I'd like to see them link the truck to match the front. I've been waiting to see if the truck can be linked without cutting through the rear floor.

I guess these are the obsticles that I'd like to know how they overcame:

How did they get the braked to work with the factory set up, ABS ect. ?

Wheels? Do the fronts and backs match? Did they just use hubs to match the bolt pattern in the 44 ??

Hummm.....(thinking out loud) with an SAS I'd be just one transfer case and shifter away from................

Nice!!

No ABS on a solid axle swap. Nowhere to mount the sensors on a Dana 44.

No sway bars on a SAS. Unless you wanted to go with an Anti-Rock bar then sure. But really, if you set up the coilovers correctly, with the correct springs and valving, then in reality, I wouldn't use anything.

Besides, with a SAS, you're making the commitment from mall crawler to rock crawler. Some give and take is necessary.

Besides, you can offset some of the cost of the swap by selling your ABS Module and sensors.

Must not be a Farker, it's Fap! Fap! Fap!

Veddy schweet kit...

Brent

to calmini...

i dont think i am personally going to do this, i use my X as a daily driver and then some fun on the weekends...

but to those who want this kind of performance, looks like calmini came through for ya...

Great Job! looks awesome, cant wait to see it as a complete package.

pic of the week???

I think read somewhere (N4W I believe) that when Steve was considering Xterra SAS, he was thinking spring under axle to keep it somewhat streetable so as to be more appealing to larger market. My feeling is that the same logic would be carried over as much as possible to the coil sprung SAS kit and that he would strive for good on-road performance (hence as little as 4" lift). I guess I'm thinking of the landrovers & landcruisers (late models) that had coil-sprung solid front axles & a pretty good ride as well...granted not with 35's & 6" of lift; but the point is there may be enough flexibility to dial in, at least to some extent, your own preferred compromise of onroad vs. offroad performance.

Very nice. Maybe Calmini can even do a coil-spring axle in the back too? Talk about some flex!

Whenever you fellas go for the SAS, let me know and I'll take your Calmini lift and steering off your hands

Holy Mary mother of...

That will be sweet.

Nice TK, real nice.

How sweet it is to be an Xterra owner again. Best part is I have my D44 sitting at home just waiting to go in.

Did I mention that you suck?

This is a really stupid question I bet...but hey!! thats typical of me!! Where do you get the front axle from?? Does it matter?? preferences?? Have to be from a certain vehicle to fit size wise??

oh hell yes. now i know what to save for, screw an IRA!!!!

Tim

Steve,

Yup, the rear is still from the standard Calmini AAL. This will change soon.

-Doug

Why ruin a perfectly good IFS Xterra?  

For the money spent on the original vehicle ($22,000-$24,000), accessories ($500 roof rack, $650 bumper, $250 roof lights, $900 Warn winch), and redesigned Solid Axle Swap ($3,000-$4,000, conservatively), amounting to about $28,000-$32,000 the owner/butcher could have bought this (in Recycler):

Description--$7,500, 1996 LAND ROVER DISCOVERY 1 107152 miles engine rebuilt at 100000. lift, rock sliders,newer tires, looks and runs great, green #a503935 $7,500

And (after severe mods) still had money left over for a WHOLE OTHER TRUCK!!!  Or at least a driving trip around the world, with all new top-of-the-line gear like lockers, roof tents, etc.!!!

Let's see, $7,500 for the aforementioned Used Landie hull with brand new engine, lift, and sliders, $500 for license/registration fees, $500 for mechanic's run-through, $750 for new BFG AT/KO's (even though he says they're new, they might be crappy), $800 ARB bumper, $900 Warn winch, $800 Hannibal roof rack, $250 PIAA off-road lights, and that brings us to (drum roll please).........

$12,000.00!!!

And the Land Rover Owner would still have stock solid front axle, as well as parts available on six continents, and the knowledge that though it will eventually break down (it is after all a Land Rover), certified mechanics can look in a well-worn manual and see the same parts in front of them.  Parts engineered en masse in plants all over the world.

If you really were a stickler for reliability, let's do the same thing with a Toyota Land Cruiser, utilizing one of the most well-respected and reliable petrol engines and platforms in history...this one, also used (from Recycler):

1991 TOYOTA LAND CRUISER 4WD, 6 cyl, snrf, air, CD, 3rd row seat, tow pkg, orig gry, nd top pnt, 109M, xlnt cond, pp#987541,$6950

$6,950 for a good-running Land Cruiser with solid front axle, and stock lockers.  Now, add $1,000 suspension lift, $500 to Rhino-Line the chipped paint on the roof, $300 sliders, $500 for license/registration fees, $1000 for mechanic's run-through (because the engine is a bit old, even though 100k miles for a Toyota is nothing), $750 for new BFG AT/KO's, $800 ARB bumper, $900 Warn winch, $800 ARB roof rack, $250 PIAA off-road lights, and $250 to detail/clean/shampoo/wax entire truck and that brings us to...

$14,000.00!!!

Still less than half of the ~$30,000 Xterra, with internationally available and recognized parts and technicians, a respectable drive-train, and solid front axle (stock) with lockers (stock!).  

For more than half a century, both these trucks have been the workhorses of Australia, Africa, and Europe, and they handle accordingly. They also carry a huge aftermarket following, the competition of which keeps the prices low.

Vehicle mods are meant to enhance the vehicle's reliability (skid plates, snorkle), to protect its passengers from being stranded (tires, disconnects, winch, recovery gear), as well as increase its efficiency and self-sufficiency (jerry cans, roof racks, batteries, etc.).

For my purposes, it must have available parts and techs from Canada to Panama, have close-to-perfect reputation for reliability, a transfer case with 4LO gears, and acceptable fuel range.  Meanwhile, it must also speed down freeways to get my ass to work on Monday, haul all the bags of sod and gravel my wife buys from Home Depot, and not require a lot of attention or maintenance.  My Xterra is perfectly suited for this.
There's a guy in Arizona with an expedition-built Toyota Tacoma, called Baja Taco.  He has a website, www.bajataco.com which shares a wealth of experience in getting from point A to point B, with interesting stops in between.  His philosophies about Solid Axle Swaps and other musings on rig platforms are denoted in a really interesting article entitled "The Tacoma as a Platform to Build On" (link: http://bajataco.com/tacoma-platform.html ), which brought me to a new appreciation of my Xterra and its articulation-challenged IFS.

Wake me up when someone swaps out the V6 for the 2.8 liter turbo diesel!

Why are you comparing Xterras with 15 year old Toyotas ? Nissan parts are available everywhere, along with spare parts for a D44 axle.

Maybe I'm missing your point.

I think I'm missing his point as well.

And I do have a solid axle toyota. And will have a solid axle Xterra as well.

Let's see, 80hp Toyota, 210hp Xterra......nope, still missing his point.

Since sarcasm doesn't translate well on the net...

I think he's saying people are wasting their money converting a X to a solid axle off road rig. There are cheaper options blah blah blah...

Me, I say each to his own. If I had the money I'd get the SAS from Calmini but that's me.

The axle appears to be a Waggy D44. In '79 or '80, waggys switched from a passenger to driver side pumpkin. Any axle after that makes a good candidate, but avoid the vacuum disconnect ones (they have a box looking thing mounted on the pumpkin itself). I got mine complete with steering, manual hubs, and brakes at a yard here in Phoenix for $235 (pulled it myself). Prices vary thoughout the country, but seem to be the highest in the southwest. Waggy axles are 60.5" wide WMS to WMS which is about 1.5" narrower than the rear end, however that's negligable.

This kit looks awesome. Too bad I already SAS'd my Fronty, but I do have an Xterra....HMMMMM.

I had a nice conversation with Steve @ Calmini last night. This kit is so damn cool, especially when you consider how it came to be. This design was conceived and fabricated in a very short time yet it is brilliantly executed. It's absolutely a production item, not a proof of concept. Steve already has the jigs and such built for this kit, they're just finalizing the details.

This design is readily adaptable to the (W)D21 Pathfinder/Hardbody platform too, about the only consideration of note is either the length of the radius arms or the location of the crossmember they anchor too. Steve likes this over the leaf-spring-setup kit they guinea-pigged on their Hardbody last year, even he wouldn't want to drive the HB as it is more than a couple or three hours on the road with the bump-steer issues it has. The Xterra drives so much better than the HB he's seriously considering re-doing the HB with this setup.

This kit is pretty much designed around 33" tires, but the length of the radius arms is adjustable so you can add a good 2+ inches of wheelbase if you like. Steve sees no problems with 35" tires on this axle.
Also, a D44 isn't your only choice, the radius arm brackets to the axle could easily be customized to just about any housing you like. Good news for krazy people like me that want to do something esoteric (Steve still dreams of the custom axle with an H233B third-member and D44 outers/knuckles, but knows it wouldn't have enough appeal to be worth the trouble)

I think Steve summed up this kit best when said "We've turned this Xterra into an XJ" (XJ is the Jeep Cherokee) which is a real complement, the XJ can turn from OK to bad-ass without much work at all.

Some notes and things to consider:
The kit uses the stock pitman arm. Nissan made it tough, the box is really way too far back on the frame rail and the arm is too close to it, but they found a way.
A complete Calmini IFS lift kit for the Xterra runs almost $1000.
The coilover shocks and springs for the SAS kit run about $800 alone.

Brent

Well do you think the first kits for toyotas started out cheap. If there arent a bunch of crazy people like us that want to try it "Just Because" then there would never be ANY aftermarket parts.

Now Back to the PICS.

I know the cost of the kit, but can't share it.
It is very fairly priced.

Ohhh, aren't you Mr. Fancy Pants!

I know everything

Coil over shocks are expensive, there is no way around that, but Calmini has priced the rest of the kit (the parts they are manufacturing) very fairly compared to SAS kits for other vehicles, like Toyotas.

Ian, I noticed that on the SAS they are doing for Doug they are using a Fox shock which I guess was a little surprising to me.

I remember hearing something about them going to Bilstein shocks on their IFS kit. If this coil over going to be designed for use with the Fox or can it be used with a properly valved shock of the same length and width?

Will they be selling the shocks with the coil over kit and providing options or is that something that someone would choose on their own based on for instance a parameter of a 2in. diameter 12inch length coil over shock?

There is a lot of difference price wise, for instance between a Sway-A-Way CO shock and a Billstein 7100 and a Fox or even if one wanted to go all the way up to a King........

How comprehensive will the kit be? I.E. including the Coil , the shocks, the arms, the heims, ect.....