Mr****s95SE's new car! Sorta
 

Hey guys it's been years since I frequented this site and I do miss it here and there. I came back to the Nissan family after a few years of driving a Camry and Sienna. I picked this gem up 2 weeks ago and have been quite happy with it besides the change in gas mileage. Future plans are a mild DD camping/expeditionary rig.

2004 Xterra 4x4

BFGoodrich All Terrain AT KO 265/75R16
Nismo Catback Exhaust
K&N Cone Filter
Pro Comp Shocks with a mild lift

More awesome stuff to come!

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Looks nice, post some videos of that exhaust.

We have one of those in the family. It's a tank lol. Everyone yields for me when I'm in the 'Terra lmao

Needs more stance :o

Welcome back.

Hehe thanks. Yeah I'm tempted to push these shoes out a little more; in due time. :)

But for now, all the preventative maintenance will be taking most of the funds.

Your Xterra appears to be in excellent condition. Looks great in that color. Overall, nice ride Rich!:)

Thanks James. It was a bit dirty with lots of dog hair and a distinct doggy smell. Some interior gashes on the trunk interior panels. I love this color too!

So last minute, I went to Joshua Tree NP this past Thanksgiving weekend with my girlfriend, left Friday night and stayed til Sunday afternoon. I took Berdoo Canyon in at 11:30pm -ish which was quite fun, a cautious entrance and drive through BLM. No worries, I had protection and plenty of it. An interesting experience for a first timer especially at night. Had trouble navigating around Berdoo in the park to find the main paved road. Ended up doing the loop twice and driving through a mud pit. Finally found the road after backtracking and heading back up. Couldn't find an open campsite after checking out Jumbo Rocks, Belle, and White Tank. So we slept uncomfortably in the X right outside the entrance to Jumbo Rocks at about 3am since Belle and White Tank were full except Jumbo Rocks. Once the sun rose, we headed into Jumbo and drove around again to find open campsites. And low and behold we find #58/#57. We traded spots with the former campers at 57 and setup then crashed.

The following morning/afternoon, we cooked, ate then decided to drive Berdoo again to see what we missed. The loop had a little muddy section with water still in it that we went through the previous night. So we went through it again this time during the day. Quite fun and getting the Xterra muddy. Drove around and checked out some "jumbo rocks" and climbed a few. Headed back to relax then on Sunday we packed up and drove the main road to Cottonwood Visitor Center. We were going to check out the Old Dale Mines but decided against it considering I only had less than half a tank left and no spare gas cans. We then checked out the visitor center then headed onto Pinkham Canyon back to the 10. Took us about 3 hours to get to the entrance. The little roadblock on the riverbed near the exit was interesting. Thought we had to turn around but found a way around and found the entrance to Pinkham and headed home. Traffic was great lol but we had shabu shabu in Rowland Heights after a little detour.

And finally the pics:

Daytime after finding our campsite:
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Breakfast as always whenever we headout.
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After going through the mudpit...
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A beautiful sunset:
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On the way out and a final pic of the site:
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Pinkham Canyon Trail:
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At the otherside of the trailhead:
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Nice find! Awesome xterra. OK, so I've been out of the loop here as well. I loved your 4th gen, what happened to it?

Decided to part it out and then it stopped running. the Crankshaft Position Sensor went out along with a few O2 sensors, needed a new passengerside axle (rebuild the Raxle), leaking flex section and some other annoying things. I ended up not wanting to deal with it so I let the car go, unfortunately along with the coilovers, exhaust and headers, ES bushings and some other things I left on the Maxima before I donated it to get a tax deduction. Then moved onto a 2007 Camry, then switched with my mom's 99 Sienna and drove that for awhile. With all the camping and exploring I was doing, I wanted something more and ended up with this Xterra.

Wow it seems we all venture from our maximas. I had an 01 grand prix, then a 95 grand am. Bought my wife a van then now I have an 02 maxima which I'm not sure how to mod it considering it's sunlit sand, lol . I almost bought an xterra instead of the can but some one had beat me to it.

That is a nice color. I don't see many Xterra's round these parts.

Trip looked like a lot of fun!

But we do have GTR's locally so it evens out

It definitely was a lot of fun. More trips are in the works!
We actually have a lot of Tesla's and GTR's in my area. I see at least 2-3 a day when driving my 10mi to work.

Yep, it's a bit funny how that works. How'd you end up with that color? Deal too good to pass up? Personally, I'd stay away from modding it to an extent. Too much and there's too many more issues that may crop up. We've all been there unfortunately... Bummer on that Xterra vs Van. I know what it's like driving a minivan as I drove that thing for a long time.
Only thing I dislike about the Xterra is the gas mileage. Long trips have to be meticulously planned out (don't get me wrong, I actually enjoy doing that) but having that extra week and a half to fill up and getting 320mi+ per tank was a nice luxury. Now it's avg 250mi per tank (mostly city) on some slightly taller, fatter rubber. Additional jerry cans are in the works and more junk to throw on it to make it more reliable in the middle of nowhere. :laugh:

If only the holidays weren't this nutty on my wallet...

Didn't know a Performance employee made so much money

LOL I quit quite some time ago... it's probably been about 4-5 years since. I'm working in Torrance at a movie/advertisement prop company now for about a year doing a lot of CAD and model making. A pretty awesome job as long as the clients keep coming. I'm finally putting my degree to good use!

You pansy, I wanna see heavy amounts of mud as high as the windows. :p

Yeah, a guys grandmother owned it before and he had it for a little bit. Overall paid 5k for
It with 120k miles. Id been looking for a month and it was the cleanest most well taken care of out of all of the ones I had seen. Mods are in play not too many. Considering my last car was a gas sucking 95 Pontiac grand am that leaked when it rained, I've been enjoying it in stock form so far.

A stock car is wonderful... smooth, quiet, and no headaches hahah. Nice pickup on the grandma owned vehicle.

Unfortunately the mud pit was quite small and not too deep, but not deep enough to splatter heavy amounts of mud up on the windows. :( Next time I'll find a place to go after it rains and just spin the tires for you James LOL

The street in front of my house was quite muddy after I washed out the underbody... I've never spent so much time hosing down a car before. It was like the Colorado River in the gutter.

Got some new lights and painted the wheels.

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Looks good Rich. Didn't take long for the mod bug to bite...:D

hahah no it didn't... I've got too many damn hobbies and they're all money pits. Time to consolidate.. some time down the road. :grinno:

Replaced the ProComps with Bilstein 4600's. World of difference in ride quality as the shocks were soft and/or blown but I can't pinpoint a squeak in the driverside after a good lubing. Might be time to get the UCA and LCA's rebuilt or upgraded soon.

I've got a rear tire dual swing out carrier with 2 jerry can holders in the works. Roof rack is next for an extra 2 jerry cans and extra storage space.

Bilstein vs ProComp
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Is there a lot of aftermarket parts for the xterra?

Not surprisingly so. Considering the number of people who actually off-road their X's, it has brought the aftermarket parts companies to really cash in. It's so large, even Nissan keeps an eye on ever-growing national meets like GoneMOAB, National Xterra Meet, etc. There's a lot of crap that will empty your pockets and bank account... A lot of it is fab work (ie bumpers, skids, tire carriers, light cages, roof racks) made to order, so the wait time gets extended if the shops get backed up.

That sucks. Let me tell you about my civic and it's 10+ options for headers lol. Ride looks pretty bad ***. Must fit a scattante and a access mountain bike quiet easily.

hahah tell me about it... options suck! You still riding?

I sold my Access Frame DJ-er awhile back. I miss that bike. I ended up picking up a Fuji Altamira 3.0 LE a few months ago with the intention of commuting since it's only 10mi one way. I think I've only ridden it about 3-4 times so far, and once actually commuting hahah. I'm so tempted on getting a single fork tray up top...

Stupid camera phone focused on the background lol.
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need to cop some bronze 6 lug nismo te.

Sexy lights :drool:

needs moar high ;)

The altimira looks good! I haven't been riding as much. Got hurt at work so I am trying to recover right now. Is your commute on SART? Heard thugs are getting braver and braver and robbing more people out there. I still ride my two old beast:
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Attachment 25350I talked to my old boss at performance and management has changed. tripped me out when I heard Sturgeon was demoted. I wonder if he is still with the company.

I would love to find some Nismo 6-lug wheels, but hard to find now that they are discontinued. I do search still once in awhile but funds are going to a higher priority on the truck. :D

:D More might be on the way soon... for the sides and rear.

This is as high as I'm going heheh. Might crank the torsion bars a bit and get some stiffer leaf packs in the rear but that's it! Driveability and reliability are key for long trips and maintenance. Mileage suffers with moar high... :grinno:

I try to avoid any trails since I heard of the jackings along the San Gabriel River Trail when I worked at the Santa Monica shop. I'd be riding along the coastal route and then cut inland to work. Simple and safe commute, but laziness has gotten the best of me and I haven't ridden for quite some time now.
Sturgeon was demoted?! WOW. He used to kick it at our shop since he was friends with my store manager. I pop in my old shop once in awhile and only 2 people have stayed since I left. One is the new store manager and the other kept his old position.

Last month, I drove to Boulder, CO to visit a friend of mine and camp along the way in Utah, and what do you know... there happened to be a rear dual swingout tire carrier with 2 jerry can holders along the way in Blackhawk, CO. I must have it. 2,000mi later, I had a wonderful roadtrip with the gf and a great rear bumper on the truck.

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Picked up four (4) 5gal/20L NATO jerry cans. That's 20 gallons of extra fuel for whenever I need it at one time! Two on the back, and two on the roof.

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Replaced the FSB center bushings and FSB endlinks with polyurethane bushings.

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I also picked up a 3-leaf add-a-leaf (AAL) pack for the rear suspension. The added ~200 pounds in the rear needs some support. That will be installed once the longer U-bolts get ordered. It's lost about 1-1.5" or height/travel.

A few more mods/maintenance to this Xterra, and I'll be done! (I hope the mod bug doesn't bite harder than it already has.)

I hope it does! haha nice mods. keep 'em coming. :cool:

Well, more lights are going to be installed tomorrow. After my first night run, I noticed I needed more lateral lighting to see the voids around tight turns. Also, being pitch black, I needed some setup lights around the truck to setup camp or do whatever I need to do.

Ordered six (6) BlitzPro 6" flood lights. There are six 1watt LEDs per light producing 800 lumens. With six lights, that's a total of 4800 lumens surrounding my truck. I might need a yellow top battery later on to manage the deep cycles and high usage. Luckily the LED package only uses about 36W total so I don't have to worry too much.

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I'm REALLY hoping the suspension bug doesn't bite me... Titan front end swap sounds super enticing. 6" wider wheel base, a lot longer travel, stronger a-arms, more shock availability, and stronger axles. :D :D

Is it noisy with the lights bar?

There's a good amount of windnoise right above my head when driving on the freeway, but nothing that distracting. Turn up the music and I'm happy.