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So, a few weeks ago I got in, started the old girl up, put her in drive to pull her into the garage to do some work on the roof basket, stepped on the brake and BAM, pedal went to the floor. Ended up being one of the hard lines above the rear axle had decided to succumb to corrosion. Looking at the rest of the hard lines back there, I decided it would be prudent to replace them all, as well as the rubber line. I then checked to see if I could free the bleeders on the wheel cylinders, nope, one crumbled and the other offered no resistance, as it snapped off with almost no pressure. I pulled her back out and ordered up a coil of line, bag of fittings, frontier rear hose and a pair of wheel cylinders. After all the parts arrived, I got to work and replaced everything aft of the clean section above the muffler (which worked out well, as I already had the new exhaust on-hand to replace the old rotted junk), bled the system thoroughly, hung the new exhaust and went off on a test drive. This is where frustration began. The brake pedal was inconsistent, sometimes high and tight stopping great, sometimes dumping all the way to floor requiring hand brake application, sometimes somewhere in between. Carefully, got her back home, went through the bleeding process again, no air bubbles at all. Took a ride up the road, still consistently inconsistent. Bled again, no air. Called a mechanic friend, bled it with him, no air. Looks like the master cylinder is toast from experiencing "full throw" when the pedal went to the floor, which is not uncommon for an old, high mileage unit. Looking closely at the lines and fittings to the master, it was decided that it's time to let her go. If she didn't have concerning structural rot, I would've been much more inclined to do what needed to be done, but at this point it's not something I want to get into on a vehicle that might not be structurally sound for much longer. It's been a great rig, made 20 years worth of memories, but in the end, it's the right decision. I had been casually looking for a clean, specifically spec'd Armada for a while now, as my kids (annoyingly) keep getting bigger and we could really use more room. I have found and looked at several over the 6-8 months, but they were either too high mileage, not properly maintained or severely overpriced. I opened up my search a bit, to include a very select few suburbans, expeditions and excursions, but found a lot of the same. Then by a stroke of luck, this past Friday I took a "mental health" day from work, began perusing the interwebs a bit and low and behold, a new listing popped up for a 2003 Ford Excursion XLT in my area. I clicked on it, just to realize "hey, I know this truck!", call the number, a guy I haven't seen in years answers, we catch up, I tell him I want to come look at it, stopped at the bank and went. Sitting there in all her monstrous glory, a beautifully clean, rust-free, well maintained, low mileage, tastefully modded ride. The listing did not include an asking price, nor did we discuss it on the phone, I just brought what I was willing to spend. We start talking and reminiscing as I'm looking the truck over, then I ask "what are you looking to get?", he says "I know you know what you're looking at and what it's worth", a very correct statement, "and I know what I could get for it, BUT I know if you're the next owner, you'll treat it as I have. How about ...". Without hesitation, I said "I brought cash, let's call this deal done!". I am now the very happy and proud owner of this true gem, for about half of its true market value! Although I'm sad to part ways with the Pathmaker, I'm excited about all the room and adventure the Ex has to offer. I'll still stop by this awesome community from time to time. I'll probably post a few obligatory pics of the new-to-me beast and if I find any R50 parts kicking around, I'll be sure to post 'em up.

After a long period of R&D followed by successful installs on the initial test group, who have racked up considerable mileage, hardware is starting to make its way out into the world now and we felt it was time to make a thread dedicated to our Pines to Spines SFD kit. This will be the official thread where you'll find a showcase of the rigs that are running our hardware and testimonials from them should they choose to participate in the discussion. Both 3" & 4" kits include: - 2x P2S Strut spacers - 2x engine spacers - 4x subframe spacers - 1x panhard bar drop bracket - 1x steering extension with universal joints - brand new fasteners (OEM hardware is retained) You will need to purchase or fabricate- - Longer brake lines - power steering hardline support bracket - extended sway bar end links - a missing link Note- OEM fitment skid plates will not be able to be retained. You will need to fabricate or purchase a SFD specific set. If you're interested in a kit please DM both @TowndawgR50 & @hawairish in the same message ( you can add multiple recipients to a DM) and we'll get back to you as soon as possible with availability and pricing. @02_Pathy @Ravens794 @Stpickens @Rockit

The CVs are installed now. Sure enough the hose clamp was touching the ball joint just barely so I had to redo that side with a proper boot clamp. I’m leaving the front drive shaft off the truck until I can get it to the driveline shop for new joints and balancing, but I locked the hubs anyway to see how the new boots handle the spinning. Its funny, I noticed when the truck was parked that it dripped a decent amount of oil over a couple hours, but I’ve been checking the level for the past month and it hasn’t dropped below the high mark at all since the last oil change. Before the last change i was using 10-40 in it, but I wanted to go a bit thinner for the cold weather so I first ran it with some Lucas stop leak for about a month or two and then switched to 5w-30 when I did the change. Before the stop leak it was losing quite a bit while driving but since then I haven’t lost any, even on the road trip. So I’m struggling to figure out how it could be visibly leaking but holding the high mark on the dipstick every week

I searched this forum for a post about these, for longer than I'd like to admit. Someone posted about some kind of CV boot covering that wraps over the regular rubber CV boot giving an added layer of protection. Can someone reply with a link to that post? They are something like these, but I'd like to read the post on this forum as there was a link that the OP used. https://sealsavers.com/product/proseries-cvsavers/

Congratulations. Getting a great deal on a used car you can tell has been cared for is always awesome. And even better if it is a former friend/acquaintance you can catch back up with. I've been driving a 2006 Acura MDX I bought for a great price from a friend. I've had lots of frustrations working on it. It was still a good price even with all the irritation. It's a smooth riding car for our long camping trips and lots of creature comforts. But I'm looking forward to the day I get to look for a newer R51 Pathfinder, Infiniti SUV, or maybe a Toyota/Lexus something. But Toyotas have a huge premium too.

The snap ring arrived today so I’ll be reinstalling the CVs soon. I took some pics of the Warn hubs. The inner ring is missing from the damaged one because I had to pull it off of the axle so I could get the mangled snap ring out from behind it. You can tell where it was trapped and grinding against the hub. I still have no idea how it managed to get stuck in there, but I read in the chilton manual that Nissan recommends replacing the snap ring every time you remove it. I don’t think that’s necessary but I’ve removed it many times over the past couple years so that could certainly have been a contributing factor Normal: Damaged side:

No sweat. It's a good topic to bring up and clarify, especially here. Every modification (or even repair, to some degree) is opportunity/risk to either improve or worsen the vehicle's capabilities, and in nearly every scenario—SFD or otherwise—upgrading one part usually means some other part is inherently "downgraded"...i.e., there's always a new weak link. An SFD is like any other lift in that it raises the center of gravity of the vehicle, which increases rollover risks. The fact that it moves the subframe away from the chassis also means some degree of flex is introduced, especially laterally in this case. If the install is done correctly, the truck can perform safely, but it's never without other risks. Something to also clarify, which was discussed in another thread and PM, is the introduction of driveline vibration and/or noise. Lowering the subframe does change the angle of the front driveshaft, but to date, we've not heard of any complaints related to that. However, the new angle can amplify vibrations if the bushings on the front axle support brackets are fatigued. For most of us who run manual hubs, this can be mitigated. In most cases, it's not a problem. As for the rear driveshaft, keep in mind the SFD has no impact on the rear suspension. If you exceed a certain amount of rear lift (let's say 5"), the driveshaft will be at a higher operating angle and may cause noise. On my truck, I run 6" of rear lift (9448s + 2" spacers) and I have an occasional buzz when I feather on or off the throttle due to a brief load-loss between the driveshaft and pinion at the u-joint. When load is applied between the two (99% of the time), I don't have any noise or vibration. But again, this is not a result of being SFD'd...it's a result of too much rear lift. Notably, we include a PHB Drop Bracket in our kits because it's presumed that if you need an SFD, you'll have an appreciable amount of rear lift that would benefit from a bracket (of course, this is something we can delete from the kit for those who already have a PHB bracket).

So after one day of this thread being started, we've had a great amount of interest in kits! We're trying to respond to everyone as quickly as possible. As a heads up, we should mention that we're going to try to fulfill requests for kits in batches. Right now, we're basically down to a partial kit from our original batch of 8 kits, and we're in touch with the guys who we can help in the near term. As for the next batch, we're looking into new material costs, kit interest by size, and our schedules to see what we can pull off in short order. Since we plan to have a bit more variety in kits, this should also allow us to keep a few other items in stock or sell components separately, since there's also been a good amount of interest in that. I also want to request you post up any questions you have about the kit here, so we can share answers with the community. We've already gotten a few really good questions in PM's...there's a lot to know about SFDs, that's for sure, and historically, this information has been scattered around for the past decade. We hope to consolidate all that information here. In the meantime, let me expand on a few of the required items/purchases that TowndawgR50 mentioned in the initial post. These are the parts that most guys may already have, or have access to (via other posts around the forum), that we've ultimately decided to not include with the kit. In most cases, we can help with source or fabricate the parts, but the parts just haven't been deemed "kitable" for one reason or another. Also, we've got an instruction guide that'll go into much more depth than here. If you need further clarification, let us know. Longer Brake Lines: The SFD requires longer front brake lines, simply because of the nature of the kit. Custom braided lines can be sourced from various retailers, but 2008-2017 Rogue brake lines (OEM or aftermarket) can also be used. I run Rogue lines on my truck, and TowndawgR50 runs custom braided. Same is true for the rear brake lines, though this is SFD-agnostic. 98-04 Frontier 4wd and 00-04 Xterra 4wd rear lines are a suitable replacement (also what I run). Power Steering Hardline Support: There's a high-pressure hard line that runs between the power steering pump and rack that has a mounting point on the crossmember. The hardline is actually a hardline that has a heavy duty hose crimped to it, and there's a factory bracket near the union of the two line types. When the SFD is installed, that bracket must be detached from the crossmember to allow for slack on the line when the subframe is dropped. We've chosen to not include a universal bracket for this because relocation of the line has been rather variable on all our installs. The length of the bracket doesn't correspond to the height of the SFD because the steering rack has to be rotated a few degrees, and the line may need to be hand-bent a tiny amount to either allow for slack or clear the bolts on the rack bracket so they can be accessed for high-torque tightening. In the end, the final relative position of the OE bracket can be 2"-4" from the crossmember, and may also move forward relative to the cross member another inch or so. Additionally, the racks between early and late model R50s were different, as were the lines, positions, and even the bracket itself. Ultimately, no single bracket would work in every situation, so it's best that the installer make a simple bracket once the installation is complete and the resting position is determined. The bracket can be as simple as a vise-bent strip of aluminum or other similar strapping with a pair of holes. No matter the approach, this line should be secured, as vibration in the line may cause stress at the banjo fitting. Extended Sway Bar Links: This applies to the rear suspension only. OE-length front sway bar links are fine, since the sway bar positions are relative to the subframe. We can provide extended rear sway bar links, but they are not included with the kit since they're based on the amount of rear lift (which isn't a factor for SFD installs). Missing Link: Most people know about these and have one installed in some shape or form. For those not familiar, we're calling it a structural device that reduces flexing on the subframe by linking the lower control arm rear mounting points. This was not a factory item, but this community has long agreed that it should've been one, if for nothing more than to stiffen up the front or mount skid plates to. However, we have deemed the ML as a required item that must be either purchased or fabricated because the nature of the install increases leverage on the chassis where the rear extensions of the subframe are mounted. And yes, we have seen a failure on an SFD-equipped truck that did not have a missing link installed. Notably, we don't have a specific ML product, but it's something we can fabricate. Skid Plates: These can't be reused because the mounting positions will have changed. I also want add notes on the following items: Existing Strut Spacers: most guys are already running static strut spacers, which means the OE strut mount has been modified to accommodate longer bolts. Our strut spacers are designed to use the OE studs on the mounts, which means that it may be necessary to disassemble the strut to remove the bolts. We are able to provide a set of bolts and nuts to replace those for a small fee. Alternatively, if the OE studs were retained, they can probably be reinstalled if the OE mount was not further modified (i.e., drilled, welded). Otherwise, new mounts may be purchased from Nissan dealers. Existing spacers should not be stacked with our strut spacers. Camber Adjustment: Our strut spacer do feature a slotted body that allows for some amount of camber adjustment. However, these are primarily used for gross adjustment only; it's highly unlikely that an alignment shop will touch these for service work. The use of camber bolts is highly recommended, and may be required to dial-in alignment. The guys in our initial group have not had any issues getting a shop to align their trucks with a single set of bolts (I want to say one of the trucks didn't use camber bolts at all). Our trucks use 14mm bolts. As stated above, we've got installation instructions, and all of the above points (and more) are covered in it more detail. We're considering breaking out some the topics into smaller sections (it's a long read as-is) before posting links to PDFs and such. But for now, we'll trickle out that information here so that it's a bit more public.