big_johnson

From what I've seen, the OEM ones stick the closest to the bumper and hurt the departure angle the least, but I'm sure there are other brands that make an OEM identical hitch, though I don't know what they are off the top of my head. I have a Class III Hidden Hitch on my 97 and it sticks out a bit far. Looks good though, and will teach whoever rearends me a good lesson

On the XE's and LE's, the gearing is 4.363:1. The SE's had 4.636's in the axles because of the larger tires that came stock. The latter would be good for 31's, but it wouldn't be worth the hassle of regearing for such a small tire change. Now if you eventually got a big L&P lift and threw 33's on there, you'd want to regear, but with just 31's you should be OK with the 4.363's

I have a class III Hidden Hitch (which isn't so hidden) and it works well. Uhaul has some nice ones also, though they are just another brand (draw-tite?) rebadged w/uhaul stickers. You can put manual hubs on your LE, search a bit for more info, there have been some recent threads on the subject. I have a Manik brush guard on mine, I like it. I would recommend that you go for a one-piece design, as opposed to modular, but it's all personal preference w/grille guards.

Unless you live in Japan, no. They have some crazy twin turbo kits over there, but over in N. America we have no sort of aftermarket turbo, or supercharger kit for our 3.3 pathys for that matter.

I think Squam1 got some for his 02, but I haven't seen him post any follow up remarks. Maybe he'll chime in here

cant go wrong with patrol shots

Yep, same thing for me. I have never had to back up to get it to disengage, it will do it by itself eventually. Another thing to keep in mind is that the more traction the surface you're driving on has, the more tension is put on the driveline, and therefore it will take longer to disengage. In snow, mine disengages almost immediately, but if I'm in 4wd on wet pavement (I almost never do this, it only happens if I've come off of a snow covered back street to a plowed main road), it will take longer. And most of these pre 96 guys are pretty knowledgeable about later pathys (just like many of us R50 guys know a bit about the WD21's ), so they can still give good imput as to the causes, though they may or may not have personal experience with R50's No reason to count them out

Thanks Yeah, try to get some pics up, I'm curious to see how those blacked out headlights look on a black R50 (pretty sick, I'd imagine) I'm thinking about getting either some headlight covers or taillight covers, or both

my bad, I didn't read all the way down, just the top part And Herm, the R50's don't have automatic hubs, they have drive flanges, or full time hubs, which is why the front end CV's and such are constantly engaged (I think this is why shift on the fly 4wd is something R50's can do...). So the manual hubs replace that drive flange and allow the front end to be disengaged

That installation isn't quite the same as the R50's. As for why you'd want warn's, they reduce wear and tear on the front drivetrain and can help mileage by freeing up the CV shafts and such up there. They are also stronger than the stock units. And you can still use the shift on the fly 4wd if you just leave the hubs locked, it doesn't harm the drivetrain

it has to do with driveline tension, the T-case won't disengage the front end until there is sufficient slack in the driveline. It's normal, you could try letting off the gas when shifting to 2wd, some people use this method to lessen the tension

I've seen some pictures of the caliper clearance with 15's on an 02-03, it was too tight for comfort. :o

here ya go: autoleathers.com

need two sets of these as far as parts go, and unless you have a hydrolic press in your driveway, then you'll have to take it to a shop to get them pressed in You could go to 4x4parts.com for some decent prices on shocks and struts, (I'd link you the pages but I'm lazy ) Some members here aren't the biggest fans of that site, but I haven't had any problems personally. As for the seats, I remember I looked at a website that was an authorized dealer, but I forgot the address and the prices. I'll try to look it up here

not the sway bar or pan hard rod bushings, it would be the lower rear control arm bushings. New shocks and struts would help a fair bit also, they tend to wear out at about +/- 60K. As for leather seats, check out katskinz (sp?) aftermarket leather seat covers. They're pretty nice from what I've seen/heard.

there are these fender flares made by EGR, like seen on this pathy. As for nerf bars, there are a few companies out there, like manik and smittybilt (I think they have applications for the R50). Go to truckaddons.com and look up parts by your vehicle, they should have some options

I would doubt it, the Xterra is a body on frame construction while the R50 is a unibody, so the mounting points would likely be quite different. If they were the same, we (R50's) would have many more rock slider options

Are you sure you checked the correct bushings? And are you sure they're OK? Sometimes you can't go by looks alone. Mine were worn enough that I could feel play in the control arm under only my hand power, but they looked OK. The bushings you need to look at are the ones in the 'dog bones' attached to the front of the rear axle, near the shock mounts, attaching to just behind the midsection of the underbody. If you did all of this correctly, and have replaced the shocks, the only thing I can think of is the struts are shot.

Also check out bridgestone dueler revos. Everyone who has put them on loves em. But BFG's would also be a good choice, though not quite as good in the wet as the revos

is is kind of a clunk from the rear end? If so, it could be the rear upper control arm bushings going bad. They control the foreward and backward roll motion of the rear axle, so bad bushings would loosen up the connection b/t axle and vehicle and cause a clunk.

metric isn't that bad. Here's how it works: the 1st number is the tread width in mm. Ex. 245 / 25.4 = 9.65" So these tires would be 9.65 inches wide (there are 25.4 mm in one inch) Next, you find the sidewall height. Ex. If you had 245/75, that means that each sidewall height is 75% of the width. So 245 x .75 = 183.75 mm. Multiply that by 2 (because there is a sidewall on either side of the rim) and you get 367.5 mm So, if your rim is 16 inches tall, 16" = 406.4 mm (16x25.4) Then, 367.5 mm (total sidewall height) + 406.4 mm (rim height in mm) = 773.9 mm in total tire height. To get this in inches, just convert it. 773.9 / 25.4 = 30.46" So, Like DJ said, the 245/75/16's would be about 30.5x9.5 R16. Anything that is less than 31" in overall tire height should fit with minimal to no rubbing

they may just be trying to gauge the # of orders, so they produce the right numbers of each lift when it is released. I'm sure very few, if any people have actually put down the credit card on one, since no pics are up (yet ). And, the product does exist. Last I heard, it was in the final stages, the person prototyping it just needed to find shocks long enough for the kit.

They are pretty much the same, but QX4's are geared more toward the luxury crowd. They have a different front bumper, which looks better IMO, but may hurt approach angles slightly (not positive here, just speculating). The ride height should be the same, the size of each vehicle's tires will make the most difference there. Reliability should be the same, they have the same engine and mostly identical components. Off road capability...should also be the same (though QX4's may come with AWD? I know the newer ones do, not sure what year's you're looking at). Either way, you most likely wouldn't use AWD if you were really 4wheeling.

First of all, you'll want to remove that tornado. They are just snake oil. Apparently, an altima with it installed was dynoed and actually lost power. Anyways, another thing you could do would be to install some manual hubs. These will definitely increase MPG's, whether its the .5 increase some see or the 2 increase that others report. There are some other things, search around and you'll find what you're looking for

Actually, beefier springs would be the best fix for that, shocks don't make any difference in height. Your spring options would be OME or AC