Mortonm's 2001 Xterra Build

[mortonm]

I bought my Xterra in December of 2011. Its actually my first 4x4 that I have owned, and my second vehicle. I drove this GTI around for 4 years before.



It is isnt my first experience with a truck though, we had lots growing up. We had 1988, 1992 and 1996 4runners as well as a 2001 Durango. Although I was too young to drive the first two (born in 84) we had the third gen 4runner long enough for me to drive it quite a bit. I loved it, it was a limited model.

After I decided it was time to move on from the GTI my first direction to look was for a third gen runner, however for similar miles and years the Xterra's kept coming out significantly cheaper. I had always liked Xterra's as well so that was okay by me.

Mine had 150,000 km on it when I purchased it for ~6000 canuck bucks. It is a 2001 SE with sunroof, roofbox and most of the features you could get. Xterras were not available in Canada with 2wd or the 2.4L 4cl so its 4x4 and 3.3L.

Here is a picture of it as it looked shortly after purchased. The 255/65 R16 Uniroyal Laredos were quickly replaced.



This was not going to be a rock crawler, but merely a vehicle for some exploration, camping and light offloading. I decided to go with 235/85 R16 BFG ATs. They fit with some very minor trimming of the splash guards. I have future plans for a PML but so far it is suiting my needs.







Here is a picture beside my brothers JK (35s, ARB lockers, snorkel etc etc)



This is the only picture I currently have of it getting dirty but I plan to change that soon. My brother and I are going on a 4 day little trip in Eastern Ontario in about 3 weeks and I hope to add a lot more to this thread and probably a trip report.



I just recently took off the side steps and have been performing lots of preventative maintenance to get everything up to snuff. Gas mileage has been okay (roughly 17mpg mixed driving).

Plan to add the PML in the near future and just use it as much as possible.

Any advice or suggestions would be more than welcome!

[drbandkgb]

Right on man.. Watch out for that MOD bug though... Once it bites..

Gen1 Xterra is a great rig to build on.. You have the room you brother doesnt

[BigRed44]

Lookin Good so far, you should check out www.cntc.ca

[Dimo]

Nice, those silver Xterras are sweet! Now just remove those step rails

[mortonm]

Lookin Good so far, you should check out www.cntc.ca

Thanks! Will do

Nice, those silver Xterras are sweet! Now just remove those step rails

They are gone...just no pictures after the fact. Just removed a few weeks ago. Looks way better

next free mod is swat bar removal

[Dimo]

haha nice and the rear sway bar removal is a definite for taking it off road.

[BigRed44]

Also do the rear breather mod. Brings the breather for the rear axle high enough that you don't get stuff stuck in the breather. it's pretty cheap to do .

[mortonm]

Here are a few pics from a weekend trip my brother (and his dog buddy) and I took last weekend near our cottage. We did a bit of exploring on some dirt roads including a hydro line run.

Some PM has been done including the timing belt, water pump/ tstat etc since I have last posted.

Enjoy the pics!

[mortonm]

This is the first real shakedown that I have had of the X, it performed admirably.

Only issues we had was some pin-striping (impossible to avoid in Ontario this time of year) and a cracked front windshield (driving too fast on a dirt road...maybe hit a branch)

[The BN Guy]

Me likey square eyes! lol