Anthony.V
Observer
After spending my youth tearing around back roads and race tracks, and in more recent history building a business out of putting together/racing Subaru's in RallyX I decided it was time to try a new kind of adventure! That story really begins with me uprooting my then girlfriend, and now wife from her home in Burbank to live on a 36ft boat with me. I'll spare you that bit for now though and get to the truck. 
A year into life on our floating domicile, I found myself still pining for adventure of the four wheeled variety. My wife and I were camping out of a XV crosstrek, which proved to be a VERY capable vehicle in its own right. One evening after getting it buried to the door sills in mud though, I started plotting out the ways I could make it even more capable off-road. Ultimately, I decided going with something a bit more conventional might be the best route. Something with a frame, and something that I could more easily install locking diff's in one day should I chose. A vehicle that would be reliable, but also had good aftermarket support and would be fairly capable straight away...
Enter the Xterra!
It's been in our possession for about a year now, and we've been modifying it on an as needed basis for the most part. A sort of bare necessities approach to upgrades that included a Shrockworks skid plate, Bilstein 5100's with 1.5"" front lift, and 2.0" rear via shackles as well as factory sized General grabber AT2's.
Currently, my personal favorite bit of adventure kit is the James Baroud Grand Raid XXL! We are the proud second owners of this fine roof tent that was sourced right here from fellow forum member "shoredreamer." (Thanks again for that!) Here's a few pictures from our most recent camping trip with the truck right here on the California coast. Just pulled over and popped our little roof dwelling for a few nights!
The least expensive beachfront property you'll ever find in CA
So whats in store? The next thing in the pipeline is going to be a new set of wheels. Drawing from my experience in the RallyX world, when I found out BRAID was going to manufacture a beadlock wheel for the off-road community it was a no brainier! I had run a set of BRAID "Acropolis" on my WRX that survived years of punishment without a single failure. In fact, since selling the car and the wheels, I believe the new owner is still running them in the same discipline without issue!
En route are a set of BRAID Fullrace T DAKAR 16x7 et+26 with "Type B beadlock."
Ours are going to look similar to these:
The only difference is the lettering will be in black. Going to keep the white/black thing going from the roof tent
While an obvious aesthetic upgrade over the factory alloys, these also add a level of functionality and security. While nothing is totally indestructible, my experience with the previous set of BRAID wheels shown them to be damn near it! On top of that, the added peace of mind of having the beadlock system when aired down will be nice! The neatest thing I think is that these can be ordered for just about any vehicle made. Any size, offset, bolt/hub pattern etc... that's out there
Really excited for these! They're on their way from Europe, and are a few weeks out still but I'll post some pics once they arrive. Going to mount the factory size Grabbers for now as they still have heaps of tread left. That just means I need to plan more trips to wear them down so I can upsize eventually
Other things to come hopefully on the near horizon:
-More under armor (all the other skid plates/sliders)
-Comms/NAV
-Hi-Lift
-Aux lights (when I figure out how I want to mount them.)
And for camping kit:
-Better supply storage/organization
-Fridge
-Secondary battery/inverter of some type. Thinking either dry cell with isolator or maybe one of those nifty "Goal Zero" units I've seen.
That, of course is the "short list" lol. Long term could be a different story, but going to try and keep the truck matching our current/near future adventure level and needs. And, as always, budget. Life has a bad habit of diverting funds to other more pressing things... (did I mentioned I live on a boat).
At any rate... more to come!
-Anthony
A year into life on our floating domicile, I found myself still pining for adventure of the four wheeled variety. My wife and I were camping out of a XV crosstrek, which proved to be a VERY capable vehicle in its own right. One evening after getting it buried to the door sills in mud though, I started plotting out the ways I could make it even more capable off-road. Ultimately, I decided going with something a bit more conventional might be the best route. Something with a frame, and something that I could more easily install locking diff's in one day should I chose. A vehicle that would be reliable, but also had good aftermarket support and would be fairly capable straight away...
Enter the Xterra!
It's been in our possession for about a year now, and we've been modifying it on an as needed basis for the most part. A sort of bare necessities approach to upgrades that included a Shrockworks skid plate, Bilstein 5100's with 1.5"" front lift, and 2.0" rear via shackles as well as factory sized General grabber AT2's.
Currently, my personal favorite bit of adventure kit is the James Baroud Grand Raid XXL! We are the proud second owners of this fine roof tent that was sourced right here from fellow forum member "shoredreamer." (Thanks again for that!) Here's a few pictures from our most recent camping trip with the truck right here on the California coast. Just pulled over and popped our little roof dwelling for a few nights!
The least expensive beachfront property you'll ever find in CA
So whats in store? The next thing in the pipeline is going to be a new set of wheels. Drawing from my experience in the RallyX world, when I found out BRAID was going to manufacture a beadlock wheel for the off-road community it was a no brainier! I had run a set of BRAID "Acropolis" on my WRX that survived years of punishment without a single failure. In fact, since selling the car and the wheels, I believe the new owner is still running them in the same discipline without issue!
En route are a set of BRAID Fullrace T DAKAR 16x7 et+26 with "Type B beadlock."
Ours are going to look similar to these:
The only difference is the lettering will be in black. Going to keep the white/black thing going from the roof tent
While an obvious aesthetic upgrade over the factory alloys, these also add a level of functionality and security. While nothing is totally indestructible, my experience with the previous set of BRAID wheels shown them to be damn near it! On top of that, the added peace of mind of having the beadlock system when aired down will be nice! The neatest thing I think is that these can be ordered for just about any vehicle made. Any size, offset, bolt/hub pattern etc... that's out there
Really excited for these! They're on their way from Europe, and are a few weeks out still but I'll post some pics once they arrive. Going to mount the factory size Grabbers for now as they still have heaps of tread left. That just means I need to plan more trips to wear them down so I can upsize eventually
Other things to come hopefully on the near horizon:
-More under armor (all the other skid plates/sliders)
-Comms/NAV
-Hi-Lift
-Aux lights (when I figure out how I want to mount them.)
And for camping kit:
-Better supply storage/organization
-Fridge
-Secondary battery/inverter of some type. Thinking either dry cell with isolator or maybe one of those nifty "Goal Zero" units I've seen.
That, of course is the "short list" lol. Long term could be a different story, but going to try and keep the truck matching our current/near future adventure level and needs. And, as always, budget. Life has a bad habit of diverting funds to other more pressing things... (did I mentioned I live on a boat
). At any rate... more to come!
-Anthony
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