soot

Not much of a build thread, but I figured that some of you guys who need something to do in the non race season would appreciate my new DD. The Nissan Xterra is actually a pretty neat platform with a lot of flexibility. Here's a quick stat overview.

• More power than a comparable Tacoma/4runner ( 236hp @ 5,200 rpm / 266lb-ft @ 4,000 rpm in the Toyota vs 261hp @ 5,600rpm / 281 lb-ft @ 4,000 rpm)
• Much cheaper used market price
• pro4x/Offroad models come with a rear locker
• Lower crawl ratio than comparable toyotas - 33.9:1 vs 41.5:1
• Titan v8 and trans is a complete bolt in swap (317 hp / 385 lb-ft )
• The front subframe shares the same pickup points as the Titan/Armada which means you can do long travel IFS with factory parts
• Rear seats fold completely flat and you can fit a nearly queen sized mattress in the rear. I'm 6'1" and can sleep fully stretched out with a good 4"+ extra headroom

Here's the truck as I got it. Terrible pic because it didn't stay like this for long. It was a well maintained 2010 OR edition with an absolutely terrible 2" front puck lift and a add a leaf in the rear


Shortly after I got the truck I stumbled on a Expedition one bumper locally for a great deal. I snapped it up, installed and then got out for the first camping test run. Coming from my old Cherokee the ride was MUCH smoother, except for the shocks/control arms topping out way too much over rocks. The stock suspension on these is... OK. you only have about 5.5" of wheel travel as is, and the spacer lift was actually making it less since I was losing bump travel and the stock upper control arms contact the coil bucket at max down travel. Toyotas definitely have the advantage here stock, but I wasn't planning on keeping things that way.




As a side note I also made some magnetic window screens to keep the mosquitoes out while I sleep in the back. They work REALLY well and flow more air than the stretchy ones you can get on Amazon

soot

Here's where the build actually starts. In the Xterra/Frontier community there's a suspension upgrade you can do called Titan Swapping. Generally this refers to:

• Factory Titan LCAs
• Titan UCAs (aftermarket arms like SPCs get you more travel)
• Infinity QX80 axles if you want to retain the stock front diff
• Titan inner and outer tie rods
• New longer front shocks (radflos or other. I did some fun stuff here and I'm running a Tundra strut, a 4runner spring and a custom tophat and it fits perfectly and has the correct bump/droop travel)

This nets you ~ 10" of suspension travel compared to the stock 5.5" and widens the front track width by 6". You can still fit 33" tires and not trim the body, but you get a massive improvement in ride quality and travel. The other upside is that you have 100% refreshed front suspension after the install so I could mentally write of a part of this as "maintenance costs"

The shiny new bits:


Some stock vs new comparison shots:






And here's the max droop before, and after!





This is 10" of total travel a the wheel. The bumpstop stops the wheel right before coil bind and fender contact and the droop is right where the CV seems to get unhappy.

Max bump left, max droop right:

extended brakes lines were installed after this photo

soot

Now I'm mainly on to minor lighting updates, comfort, and gear organization stuff since the thing just works. I added a front sway off of an Armada after getting sick of getting blown around on the freeway and now it drives even better than stock did. It's dead smooth over all kinds of bumps, fits heaps of gear, and has the power to get over our UT mountain passes without a problem.

RedCarmel

iTrader: (7)

I care. Always liked these and still want one.

TalkingPie

Seems like a cool truck. Even though I'm not an offroad guy I always liked the idea of these for going off pavement.

I don't know if I'm the only one, but no images other than the very first one appear.

RedCarmel

iTrader: (7)

Images appear in the first post but not the second for me

soot

Thanks for the heads up haha. Red you caught me mid fixing the posts, images should be up and working now.

TurboTim

iTrader: (9)

All pics work for me.

I didn't know about this platform, seems like a great way to do it, extra bonus with those factory swapable parts. Nice job!

Maybe we need an offroad subsection on this forum (yeah right).

soot

Good to hear!

Yeah I started out looking for a Toyota and ended up with one of these. The frame is fully boxed and the rust proofing seems to be far superior based on the age/condition compared to many other MFRs. It's not the prettiest vehicle, but it's real damn utilitarian, and has a ton of parts interchangeability.

I also did the entire long travel setup, replaced every suspension component in the process and ended up with 3.5" front and rear lift for under $2K, which is a hell of a good deal IMO.

I also just added some factory style seat heaters. They were a bit of a pain to install but holy **** it might be the best comfort thing I've done to a car. $90 for heating pads, switches and harnesses for both front seats.

Herbst

I have the Titan myself and love that truck. Any plans on doing the engine swap? That would make it an absolute beast! I see these engines in the junk yard all the time.

soot

It's def on the table if the 4.0 lets go. The V8 sounds amazing, I'd love to do a regar, 35s and the engine swap. It would put my truck right where I want it. Like you said engines are cheap and plentiful. Fits real nice too.

and I've even heard reports of people getting better mpg after the swap.

Chilicharger665

iTrader: (2)

So what did you use for the rear suspension lift?

soot

The truck had a 2 leaf AAL in the rear and a 3° shim (shimming pinion up) when I got it and it had sagged to ~1" of lift. I got to 2.5" in the rear with a PRG shackle added to that but I started getting minor driveshaft vibrations because the Nissan engineer that designed the driveshaft had their head up their ***. I ended up buying the Ironman 4X4 leaf packs and removed the overload and 3rd leaf
.


Overloads removed. Old leaves for comparison

With the new leaves I'm at 3.5" rear lift on the lowest shackle setting. I was getting some pretty bad vibrations that I resolved by getting a new driveshaft with the lower CV joint removed and a U joint in its place (U joints must be in pairs at equal angles to cancel each other's vibrations out.) I also had to run a 8° shim (pointing pinion down) to get the driveshaft angles correct. Now it all runs perfectly. New driveshaft was ~$300. The better way of fixing this is a double cardan shaft but that would have been $900+, and this is working just fine for my setup.


factory driveshaft vs new unit from Slyco with dual 1330 Spicer joints