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Discussion starter · #121 · (Edited)
Too dark under the tonneau cover, so time to do something about it ...........
Same LED strips from the side-steps illumination project, just purchased the same kit over again. The originals are holding up very well through rain, mud and dirt / dust.

 
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Discussion starter · #122 ·
Okay, so the wait is over ( LOL for all three of you who were out there actually waiting ). I installed the comfort ride extended shackles. What an adventure. Actually, the install overall went pretty smooth, bolts are the same diameter as the old ones, but the nut heads go from a 17mm socket to a 21mm, monsters they are; the big trouble I had was getting the rear of the leaf to drop far enough to get the extended shackle end into place in the leaf eye. Felt like they were 3' apart. I ended up putting my 1.5 ton aluminium floor jack between the frame and the leaf and pumping until the leaf moved down far enough to very gingerly insert the shackle and cinch the nuts in place enough to be sure that everything was seated & safed. BTW OEM torque is 77FT/LBs for shackle bolts. These things are beefy enough they could probably be tightened to double that, but I didn't.
Now, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES do I approve, guarantee or warrant merchantability or fitness; that this is or was a safe thing to do, I was not getting good feelz the whole time doing it but the jack saddle was wedged safely in its saddle teeth both sides of the frame rail, so from where I was standing, I couldn't see any way it could bounce out, but when you have spring steel under hundreds of pounds of extension force, anything can let go in the blink of an eye. I did a video for the YouTube channel, it'll be up on Thursday, 8July.
Overall lift looks like it came out about 2", when I get the front lift in on the 27th, I'll see how she sits and get final measurements of ride height. I'm hoping for still a small amount of forward rake, may have to do a 1/2" lift block or somesuch if the nose ends up higher, as I don't and never have liked the nose-high attitude look for a 4x4.
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Discussion starter · #123 ·
Time to give the "Pillar" some altitude. Comfort-ride 2" lift shackles installation, and Bilstein 6112 coil-overs and AllDogsOffroad upper control arms to follow.

 
Discussion starter · #124 ·
After installing lift shackles, I needed to deal with the fact that the airbag mounts were now too short, so I fabbed up some 2" lift spacers to get the bags back to their correct ride height and not be hyperextended.

 
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Discussion starter · #125 ·
So the lift time finally arrived, after having the Bils sitting in boxes for over 6 months, the parts, time and $$$$$ all finally came together.
Bilstein 6112s at stock height, generic tophats with a 1.4" measured thickness ( so around 2.6 to 2.7 at the wheel hub ), AllDogsOffroad upper control arms and Moog inner tierods. I think it came out at just under 3" lift, have to wait for everything to settle in to get some numbers. So far, rides pretty nice, a little sharper over small jolts but I think handles bigger upsets smoother, which is about what I expected. Definitely looks good.
Installed by MidAtlantic 4x4 & Speed, Glen Burnie MD.

Rear height can be adjusted to suit, via Firestone RideRites. I have about 55PSI in them right now, to get the rear higher than the front, will probably do an add-a-leaf overload in the Autumn or next Spring, to level everything out. With snubber tanks connected to the airbags, even at 50+ PSI it rides quite well, sharp like a truck does, but not majorly bouncy or pogo-type effects.
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Discussion starter · #127 ·
Nice to see the Bilsteins working out for you ride wise!
Thx Bud, I hope yours come together smoothly as well. I know you had quite a bit more involved as you were making custom tophats and setting your spring lengths, I went the easy way, they were preengineed and preassembled. The ride heights perfect, took it for a 2 hr jaunt last nite and the height and visibility are nice, I'm easily as tall as the 1500s & F150s out there now. Now the BroDozers that need a ladder to climb in and can change their oil standing up LOL, those are a whole nother genre.
 
Discussion starter · #128 ·
I monologue on ripping CDs and DVD audio, JRiver Media Player 28; FLAC vs MP3, $50,000 dollar turntables and Capitol Audiofest, Rockville MD.

 
Discussion starter · #129 ·
Got around to culling the around 11 hours of raw footage we shot in Maine, running the lumber hauling trail "the Golden Road" from Millinocket ME to the Canadian Border with a side trip on the imaginatively named "Loop Road". The border crossing was far less impressive than I'd expected, considering it's actually "defending" our Northern Border, it didn't even have a gate, just a small guardhouse on the US side and camera's mounted on utility poles on the Canadian side. We saw a crane ( the bird, not the machine ), two deer that are far larger than their southern state's cousins ( guesstimate around 200+# each, the record being a 400# Buck and standard range 200 to 300 ), and a Fisher Cat, but still no daggone Moose. They're hiding from me. And oh yeah, 120k# logging trucks. Seven to Eight axle's each.

 
Discussion starter · #131 ·
We’re you the one going to run liqui moly mos2, have you tried it and has it helped with smoothing startup?
I did run the LiquiMoly, honestly couldn't say I could see any difference in start-up, fuel economy or operational noise. The VQ is not the smoothest or quietest engine on the road, and certainly won't win any fuel economy contests, but it's a good runner, strong and reliable. Given that, I didn't do Moly again, just the Castrol Edge Titanium. For some engines maybe it does do something amazing, or even noticeable. For me, couldn't say right now, one way or the other. YMMV.
 
Discussion starter · #132 ·
Bed lighting / under tonneau cover project came out well, but there were two strip ends in the far back corner hanging down, as the OE length of the strips provided was too long. Finally got around to doing something about that. Here they are, shortened to proper length.

 
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Discussion starter · #133 · (Edited)
So finally got around to the dreaded heater core transfer hose metal / plastic hybrid bastardization replacement, weather wasn't too terrible terrible although the famous ( or infamous ) MD humidity hasn't left yet, went after 'em both as it's pretty much impossible to do the connection farthest from the engine w/o pulling the crazy T junction next to it. They weren't leaking ( yet ) but Murphy hates me with such a passion that guaranteed that plastic bastardization would have sprung an O-Ring on a trail somewhere in Maine, just before dusk. Whatever engineer thought this was a great idea, I'd love to meet him in a dark alley. With a ski mask and a two by four.

Anyway, three specialty-type spring clamp pliers, a vicegrips and a waterpump pliers later, all the OE spring clamps were off and I could reassemble everything in metal. There are two 10mm nuts attached to studs spot-welded to the firewall, that hold the crossover in place. The second photo is the multi-extension and u-joint assy I had to create to get a straight shot at the nuts behind the cylinder heads. The passenger side was even worse, I had to add another wobble to get the angle, I was not happy in the least. After six attempts to get the crossover rethreaded back behind the engine ( it'll only go in from the passenger's side to driver's side ) and kept hitting something, a harness draped around another harness, I think, finally got it situated and could bolt it loosely in place then make the rubber hose connections.
The pull-tab that Dorman provided on the T end turned out be useless as it hit the AC crossover pipe located directly above, so I had to remove the pull tab and snap on one of my ratcheting pliers from the Amazon kit I bought, then thread that whole monstrosity into place, park the clamp and carefully remove the pliers. I would have done an aircraft clamp there too, like I did for the first hose ( you can see in the third photo ) but I couldn't figure out how to get in to tighten it, so I left the spring clamp in place. Overall time including refilling coolant and test-driving to check for leaks, just over 3hrs. What a treat. I have video as well so the Youtube Frontier Geek channel will have this video up sometime in October.
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Discussion starter · #134 ·
As promised, heater core fittings replacement.
 
Discussion starter · #135 · (Edited)
Nissan provides a transmission temperature guage in certain model years of the Titan, but none in the Frontier, an inexcusable oversite for anyone who hauls, off-roads or tows. Here's how to add one and be sure you're not roasting your $7k transmission.

 
Discussion starter · #136 ·
Basically the video version of Posts# 19 and 20 of the build section. The engine coolant guage ( pretty much worthless ) and transmission temperature guage ( not even supplied ), are glaring oversights for an OE that claims to be making affordable trucks for the common working man, and caters to the fleet, hauling, towing & off-roading sectors of the mid-size market. If you don't know what your engine and transmission are doing, you're basically riding on a wing & a prayer.

 
Discussion starter · #137 · (Edited)
Merry Christmas and Joy to All !!!
Ran the Peters Mill Run Trail ( Edinburg VA ) yesterday ( 24 December 2021 ), we drove the trails marked 493 and 433, if I've got my bearings right. 493 was a walk in the park, a lane and a half wide and smoothly graded gravel, you could take anything from a Subaru Outback to a RAV4 through there, no worries at all. Hahahahaha, now 433 a way different story. Both trailheads start at the same X intersection at the Edinburg Gap Parking Lot. 433 was a mixed mess of two "moonscapes" of solid fractured rock, rock fields, up and down humps, narrow root-tangled off cambre bermed-up turns and large scattered rocks. Some of the folk from the Far SouthWest might laugh this trail off as being a good warm-up challenge, but I have a 2" lift and full underchassis armour and felt I needed it all. All sorts of items were clanging off the armour the whole time and at one point the steel radiator plate and a large rock got real huggy-kissy and made a very loud clang. I took a look underneath at the other end of the trailhead and the paint has a nice gouge and some small bits of steel missing. This is why real armour is super-important.

Also keep in mind this is from the Southern end heading North, and is almost exclusively a climbing trail in this direction, my transmission hit 230F at several points dragging nearly 5100# of cargo, Nissan steel, fuel and passengers up some pretty ugly inclines. If you're in the DelMarVa area and fancy a good two plus hour trail challenge, this is a good one. Its 6.3 miles long and at some point we were hitting an indicated 1MPH. It's 5 bucks to challenge your truck and skills. Two fellas in a nice 1000cc side-by side broke reverse and smashed an aluminium wheel and tire on the same trail, so it's got some teeth, for certain.

< Paraphrasing C3PO, Episode 4 A New Hope > "from out here, the rocks don't look so bad." LOL. Maybe it was just me, but from the driver's seat, they looked much meaner ( and taller LOL ).
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Discussion starter · #138 · (Edited)
Christmas Eve the Director and I headed to Fort Valley VA, to hit the Tasker's Run and Peter's Gap OHV trails. The first trail was a cakewalk, any decent auto could handle that one, but Peter's Run, now, that was where things got interesting. The trail was one vehicle wide, and very rough, a few segments of "moonscape" with pure trail cover of fragmented rocks the size of dinner plates, and a lot of off-camber turns and whoop-dies that would high-centre a vehicle with lower ground clearance. I even ended up hitting the radiator skid plate on a nice sized rock, near the end of the trail. I was very thankful for a 2" suspension lift and full armour plate, the bash plates and rear differential steel protection plate made the trail a bit less stressful. I'll be honest and state my sphincter pucker factor is probably less than some, who would have looked that trail over and given it a full send, but we encountered a side-by-side at the end of the same trail that had a flat tire, destroyed alloy wheel and had lost reverse gear in it's transmission, so this was a fairly serious run. It took us nearly 3 hrs to complete a 7.9 mile section. If you're in the DelMarVa area, this is worth the ride, we are between Baltimore and DC and took us just over 2hrs to arrive in Fort Valley.

 
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Discussion starter · #139 ·
Took a little while to get here ( nearly 4 weeks ) but the 3D printer I got for Christmas produced its first usable part, not cause of it's failings, but cause of my learning curve. They do have some caveats and the bed must be leveled pretty precisely, as well, or you get some mighty fine messes. I may post some pics of the Little Shop of 3D Horrors as well, the deformed monsters that preceded this project. So its the answer to the question that few ( or nobody ) asked, a plastic bracket to hold my K&N filter for the front differential vent, that from the factory is wide open and can allow bugs or dust & water, to enter w/o any impediments. The filter's been on for several yrs now, but I hated how it looked, just wire-tied to the brake hard line coming out the master cylinder. Sloppy. Much cleaner now, I like it.
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Discussion starter · #140 ·
Not exactly truck related directly, but will be making truck parts using it. My Creality Ender Pro3 3D printer rig, running PLA plastic and PETG. PLA is made from corn starch so it's renewable and environmentally friendly. PETG is more of a conventional plastic and is petro-based as far as I'm aware of.
 
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