of things going on up there, but you can take from there, you want to go west through the hill country to Fredericksburg. This is where you're gonna find the German heritage with all the Christmas pyramids, the markets, and the uh lighting ceremonies that go on for several days, and then finish down in San Antonio because of the river walk and all around town. There's lots of places with lights that are going and very festive, and the weather is usually mild

Texas Hill Country Lights

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with great food and a lot of different traditions. Then, if you really want to go to someplace far off, go off to Seattle and where you're gonna start and go through the Cascade Mountains and go over to Leavenworth, Washington. Now, again, the Leavenworth. Yeah, you know, no, no, no, but that's your other, that's your summer house. You know, the Leavenworth, Washington is where they have the other Leavenworth. Yeah, yeah. Now, this is uh again another place that's set up like a Bavarian village. They got all kinds of lights going on, and white uh while the carolers walk through town, they got nutcrackers and holiday music in the streets, and you generally they have snowfall, which is gonna really kind of make it more Christmasy to a lot of people. I really want to live in the snow, but I like going up there and visiting it for a couple hours. Then uh again, if you want to go someplace else, the other side of the country, Asheville and cutting across

Bavarian Vibes In Washington

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the Blue Ridge Parkway. Now, Asheville is a little bit slower paced, but it's got the iconic Biltmore estate. And that's really what lights up for Christmas, the holidays. I've never been there, I've heard a lot about it, but haven't made the trip yet. But Christmas might be the time to go. And then uh when you go through the Blue Ridge Parkway, of course, they got the ring of views, even without the snow, you can get cabins. There's a lot of little breweries along the way, and it's just kind of a more of an outdoor type cruise is cost going through Christmas. The last one that I found interesting was going from Philadelphia to New York City. Now, this is of course the East Coast road trip. Philadelphia, they have a Christmas village with European-style stalls

Asheville And Blue Ridge Parkway

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and seasonal treats, handcrafted gifts, and lots of historic streets there in Philadelphia. And then you go to New York City. Now, I've been to New York City during the holidays one time for about four hours. Had a nice little tour real quick, saw the big Christmas trees and everything at Rockefeller Center, ice skating rinks, uh, window displays, and all that Broadway lighting and things that go on around there is just really enhanced during the Christmas season. So these are a few places if you're close, you want to make a quick trip to get away, maybe try some of these for Christmas.

Philly To NYC Holiday Highlights

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Time now for Jeff's car culture.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

Five things that could be against the law while driving your RV. That's right. And RV living and travel are booming like never before. According to the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association, there is one out there. There are now more than 11 million households in the United States with an RV. There's at least tens of thousands more people to the open road each year. RVing is free, adventurous, and comfortable. Yet there are a variety of rules to keep the traveler and the local community safe from you and them and clean as well. Here we go. Driving an overweight RV is wrong. It's against the law. You'll have a weight limit to prevent any accidents. Based on recent way station inspections at RV rallies, more than 85% of the RVs exceeded gross vehicle weight capacity recommendations. Just overloaded too much stuff in it. The risk is overloading, the risk of overloading can be summed up in the fact that overloading compromises braking, handling, and

RV Laws: Weight And Safety

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tire safety, which increases the chances of accidents. The overweight vehicles are heavily penalized by most states with fines and are prohibited from traveling further until their fault is that reminds me of the Isle of Lucy movie, The Long, Long Fleaver, where if you loaded up all the rocks along the way. That was on recently, too. Using the bathroom while the RV is moving, although it may not seem like a significant issue, using the restroom or walking around an RV in motion may be against the law in most states. There are differences in laws depending on where one lives, but there are many mainly concerns relative to safety. Since any time and one may be um in the vehicle with abruptly stop or hit a road bump, it might result in injuries. Yeah. And splash contents and all the problems. Belt yourself in, strap yourself down there. Alrighty, and don't eat burritos before you go. No, but the next one is uh parking your IV or IV, your I'm not be for me. A Don Armsprung IV wagon.

Parking, Propane, And Boondocking Rules

SPEAKER_02 11:08

A residential street or driveway. Many local ordinances prohibit the overnight parking of RVs on residential curves or even in driveways. Now, my stepfather had a Winnipeg a little parking in the driveway. We didn't care because it was allowed. In other cities, parking an RV in front of your house or street or driveway can result in fines or even towing. Specific neighborhoods require permits limiting the parking duration. These regulations aim to control neighborhood congestion and preserve the neighborhood aesthetics. Although we prefer to park near home, RV owners should review existing laws and consider alternatives like RV parks or storage areas. There's a lot of those around. Driving with the propane on. Don't do that. Another subject is uh a lot of controversy is towing or RVing your RV with propane tanks on. It is permitted in most states, but certain states impose restrictions in specific conditions such as time. Due to the risk of fire explosions, such safety advocates sound warnings of the dangers posed by propane leaks or accidents. You've got a leak in the RV, you could die. I mean, you could use asphyxiate yourself. So keeping that off is is a good thing for the RVers. Next one using helium. That's why that's what I say. Or other type of gases. Well, strap yourself into the commode there. Yeah. Boondocking is prohibited in many areas. Honestly, boondocking, boondocking, overnight camping without hookups or unmarked areas is becoming increasingly common. So you take your creeper van or whatever, you just park in

Seat Belts, Waste, And Final Notes

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somebody's house overnight. That's that's called boondocking. Okay. Um in restricted areas and own and privately owned land. It's not it's it's against the law. National Forest and Forest Services declared that dispersing camp camping and specific regulations at the time of restrictions. Violators risk fines and are forced removal. By adhering to these regulations, the natural spaces can be maintained, and no tensions with the locals or landowners can be created. So always know where you're going to park it. Don't just pull up somewhere and and throw your chair out there and flush your commode and all that stuff.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

Yeah, a lot of people used to, while they were traveling, use Walmart or Kmart parking lots overnight. Yep, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 13:21

I think some folks still do. Ignoring speech uh seat belt laws for passengers, even though being inside the RV may resemble being at home and a household on wheels, seat belts are required. This also includes items like the seat belts on the couches or benches, bench benches while they have been installed. So all the uh gray matter in the vehicle in the containers don't just leave the valves open and continue to to drive down the road. So there's a lot of stuff. Be careful. Uh you will get caught, and we'll find you.

SPEAKER_00 13:49

You were talking about uh overweight RVs.

SPEAKER_02 13:51

Mm-hmm. Oh, that well, in some cases, if you got your mother-in-law in there, though.

SPEAKER_00 13:56

Yeah, that didn't count, though.

Where To Watch And Listen Live

SPEAKER_02 13:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

So uh that's it for this podcast episode of the In Wheel Time Car Show. I'm Don Armstrong, inviting you to join us for our live show every Saturday morning, eight to eleven AM Central on Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, and our inwheeltime dot com website. Podcasts are available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeart Podcast, Podcast Attic. Tune in to Pandora and Amazon music. Keep listening and we'll see you soon.