KiwiTerrano

Went out again last weekend, club training day up the Ashley River. Good fun all round.

Nice! Didn't realise that.

The bilsteins can be mounted upside down to suit pre vs post facelift. Nissan swapped the upper and lower mounts over halfway through the production run. Being a monotube shock, the bilstein can be run inverted with no problems. On the pre facelift, it is advisable to run it inverted with the body at the too to avoid the pan hard bar end hitting the shock body. I ran procomp shocks, which you couldn't invert, and had that problem.

Fitted up my 33" spare - 255/75r17 to match my 255/85r16 tyres. Also a BFG MT. Only JUST fitted - very tight. Had to let it down to about 4 PSI. Would have gone in more easily if the towbar was just a little further out. I think my bar must differ from US spec ones as some here have fitted 33" spares no worries. In case you're wondering, the factory Nissan towbar is incredibly strong. I broke a Toyota towbar in half at the tongue weld when doing a moderate recovery with an 8 ton snatch strap... and yes, I removed the ball and replaced it with a shackle. Also went on a fun evening trip with the Land Rover club down at the Ashley River. 18 vehicles. I was the only Nissan. Lots of slippery mud and a few nice off camber bits and ruts.

I think the SF creations is a spacer suspension lift, not a body lift per se. Would still look good though!

Just needs some lift now!

Well, it did get a little hot going up the remarkables but I have since realised that the radiator was half covered in mud so that probably contributed...

I'm running 255/85r16 BFG KM2 on mine. The skinny tyre is great for 4wding but does compromise road handling. The wider 285/75r16 tyre would be better onroad. I also wouldn't recommend the KM2 unless you really want to go 4wding as they're very noisy. KO2 would be a much better compromise, or even a more road biased AT like the AT3. I wouldn't mind a V8 (couldn't use much more fuel than v6) but they never sold them here.

265/70r16 is the perfect size for the 16" wheels. I would recommend getting the QD32 over the TD27, more power and better economy as the gearing is better on the open road. Loved my old r50. Stay away from the petrol versions, the QD32 has nearly as much power and way more torque. Check the intake hose from the airbox to the turbo isn't cracked, mine was. $60 off trademe for a new one. Also look for one that's had the electronically controlled injector pump rebuilt if you can Stay away from any that jerk taking off from a stop as this can indicate the injector pump is on the way out. This doesn't apply to the wd21 as it has a mechanical injector pump.

I agree. The cables will be fine. It will be the internal mechanism in the drums that needs tightening. Have had to do this on mine. Make sure you back off the cable in the cab first. Get a copy of the sevice manual and read the defiron on adjusting the handbrake.

Pics time! Got the bullbar, winch, driving lights, foglights and new UHF antenna installed. My other car (Subaru Omega touring wagon, or the NZ version of the GL/Loyale with the rear raised roof) Don't mind the dent in the fender... that was part of the carnage from Lake Daniels... along with ripping off both bumpers, destroying the right side step, and cutting the fuel pump wire getting towed off a root... remind me why I go 4wding again...

Went for a proper run on some private land out at Thomson's Flat with the Land Rover club this weekend. Pathfinder went fairly well on the 33s, better than my old terrano on the same ground. Much like the terrano though, I caught the rear bumper on the exact same obstacle and had to remove it. Not much holding it onto the r51! Just two bolts and a few screws plus clips down the sides. I also got a bit brave and completely destroyed the right side step on a big tree root. Unfortunately I got stuck on it and had to get towed off backwards. This cause the front mount on the side step to get rotated, which in turn damaged the wiring loom to the back of the truck. It completely cut the wire to the fuel pump, and blew the fuse too. Had to do some Bush wiring to get the truck going again! And replace the fuse. Thankfully it drove home as it would have been a long slow tow down the river out (several kms down a rough riverbed) and then a trailer home from there. So, a few mods to come. Bullbar and winch are here, just need to fit them. Then I need sliders and a new rear bar too. And front suspension. Also need to do the dual battery setup and fit a new airbox. Time and money...

Rear springs, fit some of those land rover ones with the procomp es326500 shocks off Summitracing.com. 11" travel. Take the rear sway bar out and you'll out flex solid front axle trucks. My terrano had better ramp travel than a solid front prado with those rear shocks and no sway bar.

My springs were standard rate for a v6 and I had them in a twin battery diesel so maybe a bit unfair. I would recommend efs shocks, I had kyb fronts and they were a bit under damped. Springs I would say cobra extra heavy duty off trademe if you have bar and winch. Otherwise just go with matched efs ones. Efs suspension is very high quality and is equal with OME in my opinion. Better than dobison tough dog all that crap.

Having upgraded from my r50 to an r51, on the whole the r51 is a better vehicle. The main thing I miss from the r50, is the insane rear end flex it had. I had mine set up very nicely, with flexy lift coils and 11" travel Procomp shocks with no RSB. The r51 just doesn't have that same feel offroad. What I propose, is to swap the solid rear axle from a D40 Navara, and use a 4-link suspension design with triangulated upper links. This should give me a vehicle with a nice flexy rear end, at the tradeoff of some diff clearance VS the IRS. By using a d40 rear axle I also hope that the ABS, TC etc will still work. I also plan on fitting the front diff from a navara too, as the diesels have a slightly better diff ratio for the 33" tyres I'm running on my petrol pathy. Thoughts?

Went for a bit of a run after lockdown with a few others from the Land Rover Owners club (not exclusive to the make). A good day out and certainly got to put the Pathy through its paces! Still waiting on all my parts lol. Can't wait to get the front suspension sorted, the downtravel is pretty crap at the moment. https://youtu.be/kUgxi9RcqT4

It was me. However it was a big hard snatch, from halfway around a corner in deep ruts uphill with the car sitting on the diffs...

I got my shocks off Summitracing. Front shocks, best option is KYB OEM replacement. Nobody makes extended ones.

Both the vehicles pictures have 4" subframe drops, which need to be custom made. For lift, I would recommend Fleurys 25 mm strut top spacers with AC front springs and LR 9447 rear springs with Procomp ES326500 rear shocks. This will give you 3" lift all round. You will then need 0 offset 16x7 wheels, which allow you to fit 265/75r16 tyres. Fleurys also makes skidplates. For a front and rear bar I would recommend coastal offroad, their front bar is winch compatible. If you want to lift the front higher than 2" springs with a 1" spacer for 3" total, then you need a subframe drop. For the 3" lift above you should also fit manual locking front hubs. Personally I prefer the auto mode transfer case as AUTO is excellent for wet roads and snow. However be careful with auto mode and manual hubs as you need to have them locked when using auto... I found the rear lsd in my r50 good but it wasn't the be all. Taking out the rear sway bar and fitting the procomp shocks made the biggest difference as the give you 11" of shock travel without having to move bumpstops, for mega flex.

We're going to level 3 (which is pretty much level 4 with UberEats) on Tuesday. Then to Level 2, which allows restricted domestic travel, in a further fortnight. As a practicing doctor at a New Zealand hospital, frankly I am very grateful for the lockdown. If not for Ardern's quick response, we would be in dire straights currently, I think (based off what's happened in the UK, US, Italy etc). Anyhow, unfortunately I lost the progress shots off my old phone when it broke, but I have a few later shots I took. Essentially the hooks were mounted to 6x150x75 mm angle iron, drilled to fit the factory mounts on the side of the chassis, with an additional 6 mm plate underneath to the radiator support, so the hooks bolted to 12 mm of steel. I used grade 8.8 M10 bolts torqued to the correct spec (43 Nm) to mount to the chassis. The hooks themselves use grade 8.8 M12 bolts, which I torqued to the correct 78 Nm. The design and build is very strong, much stronger than what the mounts are bolted to. I would however recommend putting a single piece of angle iron across the lower radiator support to brace it, instead of two individual plates, one either side like I did. I bent my lower rad support doing a big pull with a bridle, and a front lower brace would have prevented this. The iron is oriented so the 150 mm side points up. The 75 mm side points out horizontally and the hook bolts to this. The lateral bracing plate sits underneath the 75 mm side, and connects the hook bolts to the lower radiator support captive nut where the factory hooks bolt onto it. The lateral bracing plate should not be built in this manner - rather it should be constructed out of a single piece of plate or angle iron to tie both sides together and brace the lower rad support across its full width. It looks so shiny in this picture because it had just been returned from the panelbeater after someone backed into it outside my house and destroyed the front right corner...

My old Terrano with the above snorkel. Works pretty well but involves a bit of cutting to fit.

https://www.mudstuck.co.nz/collections/snorkels/products/snorkel-4x4-nissan-r50-mudstuck

So anyhow, my order with XROX is confirmed. Will also be fitting a Runva XP11 Premium winch, and the long travel coilover kit above. Just need some sliders to replace my ruined running boards and then we're good!

Lift will require certification as its height adjustable coilovers with adjustable upper control arms. I also have 33s which are >5% oversize and front 20 mm wheel spacers so my 16" alloys will clear the front calipers. So needs certifying for 4 reasons. I actually plan on keeping the lift at 2" as I still have over 300 mm of clearance front and rear as it sits with the old 2" kit. I won't be changing the rear at all. I prefer decent wheel travel over maximum clearance.