| Author |
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TCarr
| | Posted on Monday, July 15, 2002 - 07:20 pm: | 
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Brand new. Was amazed at how stiff the suspension was, jusst short of axles welded directly to the frame. Actually felt like most of the suspension was the very flexible body. really terrible.
Didn't take it off road but was really disconcerting over rough road and potholes.
Hope they put that flexible bumper additive in the paint on the body. The body bending is not my idea of good articulation...
Will keep the disco (94 D1) |
Al Oliveira (Offroaddisco)
| | Posted on Monday, July 15, 2002 - 10:44 pm: |
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I can't understand why Car & Driver and other magazines don't trash SUV's for having leaf springs in the rear. But rip anyone with a solid axle. |
Mike B.
| | Posted on Monday, July 15, 2002 - 11:00 pm: |
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We have both a 2000 Nissan Xterra and a 98 Disco. So, I thought that I would share our experiences.
We've had the Xterra off-road once just to see what it could do. And you are right, there is about 2" of uptravel on the rear springs and not much articulation all around in it's stock form. However, the ground clearance is good and there are a couple of skid plates under there to keep the rocks away from the critical parts. After getting used to a Disco, the frame flex drives me off the deep end.
The 2000 came stock with the BFG Long Trail T/As. These are some pretty crappy tires. The sidewalls are very weak. The tread pattern looks to be designed for a car, not an SUV, and expecially, not for a 4x4. On a good note, the combination of a lighter vehicle on those wide tires makes the Xterra just float over the soft sand like crazy!
Overall, we really like the vehicle for what we do with it (grocery getter, hauling around the kids and gear, short trips, etc.). Hell, we even used it to pull some stumps out of the back yard once.
Obviously, it's no comparison with a Disco for off-road durablility, but for what we do, it's fantastic. The vehicle is very well engineered (for an SUV) and we've had absolutely no problems with it in the 2.5 years we've owned it.
Thanks,
Mike B. |
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