More mods

I just finished installing helper springs in the rear and a dual battery system. I've got a volt meter I just need to wire up along with some USB ports.

Xterra Reborn as Frankenstein

I was out wheeling with my buddy Daniel. The trails were flooded, and unknown to me there was ice under the water. It wasn't a problem until we decided to head back to the highway, I slipped and hit a tree:

Damage from the Tree

I took my Xterra to a shop and they quoted me 2500 for fixing inner fender and radiator support, so I did not feel it would be worth it as I would still need body parts. I purchased a parts vehicle for $500:

It looks a bit different but this will do

I am incredibly grateful I got this. The previous owner drove it without oil so the engine is toast.
Parts I'm going to take for the repair:

• passenger inner fender
• radiator support
• radiator
• AC condenser
• AC condenser aux fan
• fuse box tray
• hood
• passenger fender
• headlights and signal lights
• grill
• bumper

Parts I'm going to take for upgrades

• helper leaf spring (3 pack)
• radio(comes with aftermarket radio!)
• battery(for dual battery setup)
• starter solenoid?(for dual battery) I found a left over solenoid I can use
• seat belts (mine are warn out) Even more worn out on this car

Parts I'll keep for spare

• hubs
• alternator  The bearing on my alternator started to grumble so I grabbed this one already
• starter motor Burnt to a crisp on the donor car

upper and lower control arms

and if I get time:

• exhaust system
• transmission

So here's the damage under the sheet metal:

The bottom bracket on my Xterra was rotted out

Here it is with all damaged parts removed:

Worked into the night taking off parts and cutting the welds:

Does any body know where I can get better spot weld bits than Princess Auto? I ended up finishing with a step bit after breaking all 4 of the bits I bought.

And here is the parts car early the next morning:

The donated bone marrow:

The bottom bracket on the Xterras are notorious for rot, I'll clean it up a bit after I finish the repair.

After cutting the welds I cleaned up the holes and surfaces with an angle grinder and sprayed the bare metal with zinc paint:

Its possible that this could be the weld surface as I used a step bit on my other car, meaning there are holes on both sides.

Just dropping this into place was very satisfying.

Starting to look like a vehicle again.

Getting ready to weld:

I decided to go with an overlap as the spot welds were all covered in protective surface making them very hard to locate, This was easier and I do not have to punch through the firewall as I was using a step bit at this point.

Not my proudest welding job. Welding thin metal upside down with flux core was a mistake, I should have used CO2.

Spot Welds were much easier.

Skeletal transplant successful! It was getting late so that was day 2.

Wiring for the signal lights was too short on the 2002 loom. Instead of messing with the loom I extended the wires on the lamps themselves.

Starting to come together!

2002 fender is nearly identical to the 2000 fender so I kept the original.

Home Stretch!

Ugly Rust on the hood. A job for another time.

Fin! (kind of a few things to button up) but again its late so day 3 is at a close.

Day 4 Transformation! The alternator started to grumble, lucky timing as I have a parts truck 15 ft away, I also swapped the radio and did some trimming to the "new" fender to clear my tires. I also grabbed the hubs for spare. I still have to get the wind-shield washer fluid working; I'm not sure what's wrong. It wasn't a full day but its back on the road so I'm calling this swap complete.

A bit about me and my passion for adventure

An adventure is to go through unexpected experiences. To go adventuring is to purposefully seek out these unexpected experiences.

Hi my Name is Scott Kosasih. I am graduating from Mechanical Engineering in April of 2015 and I am longing for an adventure. One of my favourite ways to go on adventure is vehicle based travel. My first trip was back in May of 2013 where I bought a SUV just to go on a climbing road trip, You can read about it here: tricyclespace.blogspot.com. Since then I've done numerous small trips skiing and snowboarding, climbing and mountaineering trips. I even a road-trip last year in Europe. You can read about that trip at roadeu.blogspot.com. Perhaps I could start earlier but instead I'm going to this story at the beginning  of 2014.

In 2014 I had a tough year, a very good and enjoyable year but tough. January 23rd I was in a car accident which injured my back and left me unable to do any physical activities. I am very passionate about climbing and snowboarding. I had a surprisingly quick recovery and towards the end of my recovery I embarked on a road trip around Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Austria. I journeyed with my a few of my closest friends eating fancy food and drinking nice beer. We stayed at nice hotels and ate at nice restaurants. We did touristy things like visit car museums, breweries and beer festivals. I was thankful that my friends aren't normally active so I did not feel pressure to push myself physically. Travelling comfortably was strange to me and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and the friends I went with.

From Left: Josh W, Ian, Me, and Phil and our rental Volkswagen Golf

From Left: Josh D, Phil, Daniel, Ian, Josh W, Marielle D, Me

After the trip I felt that I had recovered enough to embark on a road trip closer to my own preference. I plan to hit up climbing hotspots in Western Canada, Revelstoke, Skaha, and Squamish. I excitedly made preparations, but on June 6th, the day before I was to leave for my trip I broke my knee cap falling off my bike.

A few couple weeks after surgery: muscle atrophy sets in pretty fast.

2014 was still a good year. I spent time with friends, volunteered at Gull Lake summer camp, and just used my time to the fullest. I would not say it was a bad year, but a difficult one. The adventure I had was not crazy travels but the unexpected experience of finding myself without my passion for physical activities. It has given me a new perspective on where my identity comes from. While road trips and sports are a big part of what I enjoy it is not what makes me who I am. I have to face the reality that my body is only decaying, and another injury like this can easily take the things I love to do away from me.

Currently I have made a decent recovery. It is nowhere near 100% but it has healed enough for me to climb, bike and snowboard. I have given up on trail and cross country running, or at least until I make more recovery. I must be much more careful when taking lead falls on climbs. Longer hikes can be problematic for me, but mostly because I am a bit out of shape from the lack of movement. My gets very sore at times and I still walk with a bit of a limp. I avoid pain killers as I feel it is important for me to know when my body is hurting itself, which does mean I sometimes have to end activities early.

On February 7-8th I nervously ran in Race to 2025.

Our team, TBA, setting off on day 2 of Race to 2025

It was a great mini adventure, and reminded me what it felt like to go on an Adventure. I miss it and I'm ready to embark on a new one. I want to go on a road trip after my graduation.

My Nissan Xterra

On my roadtrip back in 2013 my vehicle, a 2002 Nissan Xterra XE, was completely stock. I quickly found out its limitations when getting stuck in Squamish. The articulation and ground clearance was great but the tires and traction was terrible. Over the past two years I've made minor changes that will allow me to tackle some more technical terrain.

Wheels and Tires

First thing that went were the wheels and tires. My last tires were completely bald as after I turned my Xterra into my daily driver after I was hit by a drunk driver in January of 2014.
I went with 32" General Grabber AT2. According to many reviews these once were one of the best all terrain tires you could get, but like the BFG AT KO, the claim is coming to an end with new silica blend tires coming out. This worked to my advantage as I got a pretty decent performing tire for 40% discounted from the retail price.

New Rims and Tires

I bought 16" allow rims to go with the tires. I like having my vehicle as stock looking as possible so these rims were an easy choice as they look similar something that could have been stock.

A Nissan Pathfinder with very similar looking rims

To fit the bigger tires I did what is known as a Poor Man's Lift. On vehicles like the xterra with torsion rods you can raise the height by simply turning the torsion rods. To match the height in the rear I got new leaf springs.

Locked Differential

The most useful thing you can install on your rig is installing traction aids. These devices are installed in your differentials. The options I considered were ARB's selectable rear air locker, Calmini's front LSD or Lokka's front aussie locker.

I chose the Lokka. It was the cheapest and easiest to install of the options. Not only that it has much better traction than a LSD. The big advantage over the ARB is that it allows differentiation without allowing slippage.

Surprisingly small box

An open differential allows the outside wheels of your car spin faster than the inside wheels, without a differential, you will experience wheel chatter or hop. The problem with open differentials is that if one wheel looses traction, all the power goes to that wheel. Traction devices such as differential lockers or LSD's are used to counter act the problems with having an open differential. A differential locker can lock the differential so that your car behaves as if there is none, but also unlocks so that your car behaves normally. 

This has been the best modification to my vehicle so far. This differential is normally locked. The differential allows a wheel to spin faster than it is powered but only in the direction of the power, which allows differentiation around corners without ever loosing power. 

My buddy Hiu Fung helped me get the heavy diff in and out of my car

I had automatic hubs and Lokka recommended manual hubs so I bought MileMarker hubs. They exploded on their first trail use. After some research I found that this was a common problem. That would be the last time I purchase from MileMarker. 

Stay away from MileMarker hubs

Unfortunately after the failure I had no luck finding used stock hubs so I sprung for Warn manual hubs. Although they were expensive compared to the MileMarkers, compared to factory hubs they are a bargain.

Warn hubs and my DIY rock sliders

Rock Sliders

I tried my first welding project, rock sliders. Again my buddy Hiu Fung helped me out by lending me his welder for a couple of days. I coated them with a rubberised paint. 

I wonder if epoxy bed liner would have been better.

I constructed these out of 1/4" square tubing, and 1/4" angle and flat bar for the arms. I meant to use 3/16" for the tubing. I didn't notice until I was cutting the metal that I was given the wrong tubing. With the 1/4" walls the sliders still each have 1/2 gallon capacity as air tanks.

I used the mounting points from the nerf bars

Winch

I bought this beast off Kijiji. I got a steal of a deal on it as the controls were not working. I replaced one of the solenoids and it is working perfectly. I bought a new seal from Warn and did a much needed oil change. I'm still trying to decide whether to put this on a hitch mount and make a hitch receiver in the front or to sell this for a smaller winch.

This thing is a beast!

Other Mods

I don't have pictures of these changes: AGM battery, rear hitch receiver, stubby antenna and relocating the rear differential breather

The AGM battery, absorbent glass matt, also known as a dry cell battery have a much longer lifespan and can be drained without degrading the cells when compared to the lead acid battery. When I say longer lifespan I do not mean the capacity of the battery, I mean the useful lifespan of the battery. A group 35 battery fits in the xterra with no problems. I went with the Exide Edge as the advantages to an Optimum battery didn't justify the price difference.

I purchased a Kurt hitch receiver off ebay and it came with 4 pin trailer wiring. On the 1gen Xterra the wiring is just a pig's tail, so no wiring modification is needed. The kit does not come with frame stiffeners, but a bit of leftover steel will do the job.

The stock antenna was getting abused as it's length meant that it was getting caught on every single tree, and when I was carrying a roof load it also got bent. I bought the stubby antenna of DX.com for 8 bucks.

I definitely recommend relocating the rear differential breather. It is easy and drastically increases the wade depth. I went to Gregg's distributors to get everything I needed. I bought a brass nipple fitting that threaded into the stock breather port and a length of tube. I ran tube to the rear left tail light and put a piece of fine sponge for a filter in the top of the tube. This allows me to go through water up to my hood line as the air intake is now the limit to my wade depth. 

People have asked me why I have not made a snorkel for my truck. Most people think the primary function of a snorkel is to increase wade depth. In most cases like mine, getting water in the intake is not the only problem in water up to the hoodline, so a snorkel would not increase the wade depth. The snorkel at this point is mostly used to keep dust out of the intake, decreasing the likelihood of the filter getting clogged in sandy or dusty conditions. Considering the terrain I'm in I probably won't need one.

Future Considerations

Future considerations will include tire deflators, a front hitch receiver, 125amp alternator from a Nissan Quest, dual battery(and winch power to rear hitch), 2meter radio and 4.9 ratio gears (I currently have 4.6)

I seem to always end up among Toyotas

Can you see my Xterra behind the trees in the picture below?