SAS Xterra???

[Devel]

so my gf just bought an 02 xterra and she wants to lift it, while we where down at EJS we looked at the calimini bolt on SAS kit. my question is, is this the way to go? is there a better kit or should she just do an IFS lift. she wants to wheel it so im leaning twards the SAS.
Discuss

 

[Mulieking1]

The Calmini kit is very complete. All you have to get is a good junk yard axle and your good to go. If you really want to wheel the Xterra I would highly recommend the SAS kit. The IFS lifts just don't quite do it.

I have both a Wrangler and an Xterra and I don't even wheel the Xterra anymore due to the lack of suspension travel with the IFS.

Check out the local Xterra owners club (UXOC) and other Xterra forums online for more information.

 

[rondo]

Calweeny is awful proud of their kit and it's not perfect; i've seen a post where the control arm cracked all up. It's spendy too but not as bad as throwing a lot of $ at IFS parts. I've wheeled with a lot of dudes that have SAS Nissans and they all swear by them. But they were rock crawlers. With that said I think your gfriend needs to be pretty rough on stuff before she should pony up the $ to go SAS.
Kit also fits 33' max without a body lift but then 33 is the max i'd personally go on IFS as well. Weakness is the steering.

 

[Gravy]

That Calmini Kit is cool but expect to wait 2 months on backorder for it. They haven't been able to keep up with anything lately

 

[Stephen]

http://www.uxoc.com
Check this site out, all the info you need.

 

[leorn]

More info. How extreme does she want to get? I would say as a general rule if she doesn't like scratches in her paint an ifs lift will take her where she wants to go.

 

[Devel]

well she wants to beable to keep up with me so im thinkin she might need it

 

[mwmx54]

my friend has an sas'd exterra, it's pretty sick, except he likes it high so he has about 4 inches of body lift. and he only runs 35's. i cant talk him into ditching the b lift and bigger tires. it does well at moab though. a little tipsy.

 

[Rodeoman]

you should look up xterra owners club on the web,. they have a ton of good info on there for you and have the forum that is dedicated to SAS X's. It seems like Calimin kit was designed to only take beating from about 33"tire, like someone stated you will need body lift in order to fit 35's. Some other issues came about once people installed 35's or larger tires. check out that forum. As one of the ones that has taken built IFS vehicle to SAS with my Rodeo, my view is no money should be trown at IFS, wheel it as it is, if something gives up the ghost it is time to upgrade. I love the capability and strength my SAS gave me compared to IFS (not to say IFS is not strong, because I wheeled mine hard with 33's and ARB up front). Just my $0.02 Adem

 

[SUPERFLY]

i dont know a ton about xterras(never owned one) but most of the sas xterras ive seen have been way to tall and top heavy for my liking. any full bodied rig imo is better off on 33's if i were to build an xterra i would throw money at a cool ifs, make it a dakar style truck. search the web see what people are doing to get better ride and more travel with there ifs. even with a solid axle you'll never do as well as your buddies in there light weight jeeps rock crawling, but your xterra will dominate on the dirt roads, camping, and overall comfort

 

[Rodeoman]

if he has got the cash to back it up total chaos has a great IFS long travel kit. as far as the xterra's being tall there is ways around that. I kept Rodeo SUA in the front for this very reason, on 35's it sits about the same as IFS Rodeo with 3" SL plus 3" BL sitting on some 33's. If they do their homework it can be kept low. I owe a lot of gratitude to JR Ehley from Ms Conception Motorsports as he was the brains behind mine, we put it together in front of his garage 3 years ago and it is still working like a charm, never altered anything from original design to date. The problem I am having is I want to do xtreme stuff with it, and still am deciding between keeping it as it is, upgrade it, or transfer my drivetrain into tube chasis with dual tcase setup and some other goodies thrown into the mix. Fun never ends it seems.

 

[BlackDog]

I kept Rodeo SUA in the front for this very reason, on 35's it sits about the same as IFS Rodeo with 3" SL plus 3" BL sitting on some 33's. IfThe problem I am having is I want to do xtreme stuff with it, and still am deciding between keeping it as it is, upgrade it, or transfer my drivetrain into tube chasis with dual tcase setup and some other goodies thrown into the mix. Fun never ends it seems.

Uh, is there threads about this?, picking up one, 93 v/6 auto, IFS is tweaked beyond logical repair.

 

[Devel]

its starting to look like we will be doing an ifs lift, posibly the kit from automtive customizers. they give u every thing you need for $820 so im thinkin thats the route we r going to take unless there is something i need to know about these guys

 

[Rodeoman]

I would suggest that you check those nissan forums I wrote about in my first reply. check it out, those guys can save u some money, that is how me and my buddies figured out that you can lift 1st gen Rodeo for 3" on some 33's on the very cheap like $150 or so... a lot of stuff they give in those kits is just to jack up the price of the kit itself. see on Rodeos if I was to lift one with IFS I would flip the upper balljoint and crank up tbars 2.5", in the rear you add set of add a leafs with longer shackle in the back and presto, you can fit 32's no rubbing, 33's fit on mine (285x75x16) but we know they are all different from factory, what works for one might not for another in tire size dept. Even with that setup it will go places. I had an Xterra for a few mo and I believe that suspension set is the same, tbars and all. like I said check Xterra Owners Club they will be your best buds for this.

BreederWheeler I didn't really post up much on the build, we were busy getting everything done prior to Moab maiden run. My set up is this SUA front, D44 narrowtrack out of Waggy 80ish something (could be wrong), Skyjacker 4" heavy duty YJ rear springs (They sag under my V6, winch bumper and 8000"winch so I will suggest go different spring route, maybe rancho waggy springs and SOA or Rodeo rear leafs in the front, they are fairly flexi leafs. As far as the front axle goes if I could change something it will be going with hipinion 44 to correct damn front driveline angle, front shaft is very short and it is tight in there and then you can do histeer at same time, 2 birds with one stone.
In the back of my rig we went with SOA with custom trackbar to control axle wrap. Runing 4.56r&p, V6 seems to be handling it ok, 5th is still very usable on freeway, you are going with auto so it should be as good.
Also for tcase u definetily want to get set of crawler gears if you move up to bigger meats. it was made by Teraflex, not sure if there are still some available since they don't make them anymore, these gears were steal at $400 for 3.07.1 ratio compared to stock 2.28.1. I believe autos are like 2.47.1 or something like that. once cool thing about manuals is that since they are integrated tranny and tcase, you can bolt up auto tranny tcase (divorced) to manual tcase output and therefore have dual case setup, couple of folks have done it here in Utah. There is a lot more but check out our local zutah.com forum and go from there and pm me with any questions.
MAJOR HIJACK HERE - SORRY

 

[Devel]

im intiesed about this flipping the ball joint, did u do upper and lowers or just the uppers

 

[Rodeoman]

basically it goes like this. it is for upper balljoint only. it is mounted towards top of upper control arm. there is a 1/4" spacer that u can get from independent4x or some other place that sells them, I believe they match, don't hold me to it. there are 3 10mm bolts holding that upper bj. U remove it, mount it underneath with spacer and what it does is basically gives you back some downtravel that you have just lost by cranking those tbars. Never really checked into to see how much downtravel it gives back but I was convinced that it does what is suppoused to. This is what those longer upper Aarms in Calmini kit are suppoused to do but at lot lesser cost. if you really only crank tbars about 2" you really don't need to do this, any more and you should. one thing I will warn you about once you crank those tbars it rides rougher than it did and your cv's have a lot more stress on them due to angle they are at. Like I said a lot of these cheap IFS lifts are give and take, not for everyone. hope this helps you with your decision regardless, IMO opinion Xterra is pretty capable as it is, I wheeled mine on copule different occasions while I had it, did ok for stock critter. did a few trails in AF canyon area.