1998 Nissan Frontier Rock Crawler: Nissan Forums Ride of the Month – May 2008

I bought the truck new in September, 1998, so it’s coming up on its 10th birthday. It was pretty – Crystal blue, chrome bumpers, and adorable little 235/70/15 tires, but hey, it was a 4×4, and I’ d been wanting one ever since moving to Arizona 5 years before, as I was tired of getting stuck in 2wds and not being able to figure out where each trail went.

ENGINE:
KA24DE

ENGINE MODS
FBI Intake
Pacesetter header
2.25″ exhaust
glasspack muffler
Optima red top
Suspension:
33 spline H233B rear axle
– 5.142 gearing
-ARB Locker
-Calmini Truss
-Alcan springs
-Procomp shocks
Dana 44 waggy front axle
-5.13 gearing
– ARB locker
– Alloy axle shafts
– Alloy Ujoints
– Warn diff skid
– PartsMike histeer draglink
– custom pitman arm
– Warn premium hubs
– Calmini CV driveshaft
– Rough Country leaf springs
– Rancho shocks for a custom     solid axle swap
Goodyear 33×12.50 MTR tires
15×8 Rockcrawler steel rims
Calmini 3.92:1 “Rockcrawler”     Transfer case gears
Body:
Hunter Offroad
– Custom bumpers
– cage
– roof rack
Custom rock Sliders by     BeefyJames
ARE BedCap
2 bed mounted Jericans
Well equipped toolbox
Spare parts bin
60″ Hi lift jack
Other recovery gear
Xterra front fenders
Herculiner paint job
Interior:
Uniden CB
– boosted to 16 watts
– Wilson 1000 antenna
2 meter HAM radio
Pioneer/Alpine stereo
Terrano altimeter
Terrano inclinometer
King cab bucket seats and console
SE power mirror upgrade
Dash mounted ARB switches




Well, I soon found out that with a stock truck I still wasn’t able to see where each trail went because the rocks in Arizona are big. It started with an upgrade to 31″ BFG ATs, a toolbox, and a cheapo CB to talk to my buddies. In 2000, there was finally getting to be a couple internet sites devoted to Nissans, and I was among the first to fully mod out a D22 truck, starting with an AC 3″ lift, stiffer torsion bars, the 2nd set of Skid Row skidplates ever sold, and the bumpers on the truck. Soon after in 2001 came an ARB air locker in the C200 rear axle. Compared to other Nissans, it was pretty much unstoppable.

Of course over time others caught up, and the truck got more mods. I was going through steering components like mad with the lift and looked for other solutions. I alpha tested a heim steering setup from Automotive Customizers that turned out to be a bust. Literally. I broke it 7 days after installation. Spencer Low Racing developed their own and I was probably the first non SLR truck to have that setup on the trails. That’s how it’s been over the years. I’ve forged relationships with aftermarket vendors and tested a lot of stuff.

In 2002 I was invited to California to be in a shift_ commercial. If you remember the truck one with the Xterras wheeling around in the sand, and then the helicopter flying over the big circle of modified Nissans on a dry lake bed, then for a brief second, you saw my truck. That trip also included some wheeling in the Big Bear area in California with some new friends. About that same time, our interest in the Nissans was growing. We’d already done 2 annual AZ runs (2008 was our 8th annual run). This blue truck is the only rig to make every single day of every single run. That’s 8 solid weeks of desert wheeling and camping, just with those runs alone. In late 2002 I ditched the C200/R180 combo in favor of an H233B/R200A combo from a V6 truck so I could get deeper 5.142 gearing to turn larger tires with the 4 banger. In early 2003, I was the first customer of Calmini for the transfer case crawler gears on a 4 banger truck, and I drove it up to GONEMoab that year and had a blast. Later that year I did another run to California – 3 days on famous Big Bear area trails such as Willow Springs and John Bull.

Weekend wheeling on Arizona’s famous trails – Woodpeckers, Ajax, Coke Ovens, Terminator, Crown King, and countless others has been a way of life for years now, and this little truck has taken me over all of them. I’ve also done 2 different week long overland trips in the Colorado Rockies. 13,000 feet in a 4 banger manual transmission Nissan wouldn’t be possible without those crawler gears! In 2004 the truck got the solid front axle. We did the swap in 3 days and had it driveable in 2. Months of laying awake in bed thinking of every measurement paid off in a very smooth swap. Later that year I had a cone air filter fail and suck dust in the motor. A 2000 2wd KA24DE with low miles was procured from the local wrecking yard and replaced the oil burning original. That was a 7 hour swap with a lot of good friends helping. Since then I’ve continued tweaking the mods, fixing what breaks, and generally wheeling the crap out of the truck. It’s seen extensive trails in Arizona, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, California, and Wyoming in its 90,000 miles and will hopefully give me another great 10 years like the first 10.