RainGoat

Do one of these on the driver’s side map light & a white one on the passenger side (or vice versa. Map Lights #1895: DDM Tuning BA9S-5x5050 SMD, Red LED 1w(60lm)

I agree with both of these. I have a front frontrunner style & a rear bumper gaurd. Both have “pushbar” rubber contacts. They are very useful for people low speed backing into you (or nudging others). Off road, I found them very useful at literally “guarding” against brush. They pushed branches, bushes, saplings & other pliable plantlife out of the way & made a HUGE difference in preventing cosmetic damage. I also was able to use the frontrunner one in front to mount effective auxiliary lights. The key is really to be mounted low where you actually impact the brush. The rear protected me from a trailer that came loose & made it possible to stand on the rear bumper without slipping off. While the front was mangled in an accident, I was actually pretty pleased with its performance. It undoubtedly took some of the force of the impact, lessened the damage & left my truck driveable. All that said, I was very happy with mine. They were for camping & light duty & did just what I asked. I always wanted a full metal bumper & winch but that was well beyond my means & really my needs. Now that I’m commiting to a more hard core vehicle & I have more cash to throw at it, I’m doing more. That XRox is a different beast entirely.

They’re there, just saw them last week

Que music, it’s R50 trivia time. Honestly, hawairish, you are just full of Pathfinder tidbits

I still have red too but my military buddies told me they use green because it lets you see color on maps better than red. I love that the map lights are independent of the door switch. One of the things I really like about Nissan & the Path is the ability to turn stuff off. I hate all the auto lights & seats that I don’t have the ability to override in my other vehicles.

Back in ‘02-‘05 ish that kind of stuff was around but that went away some time ago. Access holes are handy even if doing you’re doing your own fluids.

1/4” Aluminum & 3/8” Steel are two common materials. We’re doing our T4R with aluminum because it’s lighter, non-corrosive, requires virtually no maintenance (including painting) & that truck is largely an Overlander/Grand Tourer

Agree. Bet you didn’t know@TowndawgR50 likes playing with life size Lincoln Logs

That does look nice. The dimmers themselves are a little fragile. My OEM burnt out & a used one I replaced it with has always been a bit wonky-overly sensitive.

Load limits are calculated conservatively for dynamic loads on the load bars. Static loads would be greater. Additionally, 10 conduit clamps, distributed as 5 per rail, pretty evenly distributes the load to the 4-6 bolts holding the rail to the roof (depending on if you count the endcaps which insert pretty solidly into the rails). Personally, I think this can likely take a higher load. That said, I’ve carried on the facelifted load bars something like four 3/4” treated sub flooring 4x8’ panels & a dozen 8’ treated 2x4”s - once even with a 35mph emergency stop. While probably not advisable, I think it can probably take alot. I will definitely consider standing on the mounted full length Rola rack & as long as I limit fluids to 5-8g, I can’t imagine I can put too much camping gear up there-I’m sure I’ve done more with lumber in the past.

Yep, the two color combo is what I’ve done in my map lights as well. We’re lucky because in all the other cars I manage the map lights come on with the door so you can’t individually select them like we can. While I like the idea of changing the hue(Kelvin temperature) of the instrument cluster, I like dimming down quite a bit when doing long drives at night. Does your dimmer still work with the LEDs (I’ve burnt out my first dimmer about 2006)

There are gobs of heat exchangers out there & the price has dropped dramatically from what it was 10-15 years ago but still about $400-$600 once you add up all the supplies. There are some pretty good threads on it in some of the forums (ExPo/Overland Bound/T4R.org). It can & has been done but looked like a fair amount of expense & definite work. A hot shower would be awesome & they’re putting them on some of the off-road trailers using things like this CAMPLUX ENJOY OUTDOOR LIFE Pro BD158 1.58GPM Propane Tankless Gas Water Heater (https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B073F1PVHN/ref=ox_sc_saved_image_9?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1). I just have alot on my ToDo List before addressing that issue.

Oh, I like that new avatar pic.

@hawairish I agree on all accounts regarding fuel, water & storage. As per my routine, I'll happily defer to the solutions spawned by you &[mention=37543]TowndawgR50[/mention]. More storage is always better. Any fuel doesn't really need easy accessabilty for me. I'd like it as insurance, but I don't expect to ever need it. As for water - well, more is always better. As you particulary know, being a desert dweller, water is life. Uses: drinking, refilling other travelers supply, radiator refill, fire extinguishing, dishes, rinsing gear, showers. The dream would be 10-15g with a heat exchanger or water heater for onboard hot water. I've never regretted having water & I've wished I had more many times. Over the years, water is the thing I have repeatedly given to others on the trail.

So I take this comment in the genuine spirit of a helpful warning with which I’m sure it was intended, however, I’m curious to hear some input from the forum. I’ve heard this theory several times but no one seems to have seen an actual failure. We have a handful of people with full length racks mounted to their rails & I myself ran a small Yakima Basketcase mounted to my rails for 14 years. Has anyone out there actually seen this problem occur? I’m wondering if it is more of a theoretical problem become urban legend. It seems to me that while the load bars would allow some deformation, they too would be at risk for this problem, though to a lesser degree. I also wonder if the conduit clamps in these applications might even allow for more deformation and flexing than load bars. In any case, I expect that it might take some significant flexing & rock crawling to cause a problem to occur. Having disassembled several R50 racks now, I note the rails are very stiff & likely only flex up & down. They are then crossbraced not only with the load bars, but also with multiple smaller crossbars on some versions. Finally, while I realize the R50 is a different vehicle from most other trucks because it is a unibody, there are ALOT of overlanding trucks out there these days with full length racks (with lots of anchor points) and I don’t really hear about this problem actually occurring.

6mo eh, that’s pretty optimistic

Alternatively, It’s super easy to just mount them below the bumper. I have a pair mounted upside down with the mount screw coming up through the lower inside of the metal bumper that have been there 14 years. Mine are lateral to the OEM hitch but just inside where the hitch mounts to the truck. I’ve hit that hitch countless times but not yet taken those lights out. Mine are wired to the reverse lights with an override toggle down by the fuel release in case I want to use them at camp or to suggest to the person behind me to dim their headlights.

@TowndawgR50

@TowndawgR50 also used conduit clamps with his generic rack. The cerakoting is an innovative approach to painting. My understanding is that they were sandblasted to remove the galvanized surface. I’ll attach some photos of what happens if you just try to paint them with self etching primer without scraping up the surface first. It didn’t really work on the stainless screw heads either.

Notes I collected from reviews. The main complaint was rust but this was primarily before Rola updated the connections with sleeves. I considered welding it but thought I might want it to flex a little to accomodate the rocker of the roof rails & the welding would necessitate sanding & repainting the powdercoating. For what it’s worth, mine has sat unassembled under our kid’s LEGO table & couch in the living room for months (another wife pleaser). I’ve been surprised at how easy the powdercoating has marked up (though not through to the metal). I figure in a few years I’ll take it off & POR-15 Chassis Black it like everything else on the truck. FAIRING *White Flakes OFF of Fairing - Red more Resistant *Rola logo was silk screened onto the fairing as opposed to a sticker which made it more difficult to remove/cover up for a logoless rack *How much wind noise? it will double the amount of road noise in your car at 75 mph. Making a bigger wind screen for the front will not help. do not waste your time. take it from me. I spent 2 weekends building different models and nothing worked better than the stock one. CONNECTIONS: *Silicone or Vegetable Oil on rubber sleeves for ease of assembly *3:1 heatshrink tubing with adheasive for the joints to keep water out of the tube seam joints Silicone Sleeves to keep it from rusting. *Rustoleum-Spray it inside the tubes to coat it which can help prevent rusting from the inside out, which is the main cause of the rust on these baskets. Then use black outdoor silicone caulk (?RTV Silicone), like the type you'd use on home windows, etc... to seal all screw holes (including the wind deflector) and the 4 tube seems. Check all welds for any holes/ openings where water may get in. *I sprayed a generous amount of WD40 inside each piece before I connected them. jb weld on the screws, followed by the rubber sleeves provided by Rola.

My cost estimates: COST $192.60 $129.93($118+$11.81t)Used-VeryGood@Amazon $62.67 ($56.97+$5.70)Used-VeryGood@Amazon $145 + $55 ext $147.65+t@HomeDepot $146 & $126+t@Walmart Extension 18 3/4” 59505 $71.28($55.33+$15.95)@https://www.rvautoparts.com

Rola V-Tex 59504 (by Draw Tite) RolaV-Tex 59505 Extension 18 3/4” PATH DIMENSIONS 71"Front to Spoiler Up 54.5" Sunroof to Spoiler Up 41" Wide RACK 74” bottom center to bottom center with extension 48”x37.5”x5” OUTSIDE 46-48”x37”x4” INSIDE Bars: Top 1.5”, Bottom 1”, Cross 3/4”(6+5+6) Screws #10-32 Self Tapping (Quantity#12) Ext +15” Weight: 50#(35#Rack +15#Ext) 130# Capacity 5yr Warranty Manufacturer Installation instruction http://www.rolaproducts.com/support/installation/N59504.pdf http://www.rolaproducts.com/support/installation/N59505.pdf

My trip to Home Depot returned 3/4” conduit clamps in packs of 3 (instead of 5) and they are slightly larger than 02_Pathy’s. I was fortunate to receive his extras so I’ve compared them side by side as he had about 8 that he gave me, so I need 2-4 more. I use cam straps for everything on the roof. The plastic coated hooks won’t go around the top side bars as they are 1.5” diameter but they will go around the front & back & lower longitudinal bars, which are all 1” diameter. As mounted, 02_Pathy’s rack didn’t quite have enough clearance for the hooks so I plan to use something like spacers or simply small aluminum “towers” to elevate it another cm or so. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

It looks really nice in person too! Really, his whole truck looks great. One drawback is that this eliminates reflectors on the rear of the truck. I’ve advocated putting red reflective tape on the vertical surface of the lateral arms of the OEM hitch to compensate.