Newbie with 2011 Pro-4X needs advice....

[Twisties]

Just got it yesterday in Denver and drove it home to Cortez. It's not handling well on mountain highways. Feels tippy wobbly on turn entry, but will more or less stabilize once the suspension is set in the curve. Appears to have oem Bilsteins and 110,000 miles. So, since I certainly need to correct this, I'd like figure out any suspensions modifications/upgrades and do it all at once.

We bought it primarily for use on the Xterra trails (I suppose we don't say Jeep trails here, do we?). We have a lot of them in the area. We're not so much off roaders as we are hikers and photographers, and car campers, but we will drive places like the Alpine Loop/Engineer Pass and Imogene Pass fairly regularly. They are in our back yard. So, hopefully we can get a capable and reasonably comfortable ride on the Xterra trails.

Obviously, the machine has to travel mountain highways to get to the trails, and in some cases it could be a road trip vehicle. So, I'd appreciate a more controlled ride and better handling on the highways, too. I'm definitely not interested in doing anything that impairs highway driving.

I haven't had it off highway yet, and don't know the first thing about what I need. Lift? Shocks? Springs? Once I have a correction/upgrade plan I'll need help finding DIY instructions, or if there are things I shouldn't be doing myself, I'll need to know that too.

I have basic tools, sockets, torque wrenches, etc and do my own motorcycle maintenance, but this would be first time working on a thing like this (trying not to say "car." )

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

 

[TerryD]

Let's start with some vehicle history. Is this your first frame-on SUV/truck?

The first thing to consider for suspension is the kind of use it will see. In not personality familiar with those trails/roads but I'm sure someone here can chime in on them. But I typically recommend folks get out and start wheeling their rig then make decisions about what needs to be improved based on that.

You can easily go overboard with modifications.

 

[Twisties]

We've had trucks. Currently a Ram 3500 4wd diesel long bed set up for towing/heavy loads and not really suitable due to size and stiff suspension. We had an '02 Tacoma 4wd that went pretty much everywhere and before that it was all 2wd vehicles but they went some places they shouldn't have. We also had a '99 Cherokee 4wd but it didn't get too much of a work out. We've never modified any of these in the past. Honestly, I'd rather not modify if I don't need to.

 

[Twisties]

Our purpose in picking up the Xterra was to get a more nimble vehicle that had a more compliant ride on rough roads than the behemoth Ram. I guess maybe I can talk the wife into going out tomorrow to an overlook I've been wanting to take her to. I rode a dirt bike, but she will no longer do that, so she hadn't been. Get a sense how it performs.

 

[IM1RU]

Have you done any or many of the trails on the alpine loop? i.e. where Engineer transitions to Mineral Creek?

 

[Twisties]

Not sure which route is Mineral Creek. I've ridden dirt bikes from Ouray to Engineer Pass and over to Silverton, but that was some time ago and I wouldn't do it now. I was a passenger in a Jeep on the Alpine Loop from Silverton to Lake City and back to Silverton. I've driven up Yankee Boy Basin and to Animas Forks in the past, long time ago. Ridden bike on Ophir Pass (long ago).

Took the Xterra up La Plata Canyon today.... very impressed with it now.

 

[TerryD]

How did it do?

 

[Twisties]

It did great! Amazing control and agility, great ground clearance.

Interestingly, we saw three people and one dirt bike up there. Curious, we got to talking. Turns out the biker was there in support of the two women. One was going for an FKT (fastest known time) for women on the Colorado Trail. The other was doing the segment with her. They had run/hiked 52 miles since 11 pm and it was about 6 pm. Liz, the one just doing the segment, was done for and rode down with us. Tara went on, into the night alone in the mountains. Per her tracker, it appears she finished around midnight.

I'm not clear what the record was. Liz said something about a 2003 record of around 11-12 days. But I saw some claims of 9 ish days online. Either way, I think Tara did it. But, record or not, it's an amazing, jaw dropping accomplishment. I say this as someone who struggles to hike 6 miles in a day at these altitudes in these same mountains.