With all this fuss about the SAS installed on the X I was wondering, what are the tade-offs of the SAS as opposed to the stock suspension. Benefits of the SAS are obvious, however.

Don't forget the long travel option.

If it's properly engineered, you're not trading off much at all.

Other forums have a ton of SAS information, including the site in my sig. What you really need to decide is a) do you need a SAS to do the wheeling you want to do, and b) will you take the time and spend the money to do a quality job, or run a kit like the Calmini kit.

There's a lot of unsafe hack jobs out there. Don't be one.

Well, the most obvious trade-off is the increase in unsprung weight. On-road handling and comfort will be poorer with the solid front axle, but IMO, the benefits far outweigh the consequences.

Some of the fundamental trade offs comes down to $$$$$$ and application need IMO besides the obvious.

Does it make economic sense to do a SAS? IMO not really unless you're the small percentage on the board who routinely wheel stuff challenging enough to really need it and/or you're breaking the IFS stuff. But then again we all like fast cars so we can hit the go pedal on the off chance there's the slightest bit of daylight on the freeway.

Seriously the weight/aerodynamic changes are a factor from the gas pump to the extra demands on the cooling system, etc. One thing to remember is that with a SAS one thing leads to another and resale is normally not good to heavily modified vehicles.

With that said you have to be devoted to do a SAS on a Nissan, I guess I'm nuts since I'm working on my 2nd

Brian