My 2001 Pathfinder (R50 ) mild/budget build

[mortonm]

I am always so jealous of your scenery. We just have rocks mud and pinstriping trees.

Next summer my brother and I are going to do a 2 or 3 week trip. We were thinking Colorado but maybe California might fit the bill...

Its nearly 3 days of driving so anything less than 2 weeks for that far is a waste.

I helped my brother do the air lines for his ARB lockers on his JK. Wasn't too bad but we had a 2 post lift which makes everything easier.

 

[system-f]

If you do want a front arb to compliment your rear arb I have one for sale that came out of my R50. The front locker does help a lot more than I thought it ever would.

 

[Lecoq]

I bet you can't wait to get the rear locker working!

 

[stioc]

I am always so jealous of your scenery. We just have rocks mud and pinstriping trees.

Next summer my brother and I are going to do a 2 or 3 week trip. We were thinking Colorado but maybe California might fit the bill...

Its nearly 3 days of driving so anything less than 2 weeks for that far is a waste.

I helped my brother do the air lines for his ARB lockers on his JK. Wasn't too bad but we had a 2 post lift which makes everything easier.

CO and UT are both nice especially if you want to do some wheeling. If you do come to SoCal let me know, it'd be great to meet ya, we might even take you wheeling.

If you do want a front arb to compliment your rear arb I have one for sale that came out of my R50. The front locker does help a lot more than I thought it ever would.

I'd love to but it'll be a while before I would consider a front locker. I'll definitely keep you in mind though, thanks!

I bet you can't wait to get the rear locker working!

Yeah but I also have something else on my mind that's taking away the excitement and motivation to get the locker working. I'm trying to figure out my lift situation, I'm quite unhappy with the amount of lift I ended up with the OME springs after they settled. I'm contemplating if I should throw some 1" strut spacers on there for now and call it good. Or consider replacing the springs with the AC springs or bite the bullet and go SFD or dare I say SAS. The latter two just seem like more work and note quite the direction I was aiming for- they're more suited to hardcore wheeling yet in all honesty, I'm just looking for a bit more ground clearance and may be putting 33s under there if they fit.

 

[system-f]

I'd love to but it'll be a while before I would consider a front locker. I'll definitely keep you in mind though, thanks!

No problem, it will probably still be available.

I have been really impressed with the direction your vehicle has been taking. Threads like these have been inspirational in pointing my R50 back to a much more overland direction.

 

[stioc]

@system-f, I appreciate the feedback, thank you. I'm always glad to hear that the thread is helping others even if it's learning from my mistakes lol. I've tried to make this thread open-source (short of posting the cost, which I thought of doing too but decided against it for a few different reasons) and honest as possible in terms of my thought process and the feedback on parts, installation and equipment.

I'll be honest again, when I saw the EQUIPT's fully built Land Cruiser 100 for sale for $18k I thought to myself if I were to do this again the smart way I'd probably buy a meticulously built truck like his, though his has twice the miles but still, for not much more than what I'm heading towards in terms of the total cost and mine's no where near as complete as his LC. Of course, I wouldn't have all this fun personalizing it- selecting parts, ordering them, waiting axiously, installing them, testing them etc and sharing them with others.

 

[quaintbucket]

Looking good! How much space did you have between the wheel well and your tires on the rear when you were going up that hill?

Never done anything like that before so I don't know what to expect.

 

[stioc]

@quaintbucket, I'm not sure about the space as it was an action shot and I didn't really even know how well the tire was tucked in there until I saw the pics.

 

[stioc]

OK guys, an update on my suspension lift. I mentioned before while the OMEs (medium) have been amazingly nice, it's like these springs are factory (smooth, no jarring, no choppiness, handle the weight well when fully loaded etc), but on the downside they've settled a bit more than I expected. Probably part of it has to do with me having the rock sliders (80lbs), roof rack (60lbs), heavier battery (50lbs), OEM hitch, storage platform. The result is about 1" over stock.

I'm not looking forward to doing the same work twice and spending the money twice but my options are to either to live with it or chalk it up to a mistake and go after what I want. Since life's too short to just settle I ordered the AC lift springs and the NX4 spacers.

Eventually I would also like to put 285/75/16s on it but it's a big compromise and I haven't decided if I want to do it. The current tires are 40lbs each and have been great both on and offroad, I can pass other cars at 80-85mph if I want to and I get almost 19mpg on mostly highway driving. The 285s are about 15lbs heavier each. That's a lot more unsprung weight with the luke-warm brakes it has. In this case I may settle for 32"s but unless I can sell my current tires (3k miles on them) for a fair price I'll have to wait until these are worn down- which may be a while.

 

[stioc]

"Wider is better" wasn't that a slogan for the Pontiac GT or something once?

My Pathy went from being this mouse:

To this cat overnight :Wow1::

That's still the same OME springs and the same tires...just added some wheel spacers to kick the Duratracs out as they should and get rid of the sucked in economy car look. This will also help when placing the tires over obstacles that get too close to the body work as well as the handling.

Having said that I'm one of those people who've always been leary of wheel spacers so it took a lot of courage to decide to do this but I do feel the quality of wheel spacers have improved over the years - we shall see how they fare.

 

[Lecoq]

Nice touch!

Looks proper. I was debating on wheel spacers for a while but decided on a new set of wheels instead.

I think 32's would be perfect for your truck. Get some nice 265-75-16 and be done with it. Your build thread has been an inspiration to my friend who just purchased an 01 R50 in white

 

[duckhunter71]

Wow, that made a huge difference! Who knew! Only issue with that here is that I'd have mud alllllllllllll over the side of my rig! My XJ had a set of rims on it that stuck out 1-2" from the fender flares when I bought it and it would coat itself in mud any time I drove down a wet dirt road. I replaced them with a set of stock alloys and that problem went away. In California, however, that shouldn't be an issue. You don't get the 50"+ of rain we get each year!

 

[stioc]

@Lecoq, yeah most likely it'll be 32's though I do find myself day dreaming about 33's

@duckhunter, you're right about the rooster tails from the tires, I already get from not having the front mud-flaps. We don't have much mud here in CA but the tires can kick up the debris causing the paint to chip. The sliders help but not completely.

Also, now my tires hit the edge of the front bumper when the wheels are turned a good amount. I'm fairly certain the AC lift will solve that problem before I have to resort to trimming plastic.

 

[Lecoq]

Are you sure you'll have enough lift with the AC coils and the NX4 spacer? Any idea on the spring rates of the ACs?

 

[stioc]

AC Coils + NX4 + wheel spacers = 33" tires

I didn't think so myself but it's been done, 01silverPathy over on NPORA even had a write up about it. Fluery/Steve now has 255/85/16s with this setup but he said he had to trim quite a bit.