2011 Xterra low lift w35s build and adventures

[Smileyshaun]

Little update ,
Have about 700 miles on the tires now •Still happy with the road noise , you know they are there but it’s not annoying
•Drives and corners great
•second trip out in the snow they worked way better ,think I finally wore off the releasing agent or whatever it’s called that’s on new tires
• they work well at 12psi but think I may have to go to 8 to get them to really squat in the snow .
• mileage has dropped to 16 mpg on the freeway

 

[Smileyshaun]

My quick solution to covering up the cut edge , some of that door trim stuff that comes in a big roll .

 

[The other Sean]

Brilliant.

 

[Smileyshaun]

It’s almost a little funny I still get people telling me the tires won’t fit even when they are standing next to it , last week I had some guy up in the snow when we where already about 10 miles in “ That’s nice and all but I hope you never have to turn “ . I wish my first thought would have been “how do you think I got here only driving straight ?.... but sometimes you hear something so dumb it’s like your brain has to reboot to even think of a response so I just smiled and drove past him and continued on our way .

 

[tjZ06]

Nice update. You've created a super-functional rig.

-TJ

 

[Smileyshaun]

Ok I seem to always have the worst luck when it comes to car parts and some times it makes me just want to give up on the hobby well maybe not that extreme but it is frustrating. Got some universal energy suspension bumpstops for the front end and Wouldn’t you know it one of the nuts wouldn’t screw on . Thought maybe I was trying to cross thread it so I pulled the bumpstop back out to double check and yup there’s the problem

somehow in a unopened package it had two different nuts One metric one sae ... I swear I’m cursed lol. We will see this weekend if it helps a bit with the ride having a little more coushion

 

[Smileyshaun]

Nice update. You've created a super-functional rig.

-TJ

thanks , still have a lot of little things and some maintenance items to work on but so far it’s working out quite well .I do think a 1 inch body lift will be needed because under full stuff I’m a little afraid if something gets slung around the tire in the front passenger side it may cause damage to the wiper fluid outlet that’s hiding behind the liner . I may need to build some sort of skid plate for it just to be safe .

 

[TerryD]

Ok I seem to always have the worst luck when it comes to car parts and some times it makes me just want to give up on the hobby well maybe not that extreme but it is frustrating. Got some universal energy suspension bumpstops for the front end and Wouldn’t you know it one of the nuts wouldn’t screw on . Thought maybe I was trying to cross thread it so I pulled the bumpstop back out to double check and yup there’s the problem View attachment 131571

somehow in a unopened package it had two different nuts One metric one sae ... I swear I’m cursed lol. We will see this weekend if it helps a bit with the ride having a little more coushion View attachment 131572

Keep me posted on those. My UCA is contacting my inner wheel well it seems. Found a buggered up bolt pulling the liner last weekend. Gonna have to do something. $200 for the Timbrens is steep though.

 

[Smileyshaun]

Keep me posted on those. My UCA is contacting my inner wheel well it seems. Found a buggered up bolt pulling the liner last weekend. Gonna have to do something. $200 for the Timbrens is steep though.

Will do , I figured for 12$ I couldn’t go wrong .

 

[Smileyshaun]

 

[Smileyshaun]

On flat ground 60-70 is just about the same as it was on stock tires just hardly touching the throttle

 

[Smileyshaun]

After the holiday rush the fiancé and I like to head somewhere to just relax and take it easy . Our favorite place to head is the lodge at Detroit lake , rooms are very reasonable at 210$ for 2 nights , has a nice jetted tub and fire pits outside to relax and enjoy a drink by . The other nice part about it is it only takes maybe 20 min to be up in the hills and play in the snow . We got a real late start on the first day out of town and just decided to take the quick way down the hwy and just got checked in and did nothing at all enjoying some adult beverages by the fire .

we slept in and had a good hearty breakfast watchingsome snow fall . After breakfast we headed out to find some snow . There’s not as much snow this year but still enough to make everything beautiful .We had to backtrack and try some other roads because the fiancé is not a fan of cliffs and narrow roads plus there had been some freezing rain so it was just a smarter decision to turn around and head to a lake we remembered having less cliffs .

it was wonderfully quiet being the only people up there that day had a quick fire and lunch then hiked up to a fire watch tower to catch the sun set over mt Jefferson and back to the hotel for a hot bath and more adult beverages .

 

[Farook Ismail]

This reminds me of the "wheeling forums"

One of the great things about building multiple vehicles as you have done in. the past is you get to k ow what you want you want and like.
Good for you. Stick to your plans post pics to get us excited and gave at er.

Good luck it's a nice base to start.

 

[Smileyshaun]

The next day on our way home we once again had a very hearty breakfast

and headed the more enjoyable way home via hwy 46 . There wasn’t as much snow as in years past so we turned off the hwy and headed Towards ollie lake . The drive was extremely enjoyable with it being a nice sunny day the only two downsides was the snow had melted some and refrozen so some parts where just a ice skating ring and I gotta say the ride on the xterra is just shit . Not much travel at either end and with my shocks and struts needed replacing it just constantly bounces off the bumpstops . Didn’t take a whole ton of photos becauseI just enjoy driving and like to really take in where I’m traveling and not worry so much about getting great shots of where I am .


Tires are doing very well but are still quite stiff , even at 10 psi



vs 26 psi

All in all a fanstasic getaway with my lady and hoping for more snow fun this winter .

 

[The other Sean]

Time to Titan swap the front.....+10" of wheel travel, longer control arms and no front swaybar = smooth like a caddy both on and off road.

 

[Smileyshaun]

Time to Titan swap the front.....+10" of wheel travel, longer control arms and no front swaybar = smooth like a caddy both on and off road.

I don’t want the extra width , I worked hard to keep the tires under the fenders and want to keep it that way . I actually might be selling it, a opportunity has come up to buy back a vehicle I use to own and that I really enjoyed so I may just finish up the fender reinforcements give it a good polish and put it up for sale . With low miles and a manual trans I hope it will sell quickly .

 

[Smileyshaun]

And when I say rough riding I mean this is actually one of the roughest writing vehicles I’ve owned the only thing I’ve ever owned that was worse was that 71 chev that had heated up coils so it was slammed on the ground. The front suspension hardly even moves so I’m really hoping a fresh set of struts will help but we will see

 

[Smileyshaun]

Had a nice little Sunday drive exploring some backroads and finding a little snow to drive in , found a interesting concrete water crossing a couple of waterfalls
A decent amount of fresh powder, I wanted to see how far the xterra could go at street psi mostly cause I was to lazy to air back up lol . The tires did well staying on top of the snow and kept pulling through until I strarted dragging the bumper .
On the way down we really got tired of seeing bottles and cans on the side of the road so we picked up as many as we could I till our bag was full .... it only took 3 miles of driving that’s sad really really sad we can do better as humans .

 

[Smileyshaun]

This made me laugh a little ,I need some slightly longer ubolts so I can put my zero rate plates in and move my rear axle forward a 1/2” to keep it out of the fender under full stuff and tried a couple different places and nobody had any in stock not 4wheel parts ,not a trailer shop.I could have drove across Town to get them from a spring shop but didn’t want to deal with afternoon traffic so figured I would just deal with it another day . The fiancé needed wipers for her forester so I swung by the auto zone down the road and wouldn’t you know it they had quite a few ubolts on the shelf , autozone is the last place I would have expected to find them so looks like I’ll get the rear end sorted out this weekend after all .

 

[Smileyshaun]

Alrighty rear end has been moved forward 1” and now stays out of the bumper and just barely touches below the door so I think I can trim that out a little bit and glue the door seal back in . Thankfully I have a old bin of Toyota bolts and managed to scrounge up enough stuff to temporarily space out the brake lines and the rear bump stops . Gonna go try it out in the snow tomorrow and order some shocks