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2007 Xterra:Terry's Bolt On Wheeler

To hopefully make up for giving in on the compressor install, I've been building brackets to mount my traction boards today. I left my roof rack cross bars long for this reason. I wanted full use of my roof basket for gear. I started with some 1" x 1/16" aluminum flat stock. Here's what I've got so far.

20180608_100443 by TerryD, on Flickr

20180608_101630 by TerryD, on Flickr

20180608_110501 by TerryD, on Flickr

20180608_110925 by TerryD, on Flickr

20180608_114022 by TerryD, on Flickr

I did have to spread my roof rack bars out a bit to get the brackets to line up with the mounting holes that are in the XBULL traction boards. That only took a minute though. I used some 1/2" steel tubing to put around the bolts to make the mounting studs. I have to go back to the hardware store and get some 1/4 x 5" bolts. The 1/4 x 6" bolts were too long. I should be able to finish this up in the morning and be ready to go.

I also received my little compressor and gave it a test run. It does as expected. I'm pleased with it. It could use a real rubber hose instead of the little plastic job that fails pretty quick. My buddy's failed on us when we were airing up his SPARE on top of the mountain in Harlan, Ky after bending one of his regular wheels till it wouldn't hold air. I'll be upgrading that after this trip too.
 
So the brackets are pretty much done for the traction mats. I'm going to test them out and if they perform good (no major noise from them) I'm going to pull them and paint them with some bed liner or or something. I wound up having to use all-thread rod because I couldn't find anywhere in town with the 1/4-20 die in stock. There were some sets for sale, but I'm not paying $40 when the all thread rod was about $3.

They don't go out onto the basket at all so anything inside the basket won't interfere with them:

20180609_105528 by TerryD, on Flickr

20180609_105528 by TerryD, on Flickr

The underside:

20180609_105453 by TerryD, on Flickr

The brackets to clamp the boards on:

20180609_105546 by TerryD, on Flickr

And a little security since I cannot lock the bolts by any means.

20180609_113621 by TerryD, on Flickr
 
Now on to yesterday's adventures:​

We had planned on going to Pisgah National Forest to explore and camp at the beginning of the week. The weather forecast was bad at best, 80-90% chance of thunder storms for Monday-Wednesday so we decided that it wasn't worth chancing being miserable for those days. We hopped in the wife's Malibu and spent those days in Gatlinburg doing the touristy type stuff. We went to the aquarium and ate way too much and did those kinds of things and had a great time with the kids. We got home Wednesday night and spent the day around the house Thursday getting things unpacked and catching up on stuff around here.

We talked about it and the weather was supposed to be amazing yesterday and today, so we decided to load up the X, go run Flag Pole and camp in West Augusta.

Friday morning, we threw all the gear on the X and headed out about 10 am. I've been searching for the best way to organize the back of the Xterra for trips and these Sterelite totes work great. They nest together, the table fits between them perfectly, my Coleman Powerhouse two burner stove fits between the ones on the left and the back seat and my come-along is behind the ones on the right. They leave enough space on the right side to fit my Coleman lantern and case in perfectly as well. The tent and camp chairs were all on the roof basket and the cooler and water jug were on the hitch carrier.

20180615_182221 by TerryD, on Flickr

Left top: 2x small totes with dry goods in one (chips, sandwich wraps, smores makings, ect) and camp supplies in the other (hammock, playing cards, roll of paper towels, wet wipes ect)

Left bottom: tools, recovery gear, and portable air compressor

Right top: Clothes and swim wear for 5 people.

Right middle: air mattresses, stuffable pillows, bed sheets, mattress pump

Right bottom: Mess kit (frying pan, french press, utensils, plates, cups, seasonings, ect)

Loaded up, filling up outside of town:

20180615_102409 by TerryD, on Flickr

All that load was squatting the rear of the X about 2". You can kind of see in this picture how it's raked back a bit. This was a good test of the new suspension. I'm VERY happy with the Rads all around and the Alcans. There were several places where I was three wheeling but since so much weight was over the rear axle, it just carried the front tire in the air and trudged right along!

We got to the trail head about 1pm. Julie set to making lunch for everyone and I aired down. I went from 35 to 20 in the front and 45 to 30 in the rear. I think with the load I had on it, these were very good trail pressures. It rode well and performed good all day.

Front tires at 20psi on a slight grade. I'm pretty pleased with how they flex.

20180615_150714 by TerryD, on Flickr

20180615_124940 by TerryD, on Flickr

20180615_124957 by TerryD, on Flickr

20180615_125019 by TerryD, on Flickr

We hit the trail about 1:30 and were really enjoying the ride.

20180615_140843 by TerryD, on Flickr

20180615_140832 by TerryD, on Flickr

The little two decided they wanted to walk up the trail with the dog as we drove. They probably walked a half mile before I got tired of having to stop and wait on them. They got back in and we made pretty good time to the top of the mountain. About a 1/4 mile from the field, we were crawling through a little trench section and the X just stalled out. It was like a manual transmission does when you don't get back on the gas quite quick enough when you edge up against an obstacle. I had a bad feeling I knew what was coming when it took several seconds of cranking to get it started again.

20180615_150628 by TerryD, on Flickr

It started just fine here, and we started our way on across the ridge towards Reddish Knob. Just as we got off the knoll and onto the trail, the dash lit up!

20180615_161756 by TerryD, on Flickr

I tossed my OBD2 Bluetooth dongle on it and sure enough, P0345. Bank 2 Cam Pos Sensor code.

It was still running and not wanting to chance shutting it down again, we made our way along the trail to the paved road that comes up the mountain to Reddish Knob Lookout. Down that road a ways, we stopped to air up, then made our 1.5 hour drive home mostly without issue. It was noticeably down on power though.

20180615_160004 by TerryD, on Flickr

Now I'm trying to find a place to buy the sensors from where I feel like I'm paying a reasonable price for Hitachi brand stuff and not Hitachi labeled knock-offs....

Maybe on day we'll go camping and it actually work out!!!! :grin:
 
I wound up with the inner wheel wells pulled to get at the cam sensors, and decided to pull and replace the cats while I was in there. While the exhaust system was loose, I figured it was a good time to pull the t-case and replace the transmission output shaft seal. So that's what I was doing Saturday and Sunday.

I got the seal replaced yesterday evening and the t-case, driveshafts, and cross member back in. I'm hoping to get the converters back in this evening and the exhaust all hooked back up. Then I'll just be waiting on my cam sensors and O2 sensors. Hopefully this thing will be back under power by the weekend!!
 
Swapped cam sensors and installed new O2 sensors this evening. Started it up and found the downstream flanges of the converters are leaking. Another Xterra guy recommended getting OE style gaskets instead of what MagnaFlow includes. Guess I'm headed to the dealer in the morning to see if they have them in stock.

Nursing a head ache from working in the heat around the boiler all day long, fixing a problem that wouldn't be a problem if people would even half-ass their jobs.....

Maybe a little pissy and it's probably a good thing the wife and kids are out of town this weekend.....
 
Got the exhaust leak fixed and taken it on a few test drives. Got about 50 miles on it and no codes or leaks yet!

I might take it on a longer trip tomorrow, but its Amateur Radio Field Day and I'm supposed to man the club station tomorrow night.
 
Well, so far no issues with the exhaust or new sensors. However, I crawled under it the other day to reinstall the skid plate after waiting a few weeks to see if the leak returns, and it's leaking..... :doah::angry1: At this point, as long as I'm not loosing enough fluid to kill the transmission, I'm going to let it ride for a while. I just don't have the time for that right now. The K2500 needs a master cylinder, it's getting to where you about can't stop the lumbering thing but we're leaving for vacation Thursday. I wish I had some more buddies in this area that worked on stuff to help keep me motivated.
 
My bumper finally arrived! I got the wife's parking brake actuator issue fixed so now I've got to swap master cylinders on my truck and then I can get started on installing my bumper and winch on the X.
 
Three of us went out to Flag Pole yesterday and ran the Union Springs leg from the bottom up. This was my first time going up this route and it was a lot of fun! It's much more challenging in this direction and I really enjoy the technical trails so I was right at home out there.

We met up at Sheetz in Harrisonburg to fuel up and get ready for the trail. Only three of us showed up. Chris, David and myself. We headed out around 10:45. At the creek crossing, we stopped to air down.

20180825_113451 by TerryD, on Flickr

20180825_113500 by TerryD, on Flickr

20180825_113512 by TerryD, on Flickr

We rolled along up the gravel road pretty good and when we hit the muddy field at the trail head, Chris took the lead. His Taco with the long travel suspension just soaked up the trail and he just sailed along in front. He'd stop and let us catch him up regularly.

Chris was the first to try the rock ledge at about half way up.

20180825_122519_007 by TerryD, on Flickr

As he was crawling up on it, we noticed that he was just pulling with his rear wheels. We checked it out and found the passengerside outside CV shaft was busted. With a little momentum and proper tire placement, he bounced right up it. I was next, followed by David. The trails were just damp enough that you slid and spun a little on every obstacle but with some good spotting from Chris, we both walked right up it.

We stopped in the next field to check out Chris's truck better and try to come up with a solution.

20180825_130202 by TerryD, on Flickr

20180825_130210 by TerryD, on Flickr

We had to use David's factory jack and firewood to scotch up the Taco to get the tire off so we could work in there.

20180825_131931 by TerryD, on Flickr

The outer joint and completely grenaded and we were able to disassemble the shaft in place rather than having to pull the wheel bearing or knuckle apart. With that out, the tools cleaned up and lunch taken care of, we headed on up the trail.

20180825_142040 by TerryD, on Flickr

We were so near the top that Chris decided to push on rather than turning back. We were confident we would be able to get him up the washouts at the top of the trail with some good spotting.

I took the lead out of the field headed to the top. We figured that if I could get up first, I could tow Chris up if he couldn't make it.

My trip up the hill was pretty interesting. I wound up doing some three-wheeling on the last ledge and had to bump it a couple times to get it to carry through.

20180825_144800 by TerryD, on Flickr

20180825_144802 by TerryD, on Flickr

20180825_144807 by TerryD, on Flickr

Chris came up next. He made it to the last ledge but his rear slid into the rut and we couldn't get him lined back up so he started backing down to make another run at it. Somewhere between the field and the hill climb, he had cut the passenger side front tire and as he backed down, it came completely off the rim.

20180825_145824 by TerryD, on Flickr

20180825_150442 by TerryD, on Flickr
 
He backed back down to the flat spot at the bottom of the hill where it would be a little safer to change the tire. Chris started getting his spare out while David and I were jacking up the truck and building another firewood jack stand. During this adventure, several groups came by. Two Jeeps, one going in each direction, a group of guys on motor cycles, a group on bicycles and even a bear hunter.

20180825_151440 by TerryD, on Flickr

20180825_152703 by TerryD, on Flickr

Two guys on motor cycles made a wrong turn at the top of the hill and came down by us then realized they had gone the wrong way and came back by. On their way back by, they stopped and asked if we had air. One of their rears was almost flat. Chris drug out his compressor and aired the guy up while we were finishing up getting his truck back on the ground.

20180825_151018 by TerryD, on Flickr

20180825_151114 by TerryD, on Flickr

After that, we decided to get David to the top first, then we could both focus on getting Chris up. I spotted him up the same line I used and he was up quickly.

20180825_153835 by TerryD, on Flickr

20180825_153838 by TerryD, on Flickr

With David at the top, we all talked it over and decided that since Chris had more wheel base and much more travel, we could probably send him up the middle of the trench if he could get lined up on it at speed.

His first attempt looked like it was going to be perfect but right at the top, his back end slid into the notch again. He backed back down a bit and tried it a second time and this time his rears held. He was able to use the momentum and rear locker through the one section he lifted a rear tire on and was up in a flash.

20180825_154325 by TerryD, on Flickr

20180825_154352 by TerryD, on Flickr

20180825_154355 by TerryD, on Flickr

Once we were all at the top we decided to head across to Reddish Knob. David and I were both going South and that would put us out closer to Staunton and Chris could ride the paved road out from the knob to 33 and back into Harrisonburg since he was going to be heading North. After a quick stop off at the top of Flag Pole Knob since it was David's first time up there, we made our way out to Reddish Knob. That road is pretty nice and going was quick and smooth.

At the pavement we ran into a group headed off the mountain toward 33 and Chris followed them. David and I headed on toward Reddish Knob, after a short detour because I apparently can't read my own maps..... The road up to Reddish Knob is a single lane paved. I mean seriously single lane. For most of it, both my mirrors were clipping brush. Along the way, we went plenty slow. In one blind curve, a Silverado heading in the opposite direction almost ended my day. Luckily I was being super cautious and was able to ditch the X and he swerved just in time to miss me.

We took our time and in the really bad curves, I blew my horn a few times to hopefully warn oncoming traffic. After meeting a few more vehicles, we made it to the top where the old fire tower used to stand.

20180825_164526 by TerryD, on Flickr

We stretched our legs for a bit and then headed on toward West Augusta on the ridge road. Just under the lookout, the road turns back to gravel/dirt but it was pretty smooth and we were making ok time. At one point we spooked a coyote out of hiding and he ran up the trail in front of me for a short stint. I didn't manage to get to my phone in time to snap a picture of him.

After a bit, we met a blue pickup coming the other way and he told us there was a biker up ahead that had gotten separated from his group and was headed back off the mountain. David and I talked it over on the radio and decided if we ran into him, we'd at least offer to help if we could. As luck would have it, he did indeed need help. When we found him, he was pushing his bicycle. Just after he met the guy in the pickup, he'd wrecked his bicycle and blew out the rear tire. His attempts to repair it had not worked so he had resigned himself to push it off the mountain.

We stopped and offered him a ride he gladly accepted. I strapped his bicycle to my roof and my daughter cleaned him out a seat in the X. It was a good 20 minute ride from where we picked him up to where his truck was parked. It was around 6 when we got there, it would have been well after dark by the time he got there if he'd had to walk off.

From there, we wound our way back to 250 where we both aired up. I had been running 18psi all day and I didn't think it was a good idea to drive the 30 minutes to Waynesboro at those pressures. It took about 20 minutes to air us both up with my little compressor. My daughter had asked if we could eat supper at Buffalo Wild Wings and the one in Waynesboro was the closest to where we were.

David joined us along with his dog Tiga (tye-gah). We left there around 9:20 headed home and made it back to the house at 10:30.

20180825_194938 by TerryD, on Flickr
 
He backed back down to the flat spot at the bottom of the hill where it would be a little safer to change the tire. Chris started getting his spare out while David and I were jacking up the truck and building another firewood jack stand. During this adventure, several groups came by. Two Jeeps, one going in each direction, a group of guys on motor cycles, a group on bicycles and even a bear hunter.

20180825_151440 by TerryD, on Flickr

20180825_152703 by TerryD, on Flickr

Two guys on motor cycles made a wrong turn at the top of the hill and came down by us then realized they had gone the wrong way and came back by. On their way back by, they stopped and asked if we had air. One of their rears was almost flat. Chris drug out his compressor and aired the guy up while we were finishing up getting his truck back on the ground.

20180825_151018 by TerryD, on Flickr

20180825_151114 by TerryD, on Flickr

After that, we decided to get David to the top first, then we could both focus on getting Chris up. I spotted him up the same line I used and he was up quickly.

20180825_153835 by TerryD, on Flickr

20180825_153838 by TerryD, on Flickr

With David at the top, we all talked it over and decided that since Chris had more wheel base and much more travel, we could probably send him up the middle of the trench if he could get lined up on it at speed.

His first attempt looked like it was going to be perfect but right at the top, his back end slid into the notch again. He backed back down a bit and tried it a second time and this time his rears held. He was able to use the momentum and rear locker through the one section he lifted a rear tire on and was up in a flash.

20180825_154325 by TerryD, on Flickr

20180825_154352 by TerryD, on Flickr

20180825_154355 by TerryD, on Flickr

Once we were all at the top we decided to head across to Reddish Knob. David and I were both going South and that would put us out closer to Staunton and Chris could ride the paved road out from the knob to 33 and back into Harrisonburg since he was going to be heading North. After a quick stop off at the top of Flag Pole Knob since it was David's first time up there, we made our way out to Reddish Knob. That road is pretty nice and going was quick and smooth.

At the pavement we ran into a group headed off the mountain toward 33 and Chris followed them. David and I headed on toward Reddish Knob, after a short detour because I apparently can't read my own maps..... The road up to Reddish Knob is a single lane paved. I mean seriously single lane. For most of it, both my mirrors were clipping brush. Along the way, we went plenty slow. In one blind curve, a Silverado heading in the opposite direction almost ended my day. Luckily I was being super cautious and was able to ditch the X and he swerved just in time to miss me.

We took our time and in the really bad curves, I blew my horn a few times to hopefully warn oncoming traffic. After meeting a few more vehicles, we made it to the top where the old fire tower used to stand.

20180825_164526 by TerryD, on Flickr

We stretched our legs for a bit and then headed on toward West Augusta on the ridge road. Just under the lookout, the road turns back to gravel/dirt but it was pretty smooth and we were making ok time. At one point we spooked a coyote out of hiding and he ran up the trail in front of me for a short stint. I didn't manage to get to my phone in time to snap a picture of him.

After a bit, we met a blue pickup coming the other way and he told us there was a biker up ahead that had gotten separated from his group and was headed back off the mountain. David and I talked it over on the radio and decided if we ran into him, we'd at least offer to help if we could. As luck would have it, he did indeed need help. When we found him, he was pushing his bicycle. Just after he met the guy in the pickup, he'd wrecked his bicycle and blew out the rear tire. His attempts to repair it had not worked so he had resigned himself to push it off the mountain.

We stopped and offered him a ride he gladly accepted. I strapped his bicycle to my roof and my daughter cleaned him out a seat in the X. It was a good 20 minute ride from where we picked him up to where his truck was parked. It was around 6 when we got there, it would have been well after dark by the time he got there if he'd had to walk off.

From there, we wound our way back to 250 where we both aired up. I had been running 18psi all day and I didn't think it was a good idea to drive the 30 minutes to Waynesboro at those pressures. It took about 20 minutes to air us both up with my little compressor. My daughter had asked if we could eat supper at Buffalo Wild Wings and the one in Waynesboro was the closest to where we were.

David joined us along with his dog Tiga (tye-gah). We left there around 9:20 headed home and made it back to the house at 10:30.

20180825_194938 by TerryD, on Flickr
 
Even though it's no where near as capable as my K5 was, I'm really pleased with this thing. I miss the reckless disregard for the body of the K5 sometimes but at least I can get out and wheel this thing and drive it around. I think if I could find an amazing deal on a 1st gen K5, I might swap back eventually.
 
Looks like a lot of fun.

We did some very mild trails a month ago in Colorado with my wife's '09 Tahoe, and even though it's not as capable as my K5, it was a ton of fun. So I know what you are talking about.

Great pictures too!
 
GWeakland620 said:
Looks like a lot of fun.

We did some very mild trails a month ago in Colorado with my wife's '09 Tahoe, and even though it's not as capable as my K5, it was a ton of fun. So I know what you are talking about.

Great pictures too!
Click to expand...

Thanks! It's as much about just being outdoors as it is running really challenging trails for me. I'm almost as happy on a nice gravel road or the Parkway as I am in 4-low, crawling some nice rock steps. Hopefully I can maintain the balance of abilities with the Xterra and it'll stick around for a good long time. The next mods are going with 3.69 or 4.10 gearing and at least a rear locker. It's bordering on gutless with the 3.13's and 33's fully loaded with our gear and suffers in the rough stuff because of it.
 
My Shrockworks bumper arrived back in July, within a few days of us leaving for the beach for a week. I managed to get it shoved into the garage for safe keeping until I had time to install it and my winch. Thanks to the kids and wife starting back to school, traveling for different events, working on other projects and the weather last week was the first good chance I've had to get the work done.

After work Wednesday evening, I pulled the front end off the X and got the new Shrock mounts installed. I also opened the winch control pack relocation kit and began installing it. I took a personal day Thursday since I'd had enough of work for the week, it was supposed to rain most of the weekend, and I was headed down to visit my Dad for a couple days Saturday.

How it arrived:​
20180718_130929 by TerryD, on Flickr

20180919_172355 by TerryD, on Flickr

20180919_193434 by TerryD, on Flickr

On Thursday morning, the first thing I did was drop it off the pallet and scrape up some of the powder coating on the grill guard bar and recovery points. Oh well, it's for off-road use and not a show vehicle anyways... Using the engine hoist, I set it on saw horses to install the winch.

20180920_100149 by TerryD, on Flickr

20180920_100154 by TerryD, on Flickr

Shrock uses some 3/16" or 1/4" thick metal to brace up the winch mount points. This made the standard bolts that Warn includes too short to properly secure the winch. I used the longer (40mm) bolts that would usually secure the lower mount and Hawse fairlead in the top holes and went to Tractor Supply for some longer (50mm) bolts to mount the fairlead and secure the bottom of the winch.

Also, in the Shock instructions, it says to cut and bend the section of the grill support brackets back to clear a winch. Using an integrated winch like the Zeon required a good bit more work. I cut the entire lower portion of the mount off and just left the flat top where the push rivets go in. It's flimsy when not bolted to the truck but is plenty sturdy once it's reinstalled. I'll have to try to get pictures later.

The D shaped holes in the top of the bumper were large enough to route the cables for the winch solenoid through. I modified the solenoid pack mount plate to have two holes on the front of the bumper and the back two I moved in toward the control pack and slightly together to make it fit the top of the bumper properly.

20180920_105313 by TerryD, on Flickr

20180920_130143 by TerryD, on Flickr

The battery cables are routed through the hole in the brace next to the fog light on the right side and up behind the headlight. I put some wire loom over them to protect from scrapes and gouges. To attach the positive, I drilled the holes in the fuseable link and factory cable out to 3/8" to fit on a marine terminal and used a flanged nut to secure it. I don't have anything to crimp 4ga wire right now, so I just drilled the threads out of a 1/4" nut and used the clamp bolt on the negative to secure it for the time being. I will go back and put on the proper matching marine terminal as soon as I can crimp a lug on the negative battery cable.

There were several missing push rivets so it had to spend a day without it's grill till I could get by NAPA and buy a bag of them.

20180920_182427 by TerryD, on Flickr

20180921_145642 by TerryD, on Flickr

And here it is put back together and ready to use (minus the negative battery terminal for the time being).

20180921_140059 by TerryD, on Flickr
 
AJMBLAZER said:
Front sag any?
Click to expand...

Yeah. The weight of them combined (240-ish-lb) dropped it about 3/4". I had one inch spacers to install and drop the preload on the Radflos down to increase down travel but with the bumper installed, putting the spacers on leveled it back up just fine without adjusting the coilovers and gained me some down travel.
GWeakland620 said:
Looks good dude! Got any 3/4 front/side shots?
Click to expand...

I'll try to get some better pictures soon. We're supposed to go on a ride this weekend so hopefully I can get some good shots then too.
 
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