2nd Gen INFINITI QX56/QX80 Build

[leeleatherwood]

Appreciated. I have tried to get a hold of DASH on facebook Messenger as well, but no luck. Where did you order your coilovers from? I should be buying my truck in the next 30 days and will want to start ordering the upgraded coilovers, UCA's, and wheels pretty soon....then I will build a custom front bumper and frame sliders. Good to know on the 35's....I won't be doing much bouldering or any of that type of ruggedness...more just rough terrain, creek crossings, etc...basic off-roading. Nothing remotely resembling KOTH. For the diff's, will the Titan Diff fit front and rear? I may just do those and the axles at the same time to just have that part over with....can you add a locker to these?

Call Fat Bobs Garage (801) 395-2134 for the Kings. They can also get you the UCA's or pretty much anything else you need. From my experience they price match online prices at other places.

Titan/1st gen Armada front diff will work, but make sure you get the right gear ratio, the rear diff on the US version I am pretty sure is the same as the 1st gen Armada. You can get ARB lockers for both the front and rear differentials for the 1st gen Armada.

With that being said, if you are going to upgrade to Titan front differential, you might as well change the rear too. This is because for the 1st Gen, you can get 3.36 gear ratio. The rear differential is super cheap, so you should just spend the extra couple hundred dollars to get the 3.36 rear differential from the 1st Gen.


All said and done, you can easily have 3.36 gear ratio with ARB lockers front and rear.

 

[leeleatherwood]

Rear Kings and AirBags came in.

Still waiting on Dobinson's Medium duty rear cool springs. They are coming from Australia.

 

[InfiniteOffroad]

False Floor Write-up: 1. Remove 3rd row seats, 2. Install "cover" for recessed rear storage (jack) area, 3. Fabricate brackets to support floor using existing 3rd row seat mounting locations, 4. Cover floor with furniture-grade linoleum (or polyurethane, carpet, etc.), 5. Bolt floor to brackets and storage cover. I used 3/4" (11/16") cabinet-grade plywood and added a small strip to each side where the floor stretches more than the 48" width of the plywood sheet. A removable door allows access to the stock jack location and storage area, and there is a lot of space under the floor accessible after folding down the 2nd row seats.

 

[PetitFrereArmada]

False Floor Write-up: 1. Remove 3rd row seats, 2. Install "cover" for recessed rear storage (jack) area, 3. Fabricate brackets to support floor using existing 3rd row seat mounting locations, 4. Cover floor with furniture-grade linoleum (or polyurethane, carpet, etc.), 5. Bolt floor to brackets and storage cover. I used 3/4" (11/16") cabinet-grade plywood and added a small strip to each side where the floor stretches more than the 48" width of the plywood sheet. A removable door allows access to the stock jack location and storage area, and there is a lot of space under the floor accessible after folding down the 2nd row seats.

Very good work. Many people should learn from this. You should start your own writeups so people can find it. Would be hard for many people to see this embedded in someone else's build thread.

Start your build thread and definitely share this with these pictures or more even.

Come and checkout some of my videos from my road trip a few months ago in July 2019

 

[PetitFrereArmada]

Hey, take a look at my videos from my recent road trip in July 2019.

 

[leeleatherwood]

False Floor Write-up: 1. Remove 3rd row seats, 2. Install "cover" for recessed rear storage (jack) area, 3. Fabricate brackets to support floor using existing 3rd row seat mounting locations, 4. Cover floor with furniture-grade linoleum (or polyurethane, carpet, etc.), 5. Bolt floor to brackets and storage cover. I used 3/4" (11/16") cabinet-grade plywood and added a small strip to each side where the floor stretches more than the 48" width of the plywood sheet. A removable door allows access to the stock jack location and storage area, and there is a lot of space under the floor accessible after folding down the 2nd row seats.

Very good job.
I am still planning on mine. Do you have plans to use the space on the underside of the false floor? There is quite a bit of space as you mentioned.

I was thinking the underside of the false floor might make a good subwoofer enclosure for like a 10" subwoofer, then again there is already a built in subwoofer in the factory system which sounds pretty good.

 

[leeleatherwood]

Hey, take a look at my videos from my recent road trip in July 2019.

Nice, I cant wait to make it to CO.

 

[PetitFrereArmada]

Nice, I cant wait to make it to CO.

Thanks for the compliments. And you should totally go to Colorado. So many awesome trails for you. Wish I could meet you there. Would be cool to have both black QX tackling those trails and taking a drone footage of the drive up and down the mountains.

Here is my last video from the trip. Driving from Crystal Mill in Crystal, CO to Marble Falls. A 5.6 mile distance that took me 1 hour to complete.

 

[leeleatherwood]

Did the rear shocks today along with the airbags. Also rotated the tires.

Haven't had time to drive it yet, but the airbags do lift the vehicle with the factory air height system. By the time I got done it was dark, and I have to tweek the alignment in the rear still before I drive it.

 

[leeleatherwood]

Gained 5" of droop by changing the shocks, that's a huge improvement.

In fact the shocks are still not maxed out, still 2" more travel at the shock remaining. If I do a rear subframe drop, that will allow the remaining shock travel to be used. I can remove the 2" coil spacers and have the subframe drop instead. Either way it's still 2" lift but the subframe drop will allow more droop than the coil spacers. This would also probably resolve the need for longer bumpstops in the rear.

 

[PetitFrereArmada]

Man, you are doing some good work. Maybe when you are all done with this and set your rig right, I can email you and ask if you had the chance to do this all over again to another same car, what would you do different or better?

At that point, just maybe I could ask if you could do mine. I could buy all the parts and drive to California, lol and we tackle it together and I compensate you for your time before driving back to Texas.

I really admire what you have done to your rig.

So, can that airbacg work well with my stock Infiniti rear air ride system? Will the new airbag lift the car? 2 inches or how much lift?

I know I would be very interested to know how much it cost you for parts on all your suspension upgrade.

 

[docwatson]

@leeleatherwood This is really impressive. It sounds like the subframe drop will fix a few concerns all at the same time. A couple guys in the R51 forum I'm on are using rear subframe drops and they seem like a reasonable way to pick up some lift and articulation.

Have you decided on what direction to go with the rear diff? I may have missed it. I know ARB sells a locker for the R230 but with 37s the R248 may be worth it for the extra strength.

 

[leeleatherwood]

Man, you are doing some good work. Maybe when you are all done with this and set your rig right, I can email you and ask if you had the chance to do this all over again to another same car, what would you do different or better?

At that point, just maybe I could ask if you could do mine. I could buy all the parts and drive to California, lol and we tackle it together and I compensate you for your time before driving back to Texas.

I really admire what you have done to your rig.

So, can that airbacg work well with my stock Infiniti rear air ride system? Will the new airbag lift the car? 2 inches or how much lift?

I know I would be very interested to know how much it cost you for parts on all your suspension upgrade.

The "do it over again" is a tricky question because you learn a lot from the 1st time. Also it's possible your mindset will change.

For this truck I basically wanted to be unique. I was looking for an R51 Pathfinder V8 originally because nobody does those, most are scared of IRS. When I learned how "cheap" the Infinitis were on the used market, knowing they were based on the y62 Patrol, I jumped on it. I think an Infiniti off road is certainly more unique than a Pathfinder V8.

Now I realize that the y62 Patrol is actually based on the 1st Gen Armada, and the Infiniti actually shares more in common drivetrain wise with the 1st Gen Armada than the Patrol, I would certainly do a 1st Gen if money was an issue, plus I think the 1st Gen Armadas look great. Overall I think the F-Alpha platform is great, Frontier, Xterra, Pathfinder, Armada, QX, they are all awesome.

Back to the original "do it over again", I would, no doubt about it. I would work on the rear suspension first because compared to the front, the rear is cheaper, has more affect on ride quality and has more to be gained in terms of articulation.

On the other hand, if I were doing it for someone else, I would do it differently. For someone else I would be a bit more conservative. I think 35's, UCAs, non-remote res shocks, m205 front differential, and ARB air locker in the rear would be the bee's knees. It would be that perfect middle ground for durability, drivability and capability.

 

[leeleatherwood]

Man, you are doing some good work. Maybe when you are all done with this and set your rig right, I can email you and ask if you had the chance to do this all over again to another same car, what would you do different or better?

At that point, just maybe I could ask if you could do mine. I could buy all the parts and drive to California, lol and we tackle it together and I compensate you for your time before driving back to Texas.

I really admire what you have done to your rig.

So, can that airbacg work well with my stock Infiniti rear air ride system? Will the new airbag lift the car? 2 inches or how much lift?

I know I would be very interested to know how much it cost you for parts on all your suspension upgrade.

Dude, if you bought all the parts I would install everything for free, don't worry about that. I love doing this type of stuff and actually wish I could do it for a living, unfortunately I make more in my current occupation

The Air bags can certainly do an inch or two of lift. They are designed for that. They also increase the effective springrate.

The question is, will the factory air pump supply enough pressure with the airbags for those 2" of lift? I am going to see about that today. It did for the air shocks.

 

[leeleatherwood]

@leeleatherwood This is really impressive. It sounds like the subframe drop will fix a few concerns all at the same time. A couple guys in the R51 forum I'm on are using rear subframe drops and they seem like a reasonable way to pick up some lift and articulation.

Have you decided on what direction to go with the rear diff? I may have missed it. I know ARB sells a locker for the R230 but with 37s the R248 may be worth it for the extra strength.

Yeah, the more I look at it and think about it, the rear subframe drop solves quite a few issues. I might order one from PRG or just just make my own.

Rear diff I still want the R248. Same with the front, want the Patrol one.

It's not that I don't think the factory rear diff or m205 would be strong enough for 37's, I have been off roading for a long time and know what NOT to do in order to not break ********. But mostly because I want to be as close to the Patrol as possible in terms of drivetrain.

I think m205 and ARB locker for the rear would be just fine, especially for 35s.