06' Frontier CC Family adventure build

cully

New member
Hey nissan ExPo folks

I thought I'd post up a build thread for my new to me 2006 CrewCab short bed Auto SE 4x4 that I picked up last week. I needed to size up from my 91 Yota SR5 5spd since we just had a kid and I can't fathom not taking him on some great offroad adventures in the expansive wilderness that is our backyard (Colorado Springs).

when I first started looking for a CC truck I was looking at all the brands, but at least here in Colorado CC Tacomas hold their value like crazy, frontiers, not as much, but I still view them as great 4x4s, when I bought my first truck I was actually this close to picking up a hardbody instead. Initially I was looking for a long bed manual but those seem pretty hard to come by especially for 05+. so when this 06 Auto SB popped up in town I jumped on it, it has 139K and is entirely stock and sitting on some loud, nearly new Goodyear wrangler authority's that I think I'll put up with unless they really annoy the wife. while disappointed about giving up the manual trans, the 4.0 has some kick to it, i'm excited not to be the slow guy on the highway passes around here. While it's not the most exciting thing, I ordered a car seat this weekend so that I can start using the truck for it's intended purpose of haulling our little guy around in the mountains.

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updates planed in order of importance:

Suspension - (within the first year?) since the truck is still sitting on stock (and I imagine original) shocks I'm looking to put a mild lift on it. probably a 2" leveling kit with adjustable shocks. I was originally weighing the difference between the OME and Bilsten set ups. But I've found a line on Icon 2.5 coil overs and 2" AAL's in back with 5100's for the rear shocks. My plan now is to go that route eventually with UCA's up front I think that should be plenty capable for what I'm looking to do. I also see that NissTec is up in Denver so it's great to have one of the goto Nissan off-road shop within an hours drive. Eventually I'd like to do a titan swap but first I should probably see how much daycare digs into our pocket book LOL

Headlights - (within the first year?) mine are super fogged but haven't been too bad on the road so far. Somebody local has some morimoto plug and play HID projector setups that I may pick up. we'll see if I bite the bullet on that.

Topper - Though I don't have the luxury of a 6ft bed any more I still think the utility of a topper is helpful. I'd like to be able to though my mountain bikes, and luggage in the bed and for everything to stay dry. I also like the idea of camping in the bed with a camper topper, or 4wheel type pop up camper though the 5 ft bed makes that a bit harder.

Basic recovery stuff - Hi lift jack, recovery straps, shovel, traction mats, compressor, you know so, i'm not stuck on a mountain somewhere. feel free weigh in on recommendations for a place to start.

Bumper,winch, armor - so far I just done the air dam delete but I'd like to pick up a bumper and sliders sooner than later. yeah that's way out there but I'd love to pick something up eventually so that I'm not as worried about angle of attack and getting stuck.

Locker - while the ABLS may be enough for my imediate needs I think a locker is in the long term plans whether that's an ARB, some sort of auto locker, or a Pro 4x rear end swap still has to be decided

Roof Top tent? - maybe eventually, since I've got the short bed this may be a better way for 3 of us to sleep in the wilderness, probably getting mounted on top of the topper that doesn't exist yet.

so, hi everybody, hopefully this rig will facilitate some great adventures and live a long life. I'm sure there's a sticky somewhere saying what the "best" mods are, I guess the most advantageous to the basic off road performance/life of the truck, basically what are the general shortcomings that we need to overcome with this platform? Thanks in advance for the advice and hopefully I'll see you guys out on the trail.
 

trasko

Adventurer
Welcome! I'm going to be watching specifically what you do w/ the headlights. I've been thinking about it myself.

I held out for the manual (long-bed, CC manuals are quite rare). Took about 6-months but eventually one turned up. I'm a die-hard manual fan but there are plusses and minuses and there are some real benefits to the auto. I wouldn't worry about it. Have fun and write up your mods and adventures.
 

hovenator

Explorer

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llamalander

Well-known member
Congrats on the new truck! I've had mine for 9 years and love it, have a few opinions...
I found the OME full suspension much better than stock, tighter, more stable, more responsive. I got about 1.5"-2" lift from it and added 1/2" leveling spacers to the front, I have yet to have coil-bucket contact, so no UCA's for me yet. Putting your cash into the suspension is a great improvement.
All of the mechanics are above the frame, which is nice, but it takes more work to gain clearance.
For Bumpers/sliders/armor, you might search Club Frontier for user Eolivas, who has fabricated some great pieces & is great to work with. There are far fewer aftermarket suppliers for Nissans than Toyotas, so the good ones are worth a mention.
The Club also has some easy mods to bypass the transmission pass-through with the radiator, which has been problematic for some, and a breather extension for the diffs, both of which are easy and could save you a lot of trouble.
I have yet to choose a route for acquiring a locker (we have the slimmer rear diff. than the Pro-4x), but your truck can do a lot without one. It's worth getting stuck & trying out your recovery gear before choosing how you want to spend that money. The 4wd is basic but capable, excellent in snow along with good tires. There is no center diff., so the poor turning radius will suffer in 4wd.
You might consider an aluminum topper over fiberglass, they are more durable and can hold a RTT far more easily than a Leer or an Are. Maybe not as slick looking, but likely better suited for off-road use. I'm on my second fiberglass shell & seeing small stress-cracks already, with fairly moderate use. Whatever you get will likely improve your mileage a little. Plenty will detract from it. It's not a full-size truck, but with the handy V6, you may want to figure-out how to carry an extra gas can or two to insure you have a 300+ mile range.
Floor mats earn their keep quickly & better reverse lights do too.
The bed is not sealed by a long shot. The gate has 1/2"+ gaps on the side and the front bed corners are open too. If you want to keep things clean, look to sealing these when you put your shell on.
Fog lights require a new stalk for the steering wheel, but it is not too expensive & worth doing right.
Whatever you hope for from your truck, go out and use it now! It doesn't need anything to take it off road save a strap, a friend and some good judgment. You bought a tough truck that will take you far, have fun!
 

goFWD

New member
Welcome and congrats on your 'new' truck. Sounds like you already have a solid idea of what direction to take it in. Here's a few random tips that might be of use:

In case you don't know, the 2005-2010 model Frontiers (and XTerras?) had an issue that could result in transmission/radiator cross contamination (aka "strawberry milkshake"). At one point they were correcting the issue at dealerships, but I think given your truck's mileage they won't fix it for free any more, so you'll want to look in to this yourself. You can find a write-up on what to do here. It's possible the previous owner was aware and already took care of it, but I'd encourage you to check.

Another simple mod is the rear differential breather mod, you should be able to find any number of various write-ups on how to do this over at clubfrontier. The diff breather on our axles is a one-way valve (lets air out) and is prone to getting stuck closed (causes rear diff weeping after pressure build-up -- my truck was recently suffering from this, but I did the mod this weekend). Another issue is that given the breather is located on the top of the axle, any deep water crossing can possibly allow water to get in to the axle.

Another common (mostly annoying) issue with the Frontiers is that the stock battery terminals tend to corrode (mine is suffering from this; trying to convince myself I really need an Odyssey... I mean, I do, right?), so you might check that and get a better battery.

You might check your leaf springs to make sure they aren't wrapping. The stock leaf springs are notorious for going flat early.

You should be able to run 32-inch tires without any suspension upgrade (technically, some people run 33's but you have to trim the fender wells some). The Pro-4x comes with 32s stock, I think your model may have come with 31s (some of the no-frills models had even smaller tires I believe).
 

cully

New member
Thanks for the recommendations everybody, this is some great guidance. I'm also on club frontier, so I've read some similar stuff already, so a little back story to my aquisition of the truck...

So just before I picked the truck up for the first time the seller checked the transmission fluid and it was really dirty. after talking to the previous owner it sounded like the fluid had never been changed. He pulled the pan, changed the filter, bypassed the radiator and added an extra trans cooler. He sent me pictures and there was no sign of coolant in the transmission just 140k trans fluid. Then I actually poured in the new transmission fluid at his shop. Drove it home no problem, when going back to his shop with a friend to pick up my old truck the transmission seemed to get stuck in first. Then the CEL popped on and it was in limp mode, this was less than a mile from the shop. So I instead of driving home with both trucks just left with my old truck.

The seller actually insisted in giving my money back but I had also already titled and registered the truck in my name. this lead to a weekend of wondering what the hell was gonna happen. we sent some texts back and forth and it turns out that the code the truck initially kicked back was p1731 " 1st Gear Engine Braking Logic Error " which most likely means a malfunctioning solenoid. so most likely the first transmission fluid change in this trucks life freed up some debris that got lodged in the solenoid.

I ended up sending the seller a text 4 days later and we decided on me taking the truck "as-is" for $1100 less than our original selling price. this was super awesome of him since I had already initially paid him, took the truck and titled it in my name, he was in no way obligated to do this. All he had done with the truck since I dropped it back off with him was pull the pan again, and according to the guidance of another mechanic sprayed the valve body with brake cleaner, put the pan back on and topped off the fluid.

so I picked the truck up tuesday night and so far no issues. the shift from 1st to 2nd is a little hard sometimes but it seems to be smoothing out. hopefully I ended up getting a working truck for a killer deal but if some transmission work is needed eventually at least I have a decent buffer to work with.

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as for the recomdations

- as seen above the seller already took care of the radiator bypass and added an extra trans cooler

Another simple mod is the rear differential breather mod, you should be able to find any number of various write-ups on how to do this over at clubfrontier. The diff breather on our axles is a one-way valve (lets air out) and is prone to getting stuck closed (causes rear diff weeping after pressure build-up -- my truck was recently suffering from this, but I did the mod this weekend). Another issue is that given the breather is located on the top of the axle, any deep water crossing can possibly allow water to get in to the axle.

This was actually a mod I was planning on my toyota but never did, I even picked up most of the parts so the only thing I might need to grab is the nipple that threads into the diff, this should be pretty straight forward


You might check your leaf springs to make sure they aren't wrapping. The stock leaf springs are notorious for going flat early.

I guy from denver on CF said he'd trade me his 8000 mi stock leafs with 2" AALs added for a 6 pack so I'm gonna take him up on that.


You should be able to run 32-inch tires without any suspension upgrade (technically, some people run 33's but you have to trim the fender wells some). The Pro-4x comes with 32s stock, I think your model may have come with 31s (some of the no-frills models had even smaller tires I believe).

Right now I'm running 265/75/r16s which I think are the size that comes on the Pro-4x I'm planning on keeping that size even if I change to some other tires really thinking about KO2s thats what I had on my toyota and I like the minimal road noise and good off-road manners

I got about 1.5"-2" lift from it and added 1/2" leveling spacers to the front, I have yet to have coil-bucket contact, so no UCA's for me yet. Putting your cash into the suspension is a great improvement.

Awesome that's what I'm hoping for, It sounds like some UCAs allow for a little more droop too which would be nice but saving $500 is nice too
 

goFWD

New member
Right now I'm running 265/75/r16s which I think are the size that comes on the Pro-4x I'm planning on keeping that size even if I change to some other tires really thinking about KO2s thats what I had on my toyota and I like the minimal road noise and good off-road manners

I have a 2012 Pro-4x and you're correct that 265/75-16 is the default tire size. I bought my truck used and it came with a new-ish set of Cooper Discoverer ATPs. Very good on-road, decent off-road. I found them to be very loud, though, especially when they started getting worn. I replaced them about 3,000 miles ago with a set of BFG KO2's in the same size. So far, the KO2's are much quieter and I've been happy with them off-road. They definitely changed the driving characteristics of the truck, though; feels more floaty, but nothing bad, and the steering isn't as precise. They're about 5 lbs heavier per tire than the Cooper's and that was noticeable when taking off from a stop, but so far it hasn't affected my MPG in any noticeable way.
 

cully

New member
Ohh good to know your experience with the ko2s in that size, for another option somebody recommended the falken at3w as a budget choice as well, still up in the air on what I’m going to do.

Today was the first day I took the truck on anything by smooth pavement, I’m luck to have some awesome lunch rides in my backyard


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cully

New member
I had the chance to get the truck on a real trail this weekend the truck performed flawlessly, better than I expected actually, tires barely ever even slipped guess I’ve got to choose a harder trail next time. This trail was actually perfect as I had the wife and baby with me and no recovery gear. The trail wore a bit on the wife’s nerves, the washouts and narrow trail was unlike anything she had ever experienced, but I think it was the perfect level to prepare her for future trail runs. Here’s a few shots from this weekend still haven’t done anything to the truck though

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But the main reason for heading out was to get pictures of our little guy with the fall colors

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trasko

Adventurer
w00t! Looks beautiful out there. Any time out in nature is a good time.

I haven't been to CO in 15+ years but I'll be there in a week hunting elk. We'll see how my truck handles the roads around Telluride.
 

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