Took the Frontier out for a little offroading trip this afternoon. Family wanted to see the leaves starting to change, and I wanted to see what the Fronty would do in some rougher stuff than I normally try. Overall, I was pretty impressed for a basically stock pickup. Started off on some fairly mild rock stair steps: Then tried out some rougher loose rock stair step stuff: Had one little hang-up when I picked the wrong line up a pretty big step up with loose rock around it: Ended up with a little rock rash on the TC, exhaust, and fuel tank: Overall, no major damage done, and the family had fun for the most part. My two youngest daughters got a little scared a few times, but my oldest daughter thought it was pretty cool. I did figure out that I need to start working on some skid plates, especially for the fuel tank. I don't do much offroading in the rock, but when I do, I would like more protection. I didn't get pictures in some of the worst areas since I didn't want to stop with the truck perched precariously to try to get out and take pics, and my wife didn't want to leave the truck (except when I hung up, then she had to snap a photo of my "fail" as she called it). At least I was able to self-recover with no problems. Enjoy.
I am planning on trying to build some skids sometime soon. The oil pan, transmission and transfer case should be pretty straight forward, but the fuel tank is going to require some fairly complicated brackets to get it fitted correctly. I have looked at some online, but haven't quite decided how I am going to go about it. It may be a case where spending the $200 + shipping for a ready-made one may be worth it.
Also on my "to-do" list, but I don't want to get too carried away since it is my dd and I need to keep the fuel economy somewhat decent. 120 miles per day at a little over 20 mpg gets expensive enough as is.
Cool pics, and it looks like fun. Did your wife think you were anal for taking pics to post on a truck forum? Mine does every time I take pics of my truck.
I get paid to play in the snow all winter, so I don't do too much on my own. The county roads around here can get pretty bad though, so sometimes I can't help it, I have to get home after all! Yeah, she is always giving me crap about taking truck pictures. She tells me that truck forums are just "boy's facebook". I guess it's kinda true.