e61's 2020 Armada/Patrol Y62 Build

e61outside

Member
I enjoy challenging or interesting builds, so here we go!

2020 Nissan Armada SL 4x4

Use Case: Overland touring (dry camping), Mild 4x4 trails, and soon-to-be towing again upon delivery of my Boreas XT off-road camper.

Mods as of 5/23
  • Method 305 Wheels: 18 offset
  • Yokahama Geolander X-AT 295/70/18 ~34" (burned through the Nitto Ridge Grapplers with bad alignment while running the longer Ironman springs, but got it all sorted with the AU stock-length, heavy-duty Lovells)
  • K&N Air Filter
  • Magnaflow Exhaust
  • Iron Man Foam Cell Pro Shocks/Struts (removed Ironman springs as the lift was too high and required too many other modifications to achieve alignment as well as safe CV angles)
  • Lovells Front/Rear Springs (Standard Height, Heavy Duty) providing 1-2 inches lift over USA factory ride height. Kings KDRS-303s would work equally as well.
  • Dirt King UCAs - No coil bucket cutting is required, but there is still a slight restriction on droop. I might consider something else in the future if I can find something with factory-style bushings and a proper range of motion. The poly bushings on the DKs squeak and require regular re-greasing.
  • Front swaybar delete - Holy crap, this makes such a massive difference! WAY better turning radius, way more flex, and way less rocking and rolling side to side down the trail. HIGHLY recommended for anyone running decent struts and springs. PS, the factory struts and springs are essentially a minivan. Total garbage.
  • Frontrunner Rack - select Patrol, not Armada, on the Frontrunner website. Their database is not correct for Armada fitment.
  • Rigd Mega Swing (sold) - I've enjoyed it, but been running with the spare underneath for a while as well. The main issue I had with it was that it requires an extension to use the Oneup rack, which pushes the bikes even further out, but more annoying to me is that it flexes, causing the bikes to wobble a lot more on the trail. Also, I can't see my hitch ball from the factory camera, making it hard to line up when towing. All things that can be fixed.
  • Redarc Tow Pro
  • 1-up USA heavy-duty bike rack
  • Full JL Audio system - Speakers, dual 8" sub, amp - No highs and no lows, must be Bose, as the saying goes. I had to delete all of what is, in my experience, the worst factory stereo for this price. My Tacoma takes the prize for worst overall at any price ;-)
  • Unavi Carplay/Android Auto integration - after trying two different Chinese Android units that were buggy and poorly made. The Unavi is the closest to OEM quality I've seen out there and works flawlessly.
  • Boos Bash plates - still no replacement for the factory front plate ;-( But I've got the rest of the underside mostly protected now.
  • iKamper Skycamp 2 Mini (sold) replaced with Boreas XT camper
  • Northstar AGM battery
Planned in this order:
  • 3rd-row seat delete and false floor - had the third-row seat out for a while, but the car was noisier and a little too light. I may fully build it out in the future, but with the trailer coming, I prefer to keep it stock for now.
  • Dual battery
  • ARB onboard air
  • Sliders
  • Bumper and winch
...then who knows, I would love to use my automotive/marine reverse engineering and control system design experience to identify all of the necessary parts to do a proper conversion to global spec diffs WITH the accompanying terrain modes that we don't get here in our soccer mom version of the Y62. Seems like a fun project.

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e61outside

Member
I've been nagged by an itch to do a Y62, would love to see how the diff and terrain conversion comes along. Looks great!

Thanks! Slowly coming together. I have the roof rack assembled but not installed just yet. Ironman suspension arriving today. I will post pics when I’ve got those installed.

I have the part numbers for the diffs, but trying to find someone with a global spec Y62 to help me reverse engineer the part numbers for everything else at the moment. Like the center console drive selector and what, if any, additional control modules, harnesses, or software updates are needed. Then going to compare to pure aftermarket option of new diffs with air lockers. Which is likely less expensive, but I kinda like the idea of having the upgraded factory setup.

So shout out to anyone on the forum here with a global spec y62 4x4. Would love to get some help comparing control modules and harnesses.


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Sooper Camper

Adventurer
So shout out to anyone on the forum here with a global spec y62 4x4. Would love to get some help comparing control modules and harnesses.
There's a couple fairly active Facebook groups for the Y62. might be worth reaching out there...sounds like a good electronics challenge...be pretty comical if you can just plug the overseas module in...
 

e61outside

Member
There's a couple fairly active Facebook groups for the Y62. might be worth reaching out there...sounds like a good electronics challenge...be pretty comical if you can just plug the overseas module in...

Thanks, I will check it out.


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e61outside

Member
Quick update based on the installation progress - the kit from IronMan absolutely does not work without additional modifications. Very disappointed so far with their marketing approach and lack of good technical documentation.

We dropped the truck down off the lift and drove it around to settle it in and decided we likely need new upper control arms and the SPC castor / camber hardware kit to get it remotely close to correct alignment. More to come…


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e61outside

Member
Ok, here are some shots with it installed. So far the only suspension components changed here are the front strut and rear shock and coil. This is the Ironman 1.5 inch lift using allegedly the standard spring option here:


We were able to get the front aligned but the rear is still suffering from some positive camber. The result turned out to be more like three inches or more. So as you will see in the pics I’ve decided to order adjustable sway bar end links and Dirt King upper control arms. The UCAs are essentially resting on the spring perch so I have zero down travel at the moment.

I could see this setup potentially only lifting 1.5 inch if I had a LOT of extra weight. Without the weight it rides like an old f350. Total washboard feeling. I wouldn’t recommend it at this point - unless you want/need to lift 3-4 inches and are adding a front and rear bumper plus a heavy drawer system.

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Last edited:

Sooper Camper

Adventurer
it looks good sitting high, just need to get the rest of the formula figured out! some UCA's will fix the front nicely, I was able to get a 5-5.5* of caster with the SPC's and ~1.75" of lift in front.
 

e61outside

Member
it looks good sitting high, just need to get the rest of the formula figured out! some UCA's will fix the front nicely, I was able to get a 5-5.5* of caster with the SPC's and ~1.75" of lift in front.

Thanks. We were mostly able to sort out the castor. My main issue in the front at the moment is having no sag because of the heavy spring rate. As a result I have no down travel and the suspension tops out with a clank all the time. I do need UCAs for clearance around the upper spring perch. On order.

Also need sway bar end links as mine are about to pop from the extra tension.

I need to sort out the positive camber in the rear as well. Hopefully more weight on the truck will help. I’m not comfortable with the angles on the drive line at the moment as well.


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