If you started again, what would you do differently?

[Ehlectric]

So looks like this is going to be my first season off-roading. Since the paychecks are rolling in (slowly) and summer is on its way. If you had to start over, what would you have done differently?

I'm currently driving a 02 Xterra S/C. It's stock, and I'd like to change that. Once April comes around I'll be doing a few cheap mods to get it going. It is my daily driver so nothing to crazy.

What would you mod first? Thanks for the input.

[Adam]

A good set of tires and some skid plates. I started with lift, and it took me forever to get good tires, so I ended up driving around a high truck with dinky little tires that still got stuck everywhere.

[buttsy]

Dare I say the standard? Remove mud flaps, and side steps if you haven't already? Performance wise I had good luck with the resonator removal and a K&N drop in, basically an hours work at the cost of the K&N. Lift wise a PML is cheap and effective.

[Bow_Tied]

When I asked this sort of question I was suggested to avoid many mods first season out. There are stock friendly trails you can get to know your truck on first. If you are bent on modding now, sliders is the one thing I wished I had got earlier and still don't have lol.

[Nd4SpdSe]

Nope, I just wish I could of done it faster, but it does come down to your trucks use, your wheeling experience, and how daring you get with your truck. Right now I'm starting to get to the point where I *need* skids and a snorkle, but start off stock, get a feel for her, and mod as you go.

I'm all over the place with mods, with a rough priority list, but it all depends on just how things go with time, money and a place to work on her (and weather pending I'm working outside in the parking lot). Also if stuff needs to be repair, things get bumped around, typically why just replace with stock when you can upgrade I'm also jumping a bit into the performance aspect too, trying to bump up performance and economy, and trying to eliminate flaws with that system. Working on Megasquirting the X and hopefully getting made a Laminova intercooler done this year in Qc while I have people that can help me out with thats, so it's hard to prioritize what mods to do when you're limited in some ways with when you can do stuff. Sometimes you need to take advantage of opertunities while they are there.

My first real mod was a PML, BL and tires. Although the BL isn't really necessary with 32's, the PML and tires made a huge difference. I just *finally* did a real suspension lift this past week after running a PML for almost 4 years and she's done very well it that aspect with just that.

Winch is handy, but typically used to help others rather than myself, heh. Front and rear recovery points are essential, cause you *willl* get stuck.

Like I did a exhaust about 2 years ago because my old one was cracked and leaking fumes into the cabin and went 2.5" in anticipation for other mods. This past year, I did headers cause my manifolds were badly cracked (failed QC inspection), so rather than replacing with OEM (after welding the OEMs to pass the inspection) ...

I wanted to replace my rear bumper that was dented and rusting when I bought the truck almost 5 years ago, and STILL haven't done that yet. Lost my job several months after I bought the truck, and those nice steel off-road bumpers aren't cheap, and althought I could afford a BBBBw/BBO, Bender doesn't build bumpers anymore Oh well, thus is how it goes...

Ideally, take it one step at a time. Deal with maintanance and repairs first, upgrade as you go. Get a feel for the truck on the trail, and build her according to your experiences and how you want your truck to perform in that area and what you like you drive your truck on. Mud is different than rock, that its different in trails.

[FrontyFlyer]

Hardbody - SAS dana 60's - 35"s - Small block 350 - chev 5 speed manual + Cheap daily driver. All could have been done for what I paid for my used 2nd gen

[BigRed44]

Me i wouldn't do it differently i did skids and sliders first and then did the lift afterwards with tires.you would be surprised how capable your truck is if your not worried about breaking stuff under it while you're out wheeling.

[Ehlectric]

I'd really like to do a PML. I'm just worried that I won't get the lift I'd like. Also, I'd like some help with that haha, at least with the torsion bars. I will *hopefully* be getting new tires this summer as well. I had to get winters, so that's going to cut into those. I'd really like to get wheel spacers, I like the look of the wheels sticking out of the fenders. Could I get that with some 31" tires? Because I think thats the biggest you can fit on stock.

All the maintenance, well almost all of it, has already been done.

[Bow_Tied]

Me i wouldn't do it differently i did skids and sliders first and then did the lift afterwards with tires.you would be surprised how capable your truck is if your not worried about breaking stuff under it while you're out wheeling.

This. Although it can make one a tad cavalier if not careful...

[Anesh]

I would remove mudflaps and steps, also install a CB radio. Then I would get armored with skid plates and sliders. Then i would do a suspension lift either PML or full 3", then i would get some agresive tires. Theres also some porformance mods you could do like removing the intake resonators, add a K&N air filter, xtend the air intake inside the fenderwell, extend the differential breather.

You can fit 32" tires on 00-04 stock X with stock rims. I had 31" Duratracs on my 01 X (RIP) on 3.75 backspaced rims, they would stick out pass the fenderwell about ~1.5", but I had to do alot of platic trimming on the bumper and at the back of the fender well where the mudflaps are atached. They still rubbed a bit on the back of the fender well when fully locked.

Now that I have a new X 03 SC SE stock, Im starting all over again... Slowly but surely...

[dududuckling]

I agree with Ron that you should wheel it when stock to get a hang of it.

With regards to the mods, I'm going on a different direction. Provided money isn't an issue, I'd go with the lift, the biggest you can go. Same thing with the tires. Each time you sell a lift component or two in order to buy new ones, in order to fit taller lift or bigger tires, you lose $$$. So why not get the tallest lift and biggest tire from the start? Do it once, and do it right. And I'd go with the lift and tires before armor, simply because you can enjoy it on-road and off-road.

[Miner]

1 - Buy / build a dedicated trail rig to bash and role as I see fit.
2 - Improve my trucks capabilities without sacrificing driveabilty, performance, efficiently, paint or resale value.

For all mods if you have the money...

Do it once, and do it right.

...if not you need to evaluate current need vs saving for the future.

[deeker]

I think the original poster is almost asking what mods to do first / make the biggest improvements off-road for the money spent.
If that's what I think the question is, my suggestion would first be tires, skids and sliders, a recovery strap and a lift. After that, as your experience builds, you can look at bumpers, winch, crazy lights, lockers and all the other fun stuff.

[Ehlectric]

I think the original poster is almost asking what mods to do first / make the biggest improvements off-road for the money spent.
If that's what I think the question is, my suggestion would first be tires, skids and sliders, a recovery strap and a lift. After that, as your experience builds, you can look at bumpers, winch, crazy lights, lockers and all the other fun stuff.

You got it. I know I gotta do the rear diff extension, idler arm brace, and I'll do the resonator deletes as well. All the mudflaps and siderails have been removed as well. Which would be the best skid plate to get first?

[Jayman]

I'm not sure I would do anything differently, to be honest. I have found this to be a very difficult question to answer, mostly because a lot of the mods that I did at the very beginning were predicated on budget. I think that is probably the biggest overall factor that affects where you start.

For me it started with tires, and then a PML. After that I got a set of sliders, did a 3” lift, got a good deal on a winch bumper, and I upgraded my steering. Then I got skids, did a BL and put on 33’s at the same time. Moving up to 33’s meant that I had to put my spare on the roof, and I disliked having the 33” up there, so I then got a rear bumper/tire carrier. The last mod I did was the snorkel. There were other little mods in there, but those are the main ones, and most of my mods occurred when a stock part failed. Why replace stock with stock? Upgrade baby!

Looking back, I probably should have done the skids and tires first, but getting skids is a big chunk of money right off the bat, for something that you aren’t entirely sure that you’ll enjoy. The skids certainly give you a bit more confidence in that you are more protected underneath. You worry a little bit less, and you enjoy a lot more when you aren’t constantly thinking you are going to break something when you are out wheeling.

Bottom line is that you have to start somewhere, and you have to learn what you like/dislike about that particular vehicle. The only way to do that is to wheel it. Based on that, tires and skids are probably the best place to start. As Bender and several others like to say “If you can’t ride over it, you slide over it”.

Knowing what I know NOW, and knowing what I have spent on my truck, If I had to restart everything with around the same overall budget (all at once) and the same truck, I would probably do a solid axle swap right off the bat. And I say that because I have wheeled my truck enough to know that the Xterra IFS and steering combinations are not the greatest for off-roading. Bigger tires and exaggerated suspension angles make for suspension and steering component failures far sooner and more often then I enjoy fixing, and that adds to the cost things.

The catch to that is that there was no way for me to know that this is where I would end up. In this case, hind sight being what it is, if I was starting a new project with the same total amount I would do the SAS. Yes, a SAS presents a whole different set of issues, but then that’s part of the challenge of the whole thing - Learning something new, and how to fix something when it breaks.

[Ehlectric]

Thanks for all the input guys. I really do appreciate it. Unfortunately, money is always an issue. So an ASA probably wont happen until I get another truck (5 years +) and just use this solely for off-road.

Where's the best place to get skids and are used okay? Anyone care to help me do a PML haha

[Jayman]

Thanks for all the input guys. I really do appreciate it. Unfortunately, money is always an issue. So an ASA probably wont happen until I get another truck (5 years +) and just use this solely for off-road.

Where's the best place to get skids and are used okay? Anyone care to help me do a PML haha

Skids... Well, they don't come cheap, and are not readily available in most places. Shrockworks is one place to get them. There were some others, however I'm not sure whether those companies are still in business or not. Used (if you can find them) are not a bad option at all.

Where abouts in Ottawa are you? You still in Res at the 'Gonq? Just remembered that you are local to me (I'm in Orleans). I tend not to do any work in the driveway in the winter time, as I just hate doing stuff like that when it's miserable outside in the wintertime, but I'm sure we can figure something out for a PML. They are not hard to do.

Have you decided what route you are going to take for that? You basically have 2 options:

1) Keep the stock leaf pack and go with longer shackles in the rear

2) Keep the stock shackles, and go with an add-a-leaf kit that increases your rear ride height by adding a leaf (or 3, depending on what route you go) to give you some additional lift.

There is of course, the option of going with a combination of the two. All depends on what you want to do.

[Ehlectric]

Yeah, I'm there till April 1st, then I'm moving into a house down Woodroffe. I've decided on shackles, and probably the adjustable ones when or if I do the 3" lift. I do realize that skids are expensive but, nothing I ever do is cheap.

[Bow_Tied]

I would suggest waiting a year on skids. Yes, they reduce worry, but that worry makes you a better driver allowing the skids to be a last line of defence rather than the first. It may however depend on how much you trust your own skill and patience. JMO

[Pezzy]

I would have bought my skid plates sooner... it would have saved me $1500 (or more? It was a long time ago, and the memory of it is fuzzy... and for good reasons) for a new subframe. They do protect some rather expensive bits and pieces under your truck.