WATYF

OK. This is my first 4x4, so all of this is news to me. And yes, it was only when turning fairly sharply. The only reason I even had 4H engaged on pavement was because I tried to quickly pull out of a parking lot on to a busy road when it was raining and the truck just slid all freaking over the place, so I thought 4WD would help with that. Before that, the only time I even turned 4WD on was on my land (definitely an off-road terrain). I guess I won't be turning it on in the city any more. I only use this vehicle for trips out to my land, so there's no need for it to be in 4WD on pavement. I just wanted to make sure that there wasn't something wrong with my suspension or drive-train, 'cause that would suck. WATYF

I will check for the orange sticker. And yes, I only noticed this on pavement. I was under the impression that you could use 4H for everyday driving (snow/rain/etc), which would involve pavement, obviously. Is this not the case? WATYF

I'm not quite sure how to describe this problem. Just wondering if anyone else has heard of/experienced anything like this. When I put my 96 LE in 4H and turn while driving slowly, my rear tires "skip". It's almost as if they're not turning at the same speed as the front tires (or at all) and they're just getting dragged along for the ride. At least, this is what is sounds like and feels like... I have yet to have someone else drive it so I can stand outside and see exactly what's going on. It only seems to happen when I'm turning, though, so maybe rotation speed isn't the issue. I really don't understand what would be causing this. Anyone else run into this problem? WATYF

Sweet! Thanks a ton, man. WATYF

Cool man. I appreciate that. WATYF

Yeah... I was hoping they'd be the same, but I asked the dude in the Nissan Parts thread and he said the info specified that it didn't fit earlier models. I don't wanna take a chance if I have to order it online. Maybe if I can find it locally I can try it out and just return it if it doesn't fit. WATYF

Thanks, I will do that. WATYF

Sorry... I forgot to mention. Mine is a '96. It looks like that part is for 2001-2004. Did they make the same for '96? WATYF

Can anyone recommend a good cargo liner for an R50? I'd like to find one that will cover the entire cargo area with the seats down, but I'm having trouble finding one. WATYF

Yeah, I should have mentioned that I'm trying to do this for relatively cheap. I found this one online... http://www.suspensionconnection.com/cgi-bin/suscon/224.html I really don't know if there are "good" hitches and "bad" hitches, but it looks decent to me (and fairly low profile). Anyone using this kind? WATYF

Btw, thanks for all the input everyone. I'm really happy with the lift I got from these tires, and they seem to be working out just fine. I'll be taking them off road this coming Saturday, so we'll see how they work in a real-world scenario. WATYF

I'll try to kill two mildly related birds with one stone here... I have a 96 LE and I'd like to get a tow hitch (low profile is preferred). I'd also like to know how easy it is to move the location of the spare tire. Right now, the spare is mounted underneath the rear (not the best location as far as I'm concerned). I've seen some threads mention a spare tire mounting system that involves the tow hitch itself, so if I can get them both in one deal, that would be great. I'd really like to have the spare moved to the back gate, but I'm not sure what needs to be done to make that happen. So could anyone recommend a tow hitch and/or spare tire mount that I could look into? Thanks. WATYF

OK. I guess I'll just leave it then. Don't wanna mess with fuel lines. So how about that load and speed rating? Does that seem fine? WATYF

OK... so I take it that means I shouldn't even try to mod it, eh. WATYF

OK, so I found some used 30x9.5x15's locally on craigslist for pretty cheap. They had a ton of tread left on them, so I thought it was a pretty good deal. At first, the shop I took it to actually told me that the tires weren't gonna fit. They had it up on the jack and put a new one up to the existing tire and the guy thought there was no way it would fit. I had already bought them (mainly because everyone here said that they would fit ), so I told him to just try one tire and if it didn't fit, I would pay him for just the one mount/unmount. So anyway, he gets it on and says it barely fit, so that was a crisis averted. Anyway, the truck looks much nicer now that it's not on such tiny tires. Here's a pic: So now, I only have two concerns... 1) The guy I bought them from said he couldn't find the load/speed rating on the tires, so I didn't know what it was until I got there. It's a 104Q. Now, my first thought was that 104 wasn't enough of a load rating, but it ends up that the previous tires were 102S, so I guess 104 is fine. The tires are Load Range C, which also seems like enough for this vehicle. Correct me if I'm wrong. I guess the only issue might be the speed rating. Q is pretty low, so I guess that means I have to keep my highway speeds down. Not like I was gonna go 100, but still... 80mph might be a little too much for these things. 2) The tires rub when I turn hard right (but not hard left). We checked this out and found out it's because of a piece that sticks out on the inside of the fender well on the right side (this same piece doesn't exist on the left side). Here's a pic of that (the rub occurs where the red dot is)... So, can anyone tell me what would need to be done to mod that so the tire doesn't rub any more? Should I flatten it or remove it entirely or...? Thanks for any input. WATYF

I checked the panel on mine, and it said HG43, so it looks like XPLOR was right. WATYF

No, that's not off-topic at all. By all means... if I might have the 4.6 gearing (because mine is auto), then I'd like to know that, because that will factor into which tires I can go with. WATYF

Right... that's fine. I just wanted to understand what my options were. I don't mind the mods as much as having to buy new wheels as well. Thanks for all the info. You've been very helpful. WATYF

OK... so basically, unless I want to get new wheels and do a bunch of mods, I should just go with 30x9.50R15? Is that the gist of it? If so, is the gearing of the LE enough to handle the 30's? WATYF

Yeah, I have a question up in the R50 forum about tires for the LE. Hopefully just getting new tires will be sufficient. WATYF

I just bought a 96 Pathfinder LE. I'll be using it to drive off-road on some land I recently purchased. Nothing crazy (no boulder crawling or mudding), just off-road travel over very rocky soil. I'm currently looking for ways to get a little more ground clearance. I don't want the rocks tearing up my suspension. WATYF

Hi there. I just purchased a 1996 Pathfinder LE and I'm looking to increase my ground clearance a little bit with tires that are slightly larger than stock. I found this thread, but unfortunately, it did not address my questions, so here I am. What I'd like to know is... are there any major differences (suspension or whatever) between the SE and the LE. On Edmunds.com, the ground clearance for the SE is listed as 8.5" or so, but for the LE it's only 7.5". Is this just due to the different stock tire size, or are there any other differences? I noticed in the "Max tire size" thread that a couple people are running 31x10.5's on a stock SE, but will I have issues on the LE? I was told that the SE's were more "off-road" capable, so I'm trying to figure out exactly what the differences are and whether they will affect the use of 31" tires. For example, is the gear ratio different on the SE (to allow for larger tires)? Also, if I get a set of 31x10.5x15, can I still use the same stock rims that come with the LE? And if I shouldn't be going with 31x10.5x15 for the LE, then what's the largest I can use without having to worry about rubbing or other issues? Thanks for any help. WATYF