GoPathyGo

Aight, got em aligned correctly. Gonna do some plastic fender trimming this afternoon and see if that works

Assuming you're wheeling and the machine is in good shape... - 2" Lift kit with either KYBs or Ranchos front and Bilsteins rear from AC aka www.4x4parts.com: $800 shipped - Custom steelies from Summit Racing/US Wheel to match nicely with lift and take a beating: $375 shipped (assuming you get 5) - BFG A/T, Dueler Revos, KM2s, Wrangler MT/Rs, whatever you want from TireRack: $1,200 shipped - AC complete skid plate set: $650 shipped - ARB rear locker with small compressor: $1,800 installed - Optima Yellowtop from Amazon.com: <$200 shipped - Being able to go anywhere on most trails (excluding Moab, Baja and the like): Priceless. Shipping costs may vary depending on your location...

Hehehe. Yes, I know it's meant to roll around. It's more the way it's rolling around. If you turn the steering wheel left on relatively level ground (parking lot, road), the right/passenger front tire will not be relatively flat/level to the ground. Instead, it will look like you have massive positive camber. E.g., Instead of being turned to the left and looking like this on level ground: [ | ] where the square parentheses/brackets are the hypothetical boundaries of the wheel well and the straight line is the tire itself if you were standing in front of the truck it will look something like this [\ ] In fact the tire will essentially look a bit like what you'd expect if you were up on some rocks. It's turned to the left, just sticking out and "rolling" weirdly. Perhaps this is the way the Ranchos were designed - provide all sorts of articulation under all circumstances - and it's just my inexperience/cluelessness. But I'm used to tires relatively staying level on, well, level ground.

Cut off the resonator, replace the stock muffler with a Flowmaster/Magna/Dyno and straight pipe it! What good is 3 coats of Collinite if no one turns their heads to look at it.

I have the Rancho RSXs up front with the AC lift. Something very odd going on. 30" tires are rubbing the plastic at the front of the wheel well when turning. Particularly true in reverse. I originally had rub problems with my 235/85s because of the tire height and poor wheel offset. Top of strut tower was getting hammered badly. SO, I swapped my 30" BFG A/Ts back in, put in 16x7 steelies with 3" backspacing (vs the 16x8 aluminums with 4.25" backspacing I had on), had camber bolts installed and had an alignment done by a tech who actually knew his stuff at the local Nissan dealer. (3rd time's the charm. Finally found a good local dealership.) Visually the tires have tons of room, but there seems to be a lot of roll and articulation when turning. Had someone reverse and do a few turns at low speed on a driveway. You could see the whole thing rolling round and see/hear the rubbing. The 30" are barely touching the plastic. Now, with tread wear this problem will go away. BUT I'm more concerned about the principle of the thing. I've read elsewhere that folks have run 32" without probs. I don't have spacers but with 3" backspacing, I'm getting the equivalent of a standard 4-4.5" bs wheel with a 1-1.5" spacer. Tires stick out quite nicely. Incidentally, the rub problem was around even when I used a 1.25" spacer on the 4.25" aluminums. (The steelies from US Wheel are a steal, btw. $290 delivered for a set of four 2-piece, MIG-welded surprisingly light wheels with any backspacing you want. Nice pattern too. Putting the blinger aluminum Ultras on ebay.) Only thing I can think of now is that either the strut was poorly mounted or that the RSX simply rolls a heck of a lot more. The tech did say that he couldn't do much more on the alignment because the strut just wouldn't allow it and the camber bolts were maxed out... (The struts were installed by a different shop.) Wow, that's a long post! Must be compensating for an entire week without internet access!!!! Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

Aggravated Assault for shooting people without warning (as the story implies), without verifying they were actually on property and without being threatened ? This should be murder, plain and simple. With special circumstances for the callous way the wife handed the gun to the husband and then casually called 911.

Well, AC still hasn't shipped my stuff - and I still have no production date. Picked up Mike's skids yesterday and man those things are heavy. If I can cancel my AC order on Monday, put me down for some shiny new aluminum plates.

SWEET! Nice, man, very very nice! Your machine is da bomb.

You know, AC *still* hasn't shipped my skids... Heck, I don't even have a production date from them, let alone a ship date... *cough* *cough*

Just an FYI since so many folks had expressed interest in NPORA stickers/decals and since I didn't see anyone else posting pics of Steve's work. Here's an example. I will be ordering some more. http://npora.ipbhost.com//index.php?s=&amp...st&p=396250

Yup, leather, heated and power. Good to know. I'm going junkyard hunting next weekend and will look for it. Thanks for the tip.

Thanks guys. This is really helpful. As I've either pulled apart or watched stuff being pulled apart, it's become apparent that, unlike luxury sedans, the Pathy doesn't have acres of sound-deadening, electrical wire, fiber-optic cable etc. Even in LE trim, there just doesn't seem to be that much to throw away. The functional upgrades - winch, deep-cycle battery, full-size spare, tools - are adding so much weight that the cost-benefit to drag-style weight reduction isn't great. Plus, the car has to pass inspection and be street legal. I'm going to try chucking the front seats. Why keep weight down ? Lots of reasons but the single best one comes from a family friend who's a British diplomat. As part of his job, he got a bulletproof Range Rover. Problem was, it weighed so much that it literally couldn't move in the mud! It was the funniest thing ever! As he said,"All this bulletproofing is worthless. You can't get away from grandma in her wheelchair. So you just sit there being shot to pieces..."

Also, what did you have on and what are your replacements ? Tread pattern can make a huge difference to how the car feels and responds.

Custom fab. Titanium-Molybdenum coated for off-roading. Backup in case the hovercraft system fails. I'm a wimp living in the DC area with the arm strength of a twig and the heat tolerance of a penguin. Power steering and A/C stay. On a serious note, good to know I hadn't missed anything major. Seat suggestion's a great idea. They're kinda a nuisance anyway. Heck, if I can find a smashed up tuner mobile at a junkyard, I may even replace the front seats with aftermarket manual adjustment recaros or sparcos.

Hi All, This may be a very simple question. But I thought I'd ask before I did some major damage! Armadillo (my 03 LE) has been or shortly will be loaded up with all sorts of stuff - winch, tires, skids, complete set of tools and new hi-capacity bottle jack, higher capacity battery, 25-30 lbs of survival gear and so on. While I can't do much about the unsprung weight (already using aluminum tires), I was tryung to find other things I could get rid of without compromising structural integrity and without stripping it to the bones. So far, my list has: - Factory Jack and tire change kit - Rear hitch (full assembly will be replaced by a receiver welded onto a custom bumper so the bumper can take a portable winch mount) - Factory donut spare, though I'm adding a full-size spare on a rear tailgate - Factory spare tire assembly underneath the vehicle, including all bolts, pipes and bars used to hold the spare tire - Resonator (would be smashed on the trail anyway) Anything I've missed ? Anything I should absolutely not touch ? Thanks

I just went through this so hopefully my mistakes will help out. If you're planning to lift or already have a lift and want to run 32", backspacing is critical. I bought 16x8s with 4.25" backspacing and even 235 width tires are rubbing. (They rub at top of strut tower since it's such a tall tire.) Having to put in 1.25" wheel spacers to compensate. A lot of folks here run 265/75-16s with rub results from none to heavy. If I had to do it again, I would have gone with 3.5" or 3.75" backspacing or a 16x7 rim. It would have given me more room without having to use spacers... Spacers run $60-$80 at Rugged Rocks, FYI.

Wasn't sure where to put this but just wanted to let folks know what a great job Steve at Rugged Rocks did for me. I needed wheel spacers badly and the local places wanted $140 and almost a week to get 'em. (Not in stock. bah.) Called Steve late in the day. He got 'em out ahead of the UPS shipping deadline at HALF the price of the local places (excluding the rush shipping I requested). When I totally confused myself putting 'em on, he solved the problem immediately. (Yeah, I know, how hard could Wheel Spacers be ? Never used 'em before so I happily messed up all the nuts.) Real nice guy, too. Cheers, Jaya.

Here you go. I'll post better pics later. Late... http://npora.ipbhost.com//index.php?s=&amp...st&p=395092 Thanks, GPG.

There is a single in-single out version in various sizes (2" - 3"). You can Y-pipe the dual inputs. I haven't done the math but may be able to rig it up. http://www.flowmastermufflers.com/products...roducts_id=3377

Niiiiiccceee.... That's not body or paint damage. It's battle scars! Wear 'em with pride!

Yeah, neither did I. Usually dealers are the last place I go for accessories. But I was waiting for them to diagnose a problem and these parts guys had a bunch of stuff and were very helpful. I actually got a complete list of 03 factory accessories (without pricing) to go through. You may be able to do the same. If nothing else, Rob over at FactoryNissanParts.com should be able to help you. It is supposed to arrive either tomorrow or Thursday. Will post pics in my build thread when it arrives and when I install it.

FYI, I found out by accident that Nissan made a factory brush guard in black and chrome. I just ordered one for my 03 LE for $403 delivered at my local dealer. I don't know if it's the style you want but seems to be in the ballpark or materially cheaper than the aftermarket brush guards. Westin was gonna cost $450 with a 3-5 week backorder at the local truck shop. The Nissan brush guard is supposed to arrive tomorrow. If you're interested, I'm sure Rob over in the Services forum could hook you up. I just bought some bulbs from him. HTH, J.

Cool. Just ordered a pair from Rugged Rocks. Can't wait. Right now, between a vacuum pump problem and this rubbing, Armadillo can only move at 40 mph in a straight line... I couldn't pass a goat, let alone a car right now.

Nice! That's impressive considering you guys are doing the diagnosis remote control. Took 'em back to the shop, all hot and bothered. Manager and I looked at the positive camber, heard the rubbing and were like,"Huh ?" Called out the tech. Apparently, the combo was a bit wide for comfort. So, to compensate for things, the tech unilaterally decided to put in positive camber "to make them fit". But that only goes so far - it still rubbed on turns. But since "he was afraid of upsetting the customer", he didn't tell anyone - leaving me to wonder why I had the only truck on the planet with positive camber, rubbing, creaking and really crummy fit and handling. Fortunately, there are easy fixes for this problem. Wheels with more accommodating backspacing or spacers. I'm doing a cost-benefit on spacers vs el cheapo ebay special steelies/used right now. Cheers, J.