2014 Nissan Frontier Pro-4x Funky town Build

kylevd23

Observer
Hi There,

Been following on expedition portal for quite a while, have had several other builds in the past. This year I wanted to take a different route on my next vehicle. As in my other threads, I've had several titans, a pathfinder, and most recently a Sierra 2500. The Sierra obviously was a bigger foot print and I found that it was more harder to maneuver in narrower trails, and the weight was a bigger factor especially in muddy conditions.

So onto the Frontier, it is a 2014 Black Pro-4x with luxury package. It is currently all stock right now, but I have much in mind as far the future build.

 
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kylevd23

Observer
Me and my brother will be using this vehicle on our future overland trips, we have a week trip out to Big Bend this fall, we plan to do some hiking out on the trails as well. This will be our first long term trip, and over the next few years we plan to build up to take the transamerica trail across the states.

My first modification will be tires, I've always been a big fan of BFG all terrains, but wanted a tire that would be able to clear mud better. So I was walking through Walmart a few weeks ago and found a Goodyear Wrangler All terrain on their shelf. I had never paid any attention to it before, but the tread design was nice, it had spacious voids to help clear mud, and had the winter snowflake stamp on it. After a few weeks of research, and reading all of the reviews on the site, i pulled the trigger today and ordered a set.

I also ordered a maxpedition zafar backpack for our trip. It is a hydration compatible bag, and was on clearance on their main website. T
 
Hey Kyle, I too am in Funky Town and doing some renovations to my Pathy. Were you planning on going to the State Park or National park at Big Bend?
 

kylevd23

Observer
Hey Kyle, I too am in Funky Town and doing some renovations to my Pathy. Were you planning on going to the State Park or National park at Big Bend?

Hi system, Glad you mentioned that, so I didn't recognize the difference between the both as I was looking at the maps, but based on my plans, it looks like most of it will be spent at the national park side, but given that we are in the area, maybe a trip over to the state park won't be to hard as well.

What kind of mods are you doing to the pathy?
 

kylevd23

Observer
Hey Kyle, I too am in Funky Town and doing some renovations to my Pathy. Were you planning on going to the State Park or National park at Big Bend?

Hey System, thanks so much for mentioning the State Park, I've spent most of the morning reading up on this from other members, and doing some independent research, it seems this would be much better as there are more remote areas, and the terrain would be more technical compared to the national park.
 
The Terrain is more challenging but very fun. The state park guys get around everywhere in stock suburbans and F250s, so it is actually overlanding for the purpose of getting to various parts of the park. I have towed my 5th wheel to the first campsite on the left down the main park road, so there are roads that are 2wd easy. I will warn you, make sure you have good tires, a spare and a patch kit. The desert area has very unforgiving plant life. I popped a sidewall just maneuvering my 3/4 dodge around the campsite!

As for my mods, here is my stalled and restarted build. http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/151775-caR50-Overland-Rebuild
 

kylevd23

Observer
The Terrain is more challenging but very fun. The state park guys get around everywhere in stock suburbans and F250s, so it is actually overlanding for the purpose of getting to various parts of the park. I have towed my 5th wheel to the first campsite on the left down the main park road, so there are roads that are 2wd easy. I will warn you, make sure you have good tires, a spare and a patch kit. The desert area has very unforgiving plant life. I popped a sidewall just maneuvering my 3/4 dodge around the campsite!

As for my mods, here is my stalled and restarted build. http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/151775-caR50-Overland-Rebuild

Thanks for the tips, and I also just ordered a set of tires for it. I definitely don't want to stroll in with a set of all season tires that are currently on my truck.
 

kylevd23

Observer
The Terrain is more challenging but very fun. The state park guys get around everywhere in stock suburbans and F250s, so it is actually overlanding for the purpose of getting to various parts of the park. I have towed my 5th wheel to the first campsite on the left down the main park road, so there are roads that are 2wd easy. I will warn you, make sure you have good tires, a spare and a patch kit. The desert area has very unforgiving plant life. I popped a sidewall just maneuvering my 3/4 dodge around the campsite!

As for my mods, here is my stalled and restarted build. http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/151775-caR50-Overland-Rebuild

Loving the build so far, looks like you've put in a good amount of wrench time on it, would love to see it in person one day.
 
I am always out Mountain Biking at Sansom Park or flying model airplanes in Benbrook. Here are some pictures of Big Bend State Park:

in 2010 http://overlandtrucks.com/kaiser/BBRSP/
in 2015 with the 5th wheel. http://overlandtrucks.com/kaiser/BBRSP_2015/

I also went out to Dirt Fest in Feb. which has mountain biking in the state and national parks, though the state park is within riding distance of the camp site. If you are into mountain biking very much worth the trip.
 

kylevd23

Observer
I am always out Mountain Biking at Sansom Park or flying model airplanes in Benbrook. Here are some pictures of Big Bend State Park:

in 2010 http://overlandtrucks.com/kaiser/BBRSP/
in 2015 with the 5th wheel. http://overlandtrucks.com/kaiser/BBRSP_2015/

I also went out to Dirt Fest in Feb. which has mountain biking in the state and national parks, though the state park is within riding distance of the camp site. If you are into mountain biking very much worth the trip.

Thanks for the pics, looked really awesome out there. Me and my brother were much discussing in bike riding, but would have to invest in some bikes, so were also thinking of hiking as well.
 

kylevd23

Observer
So I finally got tires out of the way, after much research, and budgeting, I decided on stock sizes, which were 265/75r16, for both my driving set and my spare tire. The spare tire, I mounted a Goodyear Duratrac, and for my driving set, I chose Goodyear Wrangler Authority AT's. They were 44lbs each, compared to my stock BFG Rugged Trails which were 40lbs, so only an increase of 4lbs at each tire. But with the minimal weight difference, and stock size, I hardly noticed them after I got them mounted and drove off. I ordered these through Walmart.com, and got a pretty reasonable price, it had great reviews in all weather conditions, longevity, and overall off road performance on smaller trucks and suvs. So far I am pleased with on road manners, they do hum due to the tread design, but I plan on testing them out this weekend at a local OHV park near here to see how they perform. It's been raining here so I should be able to test them in muddy and rocky conditions.
I also picked up a small tool box to carry some gear in. Also got this at Wally world, couldn't beat the price, and space inside the frontier is quite limited right now.

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JakeH

Adventurer
Good looking tire, I haven't seen the authority AT before. I can't place "funky town" though, where is that? Assuming Texas from all the big bend discussion...
 

kylevd23

Observer
Good looking tire, I haven't seen the authority AT before. I can't place "funky town" though, where is that? Assuming Texas from all the big bend discussion...

Hi Jake, funky town = fort worth, hehe.

Yea the Goodyear Authority tires are a Walmart Only exclusive, there's of course a stigma that it won't be a good of a tire due to it being from walmart, but when I was shopping around, and looking at what's offered through walmart, they sell nitto trails, BFG all terrains, etc., so they've expanded their tire selection quite a bit, and their pricing is quite competitive.

So far I like the tires, on road manners are really good, even with all the rain we've been getting here, they ride fine. You'll note that most of the bad reviews are mainly from larger trucks, specifically 3/4-1 ton trucks, which I don't think these tires are built for that type of application. Otherwise, most compact to midsize trucks have great reviews.
 

JakeH

Adventurer
Right on, my grandmother lives downtown in the museum district in ft worth.
I'm a Yokohama guy, but I like that tread design a lot. Walmart taking a page out of discount tire playbook? DT has been grabbing a ton of business with their Cooper ATP house tire for years.
 

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