honduraspathfinder

I had been driving my stock 91 2.7 Turbo Diesel (400,000 kms) here in Honduras as a professional working for an NGO in local community development efforts, for a couple of years now and decided to go ahead and upgrade the suspension with Calmini's full kit (NP12600) after a significant amount of research on this site. My thoughts are below. Height Significant difference. Easily 3-4" over stock. I personally chose to use 31x10.50 (Dunlop Grantrek MTs) on the stock steel rims, but have no doubt that 33s would easily fit all around as most seem to concur (although the 31s do rub a little on hard turns, but the steering stops haven't been touched). Clearance with these tires installed is much, much improved over stock. Many obstacles that I previously scraped over or had to avoid on a daily basis are now a non-issue. Install Very easy. I live in the middle of nowhere here with no other local vehicles or public transport, so if something gets broken or goes missing during an install - things get difficult. So, I went into the city (1.5 hrs away) and worked with an experienced mechanic to install the kit. Within 8 hours we installed the entire kit, plus two tie-rod ends, a new tie-rod and auxillary arm, in addition to (snapped off) stabilizer bar screws. The only tricky/disappointing part of the kit is the lack of the rods that connects the UCAs to the chassis. Removing the stock rods is a real pain, and we had to modify a couple of damaged washers to get the spacing right on the stock bars. Overall the CALMINI parts seem to be very high quality. The UCAs in particular are awe-inspiring. I certainly don't feel that the torsion bars are a necessity if you can avoid it. Just re-index. The springs are great and easy to pop in. Ride Woah. I feel like this thing is much stiffer, so, as would be expected, on-road handling is dramatically improved. Off-road driving is much more... rattly. Let's just say you won't be wondering where the loose pieces inside your vehicle are... they'll be audible. I'm somewhat disappointed with front-end flex and give - a real log wagon, alarmingly stiff. The back end flexes incredibly well and has much more give. If I throw all my 200lbs on the front end, it maybe dips 1/2" - 1", the back drops considerably more (double?) and is much smoother. To be fair, CALMINI warned me to expect 25% increases in rigidity, which is probably true for the rear, but I feel like 100% increases in the front end would be more accurate to expect. Customer Service I do not want to complain about customer service, but in my difficult international location, I was hoping for a little more cooperation from CALMINI. When I called, they were very knowledgeable, but over half of my e-mails seem to have been missed or ignored. The delivery was delayed nearly a month (I was told that it was due to a powdercoat that had to be reapplied), but I was never informed of the delay. Only after multiple e-mails over a two week period did I finally call to get an answer. Even then, I received no further updates. In addition, they did no send the two rear shocks. So in order to get by, I had to purchase a couple of Monroes until my US coworkers can bring down the Calmini units. Overall, I would say that my experience with Calmini craftsmanship is excellent, but poor with customer service. Overall I live 15 minutes up a dirt/rock/mud road in a small rural community. The road occasionally becomes unpassable to 2WDs due to rutting, road surface conditions, etc, and even with a 4WD recent rain events had caused the rutting to begin to tickle my Pathfinder's underbits, so a lift became a priority since torsion bars were already reaching their aligneable limits. I was looking for a complete kit due to replace the very old, very used suspension components on my existing daily driver that both hauls me to remote mountain communities and takes my wife and little daughter into town to do some grocery s. I decided on a full kit to not put myself in a bind finding bits and pieces. Parts are very hard to come by here. Overall I'm very pleased with the result. If anybody else has thoughts or questions about their experience with these kits or its respective components, feel free to chime in below. Before After

Finally installed a complete Calmini kit (control arms, torsion bars, rear springs, front shocks, appropriate extensions) in addition to all four Dunlop Grantrek MTs (31x10.50x15). I'm very pleased with the overall result. On road handling has improved dramatically. Our (dirt/rock) road is in pretty rough condition right now with about 15-20 minutes of what would probably classify as light to medium trail driving. The height has really helped me clear a couple of spots along the way, however the ride is now log wagon quality. I'm assuming the dramatically increased front-end stiffness is due to the cranked (and replaced, stiffer) torsion bars (and new shocks?), since the back end seems to be just marginally stiffer. That being said, is this the common experience among those with a similar ride here? Is there any way to soften this ride? I weight 200 lbs and can jump up and down on the front and it will budge maybe an inch or so. I even dropped the bars down about an 1" with similar result. Will the bars and shocks break in some after a while? I remember seeing that it looked like there were left and right torsion bars, but at the moment of install, I didn't pay too much attention to this detail and may have installed them in reverse. Can torsion bars be side specific? That seems like an odd concept to me. Thanks for everyone's input. These forums have been very helpful. I appreciate the assistance. Couple of pictures below. BEFORE AFTER

32 inch tires sound ideal to me, but I do not want to go any wider than 10.50 if possible. Did you end up with 32x11.50s? It seems that 32x10.50s on the 15inch rims are nearly impossible to find in something not Interco. This being more of a daily-driver, I'm intending to stay as narrow as possible on tires that don't seem too small. I'm assuming that 31x10.50s are the best bet. I've loved BFG ATs before and am open to MTs, but don't want to go as aggressive as Intercos. Do 31x10.50s stick out of the wheel-well much on the stock rims with no backspacing? Are 31x9.50s an option? Any metric sizes that would be comparable height wise? I've done the size-conversions online, but doubt that any common sizes are available in a 15" rim. I ended up purchasing the Calmini system after research, although it seems that it primarily comes down to opinion between AC and Calmini. Thanks for the help though.

Thanks for the help. I'm thinking in the direction of the AC or Calmini complete system. My next question/recommendation would be tire size. I really don't want to go exceptionally large, just slightly larger than stock to gain some height with the lift staying on stock rims. Again, looking for daily drivability, preferably with narrower tires. I have thought towards 31x10.50 or 32x10.50. Does anyone have any experience running these tires with a 3" lift. Any photos or thoughts are appreciated. Thanks again.

I live in rural Central America and work as a community development professional, and needless to say, my access to parts can be a little difficult at times. I have fairly infrequent access to internet, and not a lot of time to browse when I do get to it, hence the question that I know has been asked a million times. Thanks for your understanding and suggestions as you read this post. I’m currently looking to upgrade the very tired (400K kilometer) suspension on my daily driver (‘91 2.7TD). I live several miles out a fairly nasty road that can require 4WD and/or a decent amount of flexibility on a regular basis. I’m currently on a stock suspension (and have been for the past two years), but deteriorating road conditions are warranting an upgrade. Here is the specific part. I would like to purchase suspension/steering components comprehensive enough to cover all bases but that is tough and forgiving enough to use on a daily basis in rough conditions. Due to weight and travel frequency from the US. I would like to make this a one-time upgrade. If I’m missing parts, it is going to make things VERY DIFFICULT for me really quickly. This is my daily driver, and I don’t travel to the US very often. I’m looking to purchase prior to my next trip to the States so that I can bring it back down and/or check it and then ship it down. Dependability, performance, “installability (a.k.a. lack of needed fabrication)” and lack of kidney bruising is more important than cost, look, or total height. If I could get 2-3” of lift out of it, that should be plenty. I’m looking to replace everything from shocks, to torsion bbars, to necessary steering components. I’d also like to stay on stock rims with the largest size that will definitely not rub under normal driving conditions and rub minimally under rough conditions. All that to say, could you kind folk please help me with a recommended parts list and recommended suppliers or point me to a post where this is already done? I realize that everyone has different opinions, but I hope that between all, there might be some sort of consensus for what I’m aiming for. I’m typing this up on Word now to copy and paste when I have Internet access, so again, please forgive me for asking a surely common question. In advance, I’m truly grateful for any help you might be able to provide.

Hello all. I'm a US Citizen that has been living in Honduras (Central America) for a few years. I work with an NGO dedicated to community development work in the rural areas here. As a result, I live in a semi-remote location and need 4-wheel drive anytime it gets any wet (which is all the time in my particular area). I just recently sold an old Suzuki Samurai, which was a champ for getting in and out of the house. I will sorely miss it. However, the time had come for a bigger vehicle, and I decided on a first-gen Pathfinder since they're easy for parts here and are generally known to be pretty tough. In the past I've owned a 1992 Cherokee with 3" suspension, the Samurai, and a 1998 Frontier (not all in Honduras, but still off-roaded them some). So, this time around, I've got a standard transmission 1991 Pathfinder with the TD 27 (2.7L) turbo diesel. It's high mileage, so I expect turbo issues, but these first couple weeks have proven great. Overall very pleased with it. Since I will be using it heavily, I'll be maintaining it well and probably modifying a little bit. One immediate question, what is the easiest way to mount a roof rack on these things? I'll be hauling larger materials (pipes, etc) and will need to bolt something on. I can custom weld one, but the lack of rain rails makes mounting look interesting. Any advice? Also,any common suspension issues I should be watching for? Again, we'll be flexing this somewhat on a daily basis, nothing extreme, but every now and then necessity will dictate I push stock to the test. Any additional height tricks on stock suspension will be welcomed as well (outside of the torsion bar adjustment which I'll be applying within tolerance). Thanks in advance for the support. It can be a little interesting owning older vehicles here, especially using them hard, so I appreciate the help from the experts here. Thanks again!