Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back. This is Overland Weekly, episode number 27. My name is Davey. I am your host. And man, it is warm. As we are filming this, it is mid-July here in Tennessee, and even it's eight o'clock at night, and it is still pretty muggy outside. So I hope wherever you are, maybe it's a little more comfortable, but it has been a warm week here. But with that said, It's been a good week. Got out, went to Colmont with a club run last weekend, had a good time. The weather cooperated there. No drama, no major breakage from anybody. Just a good ride with the community. And speaking of community, so when we started this show, that was really the goal, was to explore, I say, the people, the places, and the events that make up this off-road community. And I don't say the word community lightly. It's not a Toyota community or a Land Cruiser community. It is the greater community. I'm a Toyota guy. We talk a lot about Toyotas on this show, but we've never I've never been exclusive. I want to explore it all. And with that said, tonight, we're going to talk about a topic that I think is relevant. This show, My Office Here, is in downtown Franklin, Tennessee, which is the home of the Nissan North American headquarters. And so I asked some of my Nissan owning and loving friends to join me tonight And let's take a little while and talk about the history of Nissan four wheel drives and what makes them unique in this off-road community. So if you're not familiar, Nissan came in in the late '50s under the Datsun name into the US. The first truck, I think the first one was the Datsun 220, and then there was the 520 and the 720. And then in the mid '80s, I think '86, that the Datsun becomes the hard body. And then '97, the frontier comes out, the Titan a few years after that. Of course, then the Titan, now it's already gone again. And I believe we're on the third generation of frontier. And I don't know where the exteras fell in that timeline, but I've got some guys that I'm sure can explain that for us. So let me add everyone into the show here. Folks, welcome to the show. Chase McFresh, Ethan Murphy, nick Dozier, and Jordan Fernandez. How are we doing, gentlemen? Good. What's up? It's good to be here. Look at nick, slowly coming in again. He has to make an entrance. I wish I was in my garage. What am I doing wrong? Ethan, is that a real truck behind you? That is a real truck, believe it or not. It's not a green screen. Not a green screen. All right, hold on. Open the door. You don't believe me? I'll show you. Oh, proof. Oh, yeah. Chase, is that a green screen? Yeah, 100 %. Yeah, I bought one just for the show. Yeah. It took a while to find a dismantled frontier to put back there, though. Not a lot of Google images for that. If there was an engine hoist over the bay, we wouldn't question it. We'd be like, Yeah, that's the garage. It's a Nissan. It's supposed to be getting worked on anyways. I'm not surprised. I like Nick's RAV4 is back there. I like that. That's good. I see. Is that the Trail Edition? That's our five. Front wheel drive. All right, so if you're wondering how this band of folks came together here. Jordan, Ethan, and Chase are all pretty diehard Nissan dealers and supporters. Nick was at that camp in one time and was one of the early adopters of the Nissan off-roading scene here in the Nashville area. And then he picked up that RAV4 that's behind him and was done with all things Nissan, with the exception of his Titan that he threatens to sell every other year. I don't threaten to sell it. I threaten to blow it up every six weeks, if it doesn't grenade itself. How does the transmission do it? Well, number two is hanging on. How How's that engine doing? What engine? You're talking to Chase. I'm talking to me. He felt a little small tick or something, and he just put a whole new engine in his car. Oh, that's true. I Oh, they might as well. They might as well. They're preventative. I love it. Do you get to 60,000 miles, you got to start thinking about those things with Nissan. Oh, yeah. You know it for sure. Guys, if you don't follow these guys on Instagram, there They're all great follows. But I was going to say that Chase's stories are mainly from what you see right there in that garage with a motor torn down, or from the junkyard where he's pulling said motor. And we were talking about earlier, I don't think he realizes it, but he says all the time, I just couldn't pass it up, whether it's an engine, a truck, a transmission. Yeah. Yeah, pretty much. That's unfortunately who I am. So All right. We love you for it. We love you for it. Thank you. It could have been a lot worse. I may or may not be the one asking them, Hey, is this at the yard? Can you pull it for me? Yeah. I see. Starting a pooling service. Yeah. Well, all right. So this is a good segue because as a land cruiser owner, it is pretty difficult for me to go to a junkyard and find parts for my truck. There might be something off a Tundra, but the chance of there being a second generation Tundra in the junkyard is slim to none. But that's an advantage in the Nissan world. I mean, Chase, you have pretty good luck on these junkyard runs. Yeah, I mean, pretty much every time I'm back in the Nashville area, so obviously, I don't live there anymore, but I'm just a short drive from there, and they've got some of the best yards. And for some reason, it seems like there's at least a Pathfonder, Extera, Frontier, your Titan Swap, Armada, Titan. There's always something at one of the different yards in the Nashville area. And honestly, it's Like you said, Davy, it's some of the Toyota stuff. If you see it, you double take. Oh, my God, there's a four runner. I could barely make it out because everything is stripped off of it. It is. There's a lot of Nissan's to come by, and it leaves you a little greedy saying, I'll pass that up and wait for a better option when the Toyota crowd would have yanked it up if they could. Well, how did each of you... I guess we can start with some origin stories here. Was for each of you, was your Nissan a strategic purchase, or you just maybe bought the vehicle and then got the enthusiast bug later? How did it all play out? We'll start with you, Jordan. Yeah, I got the best four by four that I could get at the time. So I come from Honda Civics, that's my background, and just decided I'm enjoying camping and hiking and wanted to get a four by four. Obviously, I wanted to go for a two-door Jeep. That was what I wanted. I realized my budget didn't go very far, so I started looking at rusty ones. That's not a great idea. So I started looking at fourth Gen 4 runners, and they were pretty tired. They were pretty tired in my budget. Then I started test driving Xteras. I saw one-off road one time while we were kayaking, and I must have gotten stars in my eyes. My friend said, Okay, Jordan's going to buy an Extera. Then I went and did a test drive of one that was perched on top of a rock at this old dealership in Murfreesboro. I was like, How are you going to get that off? He said, Oh, no worries. He just backed it right off and I I got to have one of those. Just showing that departure angle just blew my mind. And yeah, I got into it for six grand, and now I'm stuck. Then I got into the enthusiasm. I was like, A little mild build, just put it through some mud puddles or whatever. And I'll never tighten and swap it. Not a big deal. And here I go. It just went off like that. So, yeah, just got into it because that's what I could afford. And Jordan, I know we were talking earlier, you've been busy, a lot of family stuff going on, but you have another round of build out on the truck that you hadn't really taken a lot of pictures of or showed out there online yet. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so I've done the Titan Swap. I think that was last year. Ethan and I worked on it in the garage. I think that was last year. So we did the Titan Swap, and it's got two and a half inch RAD flows up front, two inch in back. The ride is so much better. It wheels hard. It does great. It's got armor all the way around. And then I actually got a front differential from a Titan from Chase. Chase's Junkyard adventures brought me a front differential. Then I got a rear differential from a Pro 4X Extera, which has the OEM eLocker in the rear. So swapped both of those axles in. I actually had a local guy do it. It was Kirk with Hollerwood. So he did it for me. Too much going on with the little baby. But yeah, so I added a front air locker in the front diff, regeared it to 408, and it works great. I'm still in the break-in period on the gears. And yeah, that was a big one. That feels really good so far. I haven't actually wheeled it, but that's coming soon. Yeah, we can fix that. Just time and money, baby. Ethan, how did you end up with that pavement pounder? Oh, my goodness. It pounds a lot of pavement lately. I was looking on your Instagram trying to find some recent pics, and unfortunately, they were all on concrete. They're not there. They're all on concrete. She's a pavement princess right now. But no. I, like Jordan, grew up just driving street cars. I never really had anything that was capable. But where I was from, there wasn't much to do out there. I love to hike, I love to camp, I love to get out. But it wasn't until I became an adult, I had an adult money, whatever you want to call it. I was like, Hey, I can get my own car. And through some mutual friends, I actually ran into nick through a mutual friend of mine that I went to college with. And unbeknownst to him, he's the reason I got into a front Frontier. So whether that's a good or bad thing, so far, it's been a good thing. But I looked at a few options. I saw this one down in Clarksville and knowing the off-road world. I was like, I'd be silly if I can help it to find not find one that doesn't have a rear locker in it. And so I basically stole this one from a dealership. It had 23,000 miles on it, basically untouched. One little nick on the rear bumper cover. And I was like, well, that's going to get replaced at some point down the road, too. Hopefully, didn't know how or when. And that's how we went into it. I was looking at this one and actually a Jeep Grand Cherokee because I like the look of them. Thank goodness, I did not go that route because I wouldn't have been able to do what I wanted to in Bullet dodged. Yeah, pretty much. I like the look of them. I like the SUV because I've driven SUVs my whole life. But coming into a pickup truck, we had house projects. We just bought our first home. All these things that made sense to get a truck, and I thought a midsize would be great because I can take it out, camp and wheel and do the cool things that I see some buddies and mutual connection doing. And so that's how I landed into it. It's one of those builds where you say you won't do this, and then So literally the next week, you've already done it times two. So that's how the Titan Swap comes about. We can get into the details because people throw that around like candy. But there's a couple of different ways you can actually achieve that keyword or phrase. So, yeah, it's been good. It's seen a lot of payment miles lately, but I'm excited to get it on some dirt. And I just finally put mud terrains on it for the first time. And that's one of those things I said. I'm team all terrain, but I found a steal of some on Chases in the junk yards. I'm on Facebook marketplace just pissing my life off all the time. I'm there, too. Trust me. I've got the screen time to prove it. I'm sure. Oh, yeah, I'm sure we are. So anyway, long story short, ended up finding some, and they were a 35, so I'm rocking a 315, 75, 16, basically a plug and play. They've seen payment, but I'm excited to get them out of the dirt. It's funny, Ethan. You have held on to AT tires for longer than anybody I know. And the places that I've seen you put that truck with a set of all trains that they should not have been. And I know you You're very meticulous about things on your vehicle and how you want it and how you want it to drive. And you're like, I don't want it to be too loud and this and that. And so people would get mud terrains and you get a text from Ethan, he'd be like, How loud are those? Now, which ones did you get it again. Yeah, I think I'm going to do it. And then he'd buy another set of ETs. So sure enough. Yeah. You know, it's funny. There's a guy named LJ, a lot of you probably know him, TN Adventure, and he had put mud terrains on his Land Cruiser, and he had his Toyo all terrains in a 35 spec. And I was like, well, that's a good way to try it out to see if I really want to make the jump. Because I was like, I don't know if I need 35s. I didn't want to deal with all the cutting and clearancing. And so I jumped into all terrains pretty quickly, even though I really wanted to jump to the mud terrain. But that set the stage for how everything was going to get cut, clearance, flexed, stuffed, all those things. And then I finally was like, you know what? Let's just do it. I'll never look back. Yeah, they're louder. The noise never bothered me. But it was also one of those things from a maintenance standpoint, do I want to be dealing with the attention that those need to last a long time? Because I'm very meticulous, but some things I just put off and off and off, like a steering rack, it needed to be replaced for the past 20,000 miles, and I just did it a couple of months ago. It ends up like that. But yeah, there's a lot me and Matt, a buddy of mine, a lot of you guys know him, too. Every day, it was like, Dude, I'm still team all trains. I think I can get us everywhere we need to go. And Dave, to your point, I've only gotten stuck two or three times truly stuck that I can recall with small terrains, but that's where it went. That it was the fault of the tire. Yeah, it truly was the tire. I just was running on street slicks at that point. The beer went out at Red Clay Rally. I remember there was a real severe. You couldn't make it to a checkpoint. We were just like, Where's Ethan? Remind me of that one. Was that one the default of the tire? Was that Joe's? That was a little bit of both. I'd say 70, 30 tire to Joe. I Granted, these were brand new 33s. I had maybe a couple of thousand miles on them. So for an all-terrain, they were general grabber ATXs. And if I didn't have mud trains now, I'd probably go back to those tires. They were fantastic. Wide, ton of tread depth. But the first checkpoint, this is the first year I went to Red Clay Rality, and it's a big point to point checkpoint race, so it's not really a race. And I was on a checkpoint cruise, so we go out, camp out of the spot for a couple, two, three hours, and take times, and then go wheel the rest of tracks if we wanted to. And getting down on the first one, we come off a little hill into a goalie, and I'm like, this looks like an absolute swamp. There's no water, but you know all the water is running straight down into the thing. And at this point, I've wheeled a decent little bit, but nothing crazy to know enough about all the train. We're out in Kentucky, and we get down in here, and Joe and I are looking at different lines. Him and his dad are there, and I'm with my buddy Colt. And so we're like, well, this might be the easiest line to not get stuck. Because I didn't have a Lynch at the time. This sliders, lifting tires, and that's it. And we go down, and literally, it's like a foot of mud. I get a rut that's like a foot deep. I'll try to find a picture. It might take me a while, but at that point, it was literally mud terrains. If I boosted, I probably could have gotten out of it. It wasn't a mud hole. It's just like you go in and you just drop a foot and you can't move. Then I got my rear diff stuck on a tree at the same time. We had a chainsaw getting out, and And literally, the checkpoint was like 40 yards in front of us. And after I got through that, it would have been clear. And honestly, I was scared of death. Like, Man, if I can't do this, there's no way I can make it out of this track after everybody's come through. And a few hours later, it gets dark. And then Joe comes around, takes his muddies through a little water track and just goes through no problems. I'm like, That'd be sick. And comes around and winches me out. And we stick the checkpoint But yeah, that was the first time where I was like, Man, mud trains, not even having a recovery gear, that probably could have gotten me out of that situation. And even then, I still didn't get them afterwards. I stuck with all trains for another couple of years. Right. All right. Jordan started with the Xtera, Ethan with the Frontier. Chase, You chose a Pathfinder, which is not the norm as far as the Nissan world is concerned. Was that your first Nissan purchase? I thought that was a nitro. Yeah, it is. That screen is really small. I can't see you. Oh, yeah. Sorry. I got the wide angle on, apparently. No, on my phone, it's this big. Sorry. Keep going. That was my first ever car. I'm a little younger than everybody here. Why did my camera switch? But that was a car that was gifted to me. I was, I say, 15 years old, looking around for some vehicles. I grew up in a Nissan family. We always had... We had maximos, altimos, an infinity. My grandmother down the street had an R50, so the 2000 to 2004 Pathfinder. Super great little truck. It was a rugged, but still luxury at the same time. And it was opposite platform than the R51. So you got a straight axel rear subframe in the front. And that car saved her life. She's in a very bad head-on collision. And the current airbag and just the structure of that truck really honestly saved her life. So, of course, she got another one, and that started getting my attention to the Pathfinders. I grew up driving a Mitsubishi Montero. That's what my dad had. So essentially a box with windows. That's where the boxiness came from that I really liked. Always like the SUVs. When I got the option, I was just going to get the Hand me down R50, but I got the option. They wanted to put me in a vehicle that would hopefully last me through college, which it did. That's what really keyed me in on the Pathfinder. The exteriors were... It was an option. If I could have gone back in time, I would have got one because all the work I did on mine, I would basically be already. But I really liked it. At that point, I just wanted a nice big SUV that would last, and that really caught my eye. It was a 2008, got it with, I think, 71,000 on it in 2013, and I still have it today. This is actually the... That's the motor out of it, 253,000 miles later, which still runs, still running condition, just doing some maintenance on it. But I had that car for... I put almost I have 200,000 miles on it myself, going from high school to road trips, going back and forth to college. So a lot of highway time before it ever saw the dirt, just because I didn't have, A, the finances to wheel it, and then also, if I broke it, I was S-O-L. Sure. It went through several iterations. Nick liked to tease me about my 2010 hostels that I used to have on some 33s because that's what was cool at the time, light bars before lockers. But then it saw a lot of pretty cool upgrades along the way. It's fully tight and swap now in the front suspension-wise. Got a custom three link in the rear that I did in this garage. And it's been really like a blank canvas for me to I've always been real like a tinkery and wanting to learn about things. So it's been a really good platform to take apart, learn how to make it better, see what works, how does this work. And it's been the underdog because, again, it's the Pathfinder. It's the My Mom, luxury van from that era. I think it's honestly been a really cool project for me, and it's going to end up on blocks in my backyard one day. How does the Pathfinder So what's your XFinder dimensionally, wheelbase-wise, compare to the Xtera? I think from factory, it's like 111. 5, and the Extera is like right around 109, 110 from my research. It's basically It's basically the same thing. It's on the same frame. Obviously, there's provisions in the rear for the independent rear suspension, but everything from gas tank up is the same as the X-Aer in Frontier. So it's practically it's the same wheelbase. Well, Mr. Dozier, before you purchased that RAV4 behind you there, you went through a couple of of Nissan's in your household, a Frontier and an Exteria. Which one did you get first? Well, I want to apologize to Chase. My field mouse was trying to come into my garage, and I was screaming, I think they're out here. So I wasn't yelling at kids or anything. I'm not in the garage. Just the field mouse, no worries. And notice this little mouse was hanging out by my garage. So maybe I should quit eating crackers out here. But if we're going, if we're going to kick it way back, first couple of cars were Jeep XJs. How We had a little '96 XJ. We had an '89 XJ, and I think a '93 XJ, two white ones and one black one. Then we got a GMR GMC, a 1999 GMC Sierra 4x4 Z71. That was a fun little ride. But we kicked this whole thing off. Most no one knows, but I'm like a farm boy. We would have raging bonfires, and we would camp on top of troopers, and camp on top of Jeeps, or camp in the back of Jeeps, or truck beds, or what have you, or just right in the middle of the field on a sleeping bag. I've always loved the outdoors. I've always I love camping. Kind of lost it a little bit. But then I bought a... My first big boy purchase was a 2006 Chevy Colorado five-speed, four-cylinder, four by four. Put a little camper shell on it, and I would take that thing off roading all over North Georgia. Sydney, my wife and I would throw a mattress in the back, throw blankets, and just sleep in the back of that in the middle, some cliff on the side of the mountain. Anyway, we moved to Nashville, and some person ran a stop sign, and I did not have a stop sign. I'm going about 45 miles an hour, and I T-boned this person. Total, that little sweet little ride. I think it was a fun car. But I didn't really know what to buy. I wasn't in the whole overland scene, so I didn't know if I would have bought a Toyota, that'd probably be way more popular than I am now. I ended up buying the Frontier. I knew what I I knew I wanted a four by four. I didn't have any plans on building it. It was just I never not had a four by four vehicle. I don't want to not have a four by four vehicle. So I want to have a 4x4. And it's really funny because I go after work and I'm talking to the sales guy, and I'm telling him everything I do. Hey, we like to camp. We like to go hiking. We have dogs, go mountain biking, do all this stuff. He's like, So what do you think about a Ursa? And And I'm like, Did you just hear what I said? He said, Well, what about a Versa X or S, whatever? It's like the one with the hatchback. He said, It's got a hatchback. It's a little bit more roomy. I said, I wasn't mean, but I really wanted to go get somebody else, please. So I said, No, I want a truck. He said, Like a Frontier? I said, Well, sure. Yeah. What else do you have? He's like, Yeah, it's Frontier. I'm like, Okay, go pull one around. So he pulls that one around black SV four by four, Access Cab, or I guess they call them King Cab in the Nissan world. So it was the best day of my life. Bought this sweet little truck, and then it's like, googling places, and I hear about the Tennessee Dirt Devil. So it's like, Well, let's go down to this place. It looks cool. This was before the Dirt Devil got crazy. So this would have been 2017, 2018. So this was before the Dirt Devil Got to the point where it is now after Instagram and the whole world blew it up. But I would go down there almost every weekend and not see another person. You go down there now, you're seeing 50 people. But we'd go down there and just We didn't have a map. I just googled it and then got on my maps. I think if we go this route, I think it might be a dirt road. Then we'd come to a spot, turn left. Next week, we'd turn right. If we ended up just finding this whole crazy trail system, then I finally got the map and I was like, Oh, well, we were on the dirt devil this whole time. But then it turned into, I need a camper shell because I want to go camping in this truck. It was a six-foot bed, so I could sleep in the back of it comfortably. Then it was, Wow, I need lift. And back then I was poor. So it was like, I'm going to buy this one and a half inch spacer lift, and it's going to have to work. Well, now my front's Why? Well, I got to buy a spacer for the back of it. But now I need better shocks. Now I need upper control arms. Now I need a bumper. Now I need sliders, all the shit. So ended up just overbuilding that truck like crazy. And then there's some stuff I can't speak about that I did to that truck, which was why we had to get rid of that truck. And got the Titan, and enjoyed the Titan a lot until the transmission went out on. I still enjoy the truck. It It was a good truck. But then we got the Xtero. I built that thing up way too much. My wife's nine months pregnant. She's like, I cannot get in and out of this vehicle. The AC wasn't very great in it. It's July, and it's hot. You're nine months pregnant. Getting in and out of this vehicle, it shouldn't be lifted the way it is for a pregnant woman. So we ended up getting rid of it and getting the LX 570. And then we were off roadless for a while. We had our son, and we weren't really sure what's going to happen. I just started the new job. So we're, Well, we're just going to get out of this world for a little bit. And then I ended up buying a bunch of little RC trucks to get my fix. So I'm out in the backyard running it up the rock wall. And then the RAP 4 came about. My brother was selling it. It's got the V8 motor in it. Very rare for the RAV4 to have the V8 motor. But there goes my light, so you can't see it anymore. Perfect timing. Perfect timing. Why couldn't I go first, Davey? Jeez. So, bought that, 3,500 bucks. Just so everybody knows, nick was 20 minutes late while the rest of us waited because he was cutting his grass and forgot. Hey, homeownership, baby. You got to take care of it before the HOA gets a hold of you. And it's not a wrap for. We can't see it now, but it's definitely not a wrap for. Yeah, it's not a wrap for. Somebody in the comments is going to explode about, Hey, it's a four-runer. Yeah, it's basically a Land Cruiser. Basically a RAV4. Yeah, pretty much. But then this thing came about. My brother his wife. It was her car. For them, it was a fifth or six car. They had everything else you can think of. But I wanted it for six years. So before I ever bought the Frontier, I wanted this. Before I bought the Xtera, I wanted this. And he would always be like, Yeah, I'm going to sell. I'm going to sell it. I'm going to sell it. Oh, I'm not going to sell it. So before I bought the Xtera, I called him. I was like, Are you selling the a 4-runner or not? If you do not sell the 4runner, I'm going to buy a car tomorrow. He's like, No, we're going to hold on to it. All right, cool. So we bought the Xtera. And then finally, we had Sawyer and We just got the itch, and he sent me some videos. He's like, I think I'm going to sell it. I think I'm going to sell it. And then he backed off. So I got a wild hair in my ass. I just texted his wife, and I was like, Can I buy the 4-runner? And she's like, Well, what's it worth, and what would you give me for it? I was like, Well, I'll give you 3,500 bucks for it. It's worth probably around seven. She's like, Yeah, come get it. So Before they could change their mind. So Sydney and my son and I were going to drive down there. I was going to drive it home, and I think my son got sick. So they live in Athens, Georgia, so it was about a five-hour drive. Well, before they could change their minds, I decided, I'm just driving down there. I'm going to get a trailer. I'm coming down to pick it up. I don't care, you can't change your mind. I have cash money. Here you go. Sign it over to me. I'm going home with this trailer, or this four-runner, RAD 4. So, yeah, honestly, at the time, if I could have found it next day for 3,500 bucks, I would have bought next day. If I could have found a Frontier, a Jeep, a Trooper, a Monteiro, you name it. I didn't give a crap what it was. I just wanted an off-road vehicle that I can go and enjoy my hobby again. So So luckily, it was a Toyota because now I just don't have to worry about it. Like Davy, he mentioned earlier, he's like, Well, we can't go to the junkyard and buy stuff. It's because we don't need to. Well, this is an interesting point. There's obviously, we touched on it a little bit, a price difference between a comparable feature-wise comparable Xterra and a forerunner. But I don't know what the capability difference is. Now, we could argue the reliability difference of of Toyota and Nissan. But if you purchase the right spec, and that's true with a lot of vehicles, from the showroom floor, so to speak, not with what you've modded on it, but you're getting maybe 80 or 90 % of the capability of the Toyota for 60 or 70 % of the cost. So there's a value there. I say that as As a Toyota person, again, strength, reliability is a different thing, but just pure feature set, they're fairly comparable. Now somebody's going to explode and say, well, you have a track and traction control, and Nissan doesn't this and that, but that's not the point of this conversation. Nissan does have that. Yeah. So Nissan does have a similar type of system, ABLS. It's a braking system that works like a locker. So, yeah, I actually do have two exteras for the price that my brother-in-law paid for a fifth-gen. So I really do have basically truly two exteras for the price of one, basically, what my brother-in-law paid for his fifth Gen 4-runner. I've got my 2010 Xtera and a 2012 Pro 4X. And the 2010 is a base model. When I was doing my research, that was the first one that I got. I was doing my research and I was like, okay, what are common problems? Where did the line cut off of like, okay, they sorted out their big problems. Big problem we all know is transmission problems, strawberry, milkshake of death, issues with the radiator, coolant, and the transmission fluid mixing. So that was a big focus for me. And I found out that they resolved that in late 2009, 2010. So a 2010 Nissan Xteria, the base model is what I got, and it comes with this ABLS braking system, which is like a-Aston It's a great limited slip. Yeah. That's what that stands for. Yeah. It's like an A track. A track is what we call it in Toyotas. Like an A track type of system where if you get up on three wheels or even two wheels, it will shift power to the wheel that's slipping and continue to share that power. And so, yeah, I've really pushed that system and it's really held up well. And I've compared it on other trails with guys running A track as well. Matt, we mentioned Nashdad off road and some others compared it as well. And it functions the same, and it's just not as widely known. There are some issues with your wheeling and Matt's wheeling There's a little difference of drivers, so you can't really make that comparison. Matt is wonderful, but he is very conservative, where I've seen Jordan wheel, and I don't see a lot of conservativity there. No. It's calculated. No, it's not a... I'd put you behind any car, Jordan. You'd make it up just about anything. Exactly. Davy, to your point, if you take the two platforms and even take a Pro 4X and a TRD Pro, and you both got rear lockers, roughly the same amount of ground clearance and travel in the suspension. But really, the only limiting factor, in my opinion, like nick said, is the driver in that point. I mean, you can really point and shoot both those vehicles, in my opinion, and pretty much in similar scenarios, and you're probably going to get the same outcome. I think the biggest thing from my point of view, I see that's different is, they're both body on frame trucks, but the Toyota bodies, they sit higher. It looks like the body itself has more clearance off the ground than, say, the Exteros, Pathfinder Frontiers. It looks like they were designed more for the wheeling aspect because probably they were. But to me, I don't see that being a limiting factor too much in the typical overlandy, mild off-road setup. Was the Frontier so sold outside of the US originally, or was that just a US truck? They're all over. They're all over? Yeah. It's the Navara. Yeah, the Navara or the D40, D41s. I mean, it I've seen that in the States, too. But a lot of the parts are plug and play. But I've noticed a lot of the front ends, and I don't remember off the top of my head the year making models of them. But some of the body styles, especially in the front, are just a little bit different. You'll notice they're a a lot more tucked up. But I was going to mention on the suspension lift, you put a Nextera at a forerunner, even a Tacoma and a Frontier, which I've noticed, probably more just having a Frontier myself. You could look at it bone-stocked across the board. But from a Nissan owner, a two-inch lift on a Tacoma looks like a six-inch lift. The difference is so drastic, and it's really minimal at the same time. But a two-inch lift on a Frontier or an Nextera is like, that looks just rolled off the lot factor. It's all that body placement. Exactly. I think that's what leads a lot of guys to go tight and swap or even just throw a rough country six-inch drop bracket on just to get the height. Not always looking at the performance more so just trying to get the clearance to get over stuff. The lifted look. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, because we've had this conversation on the show before, but the trend nowadays, people have realized the benefit of bringing these vehicles back down. We want maximum travel, but that low center of gravity. So it's a double-edged sword. Yes, for sure. All right. So you guys have said it, you've all mentioned it at one time or another, this Titan swap. So for somebody that's listening that's like, what the heck are they talking about? Who wants to tackle defining the options of a Titan swap? I'll jump into it. So when you have a Frontier Xteria Pathbinder and you want to be wider front-end, it's like a mid travel. So what's like a mid-to-long travel, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So you take the Frontier Xteria Pathbinder and you go trade it in for a Nissan Titan, and that is the ultimate Titan swap. That sounds like you're speaking from experience there. All that chaps jump into that one. He's the engineer. Yeah, he's not all the specs. Yeah. So in my opinion, yeah, that's the ultimate Titan Swap. If you need a full size V8 truck You're far cheaper and better off to do it that way. There's really two realms of Titan Swap. There's suspension Titan Swap, and then some people refer to the V8 Swap as a Titan Swap because it uses the same five, six out of the Titan. So if you go the engine route, there's a company in Ohio that makes a plug and play harness for the Exteros Frontiers that basically allows you to adapt the five, six into the truck. Because whenever Nissan designed these platforms, the motor mount's the same for the five, six and the four, oh, the transmission's basically the same. They both share the same transfer case. So it's essentially a drop in V8 swap with a custom harness and a few other doodads you got to tighten up. So that's Go for it. Is there a certain year engine, five, six? I think they keep them... It's like 16 and down, maybe 15 and below. When they went to flex fuel, I don't think they'd like to mess with that too much. But technically, if you had all the ECM's talking and the ECM and everything, I think it would probably work. But yeah, that's a good question. But that's the engine side, the way I look at it. And then the more common is the suspension. So just like how the motor fits in these trucks between the Armada Titan and the Frontier Extero Pathfinder, the suspension is also pretty much the same. So all the mounting points on the frame and the front-end, they're all the same points on the frame. It's just the actual control arms themselves are classified by length. So if you want to rock auto... Go ahead. I was going to say, so it's upper and lower control arms and CV shafts and tie rods? Yeah. You hit the nail on the head. And then coilovers, of course, is what that leads into. You can hop on Rock Auto and go under the economy section and buy upper, lower tie rods, some CV axles, and then you're basically set component-wise. You got to get some coilovers and figure out the shocks. But I'd say roughly under $1,200, you can have the entire front-end as a Nissan Titan, which nets you three inches per side of width, which technically it moves the motion ratio of the front suspension. So it allows you to go higher in lift because you're going wider without cranking your coil overs up so high that you lose pretty much all your down travel. So that helps in obviously wheeling scenarios. But in my opinion, this front-tier back here, I'm rebuilding. It's just going to be a daily driver type thing. And the whole front-end's shot. So if I'm going to buy all those parts I just mentioned for a frontier, why not buy it for a Titan? Same price, get added track with. It'll ride a little better with the larger shock in there. And it's a pretty cool swap. So of course, you can take it from budget rock auto, even junkyard parts all the way up to Dirt King has made upper and lowers CJD fabrication, makes a lot of components for our stuff. So you can go full Heim race kit in the front-end. Anything from Bilstein 5100 with some stacked spacers on top to get the length all the way to King Shox if you really wanted 3. 0 bypasses in the front. So there's a lot of variety you can do to get that extra travel, almost like nick said, a mid-travel set up that works really good and also handles really good. Yeah, it's I mean, it's... Well, same concept as with the 200s, with my truck on the Tundra swap. So we take Tundra uppers and lowers and Tundra CVs to gain that same width. But in the Toyota world, there's nothing on the Tacoma market or 400 market comparable that you can go buy and and get a, I call it a poor boy mid-travel kid, you know Because if you're getting upper and lower control arms in a set of axles for $1,200, granted, they're Rock Auto, which could be good, could be bad, depends. We all know. But, yeah, that's hard to beat. So you've bought a truck at a at a lower premium to start with, and now you have $1,200 worth of parts in a Saturday in the driveway, and you've got a mid-travel kid on the front. Well, You've got to get co-overs, but still. Yeah. You can even take it a step further, too, and do a full spendal swap. So obviously the taper ball joints on the control arms are the same between the platforms. But I'm a spendal swap with an armada with the towing package. So I've got almost a 14-inch rotor for braking, which is excellent on this truck with 35s and with the weight of the truck. The downside is you lose pretty much all clearance on a 17-inch wheel. If you have anything, you're barely getting this paper between there. So it's not the best for off-roading, but I just went up to 18s. Got some beat locks, called it a day. But likewise in the rear for the Titan, excuse me, for the Frontier and the Exteros, you can take the Titan M226 Dana 44, which is essentially the same accel that's in the front here in the Extero on the Pro 4X versions. You can swap that in the rear. And then what that gives you is the ability to not run spacers in the rear to match the added width in the front, and also you get the six on five and a half lug pattern. So if you swap spendals in the front like I did to actually have wheel options because it is a six on four and a half from the factory, now you have a full six on five and a half front and rear, and all you had to do is just buzz off the hangers on the axial, weld you a different perch, and you're good to go. That's actually my current headache right now. So in the barn, I have staged a set of 537s that I bought off Facebook marketplace. It was just a friend that popped up and I said, oh, yeah, let me grab those. The hang up for me is that they're 1350 wide. And they're 17-inch wheels and comes stock with 16-inch wheels. So already that's why they're sitting in the barn. But also that 1350 means that I need to run a really wide wheel and I'm super limited by that six on four and a half bolt pattern. So that's something that I've been just going back and forth on. And there's really maybe two options that I can come up with, like ATI out of Australia, maybe a KMC. So I'm not sure exactly what I'll do there because I've got the Extero Pro 4X Axle with three-inch wheel spacers on each side to match the track width. Three-inch spacers on each side now? On each side, that's correct. Yeah, to match the track width up front. I mean, I'm running two inches in the rear. Yeah, I had three, and I was like, That's just too much for me. I went down to two. I don't know if it makes a difference. If you Yeah. If you don't, I mean, if you like the pre-runner bully dog look, then it's pretty drastic, especially depending on what wheel set up you have. If you're into the offsets and how you want to set that up, positive or negative. I think I'm running a plus 10 millimeter offset. So mine, I've got three inches wide in the front on each side, and the rear is two inches. But if you just look down it real fast, you'd probably never really know a difference. Yeah. A real comment the interview is, I was on this set up for a while, hit up borough industries and have them make you a six on four and a half to six on five and a half adapter that's also in the width you need. Now you've checked off all your boxes, but you're still, if you're not tight and swaps in the front, that works out great. But if you are, now you've just added another at least inch and three quarter to your front track with. And you've got half your tire hanging out, which some people like, but, old chase like that look. But now after using If I'm in a truck like I want to, it's definitely the further I can get that wheel under the fender, I like. Can you start running into clearanceing issues, right? If you turn it full lock, you are absolutely crunching, at least for us, the back of that front wheel well, and you just got trim it or you've got to take. You can see on my truck, there's about a one and a half inch body bend right there at the fender, at least for the frontier and the front and back. A lot of guys that go with 35s or higher end up trimming that all the way back. It's great for clearancing, but you start running into like, pinch welds and body bondo welds and stuff up in there. Well, that's an interesting point, though, because you don't have a body mount to relocate. That is true, though. I'm You're trimming a little piece of sheet metal on the fender. You're just smashing back your pinch weld to get 37s. I mean, the stuff that Donnie is doing, Polar Terra, that's pretty amazing, where on a Toyota, from what I've seen if you're… I don't know. 285, 75 if you're rubbing. I don't know where the numbers are. I'm seeing body mount relocation. It seems to me like a fair amount of tubbing if you get up to 37s and larger. Oh, yeah. You're talking full custom fabrication. If you're not comfortable doing it at home, then it's going to start adding up really quickly just to get a 33, 34-inch plus tire on that car, even with a two, three-inch lift because you got a lot of clearance, but you run into clearance issues from the body and the frame itself versus the actual height of the car, which for the most part, the front tier exterior, even the Pathfinder, doesn't really have to worry about. We probably hit the pitch wall before we hit even anything on the body of the frame, which is pretty easy to knock back and clear some pain, et cetera. I was going to mention one more thing on Chase, you mentioned the tight swap. I don't know if we mentioned it before, but the front differential, too, right? Oh, yeah, good point. You mentioned all the bolts. I think of it two and three ways. A lot of guys will do suspension, and then they'll maybe swap the front differential out. And then the ultimate goal might be that V8, right? But the front differential is the M205, which is in the Titan, the Armadas, and then in the Frontiers, Exteriors, Pathfinders, it's R180. And I don't have the ring gear specs. Chase, you might know them off the top of your head, but that M205 is a little beefier, right? So you hear of guys grenating R180 front diff slot, especially TitanSwap. I know Matt Bruick, he drives a little on the head of your side, but he's grenated one or two. But the advantage to them two or five is on the diff itself, the flanges are bolt on. So if you're out on the trail and you somehow snap a CV, instead of trying to worry about the splines in your differential being chewed up or marred, you're only worried about one side of the spinle. So you can unbolt, I think it's six bolts, it alt the CV to the differential. And it's a pretty easy swap, and you get a little bit more robustness from doing that. There's more gear options available. They're easier to work on. A lot of guys would end up regearing front and rear. Most oftentimes, swap that in 205 front differential. But you don't have to be tight. You don't have to be tight swapping to do it either. Yeah. I forgot how it was most crucial. Oh, so you don't have to be tight and swaped to put the front different. No, technically, no, you don't. I think it's a QX80 Axle. Is that right? Or a V8 Pathfinder. Yeah, it's just a V8 Pathfinder. So the titan Axle is obviously wider, right? But the VA Pathfinder has all the bulk and the meatiness in it. It has the M205 already. And so it's a shorter shaft. I don't remember all the measurements, but you can bolt that in without having to cut it or get a custom axel staff. You don't have to go like RCVs or anything. You can simply just find a VA Pathfinder Axel if you've got that M205 swap. Like Chase said, all the body amounts, all the hardware is the same. There's no welding, custom fabrication, which is a huge benefit, I think, to a lot of guys getting a, quote unquote cheaper vehicle, but able to beef it up and hang with some of the Toyota guys out there. Are they going to put me out of work if you keep buying a Nissan? I got another project for you, nick. Don't worry. Are those dips pretty readily available? Yes. They're in basically every Titan in armada. So there's a couple of years.'08 and above is, they call it the three rib. So there's three ribs on the casting because the '05 or technically'04 to '07s had two ribs, and they were a little bit slimmer on the casting, so they were more known to break They also have two Spider gears internally versus four. So they would also shear at the Spider gears if you didn't crack a housing. So the three rib was the '08 and up, like Ethan said, Titan, Armada, and then also the QX 56 in some of your models. I mean, you can go, if you're in the Nashville area, to LKQ, pick your part, or Express Pull & Save. And there is typically always at least one vehicle there that has an M2 of five in it. I see some of the prices online. People are in the Facebook groups. Oh, I got one for 6. 50 the other day. Such a great deal. And I'm throwing up in my mouth because I can go pull one for 60 bucks at Express Pull & Save. And if you got a 19 millimeter socket, some 14 millimeter rich for the drive shaft, and then just a couple of hours of your time, you can easily pull one at the junkyard and save a crap load of money. Hey, you're a different breed, though. You're a different breed. That's true. I'm single income, no kids. So yeah, I guess that's it. That's right. If you're that one more time, you'll pull one. Talking about regearing, though, I got the 408. It's basically a 410. The gears front and rear and the rebuild kit for 850 bucks. I think I got it for maybe 800. I don't know what it was. I got it on a Black Friday deal or whatever. They're 850 bucks right now for front and rear. I thought that was a great deal to get all that. Don't hate me, but I got mine even cheaper. There was another sale going on All Dogs off-road. They bought their own 408s out, which is good because there's one or two of the companies that are phasing out that had also offered really good, I think, 410s or 411s, which at the end of the day is basically the same thing as the 408. There's not too much difference in it. I think I might have been under 500 in the Ring & Pinion and the Master Rebuild kits with those at the time, the longest time, the options were an ARB or something that it's not very common to regear a deeper set and to I have that option now is amazing. So, yeah, I love that. Well, let's talk about that. There's giving stuff away. So the, obviously from an OEM parts, Junkyard parts perspective, I mean, we've heard there's There's plenty of availability out there, but I'm thinking this may be the flip side on the aftermarket. I mean, if you want something for a Tacoma or a 4-runner, take your pick. There's a thousand different options. But what does the aftermarket look like? And I know it's changed just in the last few years, but what does it look like in the Nissan world? It was shit when I was dealing with it. Still is, but- It depends on what you're talking about. There was like NizTec- That is definitely one of the bigger parts, like you mentioned, Davy, compared to Toyota. I feel like any company that sells anything off-road has for your Toyota. But there was, like somebody just said, NizTec was one of the bigger ones back in the day that, unfortunately, we've lost them, just like we've lost Jordan. We lost them. We've lost Steven Lutz with Rugged Rocks, who was the pioneer in the Nissan aftermarket world. He was a Wheeler himself, did a lot of middleman with some other companies. Hey, let's get a group buy going on this. And he really pioneered a lot for our platform and other Nissan platforms. But then you got Z1, you got All Dogs, and I'm sure there's a couple of others, Shadow Wolf, that makes the straight-axle swaps. But There is nothing compared to what the Toyota Group has. And of course, there's no custom mounted Mollet panel for my Starbucks coffee like the Tacoma guys probably could buy. But just as far as the actual suspension there are very limited options. But it seems like, and I don't know if just due to the way car prices are nowadays, it's definitely has picked up in the last three to five years. I see a lot more options for these trucks. Maybe COVID had something to do with that and just the overlandy scene. All the broke one of these that can't afford the four runners are buying the the Nissan's. So that's driving the market up a little bit to get us some more availability. Yeah, and part of it, too, a A lot of them are smaller mom and pop shops, too. So there's, unfortunately, a little bit more risk with those versus, I mean, HeftiFab, they obviously make stuff for Nissan, too. But there's all kinds of other companies that make Toyota part of it. If something happens like a pandemic, they're probably going to be okay. There's a couple of other companies. There's a runner off road. I think they make pretty high quality front and rear bumpers, sliders. I think they got on the verge of closing their doors a a couple of years ago. I could be wrong, but it was tough for a lot of these companies that are a lot smaller. But one of my favorites, obviously, ARB makes them. But I think the downside when you get into it is, at least if you don't have a third gen frontier, like the D41s, then any new products just aren't coming out. I've hit ARB up so many times just out of curiosity of, Hey, are you all going to come out? They're bringing new bumpers out for Even older Tacomas, older Tundras, which look really sharp. They're a little less bulky, a little more high and tight. And they're like, no, we don't have any plans to do that. So, yeah, these trucks are everywhere, but no one's really interested from what I've seen in bringing out new products for the most part, especially some of the bigger companies out there that support a lot of other brands. I think that really touches on your point. And it's It's hard to invest that money into maybe selling six bumpers or six Mollet panels for my Starbucks coffee cup. There are a lot of small guys that sell these little niche items for the Nesons, but it's hard to sustain a business when Jordan, Chase, and Ethan are the other ones buying from them, and Donnie, I guess. A hundred %, yeah. Yeah, Donnie's out there, too. That's why they're becoming that forgotten stepchild, like Davies mentioned here on this list, is because a lot of these guys, too, all four of us, we wrench on our own stuff, all five of us, and a lot of people don't. And that's totally fine. You can be in this industry and get outside to enjoy things without ever really having to pick up a wrench if you don't want to. But if you try to find these bolt on models and all these aftermarket doodads you want, you're probably not going to find a lot of that for the frontier that is 100 % bolt on ready to go, in my opinion. Yeah, it's going to... I think what you're saying, Chase, is it's going to force guys to learn a little bit more and turn some wrenches and do some more DIY because independent on where you live, live. In most major cities now, there's an off-road shop that is the Toyota shop in the area, right? You got a four-runner, you go over here, these guys are going to bolt your kit on, and that's that. There's very few shops in the country that are a, quote, Nissan shop. Exactly. I mean, that or they're all Jeep shops, too. It's like Music City, four by four. A couple of these I mean, they'll work on it, but they might charge you a little bit more. I got a quote from... It used to be four by four parts down there off Nolansville. I forget what their name is now. Now it's Total Off-Road. Yeah, I went down there just I was like, Look, guys, I got brand new in box reputable gear sets, and the price I got, I wanted a lot. I was like, That is absolutely insane. I know it takes time. I know it's a lot of work to get gears installed But it was like almost $5,000 just for the install. That's pretty much like the price of, no, we're not going to touch it. And I was like, yeah, all right. I'm going somewhere. I got to tell you they don't want to do it at that I got some of your quotes from a Jeep shop on regearing just because the moment I mentioned third member, I'll bring it into my trunk. They're like, Yeah, they shot me this high number, which is what pushed me to regear myself and learn it, which I'm glad I did. But it's funny. I'm going to make a statement, and this might hurt some people's feelings. But if you want to actually wheel, go buy an XJ, go buy a TJ, some type of Jeep. If you want to get into this very cheaply easily, I want to click add to cart and have a super great Wheeler. I think you got to get a Jeep. If you don't want to have the headaches of what we go through on a daily basis, in my opinion, because I see a lot of XJs that are bone stock on 33s that could out wheel me every day of the week. But I get that's not everybody's cup of tea. But when everybody's like, man, I love that truck. I want to get something to go off road. I honestly tell them, don't buy one of these. Don't. If you truly want to have an enjoyable experience and not go broke, buy a Jeep, get some type of older Jeep that you don't mind to beat up off a tree, and then you could sell it and still probably make a profit on it. That might hurt some feelings, but... This is definitely a niche. And for me, that makes it special, too, because a lot of times when I'm at the top of engineer paths, I had a great conversation. One time bumping up to the top of the Colmont Mountain. I'll have somebody stops by and it's like, wow, you're actually wheeling this. I had an Extero when I was a kid or something silly. A long time ago, I had an Xtera. I can't believe somebody is actually doing this stuff. That's what makes it hands down worth owning it moments like that for sure. Yeah, it's very unique. It's different from there's 24 Jeeps and eight four runners and one built Xtera. We're used to riding like that. I can respect that. That's the cool part, too. I think for the most part, we can keep up with a lot of this driver, too. But if you can put this thing on a line, nine times out of 10, they're going to hit it and they're going to go, which has always been super fun. I can respect that. The Lexus badge gets a similar response from people on the trail. Wait, and not to hijack it. Not to hijack it, maybe. But I think the beginning this year, the STLCA trip that I went on in January. Yes, the New Year's ride. Yeah. Yeah, the New Year's ride. Davy hit me up, said, Hey, you can go if you want to. I decided to go with the group that went to the Cove. He's like, Just forewarning, it's all land cruisers. I'm like, Oh, yeah, that's fine. I knew zero people. I'm rolling up in this this, glamorous-looking vehicle through their eyes. The first thing they say, Hey, you know you can get some body damage on this trip? I'm like, I already got a crush vendor. I'm cool with that. But it is. It's just that look of like, Is this person really going to come out here? Then we're over there doing the same trail. The excitement that they had for that at the same time was cool because they're used to seeing their rig every day, just like we are. It was funny. It was like I was teaching my son something about a car for the first time as they watched me change out the CV accel that I broke. But it was pretty cool to see that just like, wow moment from some real wheelers pulling up in this Nissan. It was pretty cool. Yeah. My frontier got me out of the speeding ticket one time down in Franklin, Tennessee. It was a 35. I was going 55. I really didn't realize it. Sure enough, Williamson County turns around, does a complete U-turn on the road, pulls me over. Hey, got you for speeding. I said, Yeah, I didn't realize the speed changed. He said, Man, you off road this thing? It was super muddy. Had my MTRs on. I'm like, Yeah, man, I got a Jeep, too. I'm just going to give you a warning. Go have fun. Hell, yeah. So it was a cool experience. Yeah. Credit to the Nissan. Yeah. It probably felt bad for me. This guy can't afford a ticket. What's he doing here? Yeah. All right. Hey, one thing I want to touch on is we've talked about the different aftermarket and swapping OEM parts and what's available. I know none of you guys have gone this route yet, but what I'm seeing more and more of online are these solid, actual, swapped frontiers and exteras, especially. And so there's definitely, I know, some support in the aftermarket for kits and spring purchase and all these things to make that happen now. Chase, I have a feeling you might have looked into that before. What can you tell us about that? I mean, if money was no object, obviously, for sure, the goal for my rig was more like, fairly capable camp set up type rig. I'd like to build a true one ton swap beater truck in the future. And I never really wanted the Pathfinder to be that just because it's got curtain airbags and it's got a lot of these safety feature stuff that I'd have to bypass. If the wheel sensor is not hooked up, I probably can't go in four low, that stuff. So that really deterred me even doing my rear accel swap, going to my three link. I was like, is this going to work? And talk to the computer, which it does. But seeing the Shadow Wolf kit, I think it's a great kit. It's almost set up as to be like a bolt in type set up, but it's still, it's like, I think high $3,000, close to $4,000 just for all the Bracketree arms. And that's still, you got to source your Axel after that. I was going to say, so that's more than the Axel because the Dana 44 is readily available. But yeah. Yeah. And I think it's set up to I use an '05 plus Superduty Axel, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah. Or at least it's an option. But then you got to do gears. You've got to do... If you buy just a naked Axel, you've got six, $800 just in hubs and breaks and everything. So it definitely is pricey. Drive chef. Yeah, Drive Chef, that's another big one. My truck will probably see it one day in the future because that's the only last thing to do other than a V8 swap. But to me, I I would rather take the approach of hit up barns full drive and buy my own type of racketry and then custom fabric from there. So I think you can do it on different budgets. But to see a company like Shadow Wolf actually supporting something like that is beyond incredible, in my opinion. I like how you started that with, That's not what this truck is getting built for. And then you said, my truck will probably end up there. Yeah, probably so. But Before it ends up on the blocks in my backyard, I hope there'll be a straight axel in there first. Honestly, I see my build going more three-link in the rear and staying independent in the front. I think that probably makes more sense for me right now with the type of adventure. I'm not doing any buggy trails, nothing super crazy. It's still built for long distance road trips to get me way out West, way out into the mountains. And then I do some intense wheeling out there, and then I drive it all the way back. So three link is probably the direction I'll go, probably not solid axel swap the front and probably prioritize the V8 swap in the future, because my Xteria is at 235,000 miles right now, and it's still running great, but definitely looking at what's next, probably going to be a V8 swap. I would prioritize that over a solid axel in the front.. At what mileage do you think your lifespan is out of the VQ? I think it's going to be 300. I mean, it's great. I haven't, I haven't swapped the radiator. I shouldn't have said that. I I could have swapped it at this point. I haven't done, I've never had an issue with timing chain guides. You know, that's an issue that guys have. Stating up with maintenance, it's still pull strong. It's excellent. I could easily see it making 300K. In my opinion... Yeah, go ahead, Davy. Well, I was just going to ask about the maintenance and if it requires a more proactive approach, maybe. I started this by talking about Toyota's reliability, and there's this... You can't, but the running joke is you can just neglect one, and it'll just take care of itself. What is it on the Nissan side of thing? Are there things you've got to be proactive about with the maintenance or it's going to bite you? On these four O's, I think you have some basic just sensor BS that all the sensors going out, which you'll probably get on any vehicle. But really the Toyota has their timing belts on the million mile motor that people do proactively. And to me, this is the same thing just with chains. It's fairly involved. But every 120-ish thousand miles, you be doing a timing chain, which some people might be shocked about. But to me, I look at it as it's just preventative maintenance, just like people don't swap their tie rods out every 65,000 miles, like I'm sure the manufacturer says to. But I definitely think you could hop in either one, in my opinion, start it up and just drive it until the wheels fall off. And the Toyota may be running a little healthier by that time, potentially. But I think you could neglect each one just as hard. But if you took care of both of them, I think they It would still make it to the finish line at the same time. Yeah, I can't. I got the youngest one. Sensor. Yeah, I was thinking the crank chef. Because those will leave you stranded. Then the heater. How do you know about that, Jordan? Outlet, yeah, right? The heater core and outlet is a bit of plastic. It was upgraded down the line. But it goes out, it'll leave you stranded unless you know to plug it straight into the firewall. Those are or a few off the top of my head for whatever reason. I just crossed over 100,000 maybe a month or two ago. There's some things that I need to start looking at doing, which I'm not excited about. The timing chain is one of those. I'm like, Do I do it myself? Do I not do it myself? But if I can get another vehicle, that would be nice to just leave this thing in the garage and not have to worry about it and just work on it on my own time, like Chase does over there. I think that's the stereotype, too. Of Toyota reliability and Nissan not being reliable, too. But the real thing is that people who buy Nissan's are cheap, just to be honest. They don't take care of them. At a certain point, you can ignore a Toyota and it will keep going. You can ignore a Nissan and get in a pinch. And if you don't know about cars, you don't know how to turn wrenches or whatever, you might get out of this vehicle and get to a Honda whatever. You know what I'm saying? Where it's a different tax bracket, maybe is another way to say it. I wrote this down as one of my talking points because I know a lot of non-car people, and I've heard that stereotype as, Well, Nissan isn't reliable. I think to a lot of people, from that 2012 to 2018 range with their CBT issues in their small cars, that's one thing that everybody knows somebody that had a VersaCentra that had some type of issue, and it's always that piece of crap Nissan, and my Corolla is fine. Even though Corolla had a very similar CBT, different manufacturer, better experience, I think that that overall CBT issue just tarnished the Nissan name to non-car people. If now their son wants to buy a Frontier, it's, Oh, no, those Nessons are always bad, even though they've been great trucks, totally different platform. I think that's honestly hurt their name a little bit because they were... I'm I was born in the '90s, so I can't speak too much, but they were fairly neck and neck. The pickup trucks, it was either you had the Toyota, had a little bit more money, or you had the hard body, you didn't have as much money. But they were still really great performers until that CVT range hit. I think about the engines, too. I've had people say, Oh, that thing's old as dirt. One, I think there's something to be said about the longevity of an engine being in a truck or a car. It's there, it works. The 4-runner. I mean, before they came out with the new engine, it's like that fifth gen, that's had the same engine for, gosh, just as long as the frontier has. So one could argue that, I mean, all things aside, if you can keep up with maintenance, you might just have a better engine or a very comparable engine that might piss some people off. To what a Toyota is, if you know what you're doing, right? If you don't know what you're doing, like Chase said, it's like, Nissan, I'm going to get a 4-runner, and I'm never going to think about it again until they into some problem because they neglected something for a little too long. Guys, what about the overseas market? We mentioned that a little bit earlier, but if you've watched any type of YouTube, of off-road four-wheel drive internationally, especially the Australian market, they've got the patrols over there, the Y62s, the old GQ patrols. And I mean, these are rigs that are getting beat on. And if the Land Cruiser guys are honest, they're jealous of those Patrol axles because you talk about beef. I mean, they're beefy. Oh, yeah. Is there any parts interchangeability with these later model ones with the international market? Not much. The only thing I know is that I would sell everything in this garage just to have one of them. That's all I know. Oh, yeah. That's all I know about them. Oh, yeah. So when they brought the Patrol to the US, it was in 2017. So you'd have the QX 56, the QX 80. I think they changed it up to the QX 80, which was more of the luxury side. But the Armada, for the longest time, still shared a lot of the same drive engine and all that as overseas. But the body style in 2017 is when they started matching what we would know as the Y62 Patrol overseas. So we never got the solid actual version of the GU Patrol or like the... Oh, gosh, the truck version. I forget what they call them over there. There's so many for their name. The Navara? Yeah, the Navara. Or they also made a Ute, basically, a little flat tray on the back where they built them over there themselves. They cut the back of an armada off in the States, basically what we call them, and then they'd put a tray on the back of it. The four-wheel drive 247 guys did that, and it looks bad. Like, yeah, it's a lot of work, but it's pretty slick if you're looking for the ultimate tour. So, yeah, we picked up a 2017 Armada a few months ago and have loved every bit of it. So there's a little bit of risk when you do that because that was the first year we got that transmission and drivetrain from the older armadas, which is a little more rugged look than the newer body styles. The newer body styles a little more luxury, I guess. It's probably a good way to put it, but they share a lot of parts. The 2017, it's got an Australian-based company bumper on it, roof rack, and it's all bolt on. So there's a couple of small things that might be different here and there, depending on the trim model. Because we got sensors, parking sensors, front and rear. We've got Sonr, adaptive cruise control, which sometimes they accommodate for, sometimes they don't. Because overseas, they a crap. They take those things out and they will. And they're not looking for the creature comforts. Those are, when you're talking like aftermarket parts, I think some of the technology, depending on the year, make and model, is whether it's adapted or not. I think they call them like Series 5. I've done a lot of reading lately, but it's like there's a Series 2, 3, 4, which is like the Y62s over there. In the 2021 armada in the States, where they got to do a front-end body style. From what I've seen is when they started incorporating a lot of the US accessories or the parking sensors, radar into their bumpers. Previous generations, it's a hit or miss sometimes. But as far as the drivetrains and solid axles, we don't have solid axles. Those are models are all the QX 56s, the QX 80s, the newer versions are all independent front and rear. So it makes it a little difficult to lift, but I've seen guys stuff five in there with a one or two-inch lift, which is pretty slick. I'm really hoping that as we get further in the future, we're going to start seeing more of those GUs pop up over here from people importing them, hopefully out on the trails. I know there's a couple There's maybe one or two that frequent Wind Rock because I saw one in the parking lot and about had a heart attack. I'm seeing the overseas XJ, there's no way that's here. But that'd be pretty cool if we see more of that start popping up in the area. It was like a mid '90s Y-61. Overseas XJ. Is that what you're talking about? It was some folks in Murfreesboro that owned that. I think they imported it. Was that the Hijinks? Yeah, that's right. Hijinks has one, too. But there was one that's being truly wheeled at Wynrock. It had definitely seen some better days. Who was it? Was it that guy, Richard? The Australian? Did it have wrap on it or anything? It was so covered in mud in the parking lot. I couldn't tell you anything about it other than there was a patrol. There's a dude that has one. It's actually got a two-door LS in it. He's up there in Springfield. He actually has three or four different patrol. He's come to the toy drive many times in different patrols. Well, all right. I see Ethan's pulling pictures up here to show off. I'm just messing with this new... No, this is what I was talking about. Hang on, let me switch over. Oh, gosh. In the States, from getting one. I'm not going to solid access. That's not the plan, but I hope to do it before I die deal. I got a little bit of pushback from some folks on getting one of these because there is the transmission issues, which a lot A lot of these, thankfully, didn't have, even though the 2017 was the first year of the new transmission in this vehicle. Thankfully, there wasn't a lot of issues. But there was something with the seven cylinder in the V8 here would get scored or scarred. So you'd have all kinds of misfires, and you'd basically toast your engine. I played a little bit of a gamble with this one. This one had 165,000 miles on it when we bought it. Bought it out of state, too, which is crazy. Thankfully, they had a really good return. We'll pay to ship it back. So I was like, Where's the papers? Because I'm signing that one. Being a Nissan guy, I still question it a little bit. You have to. But all that to say, we were looking for a family vehicle, right? Something I can drive every day. We've got a little girl. Hope to grow the family again another time, but we need more space. I took the the back seats out of the frontier, built a platform, put the 40 % split I look back in for the car seat, and it just wasn't working. And my wife's got a smart car. But when you think of the patrol in the States, I feel like this is what most people think of. They don't always think of the solid axel units overseas, like the GUs and the Y6s and 1s that are out there wheeling and dealing. They think of more of this because if you go overseas and get in a patrol, you're most likely getting in one of these. The guys over in Dubai and Abu Dhabi been over there once with a long time ago, we went and ripped around in some dunes, and there was three or four of these out there, Bone Stock, street tires, stock air filters, no nothing, absolutely ripping out the dunes. And they kept up and were out wheeling side by side. It's like, it is in saying what these guys put these things through. So that's where I got an inspiration from it. But, yeah, that's the control right there. Those are the ones you don't want to buy. Exactly. You want to let them have fun and go buy the one that old grandma over here has been driving for the past 10 years and has only seen the streets, right? Thankfully, this one was well taken care of, and we haven't had any issues, knock on wood. I'm sure I'll have to get a new transmission tomorrow because of that. But for now, we'll see. I hope not. For your sake. We were going to buy an Armada because I was so in love with Nissons, and then my Titan transmission went out, And we just did not want to take a risk on another Nissan. Putting that money into it. We're like, you know what? We're just going to go buy this. We actually went to look at a 4-runner, a 5th-gen 4-runner, and the LX was parked right next to it. My wife said, what's that? I was like, Oh, you don't want that. It's too big, remember? It's way too big for you. She got in and loved it. We did have a little bit of an issue with it last summer. We did have to rip the front end of the motor apart and put in new timing chains and timing tensioners at 150,000 miles. But while we were in there, we I had, I say we, like I was in there doing any of the work. I did not have the skill set to do that work, so we hired outside source to do all the work for us. And he did all the little knickknack stuff for that 5. 7, that needs to be done. The valley gasket, the cam, something or others. But the big thing was the rambling timing chain was my wife couldn't deal with it. So we had that replaced and fixed. What you're saying is your Toyota did require maintenance. That's news to me. It's like you replacing your whole engine. It's like preventative maintenance. I probably spent the same on the engine as you did the timing, guys. Fair. Probably. But you know what? That engine is going to give you 30,000, or this one will give me another 200,000. I hope not. In that case, I hope it does. Well, nick, you said earlier that you were going to spend $3,500 and you were going to buy something that you could get out and wheel and adventure and camp and and do what you wanted to do with. And I think at the end of the day, that's the goal of all of this for most of us is the enjoyment that you get out of the whole process, building, breaking, camping, repeating. It all runs together As we wrap up here, does anybody have any big trips planned or maybe on the horizon for their Nissan? That'd be a... We'll probably just be in the The local Wind Rock and Colmont at some point throughout the year. But with how life is going for me at the moment, it's going to be a minute before I can do some real hardcore wheeling again. But just probably some local Wind Rock trips I mean, I'm always down for going and checking out some easy stuff and driving back home with that possible cause, a breakage. But I'm also always down for a good time, too. Chase, when are you all getting married? Probably in like 2032 or something like that. It'll probably be next year. So we're trying to settle down and get a house and move and all that stuff, I'm sure at some point in the future. So life will hit me pretty hard. But sometime next year, probably. I was going to say my next couple of trips, I think it's been on pause with a new baby in our household. But I am planning to get back to Red Clay Rally this fall. So I'm very excited about that, especially because we've got Red Clay Rally back in the heart of Appalachia again. That's going to be this year. And then next year, we're planning Red Clay Rally West. So that's going to be super exciting. I'm very excited about that. It's going to be a long trip from Colorado all the way. It's going to end in Vegas. I mean, that's going to be a really cool rally. It's going to be awesome. Very excited about Red Clay Rally. And then at the end of the year, I'm going to do, again, I mentioned Venture Unkown earlier. I'm going to take part in sweep up the Southeast, and it's expanding outside of the Southeast. So it's a multi-state cleanup event, cleaning up public land. And last year, we set a goal to clean up 100,000 of trash off of public land. And it's local groups going to our local, local parks. We went, my group went to Land Between The Lakes, and we just cleaned up trash. And among all of our groups, we cleaned up 100,000 pounds of trash. It was amazing. It's awesome. We're going to do more. That'll be in December with VentureUnknown. So, yeah, that's what I've got planned for the rest of the year. Just hoping to sleep through the night before then. Yes. Man, I don't know if I've got much either. Last year, I didn't get to make it to Red Clay. That's been probably the highlight of the year or one or two of them. So I'm planning to go back this year in September and then hit Red Clay Rally West. Next year, I've got the green light for both, which is awesome. So last year, we had a little girl around the time of Red Clay, and obviously, it was much better and much more productive to stay home and be with her. So it was a bummer to miss it, and I'll be excited to get back out there. And then we actually just moved up to Ohio to be closer to family. I am no longer in Tennessee, which is bitter sweet. The land access is a little tougher. I've got a couple of contacts, guys that are up in the northern northeast area that I hope to meet up with in the next few months. Just show me around and try to find some good wheeling. You're going to drive out to West Virginia as well. Yeah. Oh, yeah. West Virginia, Red Clay, two years I guess it was. Hit up West Virginia, Virginia, and Kentucky corridor up there. Cold country. Yeah. Cold country. I've been out West a couple of times, but there was one or two campsites that I would probably almost rather go there than go out West. It was different. It was close by. It just felt like you shouldn't be able to find this over on the East Coast. That just took my breath away. I've got the waypoints, and I still want to go up with some guys, some some guys that haven't been there to show them, and some guys that have been there just to go relive a couple of memories. So that'd be fine. Then probably see how many more Baha Designs lights I can put on the truck. It's part of it when you live on the pavement for a while. I want to make a connection really quick with Red Clay Rally and West Virginia is Russ. So I met him out at Red Clay Rally. His team won last year. Maybe he got on the podium the year before, but he recently moved to West Virginia, and he started OVR Guide, taking folks out on backcountry trips out through West Virginia. Check him out. His stuff looks amazing. Russ, he's a great guy. Awesome. All right. So I'm going to wrap this. What about you, Davy? Do you have any trips, Davey? Real quick. Yeah, you skipped over me, too. Yeah, and nick. Yeah. Gee, Davy, what is it? 10 o'clock? Is it bedtime or something? I was starting to go to you, nick, but I figured you'd just wander off to do something in the yard or your camera would shut off again. He's just knowing for the rest of the year. Yeah, you still got a wheat eat before the night's over. Yeah, really make my neighbors happy. I'll just jump in real quick. So red K rally. It's a highlight of my year. This might be the first year I don't make it. Like Jordan, we just welcomed our second baby. She's three months old. We have kicked her out of the bedroom, so she is now sleeping in her own room. Mom and dad are... Some nights we're getting full night's sleep, some nights we're up a couple of times, but I don't know if I'll be able to... Hey, thanks. Yeah, it's huge. I should be asleep right now because you sleep when the baby sleeps, and she's been asleep since Fuck me. What did that tell you? What did that tell you? Got to go to sleep. Got to go to sleep. If you're listening to this and not watching it, Nick's feed keeps disappearing and then he shows back up a couple of minutes later. So that's what we're talking about. All that money he spent on a Toyota doesn't have good WiFi anymore. Bummer. I'll talk while he's disappeared. I'm tired. Trips, I've got just a couple of events. I'll be back at Marty Crawl down at Hawk Pride, put on by the Louisiana Land Cruisers, and that's in September. And I think there might actually be a Marty Crawl episode coming, too. There's a teaser for you. And then Cruisers on the Rocks back in Wind Rock in October. So, David, let me ask you this. For people like me, David, that don't follow along with this a whole lot, where's the best place to go to keep up your rides, everything? Instagram or Facebook? Oh, Well, yes. With the STLCA rides, Instagram or Facebook, we've got them all events, Facebook events set up for each one, so that's probably the easiest place. With reminders, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's what it's called. David, let me ask you this. Are you working with someone to get that New Year's ride going again in 2026? The New Year's ride- Because that is the one I meant to mention that I'm going to try to get down there for, for sure. Let me see if I can mute nick mix sprinkler, if you're hearing that in your in your headset now. This boy ain't right, I'm telling you. You invited them, just remember. Oh, big country over there. There we go. Yes, the New Year's ride will definitely happen back at at Colmont. I don't know if it will be the same set up as last year, if there will be a Cove ride and a Colmont ride. There's a lot of things going on there, and we're not going to get into all that this episode, but hopefully it will still be accessible come January. Oh, he's back again. I got to put these mud terrains to the testing. I can't just keep riding on a pavement. I'll wear them out by the time January comes around. We can find somewhere. You just got to get back down here first. I know. I owe a trip down there to see you guys. All right. What I was going to say before is, let's wrap this thing up, but let's go around the circle here real quick, and let's end this with our Overland Weekly rapid fire questions. So first question, I'm going to start with Chase here on the spot. Favorite off-road trail snack? Man, I'm from... I live in East Tennessee now. We've got Doctor enough, which is like the local energy drink. So a Doctor enough and a good old PB&J hits the spot every time. Doctor enough. Yeah, that's pretty local. I don't think- I'll bring you one next time. I'm very familiar with them. I didn't... Oh, really? Yeah, I'd say people in other parts of the country may not be familiar. Not a clue. Yeah. No? Like a Mountain Dew? Kind of, yeah. It's a trade secret. All right, Ethan, Trail Snack. Oh, a C4 Energy drink. I should have known that. Yeah, you and Matt, this ding. Should have known that, and some beef jerky. Good old Jack Lynx beef jerky is a good choice. If C4 is looking for vehicles to sponsor, I know that Ethan would wrap that truck in a heartbeat. I don't want to sound desperate, but I've been trying a little bit here and there. Just maybe a seamless plug in a video or a story, I'd be happy to comply. All right, Jordan. Just a Cliff bar. Just a cliff bar. Something to keep me together. What flavor? Oh, yeah. What flavor? It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It's just something to fill up my tummy for a little bit. Yeah, just chocolate, peanut butter, whatever. All right. Question number two. Dewalt or Milwaukee? Milwaukee. Milwaukee. It's a matter of fact. See, this tells me something. Since we work on Nissan, we got to keep those things on us. Come on, baby. All right. And last question. Ethan, you go first. If you could only listen to one artist or one album while you're on the trail for the day, what are you putting on? I'm going to get a lot of heat for this, but give me a future. I'm a hip hop and rap guy. I don't even know what that is. I knew it. It makes sense if I got all those lights. You'll turn on the light. Some old school music, our old school Future from pre-2020. That's my jam right there. Oh, pre-2020. Pre-20 is old school now. Oh, yeah. They change their styles all the time. I got Chase talking about being born in the '90s, and now I got you talking about pre-2020 as old school. Hey, I was 94. Come on now. Come on. Yeah. Yeah. All right, Jordan, what's your album? Off the top of my head, I would say Ricky Skaggs, Highway 40 Blues. I just love Ricky Skaggs, all of his stuff. Well, that fits your Appalachian It's a trip. Perfect. That's right. Yeah, I listen to the classic country. There you go. All right, Mr. Mcfresh? I'm going to go Anything Treaty Oak revival. They're like alternative country. I've heard that. It gives you a really good, probably 60% odds that the Razor is going past you will like it and they won't reach your truck. It helps out with the locals. That's awesome. Well, nick disappeared and hasn't come back. I'm sure it's a toss up between Brittany Spears and Christina Aguilari's first albums of which one to choose. But- Chapel Road. All right.. We're going to wrap this thing up. I appreciate you guys joining me. Thanks, Davey. I appreciate having a song. Thanks, Davey. Thanks for having a song, man.