"The Moose" 2012 Nissan Frontier PRO-4X Build Thread and some stories MNCarl

WKexpedition

Built, not bought!
Frontier is looking great!! So can you crank the radflo's while they are installed or do you have to remove them?

How are you liking the the front bumper? Any particular reason you went with no brush bars around the lights?
 

MNCarl

The Moose
Frontier is looking great!! So can you crank the radflo's while they are installed or do you have to remove them?

How are you liking the the front bumper? Any particular reason you went with no brush bars around the lights?

WKexpedition,

Yes you can crank the coilovers while they on the truck. In fact it is the only way. There is no way you could spin those collars (Pressure from the coil spring)with the coilover removed from the truck

The Shrockworks bumper is great...it is super heavy duty / thick metal but also heavy in weight.
If I had a choice , I would have preferred the ARB front bumper.
But if you want a bumper you can literally bash into rocks , trees , and dirt this thing is bomb proof.
Last year I bashed the front bumper into the side of a gravel pit approach angle on a home made obstacle course we made (Post 13 page 2 of this thread) and all it did was scuff the powder coat.
So if you are thinking of buying a Shrockworks anything sliders , skids what ever , pay the extra money to have Shrockworks powder coat them. The powder coat is super thick and durable.

Ya I wish the Shrockworks front bumper I have had the full brush bars, (we have way to many deer leaping out in front of vehicles here in Minnesota) but I purchased the truck "used" and at the time of purchase the truck had most of the Shrockworks items already added on the truck. It is kind of a long winded story / boring read at around page 1 of this thread.
 
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MNCarl

The Moose
New 2.5 Gallon Rotopax and new chainsaw

About three weeks ago Rotopax had an introductory offer on the new 2.5 gallon rotopax gas can and mount.
So I felt this was a good time to purchase as I was trying to carry extra emergency gas in some cheap plastic gas cans that looked like they where going to explode when traveling from the temperature changes (Heat) through out the day....think blowing up a balloon until it pops from too much air.

https://rotopax.com/2-5-gallon-fuelpax.html

If you clicked on the link above unfortunately Rotopax sold out of these in 2-3 days....glad I ordered when I did.

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I mounted the Rotapax to a thick piece of aluminum that is mounted to the utili-track

While some of you where at GONE MOAB I went off-roading at the Spider Lake MN DNR off-road trails.

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Super FUN trails !! but I am guessing no where near as fun a Moab LOL.

Tree blocking the main road to get to the Spider Lake DNR trails.

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Got to use my new chainsaw !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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MNCarl

The Moose
CB Radio and Wilderness Rack

Installed a Cobra 75 CB radio I purchased off Ebay along with a Wilson 1000 (magnetic base only missing the antenna) that came with the CB radio.
I then purchased a 3/8-24 thread to PL-259 adapter so I could then attach any standard CB antenna to the magnetic base.
So I purchased a 4' Wilson Flex antenna.

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The Wilderness/Garvin rack I got off Craigslist for super cheap but it is kinda of small.

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dcwn.45

Observer
Nice truck
I'm also in Mn
Driving a 2013 Tacoma, but I like to check out what people are doing to other types of vehicles
Send me a message if you're ever looking for another truck to go adventuring with ��
 

MNCarl

The Moose
Overlanding

Ok so I did my first real overlanding trip with a bunch of fellow overlanders a couple of weeks ago, I.E. no onsite provided facilities power, water , ect.

Convoyed out of town with this other Nissan Frontier.. got to use my newly installed CB radio on the long trip...It was an added bonus being able to communicate truck to truck to pass the time and know when and where to make pit stops.

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Prior to leaving I did my due diligence in prepping and packing making various to-do and to-bring lists on the "Google Keep" app on my phone.
Water , Tools , Extra Gas , Bug Spray , and on and on.

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After arriving at camp unpacking , setting up my Kelty Noah's Tarp, ect. The sun was starting to set and the bugs where starting to come out. So I went to grab the duffel bag of clothes that I packed, to change out of the cut-off jean shorts I was wearing and put on some long pants. This is when I realized I forgot my duffel bag packed full of extra clothes and personal items , soap, deodorant ,toothbrush, tooth paste. I had nothing but the jean shorts , t-shirt , and socks I was wearing. Fortunately I did have rain gear , jackets , and boots. So I threw on a jacket and called it good.
My fellow overlanders had a very good laugh at my brain fart (forgetting all my clothes)

I spent the night sleeping in the bed of my truck (Short Bed that is) under the protection of my Leer camper shell / topper.
This has been a work in progress dialing this in , I am about 5'10" in height and I sleep at an angle in the truck bed , head at one corner , feet in the other corner.

Woke up in the AM and we all went to gas up our trucks at the back woods country gas station where I proceeded to purchase some extremely expensive items , socks , tooth brush and tooth paste. I then proceeded to brush my teeth in the parking lot. This provided more entertainment for my fellow overlanders.

Ok all gassed up and off to the trails most of the group went in the woods on an unknown trail that looked pretty nasty on google earth, while me and my truck "The Moose" and a New Jeep Rubicon Hard Rock went down the main forest service road where the trail that the others went on would exit. This is where we (myself and the rubicon) went in on the trail. The plan was to meet the others head on somewhere mid point on the trail.

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Of course pics do not do the trail justice...The trail was muddy with large rocks and stumps to navigate thru. Rock sliders and skid plates took some hits.

Well we kept going and going down the trail it kept getting nastier and nastier finally myself and the rubicon decided enough is enough and decided to stop. I could hear some of the ham radio traffic from the other group, (only the high power hams).
Some of the messages I could hear from the other group where things like , get the traction boards , So and so is winching ect.

Uncertain of where the other group was and how close we where to meeting them (head on) , on the trail I tried to radio the
other group with a small hand held ham radio I had but they could not hear me. So I sent my friend in the other group a text message with a "google share your location" and apparently they where not to far down the trail.

Like I stated above me and the jeep rubicon had enough, so I grabbed a pen and a piece of paper and wrote out a note: "THIS IS WHERE CARL AND THE RUBICON STOPPED AND TURNED AROUND " I then hung the note from a tree branch in the middle of the trail.
So we turned around headed back to the main forest service road.

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Ahh we made it...dry land


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The others soon followed.

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More to come.
To be continued.......
 
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MNCarl

The Moose
Overlanding part 2

***I AM IN TH PROCESS OF RE-LINKING ALL MY PHOTOS FROM PHOTOBUCKET TO IMGUR***
***THIS WILL BE A LENGTHY PROCCESS RE-ADDING ALL MY PICS***



After a quick re-grouping of everyone we all followed the trail leader to a different area where he lead us down a forest service road that was submerged under water.

Here you can see a beaver dam that the beavers constructed to keep the water from flowing down the forest service road.
The main beaver dam must have been located somewhere else.

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The trail leader and the second vehicle in line broke apart the top layer of the beaver dam and water came rushing like a river down the forest service road.

Here we all are waiting while they where working on dismantling the beaver dam.

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The forest service road submerged under water / beaver pond went on and on over a mile , the water level varied from a few inches up to around eighteen inches , I was playing around with (not sure what to call it) the wave ? , the wake ? , the wake/wave of water building up in front of my truck, by varying how slow or fast I was going at one point I had quite a large wave built up in front of my truck, but thought I better slow down to not risk flooding the engine.

Link to a not so good quality video of me driving through a small portion of the beaver pond:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JOcE6cJSbs&feature=youtu.be

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Mid point thru the beaver pond I stopped at a high point as I lost sight of the heavily modified Jeed Grand Cherokee that was directly behind me. While waiting I checked underneath my truck for debris. After pulling out all the large sticks and weeds from the suspension , I get back in my truck and hear all heck braking loose with radio chatter from the group.
Radio chatter like stalled , wont start , hydro locked , Carl back up the Grand Cherokee is stalled he needs a tow.... Carl back up ? , hey that's me... I am Carl LOL... So I back up quite a ways thru the deep water beaver pond where someone was in the water with rubber boots was already waiting with a tow strap. Unfortunately the bow/wave from my truck backing up came quick to the person holding the tow strap and flooded over the top of his rubber boots and drenched him.

So now I am towing a modified Jeep Grand Cherokee with a hemi thru a never ending beaver pond.
I never thought it would end , it was like driving thru a lake.

Finally we made it out of the beaver pond to dry land.

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Circus act entertainment
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After further inspection the Jeep Grand Cherokee driver figured out he did no hydro lock his engine.
It turns out a large stick got caught up underneath the Jeep and ripped off his fuel line.

Here is the stick and I may have forgot all my clothes at home for this trip but I did bring a crap load of tools and gorilla tape.

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Another member of the group had some clear plastic hose and hose clamps.

So he got the cheap clear hose installed and gorilla taped and the Jeep started up !!

Although the fix did not last long.

We had to stop a few more times to fix before almost making it back to the next camp site location.

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About a 1/2 mile before the next camp site I ended up towing the jeep the rest of the way.
The temporary fuel line kept popping off from the fuel pressure.

Not much to report after this , we set up camp at a remote location where we fought off the bugs thru the night and the next day just explored some mild forest service roads.

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By this time the weather was hot an humid and I was getting extremely rank/smelly after wearing the same clothes for three days, so I jumped in a river to wash up a bit and then high tailed it back home a day early.
 
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MNCarl

The Moose
Sway Bar Delete

Well I got a wild hair and removed my sway bar this morning before I came to work.
A lot of guys with my truck and this same suspension set up run with out a front sway bar.
I gotta say it is a pretty odd feeling driving the truck with out it..but I did some swerving maneuvers and a cloverleaf exit on the drive in to work and I think I can get used to it.
But man oh man does it ride nice ... so soft , I cant wait to get the truck off-road with out the sway bar.

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wreckdiver1321

Overlander
Interesting observations with the sway bar. I've been considering putting mine back on, but with longer end links. With a little time in on McMaster Carr's website and about $50, you can build your own out of some heim joints that are the correct length for a lifted truck. Should help with the stiffness.
 

MNCarl

The Moose
Ya I might put the sway bar back on.
If I do put it back on , I was thinking with PRG billet sway bar mounts:
http://www.prgproducts.com/shop/product/billet-sway-bar-mounts/
And PRG sway bar endlinks that are about an inch longer:
http://www.prgproducts.com/shop/product/prg_sbel/

I took off the sway bar before our trip to the Morrison / Goose lake because I was worried I might break one of the wimpy stock sway bar end links on the trail.
When this happens and you don't realize you broke an end link the sway bar can get pushed up into the bottom of your coilover and damage your coilover.

Interesting observations with the sway bar. I've been considering putting mine back on, but with longer end links. With a little time in on McMaster Carr's website and about $50, you can build your own out of some heim joints that are the correct length for a lifted truck. Should help with the stiffness.
 

MNCarl

The Moose
Matching 285/75-16 spare Magnaflow tail pipe removed

In preparation for a Wyoming/Montana - Morrison Trail / Goose lake trip I thought it would be best to avoid murphy's law and ditch my stock 265/75-16 size spare tire and get a matching 285/75-16 spare.

Unfortunately the stock 265 spare tire was already extremely close to the magnaflow tailpipe , so there was no way a 285 was going to fit.

So with a lot of cussing and beating with a hammer the magnaflow tail pipe came off.

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Cheap O'reilly auto parts turn down pipe and clamp

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Craigslist 285 spare

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