2011 Nissan Frontier Pro 4x Build

[wreckdiver1321]

Good to hear it's all cleared up. Hey, quick question, which antenna are you using on your bumper? What length?

 

[bijanjames]

Good to hear it's all cleared up. Hey, quick question, which antenna are you using on your bumper? What length?

4ft Firestik Firefly.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

4ft Firestik Firefly.

Good to know. I finally threw an SWR meter on mine recently and it was god-awful. I'm not sure what my problems were, but a broken antenna cable probably doesn't help. I have a new cable and a higher-end Firestik coming. I'm trying to keep the 3 foot antenna, but it may be a tad short. I've also got the Firestik spring on the way. I tossed a cheap Roadpro spring on there for now, which lets my antenna flop all over the place. That seemed to make a bit of difference with the SWR, but I'm still thinking my current setup is using bad parts. We'll see how it pans out after the new stuff shows up tomorrow.

 

[bijanjames]

Good to know. I finally threw an SWR meter on mine recently and it was god-awful. I'm not sure what my problems were, but a broken antenna cable probably doesn't help. I have a new cable and a higher-end Firestik coming. I'm trying to keep the 3 foot antenna, but it may be a tad short. I've also got the Firestik spring on the way. I tossed a cheap Roadpro spring on there for now, which lets my antenna flop all over the place. That seemed to make a bit of difference with the SWR, but I'm still thinking my current setup is using bad parts. We'll see how it pans out after the new stuff shows up tomorrow.

If your antenna contact is on bare metal and your antenna cable is good to go, you should be able to get a good tune. As you know, with our mounting location, we will get the best ground plane to the rear of the truck. The nice thing about the firestik is that its tuneable. I like the red by the way.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

If your antenna contact is on bare metal and your antenna cable is good to go, you should be able to get a good tune. As you know, with our mounting location, we will get the best ground plane to the rear of the truck. The nice thing about the firestik is that its tuneable. I like the red by the way.

Yeah, I cleaned the paint off the mounting hole on the ARB for a better ground contact. I guess we'll see.

Sticking with a red antenna

 

[colodak]

what is the limiting factor on how high you can cut the bed for the rear bumper? did you stop because of the tail lights,frame, was that just where everyone agreed it looked good, something else?

There is a sleeve of metal on the drivers side (other than the sheet metal you cut) that's just above the six inch mark, but really the lines would not work if you went higher than Chris did.

The other limiting, if you have backup sensors the bumper might be an issue. When Chris @ Hefty redid my gas tank skid, I talked to him about this bumper, he said with the backup sensors it will never work 100% correctly because they will always go off.

 

[Mo4130]

I remounted my antenna to my arb but painted the hole...so it didn't rust. Maybe that's why it's way worse than it was mounted on one of the tabs on top of the bumper. I got my swr meter coming tomorrow so we shall see.

 

[bijanjames]

I remounted my antenna to my arb but painted the hole...so it didn't rust. Maybe that's why it's way worse than it was mounted on one of the tabs on top of the bumper. I got my swr meter coming tomorrow so we shall see.

adding a little silicone to the bare metal will help prevent rust.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

I remounted my antenna to my arb but painted the hole...so it didn't rust. Maybe that's why it's way worse than it was mounted on one of the tabs on top of the bumper. I got my swr meter coming tomorrow so we shall see.

I just got my new antenna/stud/cable installed. I used the same bumper tab as I did before, but this time I stripped the powder coat off the bottom of the tab around the hole so I had a clean ground. Then I used a stainless washer with some dielectric grease between that and the bottom half of the CB stud. Then I used that little plastic washer on top of the bumper tab, then a stainless washer, then the top part of the stud to screw it all together.

I used a rag to thoroughly clean off the excess grease from under the tab. Then I masked the bottom of the stud and used a small brush to cover any exposed metal - my stainless washer included - with paint. This way, I have a solid ground but now any exposed metal is covered with paint. Thanks to this process I've got an SWR on 1.6 on channels 1 and 40, and an SWR of 1.1 on my favorite channel (23).

I've used that method to get clean grounds without rust before with a lot of success.

 

[bijanjames]

goneMoab was a good time...Decided to run Top of the World and Elephant Hill for trails. Both trails had challenging sections, but we got into a little bit of trouble on Elephant Hill, sliding of the trail and having to hook up two winches to keep the truck from going over...I have video of that fiasco, which I will try to upload. All the weight ended up on the gas tank skid which saved the fuel tank ***, the Hefty skid did its job, but did cave in and bend slightly. Truck performed well over all, most of the trucks we were out with were running 33" tires and up. Although there were a few close to stock rigs on the trails we ran. A 2014 Xterra Pro4x with just sliders, that did surprisingly well, and a 2014 Nissan Frontier SV with 33" tires, Hefty Skids, and homemade sliders. At least one locker was a huge factor in how well the vehicles did, obviously. The couple of rigs with us, Xterra and Frontier, with open diffs, really struggled in severe crossed up situations, and needed to really beat the truck up to maintain momentum. There were was only one other manual in our group, in an Xterra. There were some very technical stairs steps that made it a slight disadvantage having a stick, unless you are rocking a dual transfer case...Tires performed well, as did the compressor. Aired down to 20psi on the trail, and when is was time to air up the ARB compressor performed very well.

Other than a bent exhaust tip, scratched up yoke, the only things that took a beating were the skids, sliders, and rear bumper.

 

[bijanjames]

Having fun on Hell's Revenge.

 

[bijanjames]

Beautiful views on Hell's Revenge.

 

[Mo4130]

I went back and enlarged the hole a little and made sure nothing was touching and got 1.1 across the board. Good to go!


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[E.J.]

Dang, looks like an awesome time out there. I need to start bugging my wife into making GONE our vacation destination next year.

 

[WKexpedition]

Looks like a lot of fun!!