The Nissan Path

I've been running some Maxxis Bighorn tires here lately and been spending more time on the trails and the lack of clearance for the deeper runs has been killing me. I'm looking to bump to ~34 or 35 Bighorns and lifting a bit higher for cleanrance and excursion. I'm debating between dropping the suspension with the Calmini kit for 1600 with the 2" Rancho kit I have now, or doing a complete Armada swap and running a lift with tires to sit around 4 to 6 inches high. Can I put that on a V6 pathfinder?

You sure can. Armada or Titan
Aslong as you find UCA LCA tie rod ends CV axles and m205 differential with the same gearing as your rear end.
They sell extended CV axles that are Titan length(3"wider) that fit the stock R180 for around $600. That way you dont have to change the diff.
Tell me what you find out.
Im currently running 7" wider then stock full custom and going to weld my cv axles.

What about brakes? Would the rotors I have now fit on the Titan / Armada spindles? I'm not sure I want to invest that deep into it, but I'm not sold on just lifting a straight 7 inches on stock width. I might look for a more aggressive gearing seeing as how I want to swap the rear for Armada UCA's and LCA's. I might just pick up a set of control arms from the local wreck yard and play around with it over time.

I have done my research so ill save you some time and tell you that the Pathy and Armada have identical rear UCA LCA. only difference is the crossmember bracket :/ so no help there.
Front brakes should fit hubs and spindles might be different.

Wait, so the rear control arms are the same width for the Armada and Pathfinder? I thought the Armada had a wider stance overall with the same suspension geometry

Here's the thing I don't know if I can do though. Would I be able to bolt on the longer Armada half axles to the V6 did, or would I have to pull one of those two and would it fit on my drive train?

http://www.thenissanpath.com/viewtopic. ... sc&start=0

Skim through that. You will notice the uppers on the armada arnt identical but the lowers are. I checked a 2006 Armada and it had the same supension so maybe there is a change on the newer Armadas.
The rear cvs look like they would bolt to both R180 and R230 rear ends.
Now the front for a fact they are different.

So where are our options for a wider stance / more articulation in the rear. I'm worried that straight aftermarket parts would cost enough that I might as well look into an SAS swap. And at that point, I might as well start looking at another rig for the cost cause I'll want to swap the front too.

Do I have to weld new mounting brackets further out onto the frame for the control arms? Is that how the Armada sits wider?

Spindles and hubs are different since the titan and Armada are 6 x 5.5 vs our weird 6 x 4.5 bolt pattern.


Unfortunately we don’t have may options for the R230 rear ends, just2 options (2.94 and 3.36’s).

M205’s have many options, but semi difficult since we don’t have many options for our rear ends. I also agree, the Armada rear is identical. I’ using a QX56 rear end on my Pathy, all I needed to do was change the ABS sensors from my Pathy to the new QX rear ends. The Armada rear is slightly different as far as shocks are concerned as can be seen in that thread linked earlier.

Hopefully one of these days we will figure out an easy/cheap/affordable way to swap a solid axle rear end on these things.

If i had a titan or frontier/xterra that i could sit down amd measure out and compare side by side on the rear differential i would be able to figure out what would be needed to do in order to swap a straight axle.
Main thing i would be worried about is the abs sensor for they rear.

SimulatedZero wrote:So where are our options for a wider stance / more articulation in the rear. I'm worried that straight aftermarket parts would cost enough that I might as well look into an SAS swap. And at that point, I might as well start looking at another rig for the cost cause I'll want to swap the front too.

Do I have to weld new mounting brackets further out onto the frame for the control arms? Is that how the Armada sits wider?

The main cross member that you bolt arms up to is wider then ours. Thats about it. The arms are exact length. So basically the same travel.

The travel on the rear isn't too bad for my needs. The front definitely needs upper control arms as I'm hitting the coil bucket. Another long term project of mine is restoring on old 72 mustang to a modern daily driver with a 3 link coil over conversion for the rear axle. I know how complicated it can be. When I was installing the rear coils and struts on the pathfinder I got a decent look at the control arm set up. A leaf sprung axle might not be too bad, maybe. A five link setup like jeeps have would a bitch of a job and a lot of welding. Not even taking into account planning out the anti-squat, new control arm positions, anti-roll, etc.

The biggest thing to me is the width if I go higher. I don't know. I have to start thinking about how deep I want to go into this. Doing conversions like this opens up a lot of possibilities and ALOT of headaches.

An SAS is feasible, but I'd have to do both axles to satisfy me.

I think you would be satisfied with a titan/armada swap upfront with extended travel coilovers and upper arms.
As for the rear if you can get longer shocks and springs you can get 8-10" travel in the rear.
Stock my arm travels 8" but i havnt purchased longer shocks.

I kind of stopped doing research after i ran into a couple problems in the front 7" wider project on my pathy

Yeah, I'm thinking I might call it quits with an upper control arm for better drop on the front. The rear isn't too bad. I'm still going to hear to a wreck yard and look at the underside of an armada. There's a pain in my ass side that has a dumb idea to look at welding an armada sub frame to the pathfinder to offset the control arms. Who knows.

If I had the coin, I run a complete radflo strut system with oil reserves. But it'd be cheaper to start running limited slip difs. with the the ABS system to pull me through thicker stuff. I've got a video where I bogged my pathfinder in Wakulla cause only one front and back tire would spin despite the traction control system.

If I find anything good on the armada sub frame and cross member I'll post it here.

Actually found an armada rear sub frame with everything for $250 near me.

No kidding. If it weren't for the fact that my girl is about to go into labor I would probably go for it. As is, I think I would get shot for getting mor car parts with the money we've saved up for the baby. I was nearly shot just for getting a light bar and a bunch of steel piping to build a bracket with.

Talking out my ass here, but with the sub frame being wider, I wonder how it would affect the mounting height of the control arms. It'd be cool with if it dropped lower off the frame than the pathfinders and sat the truck a little higher. Would be like a mini calmini bracket drop.