Tom's 2011 Xterra Pro-4X: general utility and midwest adventure

TFin04

Adventurer
Been a busy year with work and a new baby at home, but I was able to escape for a few days of exploring Michigan's Upper Penninsula. We covered a lot of ground off road, the UP is full of trails and seasonal roads. My goals were to see some sites I haven't been to before, to camp on the shores of Lake Superior, and to paddle the Tahquamenon River.

The Xterra is working great for me, although I am finding that I am not using the awning as much as I thought I would, and I plan to build a paddle/fishing rod holder along the roof inside the cab. After a long time of fiddling with roof rack configurations, I'm going to try to run it as slick as possible for a while to save on wind noise, fuel, and snagging branches on trails.

We took an ATV trail by mistake at one point, which is meant for ATV's 50" wide or less. Once we got on there was no backing out so we had to make it work. Pucker factor was high on a very steep lateral incline, especially with the 80lb canoe on top, and a few steep hills with sharp turns at the end, but I made it work without any new fender damage.

Here's a few pics from the trip:

Final route. We didn't have many plans, just broke camp each day and set off to see something different.
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5am fuel up (and clean truck) to start day one
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The Tahquamenon River by canoe is very scenic
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First trail we ducked onto off the pavement. Michigan has LOTS of sand!
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Tourist stop for the Tahquamenon Falls. The rust color is from the tannins in the cedar swamps along the river
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Campsite night one. On Lake Superior with nobody in sight except cargo barges. Maybe my favorite place I've slept so far.
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A forest fire burned this area back in 2012, with over 20,000 acres burned. The underbrush and some trees are recovering, and it was a great spot for wild blueberries.
Lake Superior barely seen on the horizon
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Narrow trails. My buddy's third gen 4Runner fit down them much better
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Tourist stop to Miner's Castle at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
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Miner's Falls
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Miner's River
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Tourist stop to the Log Slide where they used to slide timber into the water for transport
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Probably not enough to cause rocker damage, but the sliders earned their place to keep the body panels out of the rocks
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Heading south on our way home
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MNCarl

The Moose
Looks like an excellent trip , A group of us from MidwestOverlandSociety are heading over to this area of Michigan in a few weeks...most likely camping at that same spot on Lake Superior.
Your X looks awesome with the ARB bumper and I am jealous of your beefy Cooper ST Maxx tires.
 

TFin04

Adventurer
Looks like an excellent trip , A group of us from MidwestOverlandSociety are heading over to this area of Michigan in a few weeks...most likely camping at that same spot on Lake Superior.
Your X looks awesome with the ARB bumper and I am jealous of your beefy Cooper ST Maxx tires.
Good deal. If you need help with area info LMK.
 

07BlackSpecV

Adventurer
Very cool trip man, my friends and I are lining up a similar one for next October. Just got back from the UP this weekend in fact but it was more working on the cabin and hiking than overlanding.
 

TFin04

Adventurer
Spent a few days with the family on the northeast side of Michigan's lower peninsula last weekend. Old Man Emu leaf springs are squeaking like crazy. Going to have to regrease the bushings soon. Also going to try a coating of fluid film on the frame this winter.

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07BlackSpecV

Adventurer
That looks pretty awesome, I've never been that way past Lewiston and Onaway. The squeaking of the OME springs really has be leaning towards Alcans because my suspension needs to be redone next year.
 

TFin04

Adventurer
That looks pretty awesome, I've never been that way past Lewiston and Onaway. The squeaking of the OME springs really has be leaning towards Alcans because my suspension needs to be redone next year.

Yeah, I knew about the OME squeaking when I installed them. I did a few tricks I found on TNX to put galvanized spacers between the leafs and some heavy duty shrink wrap around the leaf retainers. My squeaking is all in the bushings, I think. I didn't use the recommended grease on installation, so I'm going to try that next. I think PRG makes bushings that fit these springs too, and they are supposed to be quieter. I'll go that route next if the grease doesn't work.
 

AutoXSS

Adventurer
I'm dealing with the same thing, but I have an add a leaf, medium duty. Slowly but surely, it's been making a spring rubbing against each other noise. Everything is tight, so no issues there, but it has become annoying. I have sprayed some white lithium grease spray between the leafs and it does go away for a bit.

Mine actually goes silent longer when it rains hard or I do a water crossing.....? When it dries out completely, it shows its annoying self again
 

TFin04

Adventurer
I'm dealing with the same thing, but I have an add a leaf, medium duty. Slowly but surely, it's been making a spring rubbing against each other noise. Everything is tight, so no issues there, but it has become annoying. I have sprayed some white lithium grease spray between the leafs and it does go away for a bit.

Mine actually goes silent longer when it rains hard or I do a water crossing.....? When it dries out completely, it shows its annoying self again
Yep, mine gets quiet with water too. I'm going to try some molybdenum grease that the Land Cruiser guys recommend for their Dakar springs. We'll see.
 

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