Detslider's '05 Frontier Build

[Detslider]

A few weeks back the wife and I along with some friends got out of town for the weekend and headed off to explore the Monohgahela National Forest.
For as big as the Monohgahela National Forest is I thought it would be easy to find some rural spot to camp. Nope. It's pretty hard actually.

I would have to settle for an established campground. Big Bend Campground in Smoke Hole Canyon was at the end of a long dirt road which made me think that it would be fairly primitive. Wrong again. At the end of the dirt road was a campground full of smooth ashpalt, running water, flush toilets, firewood for sale and raked smooth campsites.
http://g.co/maps/jdr27


While the campground wasn't ideal the weather and scenery were perfect.
The campground is right along the water and surrounded by a hiking trail that offered amazing views of the fall colors.




For dinner I was inspired by a recipe from Overland Gourmet to make some awesome tacos



Overall it was a pretty awesome weekend. We'll be back but we'll probably stay at the nearby Jess Judy Campground instead.

[Detslider]

During the long Thanksgiving Day weekend we made a trip to North Carolina's Outer Banks.
Even though it's the off season and a hurricane pounded the area just a few months ago the area is still awesome.
We drove the Northern beaches of Corolla looking for the wild horses.




We squeezed onto the ferry and explored the southern end of Ocracoke Island


On Thanksgiving day we ate turkey sandwiches on the beach


We spent the whole time pretending to be skilled photographers but now that I review the pics I see we have a lot to learn.


Since we cooked our own meals and didn't do any real souvenier shopping our only significant expenses for the weekend were fuel and about $27 a night to camp. I dig cheap vacations.

[Level Edge]

Sweet truck!

I have talked to this guy about a front light mount and recovery point for mine, he had what I thought were good ideas, I just have not gotten around to moving the project forward (need to pick lights).
http://www.virginia4x4.com/home.html

[Detslider]

Is that guy also in Winchester?

[Level Edge]

Yes, unless he moved recently, he is in the industrial park behind the GE plant (south of 37, west of 11), back end of the Winc. Tool and Machine building. He has no sign or store front, best to email for an appointment I have found. Nice guy, no sales pressure.

[Peck]

Love the truck! I think our Frontiers are perfect for a lot of things.

I notice you have a 2" body lift and the Shrock front bumper -- also noticed you have a piece of metal to make up the space between the skid and bumper. I was wondering if you had better pics/details of it/ Thanks!

[Detslider]

hey Peck, sorry for the late reply.
here are some pics of the skid extension.
I'll be taking it (and the rest of the skids) off in the next few weeks to clean off that surface rust and repaint them. I can take other pictures then if needed.

[Detslider]

I recently installed the Nissan sliding toolbox and a Rotopax 4 gallon fuel pack.

The rack for my RTT sits on the bed rails so a traditional truck bed tool box wouldn't work for me. The Nissan box mounts to the utilitrack system in the bed. Nissan was (maybe still) offering a discount on accessories if bought thru my local dealers website so I was lucky to get one for a little over $400.

Others have mentioned that the installation instructions from Nissan for the toolbox are lousy. Maybe they were updated because I didn't have any problems. I installed it in about an hour, in the dark. Sorry no pics of how that went.

On the top lid I mounted a 4 gallon fuel pack from Rotopax. I had considered mounting it on the front face of the toolbox but didn't want to loose and additional 4 inches of bed space.

I started with measuring out the lid and pack, finding the center of both, making my marks and preparing to drill. I repeated this a few times because I changed my mind and decided to mount the pack a little off center. You'll see why a little farther down. I also had to redo my marks because I assumed the center hole in the Rotopax was in the middle of the pack. It is not. Measure the pack first, then make your marks.


Once I had it all lined up I used a screw driver as a punch to mark where I needed to drill.


I started with a small hole and then ran the 5/16 bit thru. You can see my many adjusted pencil lines.


I hit a snag here because i hadn't noticed that the toolbox has a double wall lid. This required me to go the hardware store and get some longer 5/16 bolts. 1.5" was too short and 2" was too long. I went with the 2" bolt and four fender washers. The washers give me added confidence that the bolts won't pull thru. All is good.


Finished



You can see in this pic why I mounted it a little off center. I moved it closer to the rear bumper so the lid can open as far as possible.
This is about the max opening of the lid, even without the fuel pack the lid won't open 90deg.


A few things about the toolbox.
It only has about a 2" gap at the bottom.


I was hoping it would be like the sliding toolbox Nissan makes for the Titan. That has several inches between the bed and tool box, I think they even have a tray that fits in that gap to store fluids, oils and other things that you don't want to store in the main box.
(pic from titantalk.com)


There are two unused holes in the bottom


The lock is secure but spins easily when the key is inserted. This sounds like a good thing but it's not. The weight of the other keys on the key ring prevents the key from resting in the unlock (horizontal) position. Instead in rests halfway between lock and unlock. Opening the box is a two handed maneuver; one to hold the key in place and the other to flip the latch.

[Detslider]

Since I was drilling holes in my truck I decided to add a few american made STARR bottle openers on the bumper. One on each side.

[Detslider]

All clean