Shop Talk with AK- Nissan Xterra

Speaker 1 (00:12):

So this Nissan Xterra… Most people don’t really think you can build a Nissan Xterra, but this one is going to see more airtime than a 747. And the owner of this Xterra wanted something that he could send it in. Actually send it a lot. Every chance that he gets, he’s trying to jump something. So we needed to build him a vehicle that would stand up to the abuse that he is going to throw at it.

Speaker 1 (00:36):

So we started with that Dirt King long arm kit for a Nissan Frontier. Then we had custom made shafts and we built all of this to mount the long arm suspension in there. So the front of this Nissan Xterra has got, I think, 18 inches of wheel travel now, and we have it limited back to 16 inches of wheel travel. And we’ve got a 35 inch tire on here with method feed lock, and we did a different offset on the front than we did on the rear.

Speaker 1 (01:05):

There’s no wheel spacers or anything that are on this, but this thing sits pretty wide. So we’re… In order to cover that up, we do have some custom fiberglass that’s being made for it. And that way the wheel wells will come out wider and cover up the tires so it doesn’t sling as much mud on here.

Speaker 1 (01:22):

And this Xterra is pretty unique. So it’s made to sit low. It’s made to drive like a sports car. And it’s made to be a lot of fun to drive off road. So if we go back to our build philosophy of build a sports car, build a side by side plus whatever your favorite vehicle is and put it all into one, that’s what we built here.

Speaker 1 (01:45):

So you’ve got custom shafts in here. King 2.5 pullovers with internal bump stops. So we did an internal bump stop inside of the shock. And then we also did an external hydraulic bump stop out here and then we’ve limited it back to 16 inches of travel.

Speaker 1 (02:04):

The other thing that we did is a Titan swap on the motor. So we put a Nissan Titan V8 inside of here. A Nissan Titan transmission inside of here. And follow me underneath here to the exhaust.

Speaker 1 (02:30):

So when we did the exhaust for this, we wanted it to be equal length on the exhaust for where it comes together to the Y. So when the exhaust comes down again, it’s all 409 stainless and it’s all V band plant through together underneath here. And if you were to measure these exhaust pipes, the reason it’s got this bend in it right here, is to make them both exactly the same length. That way, whenever it flows, this exhaust system produces a tremendous amount of power or doesn’t restrict the power that would happen if we were to have kinked tube inside of there. So Tommy built all this from scratch and it sounds amazing. It flows amazing and really adds to power of this vehicle.

Speaker 1 (03:16):

Right now, we’re putting a Deaver spring pack on the back. Let’s go out back and I’ll show you what’s going on.

Speaker 1 (03:22):

All right. So we didn’t start this initial build. This had revolver shackles on it, which I don’t really care for, but it… People do it with these frames because it helps to add to articulation. The downside to it is that they unload anytime you go to jump it. So we got rid of the standard lift kit, leaf springs that were on there. And if you notice the leaf count on this Deaver spring pack is a lot more than what was over there. By having thinner leaf springs and a lot more of them, we’re going to get a lot more travel out of this. And the leaf springs won’t bend every time he takes it out and tries to send it.

Speaker 1 (04:05):

We’re getting rid of this. We’re getting rid of the shackle, the revolver shackle. We are adding a slider box back here. So instead of there being a shackle, there’ll actually be a slider that this leaf spring will sit inside. And it’s going to help to change the geometry. It’s going to make it hook up even more. And now whenever he jumps this thing, we don’t have to worry about these shackles unloading and loading.

Speaker 1 (04:30):

It also won’t restrict the movement like a normal leaf spring shackle will. He’s got a Offroadgorilla right here. Offroadgorilla dip cover. Hi Angel. How you doing? Miss you, man?

Speaker 1 (04:46):

So if you have a Nissan and you need a dip cover contact Offroadgorilla and let Angel hook it up for you.

Speaker 1 (04:54):

And what we’ve done to the shocks over here is… Come around here to this side. So we frenched the shock towers that we made into the frame and reinforced everything with a cross member, that way we can have a long travel King 2.5 shock back here with a 2.5 hydraulic pump stop. And Garth has severely beat on this thing for a long time.

Speaker 1 (05:22):

And now he wants to go faster. So we’re getting rid of these, whatever leaf springs they were, we’re putting real leaf springs on there that will allow this thing to travel.