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33's on my 2003 Pathfinder


RWC5S2
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path6.jpg

 

Ok, I think it worked. Here are pic's of the left front wheel well. You can see that not much had to be removed.

My 32x11.50R15 Goodyear MTRs rub worse than that! I'll try to post photos my fender condition to show how severely they rub.

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I tried the 33x10.5 and they rubbed all over the place. I went with the 33x9.5 for that reason. The 1 inch made a major difference. I will have a spotter to be safe but, I do not anticipate a significant problem since I do not try to crawl over rocks the size of a small country. Who knows, it's all some kind of trade-off no matter what you do. If I have to trim a bit more from all the dang plastic junk they put on cars now days it will be no big deal. I really wanted the extra lift and there is no way to do it without rebuilding the whole dang car. I could always buy a beater Jeep and waste a ton of money and still be no better off.

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The IFS barely flexes at all!

This looks like some pretty serious flex (for IFS) to me:

 

048_gs_dropoff_dean3.jpg

 

Note: those are 32" BFG ATs. 32" MT/Rs have bigger shoulder lugs, so they rub more.

Edited by XPLORx4
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Dean, my 31's with stock suspension never even came close to the fender like yours is. That's with the spring completely "collapsted" with all the coils resting on each other, and I bet I still had 3 inches between the tire and fender. :o

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Dean, my 31's with stock suspension never even came close to the fender like yours is. That's with the spring completely "collapsted" with all the coils resting on each other, and I bet I still had 3 inches between the tire and fender. :o

Tyler-

 

That amount of flex is doable with the front swaybar removed.

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Tyler-

 

That amount of flex is doable with the front swaybar removed.

:aok::aok:

 

Exactly. With the swaybar, you get absolutely NO articulation, though travel is fine. Without the swaybar, the wheels are able to move independently, and can articulate through the full range of travel.

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Dean - you've been running for years without front sway bars, correct? No drawbacks - just take it easy on high speed manuevers? I wonder if my inspection station would notice them missing....

 

m.

I haven't had mine for nearly 2 years. I'm glad I got rid of it. I had a bit of minor bump steer with the 32s and the sway bar, but when I took it off, it all went away. The ride is much better, and bumps aren't nearly as 'jarring.'

 

I haven't noticed any ill-effects.

 

Inspection station didn't notice, or didn't mention it last time I got it inspected. When I went to get my truck inspected at the Nissan Dealer to figure out what was wrong with it, they put that I needed a new front sway bar because it was missing. I told them I had one, and that I had no intention of reinstalling it. They tried to convince me that the sway bar held the truck together and it would fall apart without it. I laughed at the guy's ignorance and left. Yay for dealership free inspections! Saved me a ton of time of trying to figure out for myself what was wrong, and they even gave me a nice print-out of all the parts they thought I should replace (even the timing belt), which I told them I had replaced 1,500 miles before I brought it in....morons.

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My apologies on the tire brand info.....another senior moment. They are in fact BFG All Terrain T/A 33x9.5x15. Evidently BFG only makes them in 32" and 33" and not all places carry them but, they should be able to order them. Geez, I hope so. I will need 4 more in 50,000 miles or so. Hopefully I will get out next weekend and can get some decent pics of the Pathy doing cool stuff. I don't have anything areound here quite as extreme as what was just posted but I shall give it a try.

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I would do the spacers and the hubs at the same time. There are differing thoughts on wether there is to much wear on the cv joints with the lift and spacers but I would do the hubs to be on the safe side. It gives you a couple of miles per gallon also.

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I have checked out a few places that are alleged to sell the spacers. ARB only offers 1/2" with veiled mentions of potential problems with going higher. Who sells a 1" strut spacer?

 

So, if I understand this right, the A/C lift with a 1" strut spacer will most likely not trash the rig but the hubs are a great idea for several reasons, chief among them less wear to the CV joints and a mild increase in MPG. By the way, the MPG went down the toilet with the 33's, which I should not be shocked over.

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ive got 33x10.50 mts on mine with just the ac lift... tho i would make it higher all around if i could figure out how to make my cv joints at not such a harsh angle... what ever happened to system f and his lift? wasnt that who made the 4 1/2 inch lift

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ive got 33x10.50 mts on mine with just the ac lift... tho i would make it higher all around if i could figure out how to make my cv joints at not such a harsh angle... what ever happened to system f and his lift? wasnt that who made the 4 1/2 inch lift

In short: System F is keith, who made the first 4.5" lift and gave test kits to Matt (infinitqx4me) and Colopathy. Matt in particular abused his on the trail with 34x10" tires and an addition 2" AC lift in the front, and had no problems. Tyler Morgan then redesigned the basic lift idea since Keith wasn't going to produce it. Another guy also made a 4.5" lift that was essentially a copy, but as far as I know he didn't continue to develop it for mass production.

 

Tyler is close to releasing his kits although he still wants to do further testing first. His website is http://www.pradolifts.com/index.html I will be getting one of these lift kits, they are exciting. It uses 4" subframe drop brackets. You then use longer springs and/or strut spacers to get 4.5" lift at the corners.

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Well, I messed up again on the photo. Oh well. Here is the best shot I could come up with from this weekends run. The guy I gave the camera to missed some other cool shots, one where my right rear was about 3' in the air as I crested a switchback turn/drop combo.

 

I did manage to get a bit of rubbing but it was only a small plastic tab I over looked in the rear wheel well. Took a knife and solved that problem. Had the same issue with the left front, just a bit of plastic that I cut off.

 

I gotta tell ya, this R-50 had the Jeep crowd going crazy. They could not believe I could keep up with them. It was even better when 2 of them got stuck and had to be pulled out.

 

I did by pass 3 spots where you pretty much had to have 7-8" of lift to clear the ledge. But, I never claimed to be a rock crawler.

 

The tires are great on hard surfaces and going over rocks and such. They are not the best choice for deep sand. I had no trouble climbing hills that 2 of the bigger rigs did not make.

 

I did manage to crunch my right front fender, the plastic covering only. A buddy of mine and I are going to start working on a replacement steel bumper made from scratch. I think we might have a good idea and access to better prices on steel stock.

 

Any hoo, the little Pathy did stuff I never imagined and the tires were the best thing I did to enhance the A/C lift.

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