Rick13

If I wasn't off-road so much, I think the SFD (w/new and longer rear coils/shocks) would have been perfect, but I appreciate the extra 2 inches the AC coils give me up front and the amount of flex/compression I can now get out back.

I find I need all the approach angle I can get which is why I run sans brush guard. I like how it looks and that it holds the off-road lights nicely. But I doubt anyone wants their front bumper to look like mine (scratches everywhere).

If I remember correctly, PaMtnbiker may have gotten the last of the 5.5" WJ coils. I never saw them available, but I'm thinking he is using the perfect rear spring. Other than that, I think Iron Rocks gives the best selection of rear coils (paired with the Krypton Fabs rear coil perch adapter). I'm running the Krypton adapters and some TeraFlex 4" Coils(which are still on clearance). The do NOT give the ride height I wanted in the back, so after selling my rear springs/coils from my AC 2" lift, I'll probably be purchasing the 6.5" lift coils from Iron Rocks. I like the selection of Iron Rocks (3, 4, and 6.5 inch lift springs) but I would check on their free length/spring rate/# of wraps to help you decide. My point - TeraFlex specs on my rear springs: Advert. Lift - 4" Free Length - 16.25" Spring Rate - 190 lb/in This netted me around 4.25 inches of lift (and I wanted closer to 6"). I wish I would have gone with a higher spring rate and/or longer coil, but it was a little experiment on my part. I'm probably going with their 6.5" lift that has 18.25" FL and 200 lb/in SR. Should be really close (if not too big) for the rear. May have to cut it down for some fine tuning on my rear ride height. Any way, good luck.

I used the BBQ Hi Temp to touch up my sliders (for rust control mostly) cause it was on sale and I know that rocks don't care what kind of paint/coating are on your sliders...they just like taking it off. IMHO it is good paint, but I've heard good things about Dupli-Color's Truck Bed Coating and Rust-o-leums "Hammered" finish products. Ditto, would really like to see a finished product...

Shoot, I would have sold you my old AC 2" lift rear coils on the cheap! Please post pic's so we can see the outcome...

Struts won't give the lift, just the lift coils installed on the strut. If they are listed for your specific model/year, you should be good.

Further update on SFD and rear coil/shock installation... The additional height combined with the larger diameter tires and rear flex has significantly increased my trail prowess and opened up trails/obstacles that I didn't even dare attempt before... So after a 4 day trip to Moab, I still don't have many pic's of my own rig, but here are a few. The compression of the rear Jeep coils and ProComp shocks was impressive - too impressive. I rubbed a lot on my rear fenders (they've been back in to place and trimmed a bit since then): I did make it up Hummer Hill obstacle on Behind the Rocks Rd - I'll see if I can get some pics/video of that - it's a doozy.

Agreed with the stickied threads. Some really decent topics/info around here. Another suggestion is to look at member posts/rig builds and then contact them by PM to see how they decided on what to purchase/install. I actually did that a couple years ago, but I had already installed the 2" AC coil lift and put 31's on...wish I would have gotten member input before I did all that. I definitely would have made different decisions... Good luck!!!

I voted for you to take the hit and fix it...but I think it always depends on what your plans are for your rig. Were you at a point of being close to selling it? If so, maybe that changes things for your decision. I love my 01 LE but it only has 98K on her...so I'm keeping her for at least another 100K. Point being, maybe my circumstance is too different to offer up an educated decision on your circumstance...but good luck! BTW - what is the "can of worms" that you're worried about? (Just curious)

I had a picture of yours (in a parking structure?) that I used to show people at work how my rig should look when I'm all done - please remember that it took 6 months of things like pigeon toed and positive camber, crazy reverse rake, several spacer relocations/placements, so they got to see it almost every day look like an experiment gone horribly wrong!

Yeah, I figured, but I'm just waiting on something else (not holding my breath though).

Well, it was another cheap mod. I had a discount at Harbor Freight and purchased these off-road (narrow/pencil beam) lights for about $26. That being said, I think the mounts leave something to be desired (I'm sure KC/Hella have much better). I measured equal distance from the Nissan emblem and made sure the grounding wire for each light could reach an adequate surface. Then I marked the locations with a pencil and drilled the holes. My bumper has been torn half way off before and has been beaten to $#it, so it wasn't a big deal for me to drill. Doing it over again, I would have inspected the bumper more (and found the metal under the plastic where I drilled) and extended the ground wires to have more separation of the lights. It took me about 60 minutes to install, but most of that was trying to adjust the beams (the adjustment of the mounts suck and need readjustment after any trail run).

It might depend on where you wheel and what your obstacles consist of, but IMHO sliders have been the best choice I could have made (thanks Thunderbolt). I have only hit my cross member and gas tank skid a couple times, but I've nailed my sliders a good 50 times and they've saved my butt many times. They are Rocky Road Outfitters Super Sliders (Glenn Wakefield was great to deal with). They measure right at 68" (but of course the small kickout/step is a bit shorter).

Yes it is, almost shocking how much different that trail was for me (I've run it 5 times before). What was sad is that it made it almost too easy. I'll actually have to pick different lines on trails that used to be moderately difficult for me.

Thanks. I get a lot of comments on the color (which I hated at first cause I wanted silver), but now it's grown on me. But I'm actually not being a "cheapass". I'm just waiting on something that Thunderbolt has been working on. I think it has some real potential.

Funny you say that. I swore to myself that they were too small when I walked up to it in the parking lot the other day. I told a friend that and he scoffed at me and went and measured them (on my rig) and they sit at 32.9" (so they are really close to a true 33). Then I look at pictures (taken at a totally different angle) and they seem to look huge.

Dude I think that's a great question. I reinstalled the original bolts in the holes on the IFS cross member, but left them about 1/4" from flush/tight. I then took daisy-chained black zip ties and wrapped them around the bolts and through the holes on the lower splash guard. I tightened the bolts to compress on the zip ties. I was able to run the outer 2 outermost zip ties through the IFS crossmember and back to the splash guard. It's yet another "ghetto" mod, but I like having it there for both aero and deep snow reasons. Some day I will get real skids for my rig...

I just wanted to post up because I finally got the new GY DuraTracs, Sub Frame Drop, Jeep Coils, F-250 Shocks, and Extended Rear Brake Line up in the mountains!!! We didn't get many pic's, but I can tell you the SFD let's me take lines over things that were never possible before (without severe scraping), the rear coils/shocks/ext brake line do allow flex like I've never seen before, and the DuraTracs were unbelievably good on the rocks at 16 psi (actually getting comments from a few folks that saw me climb the hardest section). Cascade Creek, CO (Rated 4-5):

I use a similar hood mount from FireStik and paired it with a HD spring. I spend a bit of time in tight brush/trees each summer so I like having the spring (bent it completely 90 degress just yesterday) and I got the HD type because a couple friends had complained about the light/medium duty whipping in the wind while driving on the highway. I think it might be a little bit personal preferrence (everyone has an opinion on this kind of stuff) and a determination of where you'll be spending a lot of your time whilst using the CB. I didn't read up on the antenna. If it isn't stiff/fiberglass and more of a whip-like antenna, then maybe you won't need the spring.

Thanks everyone, guess I'm just a little disappointed with my spring choice (other than price). Negatory on the retainer. The spring sits up with an isolator on top of each.

So as far as being level, I took out the ole 3 ft level and placed it on my slider. It has a definite rake from back to front, but its only slight. I wanted a bit more so it wouldn't squat so much when I load it up for long camping/wheeling trips, but I'll take it for as little as I spent for the springs. I like the fact that I don't rely on spacers to get it close to level and now it's back to a slight rake and it's all coils now. The ride is absolutely fine - it's not too stiff and I think I'll enjoy the extra flex this summer. Sorry, work is pretty rough right now (I work long hours and most weekends these days), so I only got a couple photos...

I took about 17 total photos of the install but when I was done and going to upload them I only found my last 2 = sucks. Sorry Andrew (Shift220). I ended up installing the following: *Jeep WJ 4" Lift Coil Springs, 190 lb/in, 16.25" FL, 8 Wraps (TeraFlex) *Ford F-250 ProComp ES9000 (929500) about 29.5" ext and 17.5" comp *WJ Perch Adapter, Bolt-on, Krypton Fab *SS Ext Rear Brake Line, Krypton Fab So I started by prepping all bolts/nuts with a nice dosing of WD-40 the night before and hit them again the next morning. I started the day off about noon by loosening the nuts on each shock (upper/lower mounts). Then I went to disconnect the brake line and found it siezed/rusted in place - took a tremendous amount of force while bracing the line to get it loose. Thunderbolt (David) showed up at my house about that time to watch me in frustration and give me some advice and a helping hand on the driver's side install. This is when I found my upper shock mount bolts had rusted to the metal bushings. That took a good 1 hour to release one side and only about 20 minutes on the other (longer than it should have though!!! Good thing David was there - he ended up being my chauffeur to 3 different stores to get random items needed (e.g. an even bigger BFH, new upper shock mount bolts/nuts...) to finish the install. So here we go with pictures after the install... Stupid rusted shock mount bolts/bushings!!! Here is a replacement bolt/nut and I reused the bushing (after a good cleaning). Pinched the mounts a little so there isn't any slippage/movement: Here is the perch adapter installed. I think of it more as a coil "locater". If I had actually measured the bolt and matched it to a larger drill bit, it would have taken all of about 5 minutes to install. Instead I drilled the hole out with a slightly smaller bit and it took a good 25 minutes to fully install. Even with the PHB unbolted I still had to place the adapter inside of the spring, put the spring in place, and THEN thread the washers/bolt/nut in the perch - a balancing act to say the least: Here it is all put together on the driver side: I'm still toying with the idea of reversing the shock orientation and I have planned on booting them up (just to keep junk out as much as possible). Here is a shot of the extended brake line. I actually admit it is a bit of a piece of art (it was actually pretty to look at Andrew, thanks!!!). It also helps that it is quite a bit longer than the stock one that I had stretched to capacity with my 1.5" of spacers on top of the 2" AC lift for the past 6 months!!! I'll try to get more parking lot pics (I've started to despise those) tomorrow at work, but please don't expect too much. I only got about 1.25" more than my spacers stacked on the 2" AC lift. I'm probably about 4.75" of total lift out back. So it has slight rake from back to front once again (I like that look), but compared to Thunderbolt's custom springs, I hardly have any rake at all.

I'd be more concerned that they wouldn't clear the struts with the stock rim backspacing. Some trimming to stop tire rub at full lock would probably be needed up front with a 32" tire.

White with the black = very nice. I had a friend readjust his boot so that it doesn't allow the bellows to rub - it's an experiment but it might give yet another option to lengthening the lives of our boots. I like seeing all these DuraTracs!!! I can't wait to wheel them this summer and see how they handle. If they are any good, they are quite possibly my favorite tire yet!

I think it looks really good. I like the thinner tire look a lot. I discovered my first split CV boot yesterday (after 3 years of running a 2" lift WITHOUT manual hubs) and after I got my similar rims I just pulled my rear wheels and spray painted the hub black. Just some other options/thoughts...