Aerolyth

Was gonna try and get rust repair done, but it turns out it'd be more than she's worth! So I'm just gonna try to do it myself at some point. In other news, she performed really well on the Dragon while I was down in NC. Pretty good for an SUV on ATs.

So that brings us up to speed. I'm currently measuring out a design for a custom front bumper. I initially just started designing the bumper itself, which wasn't a great idea. This is what i had come up with: A step in the right direction as far as design goes, but not useful in the slightest. So I finally pulled the front bumper off and looked at the mounts. I'll be designing my own mounts first, and after getting those to work fine, designing a skin for the outside. I'd probably have an actual design by now but I realized I was missing a measurement between the upper and lower mounting points. I'm designing my own bumper because I don't really like any of the available options. Coastal Offroad's option leaves all the front suspension open to debris, raccoons, and Midwest road salt. The ARB bumper is too damn expensive and hard to find, and any other option that I know of has questionable credibility. I need something for protection and ability to mount lights, neither of which the stock bumper has. (As evidenced by after me hitting a wooden post, there being a huge dent in the crash bar but no damage to the bumper cover.)

Got myself some new tires. Cooper Discovery AT3 4S. They're really good on the road, minimal noise and fairly good dry grip. Do pretty well in the rain as well. Haven't really gotten to try them out in anything worse than packed sand so I can't really speak for the off road performance but I think it'll be pretty good for a road-biased A/T. Sidenote: Does anyone with an aftermarket bumper like the Coastal Offroad one have pictures of how it mounts? Designing my own bumper and I wanna see examples.

God I need those bumper brackets. Wanting do design my own bumper and I'm dreading drawing up the brackets.

After that misadventure, I noticed a clunk in the front end, ended up being the right side CV axle, so I replaced both of them to be safe. All went well for a few weeks until i had to stop real hard trying to not fly off a gravel corner (I ended up leaving the road). The rear brake line finally gave out after being rusted into oblivion for 16 years. So we initially started to fix it, but ended up taking it to a shop that had the necessary tools to make brake line. I'm pretty sure that the 1 previous owner only used it during the winter, hence all the rust.

Onto my first off roading excursion with the Pathy. It . . . didn't end well... That's about 18 inches of mud. Trail got wet real quick at the bottom. Paid some guy with a 4x4 tractor to get it out and went on my merry way. So from now on, I don't even wanna see mud. Ever. Cleaned up the outside, had to take it home to clean out the undercarriage. Fun times.

Guess I have enough pictures and stuff to start a thread for the Pathy. Had her since early summer '19; replaced my 2013 Dodge Dart with this 2003 Nissan Pathfinder LE. She seems to be equipped with most of the factory options, including non-functional heated leather seats. Even had insanely low miles: 76,000. How's that for a 16 year old SUV? Here's a few of the early pictures: Here's the Dart in its best shape. Loved the car, but needed something with 4WD and some ground clearance. As you can see, I really wanted something to go off road even then. First day of ownership, just after picking her up from the dealership. Crappy tires and fake 'new car smell' included for free. Couple days later, added the roof rack from the Dart (fits much better here) and cleaned her up a little bit. Added a few stickers to the back windows and a little leftover vinyl from the Dart.

I voted for the midwest a) because I'm in college and I don't know if thats my spring break, so I don't know how far I can go, and b) I'm in college and am therefore broke af.

I gotta say, this is all super interesting to me. I just got my R50 so I haven't had the chance to really do anything with it yet, but it's nice to know that when I do end up lifting it that I'll have a quality option ready to go. I'm also super interested in the tire carrier kit. I read up on @hawairish thread, but an actual kit would make it a lot easier. Just gotta find myself a carrier once I get paid.