PathyGig12

Needs a bit of tweaking still, but it’s mostly done at this point. The tire leans slightly backwards, but I’m pretty sure I can use some sort of spacers between the wheel and the mount to adjust this without needing to chop and recut things. The mount for the jerry can is still mid build, it needs some sheet metal to close up the front back and sides, and a locking mechanism to keep it secure, but for now I just used ratchet straps to get an idea of whether it will sit nicely. My welds are not pretty but at least now they’re rock solid. I put my whole weight at the end of the open carrier and had no issues whatsoever. Also took it for a bumpy drive and nothing has moved so far The falkens are mounted now, which means no more highway howling, so I’m feeling pretty damn happy at the moment.

I just did my whole front end with 1a auto stuff and it’s been perfectly fine. End links, control arms, ball joints, tie rods. Time will tell if they last as long as the originals but so far everything feels very solid I wouldn’t use anything beside KYB for the struts though. Anything else is too risky

Bruh.....That poor ash tray....

Lol agreed I plan to clean up the welds and go over them again when I have some free time. Like I said it’s just my first attempt. Its worth noting that the primary means of attachment is still the tubing inserted in the frame and bolted, and I made sure those welds were solid already, so the brackets are really just secondary to offer a little more support. I also just had to get them on there for now, as I was out of time that day, so the full welding will take place once the bumper is removed for painting

Tire carrier is coming along now. Needs some fine tuning and I need to clean up my welds quite a bit, but at least it’s taking shape now. I’ll be finished by the end of next week I think. Gotta attach a plate with studs for the tire to mount to, and then paint the whole thing. The pin I bought isn’t ideal but I leaned at least half my weight on it fully extended and it held just fine. I’ll be putting in a rubber ramp to support it while it’s closed. You can see in the last pic that it tilts down a bit because the pin has a tiny bit of play in how it fits, so the ramp will level it out while it’s latched shut. For the latch I’m just going to weld on a spring loaded barrel bolt and put a piece of equally sized tubing on the gate that it will slot into. You’ll also notice I got the support brackets done for the bumper so now it bolts directly to the OEM hitch and the bumper notches into them to provide extra strength for recovery stuff. They don’t take away any departure angle over the original hitch because they fit in the same profile, but these will also allow for a bit of a sliding surface for the back to safely drop onto if the angle is severe enough to make contact. I’ve also got 5 Falken wildpeaks inbound to replace the mudders. I’m pretty excited because things are moving very quickly now. Within a month or so I’ll be putting on a coastal off-road bumper up front if all goes to plan. Dont judge my welds too much, I’m working with a 110V stick welder and have never done it before lol

I’m going with the Falken Wildpeak AT3W in 235/85 R16 Only ever heard good things about the Wildpeaks, plus they are cheaper than KO2s and duratracs so it was a no brainer. I also like that they are rated for extreme snow because Colorado can have some pretty nasty blizzards. I ordered the first two and I’ll place the order for the other 3 once I free up some more money. Then I’ll go ahead and have them mounted and probably hold on to the set of mudders I have just in case I ever need them.

That’s awesome man, good luck with the install. I would definitely love to see a video of how you do it because it’s always been pretty daunting to me Hopefully you won’t run into any stuck bolts or anything because stuff like that just kills the fun. Does the truck seem pretty rusty underneath or nah? I’ve been fortunate because mine has somehow stayed mostly rust free and all of my bolts have been pretty easy to take out, only a few have needed to be chopped so far. The scariest moment recently was when I snapped one of the 6 small CV bolts. Freaked me out, but luckily because of the way it’s made with the back side accessible, I was able to drill it out and just use a nut and bolt instead of needing to retap it. Working on old trucks is always hit or miss, you never know what might turn a 2 hour job into a 6 hour job

Super jealous right now, I’ve been bouncing around the idea of the Lokka for months now but every time I think I’ll pull the trigger, something else steals my attention and funds lol I was about to order one this week but then I realized I really need new tires. The cheap mudders I’ve got are terrible on the highway, so now I’m working on getting those replaced instead. Are you planning to take it to a shop for the lokka install or do it yourself?

Sorry to hear about the hubs, I’ve only heard good things about them so far but I ended up going for the Warn hubs so no personal experience with the RRs You’ll love the combination of AC front and 9447 rear, it'll be exactly the same as mine and I’ve had no issues with it yet. You might get a bit of “topping out” but that’s just a fact of life when you put lift springs on struts that cant be longer than stock length. Only happens a couple of times a week on mine and I haven’t heard of any reports of damage done by topping out, so it’s all good in my book. The manual hubs are a great call though, gonna save you from premature wear on the CVs My only suggestion is to maybe get a front bumper soon, otherwise the ride might be a bit stiff. Mine is perfectly acceptable with the front brush guard because of the extra weight, but I’ve heard some people say it’s a little too rough without anything up front keep going man, this thing will be a monster off road If you end up going with a lokka

New front end stuff is in place now. Just needs an alignment. Also bolted the bumper on, but no brackets yet. Tomorrow it’s going to be brakes and rear end links after work, and then the next day hopefully get the fluids done. Some pics. My dads WD21 was keeping an eye on my six lmao

Rear bumper is on..... Well alright, It’s more of an “in progress” pic I welded some pieces of 2x2 tubing to the bumper and inserted them the frame, but I still need to bolt it through. For now it’s just kind of wedged in there until I can get back out to the garage later tonight. I’m hoping my welds are strong enough but I’ll make sure to test it out once I’m done so that it doesn’t fall off in the middle of nowhere while Im trying to unstick myself. I’m also going to be making brackets that attach it to the OEM hitch mounts for extra strength. Not sure when I’ll be able to have those done, but I won’t be doing any pulling until it’s reinforced Planning to paint the newly exposed sheet metal either dark grey or black, and of course it still needs the tire carrier. In terms of looks, I thought the bumper would be too small, but I kind of dig it. Always possible to extend around the corners with some tubing as well

Having such a new R50 is awesome because you've got all the potential with none of the worries that all of the over 200K guys are having to think about. Gonna be an awesome build. Good luck man, I’ll make sure to keep checking back

Big day coming up this Sunday. I have a set of SurTrack CVs sitting in the garage now, along with the other front end stuff (control arms, tie rod ends, ball joints, end links). Also picked up a set of end links for the rear to tighten things up because I think the back ones are on their way out too. The CVs look pretty solid to me, Im pretty sure they’ll last at least a few years. I booked the same garage bay that I used for the lift, and my dad will be in town so I’ll have an extra set of hands, which will be nice. Once the new stuff is all in place, we are going to replace the front brakes and bleed the system to get rid of the pedal squishiness its had for a while now. If we have any time left after all of that, I’d like to replace the fluids in the tranny, transfer case, and both diffs. But that might have to wait because we’ll only have 10 hours or so. As for the bumper and tire carrier, I decided to buy a cheap welder an amazon and give it a go myself. I don’t have much time during the day so I haven’t been able to take it to a shop for the welding, and honestly it would probably be more expensive than buying the welder anyway. Im thinking I can have the bumper done before we go to the shop this Sunday but the carrier gate will probably come after. I picked up a spare 6 spoke LE wheel on eBay for 50 bucks but still no tire yet. Debating whether to get a falken wildpeak at3 so that it motivates me to upgrade the other 4 on the truck because these cheapo mudders are garbage on the highway. Lots of noise and they’re wearing out super quickly Updates to follow

Some literal mall crawling Can it be summer already? This is what I have to resort to in order to get my flex fix

Are we doing snow pics now?

Just got a reply from MAC. Their entire email was “They are available, we do not know what happened” Wow, very helpful thanks Anyway, I might order from them again or maybe not. The surtracks are about 60 bucks cheaper for a set of two so I’ll probably go with those, just because I hate the idea of supporting a company that literally couldn’t care less.

I’m running 9447s but havent upgraded to bilsteins yet due to price. For now I’m using Gabriel ultras, which are the longest OEM spec shocks available as far as I know, at 24.7 inches I believe. I think it’s a good compromise between price performance and flex, and I didn't have to worry about widening out the shock mounts. So far I’ve got no complaints, but I’m sure they aren’t quite as good as bilsteins

Do you remember the brand? Ive heard some people have issues with the Cardone ones so I’d like to avoid those. The other option is SurTrack, they seem ok but I haven’t heard much about their longevity or suitability for off-roading. Cardone at least uses thermoplastic boots whereas the Surtracks use neoprene

Does anyone know where to get CVs? I placed an order with MAC auto parts a couple months ago for these ones, but a few days later I received a refund and nothing ever shipped out. They also never emailed me with any sort of explanation, even after I asked them about it. I heard on this forum that these were the best most reliable option, but they don’t seem to be interested in doing business..... https://www.macautoparts.net/cv-axle-shafts-left-right-master-pro-select-ni-8185-fits-for-97-04-pathfinder Any ideas on alternatives? My CV boot has been torn for a while now and I need to swap out

Awesome, great to hear that the OME HD work well with the kit. Sounds like that’s the exact route I’ll be going then

Yeah man that looks fantastic! I’m curious though, what combo did you use for the front? Is the lift completely from spacers or did you pair lift coils with smaller spacers? I was told camber is a nightmare when you go the second route so I’m wondering what the best combo would be if I ever decided to do a SFD

Haha found some old pics from a year or two ago when we were hitting a neighborhood park at night that has rails and boxes set up and pathy saved the day when the stadium lighting was cut

Couple of pics from my latest trip. We stayed at a cabin near Breckenridge to do some skiing and some of the back roads we took were pretty nasty on the way there.