So far, only one hard a$$ that would not own an Xterra. Pretty good for an off-roading board.
Got my X in May, 2002. Had never been off roading before, and didn't plan to when I got it. I just wanted a 4wd for use in the winter and on snow. I had to decide an buy in a hurry because I had just totalled my Saab and only two weeks of insurance company rental. I had planned to get another car, but the car rental place only a Suzuki Grand Vitara available, so I took that as a rental. Not bad, and I figured I would buy a 4wd truck instead of a car. A lot of quick internet research led me to conclude that X was a real truck (ladder frame), was well built, was reasonably priced, and did not have a lot of junk I did not want (e.g., who wants leather seats in a real truck?). So I checked out a couple of dealers. The first had the supercharged with an automatic. Not bad, but he was not willing to budge on the price (Costco referral). I went to a more local dealer, and he had two supercharged manuals in stock. Test drove it, and it had plenty of omph for a six. Decision made --- almost. One truck was fully equipped, the other with just the basic SE package. My wife insisted that I get the fully equipped one, mainly because it had the big grill guard on front and she thought it protect the truck in the event of another accident (the Saab got totaled when I rear ended another car). So I bought it, not realizing (a) that grill guards increase the amount of damage in accidents, (b) I would end up taking the truck off road and replacing half the loaded items.
Right after I bought it (literally a day or two), I came across the New Jersey Area Xterra (NJAX) website. It turned out that one of the three founders actually lived in my town. After a few postings and PMs, he convinved me to take the X off road. So, with the X only two weeks old, I followed him out to Paragon for a club run. I was expecting mostly fire roads, not the tight and rocky stuff of Paragon. I was bone stock, with the disadvantage of having a grill guard which drastically cuts down on the angle of approach. They guided me through the tough stuff, and even had me do a blue hill climb bu the old spring. At one point, I had to negotiate the truck through a drop between two huge rocks (about 3 feet high) which were about two inches too close for the X to pass between. One guy spotted me through it, moving the X and inch or so at a time from one rock to the other, kind of walking it down the two rocks. I was hooked after that. (The next week, I took the X into the dealer for ther free 1,000 mile oil change, and the mechanic said to the service manager --- "Look at this, the truck has been off road allready". The service manager said --- "so? That's what they are built for." My kind of service manager.)
Fast foward to current status-
1. Tires -- upgraded to BFG AT/KO, 32s. Gained traction and 1/2 inch of clearance
2. Shrock sliders -- first mod, added after wheeling completely stock for over a year.
3. Shrock skid plates -- second mod, after about three years of wheeling. Got the plates after winning a gift certificate at East Coast Xterra Challenge. I use my wife's logic on her --- "but honey, I am saving money by using the gift certificate."
4. ARB air locker in front differential --- third mod. Never planned on putting in a locker. I ended up doing it after destroying the differential on a green trail at Rausch Creek (Trail 14) during the first day of a three day event. It comes in very handy in poor traction situations, but does decrease steering control/accuracy.
5. Shrock front bumper --- I just had to do this. The locker made the truck so much more capable, but I still had the grill guard on that was killing my angle of approach. The new bumper took care of that.
6. PML (Poor Man's Lift) -- For you jeepers (and others who don't know), a poor man's lift is a cheap and easy way to get about an inch and a half of clearance. All you need is a set of longer shackles for the rear ($50) and some wrenches to adjust the front torsion bars, and about an hour of time. It was just crazy to have the locker, the bumper and stock height.
The only other mods have been various forms of body damage, largely as a result of fully using the other mods.
It is still my daily driver, and I love it. Very capable off road, and good manners on the road.
k_enn
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I met my X online. Going back about 2 months before that night on the computer, my friend Brian
