Relocate spring pack perch for more clearance??

[an1malch1n]

Hello again all you X men. I like how you guys are always friendly on this particular X board and always looking to make your X's better for off-road. (The reason for this post)

Well after wheeling with Nissan Mike hear in CO I found, IMO, a big shortcoming in the X. It has to do with where the front of the spring pack is welded to the frame. The new design Nissan has come out with is just terrible for any serious rockcrawling. The perch just sits way to low and regularly would get hung up on his X even with 33" tires, whereas stock Nissan's(older) were not having this prob.

My solution(again I'm just trying to throw out a possibility) Would be to cut the entire perch off and have the spring pack bracket re-welded where the frame starts to curve up in the back. Maybe even make a mini skid underneath it with flat iron to protect it.

While thinking about it you might lose some height, but then again you might gain some cuz it would force the pack to re-arch. So who knows. If I were in this situation I wouldn't hesitate to do this. I'm sure a shop wouldn't charge that much to do it anyway. Pretty simple cut and reweld or fab up some kind of bracket. Thus you gain precious clearance.

In Mike's defence you could tell that rockcrawling wasn't his forte, and maybe a few of you never experience this prob(driver experience vs. inexperience)

Sorry it is such a winded suggestion and maybe you guys have already gone over this, if you have I apologize and will delete this. Oh BTW after comparing alot of front ends I still think you guys could retro fit the 4" Trailmaster lift on your X's<=====but that's an entire different subject.

[Mosi]

Yeah.. those damn spring hangers can be a beotch! Most of us that have been driving the X in the dirt/rocks for a while are pretty good about avoiding contact with the hangers. It would be nice if another alternative was out there.

[xoc]

Compare it to the Frontier, which is a spring-over design. Why Nissan chose spring-under for the Xterra is beyond me, I'm assuming for a softer ride.
A Frontier rear axle, and some frame mods might be an option, although an expensive one.

BTW, where did Mike get hung up on the trip ? I've run every one of the trails you took (that were listed), and never had a problem (even stock, with just 31's on).

[Synchro]

Originally posted by xoc
BTW, where did Mike get hung up on the trip ? I've run every one of the trails you took (that were listed), and never had a problem (even stock, with just 31's on).

Sounds like what happened with him at ECXC. Except at ECXC not only did he not make the obstacle well or at all, he broke tie rods in doing it. please tell me he didn't break more of them in CO.

[an1malch1n]

XOC Yeah I know that the Frontiers have a spring over but they still have that stupid lowered perch on it. Mike has 33's so I would have guessed that it wouldn't have been a prob., but I think that most of it definately had to do with driver rather than vehicle. And yes it sucks that they(Nissan) did a spring under.

As far as mods on your rear, I'm considering going to a bone yard and ripping the entire rear coil/axle off of a pathy(95-older) and retro fitting it on my truck this spring. Just something to consider. Why do all that work for a SOA when you could prob retro coils(which are much better imo)??

I think we did the trails backwards from GOX like you said. It is supposed to be more difficult but nothing was difficult except Iron Chest. Anyway He got caught up at the old Tin Cup difficult pass(ascending) and oh crap I forgot the name of the trail the day before. It had a mini stairstep section going up he caught the perches alot. AND he's running 5.14 and dual lockers!!! But one of the other X's seemed to get caught here and there but nothing like Mike.

BTW Iron Chest is sweet. I broke a front shock mount(top connected to the frame) and had to have it rewelded when I got back to camp. You should definately take a few of the guys that want a difficult section to run up there one day during GOX. You're right though none of those trails were hard at all but definately worth doing at least once. Also the trail to Grizzly Lake was pretty cool too.

ANYWAY I was trying to think of a "cheap" way to get you X men some more clearance without it being over the top.

[an1malch1n]

Synchro ha ha, No he didn't break any tie-rods this time. It would be impossible for him because he welded on, hmm hard to explain, like a cylinder like metal around the tierods making them at least 2+ inches thick. No adjustments could be made but those babies were not going to break either.
I could tell by the end of the trip his steering center link was pretty much shot.

[xoc]

Glad to hear you had a good time, sad to hear you ran two closed trails (Old Tincup is closed by the Forest Service, Grizzly Lake is private property). Tread Lightly guys.

Did everyone get to the top of Iron Chest ?
The trail you forgot was probably Pearl Pass, which has a good set of steps on the northeast side.

The Frontier spring hanger is quite a bit higher than the Xterra, but still not a great design.

[an1malch1n]

Originally posted by xoc
Glad to hear you had a good time, sad to hear you ran two closed trails (Old Tincup is closed by the Forest Service, Grizzly Lake is private property). Tread Lightly guys.

Well that sucks! I think all of us did those trails unknowingly that they were closed. Didn't see any signs posted to not to use those particular trails. Trust me if we would have known I guarantee that none of us would have run them!!! Well at least I know better now and won't run those trails. Thanks for the tip, a couple of buddies and myself were thinking of going to Grizzly lake again soon. I guess not now

As far as Iron Chest is concerned just myself and 2 of my buddies that came along(Toy/Taco) ran that trail. Everybody else(exluding Robby) didn't want to run it. Robby continued the group along. We chose to run the chest and caught up with everybody later that night.

Yep Pearl Pass sounds right, with the steps.

[xoc]

Originally posted by an1malch1n


Well that sucks! I think all of us did those trails unknowingly that they were closed.

The short "old" section of Tincup usually only has one of those plastic "strip" signs, and the top is usually shot off, or it's pulled out of the ground.

Grizzly though has a huge metal gate at the first fork off Iron Chest. Did you go in a different way ? I think ATV's are allowed in, with a deal between the owner and the ATV rental shop in St. Elmo.

[Synchro]

Originally posted by an1malch1n
Synchro ha ha, No he didn't break any tie-rods this time. It would be impossible for him because he welded on, hmm hard to explain, like a cylinder like metal around the tierods making them at least 2+ inches thick. No adjustments could be made but those babies were not going to break either.
I could tell by the end of the trip his steering center link was pretty much shot.

brilliant. so he can never have another front end alignment with those tie rods? so he sacrificed having a part that is easy to change out, but because of his setup he keeps breaking, them for a part (the steering centerlink) that is a pain in the ass to change out and he will still break eventually because of his setup. somehow that doesn't sound right.

[an1malch1n]

Originally posted by xoc


The short "old" section of Tincup usually only has one of those plastic "strip" signs, and the top is usually shot off, or it's pulled out of the ground.

Grizzly though has a huge metal gate at the first fork off Iron Chest. Did you go in a different way ? I think ATV's are allowed in, with a deal between the owner and the ATV rental shop in St. Elmo.

Nope to the strips and nothing pulled out of the ground that I could see at the top(we were ascending the trail so no strip at the bottom. As far as any of us could tell it looked completely open.

Again I didn't notice a gate and yes I think we are talking about the same trail the one next to the "chest" It was all open, I was near the beginning of the pack that day and didn't see anything preventing us from going up it. But your probably right (open to ATV's) and we just went up it.

Sycnro I don't know if he had replacements for the way home or not, regardless I'm glad he welded that piece on. I guess I didn't feel like waiting around for him to put on new tie-rods. So his set-up was fine by me, although not one I would do. I just carry a complete assembly with me when I go wheeling. It only takes 10 min. , if you know what you are doing(I'm assuming you do )