Zibi

You know...you don't have to hit enter after every line...it will automatically wrap the text when you post. Call me OC but that drives me nuts when your posts are only 4 centimeters wide on my 22" widescreen monitor.

I dont' think fabricating skids would really require that much welding...it's more just cutting, bending, and drilling pieces of sheet metal. My BP skids don't have any welds on them at all...

oi @!*%, thats what I get for posting at 3:22am My mistake

My 96 is an LE / auto / LSD I don't know about gearing but I assume it's 4.6 because thats what you had in the poll

Ask to see order invoices...Nissan dealers (at least the Canadian ones) work from a central computer system so all pricing is standard (on Nissan parts), and different jobs are given "set" hours. If they fail to provide you with part invoices then they've opened up a whole new can of worms. A quick call to a few other Nissan dealers will give you a good idea of how many hours the job should take or how much the parts are worth. Just ask for a quote, don't bring up your current conundrum. If they can't or aren't willing to show you what you're paying for thats something to make a big deal of. What are they hiding? Don't they keep proper documentation of work orders? etc etc The plan of marching in there and saying "fskc you give me my truck I'm not paying" may not be the best course of action. They have your truck, they can just say no. Then you get into legal action, and even if you do get your truck back it'll be a headache and a half.

Anyway, my point wasn't so much regarding winter conditions, simply the intentions of the owner. If you're going to offroad it, buy a 4wd. If it's just a daily driver, then sure 2WD would be fine. Around here any offroading you could do in a 2WD wouldn't be called offroading by anyone into the sport. Hell, I get laughed at for driving a pathfinder in general and have had more than a few people tell me they were suprised I even managed to get it where I have.

mmm been a while but there should be a couple adjuster screws on the top of the headlight housing that you can tighten or loosen.

I live in BC, it's all hills and mountains. Last winter I was living up in the Kootenays (just east of the Rocky mountains) where we got a lot of snow, I ran good snow tires with added weight over the rears and it was still very skiddish in RWD. Few hills in town that I wouldn't have made it up without 4wd. Put it in 4wd though and I had to try to make it loose traction.

I think 2WD is fine if you just want a daily driver city truck. I think it's a waste of time and money if you want to offroad it. Pezzy is right that a RWD pathy would suck in the snow, I'm glad I have 4WD for that. Then again if you don't get that much snow it doesn't matter.

Aren't skids kind of redundant if you're just wheeling around sand and mud? I agree, Aluminum, aside from being much too expensive, isn't as versatile as stell for skid plates. Sure its lighter but can't take a good beating. I think the biggest problem identified with the black panther ones is just the rock washers, it'd be nice to have a more elegant solution. I'm also not terribly keen on the mounting points, Trainman had a good idea when I met him about attaching the front skid to the bullbar mounts. It also occurs to me that since you have to half take off the rear one to get at the oil pan anyway you might as well just have one solid skid plate, that eliminates the weakpoint of having two overlap in the middle.

I have no idea, but I imagine if it is possible it'd be a tight squeeze. If you do do it make sure to post some pictures, I want to see the results

I voted lift. Like XPLOR said, locker doesn't matter if you're high centered. Type of terrain around here at least tends to involve a lot more rock crawling than anything, and I would kill to have a few more inches under the front right now.

Pull up yer panties and givr. Need to have some adventure in your life But no, with my stock air intake I wouldn't go through very deep water just with how low and forward the intake is. Thats high on my list of things to hopefully-not-break-while-trying-to-make-it-better.

eh, someone has to support the worst team in the league, cause god knows they need it.

Wouldn't putting a giant coil spacer severely dampen your compression distance (or whatever you want to call it)?

I do think you're misguided in thinking that by replacing your boots with aftermarket ones now you'll get 100,000km out of them when you have a lift, especially if you intend on actually wheeling your rig. If you're going to spend the $200 I can't understand why you don't just buy manual hubs. You're a lot more likely to reach your 100000km mark damage free that way for less money.

x3 I don't have a problem with having a beer or two, but no more than I would if I were going to drive on the road. Like crazyhayseed said, it's about responsibility. and yeah, drinking while driving is dumb, might spill your beer Having said that, there are a few 4x4 groups around here that definitely have a drinking problem. If you're at any of the big mud bogs on a long weekend, you're probably going to see a rollover. To me that is silly, not only because you put your own life at risk but when you're driving like an idiot on a FSR you put other people's lives at risk as well. But then again that sort of thing does also happen out of pure stupidity or chance as well.

Isn't half the point of IFS to have more ground clearance under the diff without needing larger tires?

I've heard of people running an air intake through where there glove box was, but not on a pathy. I woudln't want to do it though, would be way too loud. Idea is to make your truck loud on the outside to show off but quiet for you on the inside

Keep in mind that thicker paint will result in thicker coat on your truck. Theres a guy up here who painted his Trekker build in a similar product (bedliner type stuff) and I recall he had a few issues with clearances for the tailights, handles, hatch etc. but good luck with it, your truck will look killer with it

Diff drop is wasted money for a 2" lift IMO CV boots rip more easily with the lift because the lift increases the angle of the CV shaft and causes it to rub against the boot more. As the CV axle spins with the tire increased rubbing = increased friction and therefor greater chance of failure. It's really not something I'd worry about though. If you're going to replace the CV boot anyway, why not just wait until it does tear. As was previously mentioned if you intend on wheeling you're more likely to see a snag tear it. Pezzy ran hers for a year without a tear on a lifted rig, both of mine ripped this year and I have stock suspension. In terms of scope the CV boot is small @!*% compared to doing a suspension lift. My advice is if you are really worried, just run manual hubs and leave them locked throughout the winter if you want to be lazy. Otherwise just leave it as is; if they rip, they rip. Replacing boots in good condition doesn't make a whole lot of sense, especially if you're paying someone else to do it. It takes 30 seconds to check them otherwise.

Aye, I'd suggest that you do buy some manual hubs if you're worried about your CV boots tearing. As Pezzy said you could just leave them locked all winter and it would be no different than stock.

That was just my polite way of saying no

So heres another question, do the different models of the R50 have different gearing? I imagine that would have a sizable affect on speed, especially with increased tire size.

Probably cost more than the truck is worth to get it back to Vancouver But thanks for the offer!