First SAS'd Xterra

Well at leas tto my knowledge. THought you would all like a looky...








It's not setup for crawling so dont bash it. It setup for what I believe would be show, and running atop the sand in Hawaii. I dig it.

Honestly I think that looks like crap. It looks screwy. imho.. It is nice to see someone doing something different though.

interesting...

No front drive shaft, no suprise there, but how long will his rear drive shaft last and has it fallen off yet?

truck looks sweet!
i think he's planning on lowering it a couple of inches too. definitely, not a rock crawler but will do nicely in the sand.
congrats on the first sas xterra!!!

Now it looks like the Tyco RC Xterra. Totally out of proportion.

Who is that? I hadn't heard that anyone in Hawaii was doing that, but those pictures appear to have been taken there. Not my cup of tea, but much better than a low rider. I'd like more pictures of the suspension, front and rear, as well as the attachment points. I'm thinking something less radical looking for me.

I believe he goes by "eastsidex" on other Nissan Boards.

I think this is his cardomain page: http://www.cardomain.com/member_pages/view_page.pl?page_id=207516&page=2

The Tycos have bigger tires in proportion to the body...

Don't know what to say guys, Lot of effort, lot of money, lot of work, and lot of time. Gotta give some credit, but definitely the hight is too much. Should have bigger tires or lower the truck a bit more. I'd get a front drive shaft ASAP. For some reason to me the newer Xs don't look right with that much lift because of the front look. But that's just me. But what can I say, if it's only for sand it's all good. Things WILL go wrong if it does Rock Crawling or Mud Dippin with that setup. Good work.

Riad

How does he gets in ?

I'm curious... how will he do any better in the sand than another Xterra with swampers? It's not like he had paddle wheels.

The show thing, I understand, but I don't see how lifting it that high and putting the solid axle in front will do any different on sand.

That Xterra is just "insane" as Dr. Phil would say.

Anyone else feel like going out and playing Moon Patrol now?

Moon Patrol

Yet another great time killer. Thanks Snooopy. How goes the training? My cousin graduates from Great Lakes on Aug 1st then is headed to P-Cola for Rescue Swimmer training. Hopefully you won't need him someday.

I like the Idea of a SAS Xterra but with wheels that big they won't stuff into the wheel wells which negates all the extra flex you gain with the Solid Axle.

Good effort if a little misguided.

IMHO the Xterra body is too small to raise it to SAS level. It looks like shit and is a waste of dough, Judging from the picture it looks odd adn way out of proportion.

Is the owner going to grow a mullet now?

I think it looks kinda cool. Nice color, too!

It could look cool with like 40 inch tires and some body work so that the tires could actually stuff in there. With those tires it looks like an rc xterra mounted on an old skate.

Does that float on water too? I'd be impressed then.

What a waste of money.

All that and it could have been a nice 4 wheeling vehicle. Now it's just something that will get stuck in the sand quicker because it weighs 500 pounds more than stock and is now 2WD (probably for life with the angles involved).

At least they did a high-steer on it, but someone forgot to cut all the u-bolts.

Nice show truck. Bad truck truck.

not that i'm insulting his ride, it's his truck to do with as he pleases...
but i've been waiting for a while for someone to do an sas on an xterra, and to have it turn out like that is a disapointment.
hopefully someday someone else with the money and time will go towards rock crawling.
by the way, is that the xterra that was posted awhile ago, wiht the 33x16 tires or something? tires with insane width and not enough height?

coolness...

If you all check out his page at http://www.cardomain.com/member_pages/view_page.pl?page_id=207516&page=2

the truck isn't that high and looks bad ass.

you're kidding right???
that was before the sas, as you can see in the pics the ifs is still there(back when it was only a measly 6" lift).
wait till he lowers it a couple of inches and puts in bigger tires, i do concur with you with it being "badass"

Some people have just too much time and money, which only balanced by lack of sense...

[Edited to add]
Oh and Snoopy - thanks a lot for Moon Patrol link. Travelled back in time for like 16 years...

Commanding view of the traffic but not blocking cars behind you, smart idea! Though other heavy trucks that sit eye level with him would have trouble seeing.

Looks pretty fragile. Props for doing something different. I don't know what it could ever be used for, but it's *different*. I just can;t understand why people spend loads of cash to build something that serves no purpose (other than show). Even as a show truck it doesn't exactly look pretty. I dunno. Weird.

Must be fun to drive on the roads near the North Shore. Hehe.

Not gonna thrash his ride; however, to me, it would look 100% better if he hadn't raised it so high, or put skinnier tires on it. The wide tire look with such a small SUV look just doesn't grab the attention.

Would rather see a big 3/4 ton truck upon that set-up - that to me would be cool.

I'll give him respect for doing the first SAS, but no front driveshaft screams poser. I'm getting some made for my Heep right now, it's not that tough. Keeping it from blowing Ujoints is, and I'm sure will be on that X.

Is that a 44 front axle? Cant pick them out that well. I'd take off the body lift, and put on some tires that aren't quite as wide and a little taller. Also, some extended flares like on the hardbody would look decent. Nice X
though, but it does look like a moon buggy
John

How the hell do you play??? whenever i jump over the holes i die, whenever i do anything i die?? WTF??

That looks like complete ass.

Some people have no taste. And too much money. And time.

Way to ruin a nice truck.

OK, here's the scoop. It's still a work in progress. It was jacked extra-high for now for a car show, and will come back down a bit. The rear is just set up with 4" lift blocks for now and will be re-done sanely. The front driveshaft is pending, a guy there claims to be able to make one that will handle the angle and will replace it for free if it breaks.

Even after it's finished I think it will be a bit too much, and I think it's nuts to do that to a vehicle only a year or so old, but I'm glad to see someone doing it. The next one I know of in the works should be done by the end of the month, with coilovers and radius arms.

Brent

Looks like a rollerskate . . .

Exactly. Although, If someone has the money to dink around.. all power to them.

Funny, but it does sort of does look that way. "Hey, can I have some truck with those wheels... please?"

Congrats on the Super high Xterra .
Its always good to do something totally different. Alot of people will not like it at first but as we start seeing more and more of these projects and fixing the minor design flaws their will be much more acceptance.
Just like lifting the X 6 inches was ugly stupid and a waste of money, a year and half almost two years later everyone has, wants, can't aford to do it.
I think it really looks great. Once you get everything worked out. drive shaft in, taller ruber, let us know how she performes off road.
"Too each his own"
enough said

Hey chocalx, you have a six inch lift on your truck?! It looks nice BTW. But I'm wondering why you didn't just go spring over in the back? And also, who sells the kit? or did you make it yourself?

Thanks

That's 3" suspension and 3" body, not 6" suspension...

agreed. body lift or not, your xterra looks great.
on a side note, i wonder if they will ever make a 6" suspension lift for the xterra.

You really can't make a 6" lift for an IFS truck like the Xterra.

6" would be basically pointless anyway. 33" tires fit under a 3" lift, why go 3" higher than that ? Just to make it handle worse ?

I like the idea of being able to SAS, but this truck is just way to high. It would like much better a few inches lower. I wouldn't do it, even if I had the money to blow though. Suspension lift of 3" and a 2" body lift is all you need, in my opinion.

I just want to go spring-over. The rear axel the X is too messey compared to 4runners and Pathfinders (and LRs, pickups and a whole bunch of other vehicles); my X always catch branches or other things poking out of trails (one time even a steel cable of somesort used to hold drain pipes). But to do that the front must be raised atleast 5 inches or so. I know this is a relatively easy job on YJs but with the IFS, it must be physically impossible to raise the front that high.

I'd like to go SA myself, it'll provide more articulation and allow me to go airsuspension. Which means ride height control, firmness control and the ability to easily tackle 40 degree sideslopes.

Edit: Oh yeah, I don't like the idea of a body lift much because I heard it puts too much stress on the body.

If you want to lift the front 5", then you will need to resort to a lift like TrailMaster makes, which essentially lowers the diff and control arms 5 inches away from the frame (thus raising the vehicle).

The only drawback is the torsion bars, which mount to the lower a-arm, instead of the upper. This means the torsion bar would be hanging 5 inches below the frame, unprotected.

You'll end up with something like this...

...or you could ditch the T-bars and use coilovers with some custom upper and lower arms. You'd still have to drop the front diff to get useable CV angles, though. I was considering that before trading in my Xterra.

Hey Ian... where did that pic come from... that looks like butt! I want to find out what that guy was thinking!!!

Yeah thanks Ian for the info.

Guess I'll just wait around. I don't like the idea of everything hanging 5 inches down, that defeats the whole purpose of suspension lift. Looks like Nissan never had aftermarket modifications in mind, why do they have to put the torsion bar suspension system?

Also, has anyone here ever dropped their front diff? It'll solve the CV angle, but what about the front driveshaft angle? 5 inches of lift is probably too much for an X to handle. You'd have too many problems unless you go SA.

Thanks a lot guys

And that $ and time would get you a decent solid axle conversion too.

Pretty sure that pic was of the Frontier done by custommotorsports.com, as seen here:
http://www.custommotorsports.com/BIGYELLA.html
$13,000 worth of work in that pile of crap.

Does any manufacturer actually do this? Not on that scale they don't. Torsion bars are inexpensive, easy to incorporate, do not add to unsprung weight, and are perfectly suitable for the 95% of the owners that they build vehicles to satisfy...

Brent

Thanks for the compliments on the truck guys.

But yeah OffroadX is right it is a 3 inch suspension and a 3 inch Body lift

I knew I could fit 33s under the X with a 3 inch suspension lift. But I really wanted the added stability that the wider stance of the 3.5 inch back spacing wheels give.
In order to have enough clearance for a complete turning radius, I was forced to put on the extra 3 inch Body lift (which gave it the perfect stance IMOP). Granted I still had to trim about 2 inches in front and in back of the front tires.
Even then I still had a little rubbing under full turns while on uneven terrain.

Man that BIG YELLA Frontier. Great components why keep it IFS with all the money they spent on it.
It probably will never see a dirt road any way.
They will be too busy towing it from one car/truck show after an other.
Like I said "To each their own"