Xterrarising

XterraRising

Bumpers Installed
Location
Utah
Story time. When we bought this Xterra, it had a pretty good sized dent in the hood, passenger side front corner. I told the dealer that I’d like them to either replace the hood for me, or knock a couple thousand off the price. They were eager to sell it, and I was eager to buy it, so we struck a deal. The dent stays, and I save a couple thousand off the price of the vehicle.

I was able to pull most of it out, but that very corner edge is a bastard. It was my intention to get a bug deflector to cover it up anyways; a $50 answer to a $1000 problem. Maybe some day, I’ll get a new hood for it, but not today. Today, we install a unibrow.

Now after some massaging with some tools, I was able to get the dent to be hardly noticeable if you weren’t looking for it.

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The box was a bit sketchy.

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I’ve saved a lot of money buying stuff from Amazon either used or returned. It’s a risk, but brought the price of the deflector down 30%, so it was worth a shot. Confession time: the inverter I bought was an Amazon returned refurbished unit. Saved me $65 over new.

Plus, I get the feel goods knowing there’s one less piece of trash in the landfill.

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While I was browsing the ole Amazon store, I came across some AVS vent shades for my windows. So not only do we get a unibrow, we get some sideburns to go with it.

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Et voilà!

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Covers up that dent nicely. And cost me less than $35 delivered.

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The business end.

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Another angle.

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And the AVS vent shades. Honestly, if you can swing it, get the WeatherTech brand. Auto Ventshade ones feel cheap, and the rough edges from the mold separation had to be scuffed down by me to make them look finished. I have WeatherTech shades on my car, and had them on my Jeep. They are far superior quality to these. But they are on there now, and they will do what they are designed to do.

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Overall, I’m satisfied. The AVS bug deflector on the hood is good quality. It even came with screws so I was able to secure it to the hood better than just mounting tape. I wish the window visors were better quality, but they look fine and give the Xterra a more finished look.

Let’s see if my wife notices LOL!
 

Prime

Shut up Baby, I know it!
Admin
Location
Denver Adjacent
You'll have to let us know how the in channel ones wear. I want to do ventshades but I had the stick on ones on the 1st Gen but I'm worried about wear on the glass for the in channel ones.
 

XterraRising

Bumpers Installed
Location
Utah
I’ve had in-channel ventshades in my vehicles for years. The glass doesn’t really wear. The plastic ventshades will start wearing after a few years. But just keep it clean, and they both last for years.
 

XterraRising

Bumpers Installed
Location
Utah
Well, I’m thoroughly pleased with the body shop. I took the X there a couple weeks ago to have the roof rack looked at. The rivnuts came loose, and some of my attempts to remove it were yielding more damage than results. So, as Clint Eastwood said in Magnum Force, “A man’s got to know his limitations.” Well, that was mine… well until I came up with a plan. But the first part was getting the rivnuts replaced so they will seal up.

The body guys replaced the faulty rivnuts, and got the air dam on well enough so it won’t fly off, despite the damage to the corner, courtesy of yours truly. They wanted to get the air dam off completely, but they couldn’t do it without destruction, so we chatted about it and I told them as long as it doesn’t leak, and doesn’t fly off going down the freeway, I’d be happy with it. So they did exactly that. Then when I went in to pick it up today, they told me they weren’t going to charge me for it. When I asked why not, they said they wanted to get the entire dam off without wrecking it, but couldn’t.

I should back up a bit here because my plan, instead of replacing that plastic dam (that Nissan is so proud of), I told the body shop that I’d just buy an aftermarket rack, and since they had the vehicle already, I’d just pick it up and bring it to them. Well, that was the plan until they were able to fix the roof without utter destruction. So the guy who worked on it said if I still want to buy the aftermarket roof rack, he’d help me install it. Which is cool. Because I hate doing work like that. And now that the vehicle is back together, I can get the rack and set it in the garage next to the Xterra. And if the air dam gets destroyed, then so be it. I’ll take it to the range and ventilate it repeatedly.
 

XterraRising

Bumpers Installed
Location
Utah
So, we acquired a new (to us) car a couple weeks ago, and… well, let’s just say it was disgusting inside. So bad in fact that it took me two days to fully detail it inside and out. And I’m no slouch when it comes to detailing cars. But it was awful.

Well, I reached out, and one of my neighbors loaned me an ozone generator. “Use at as long as you need it,” she said. Well, since I have it, and I haven’t needed it for a few days, I figured, why the hell not?

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Breathe deep the O3.

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XterraRising

Bumpers Installed
Location
Utah
In a word, yes. But there is always a catch. You have to remove whatever is causing the offending odor to begin with. My process is quite simple. And I’ll use the car as an example. I put the ozone generator in and ran it overnight in the car to try to get some of the odor out. It worked well enough that I could stand to be in the car for more than a few minutes without my head aching. Then I removed the front seats to access all the carpet. The rear seats fold out of the way, revealing the carpet beneath. Then pretreat with detailing chemicals (in this case, diluted carpet cleaning soap). I agitated each section of carpet with a drill brush to lift the fibers and remove whatever is causing the odor. Then extract with my Bissel. Retreat and agitate as needed. Then extract until the water coming out of the carpet is clean. I cleaned all headliner surfaces, hard surfaces, and windows. I then removed the cabin filter and steamed the HVAC vents. After the carpet had dried a bit, I installed the seats (after thoroughly cleaning them). I ran the engine for 30 minutes with the heat set to floor and vents to help dry out the carpet. Then set the ozone generator inside and ran it for 30 minutes with the HVAC set to heat with the recirculation closed so the ozone can get into the ventilation ducts and do what it does. Then shut the car off and let the ozone generator do it’s thing overnight.

Aside from residual Woolite smell (from the carpet cleaning) the next day, all the vape residue was gone and the lingering foul odor was gone. I got in the car a week later to drive it to Costco, and didn’t smell anything.

A lot of my neighbors bought ozone generators after the wildfire we had here over a year ago to remove the odoriferous particles from their homes. In fact, running an ozone generator in your home a couple times a month helps reduce odors and leaves a fresh feeling once the O3 has been displaced. Word of caution though: don’t occupy the same space as an ozone generator. You’ll probably pass out and die.
 

westslope

Wheeling
A Bissel carpet cleaner is great for cleaning up automobiles.

Woolite, eh? What one uses with delicate wool sweaters and down garments? Interesting.

I would have been inclined to reach for a diluted solution of citrus-based cleaner. Any residue left on the carpet (or plastic) is harmless. It leaves a nice subtle fragrance.
 

XterraRising

Bumpers Installed
Location
Utah
The carpet cleaning solution had woolite scent in it. Honestly, I would not use citrus anything. I’ve used some that turned rank after sitting in the sun all day.
 

XterraRising

Bumpers Installed
Location
Utah
Came out to start the ole X last Saturday, and she was dead. I kind of knew it was going to happen. I had to jumpstart the vehicle when I picked it up from the body shop in August. With all the time it has been sitting in the garage, I was concerned that my inverter may be drawing power while off. But, as things do when work gets crazy, I completely forgot about it.

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The problem with car batteries, especially lead-acid batteries, is once they go flat, they never truly recover, as evidenced here. The CCA capacity is only 74%, and that is after I had it marinating on a Battery tender all week. It’ll start. In fact, it started just fine today. And if I came out to start it everyday, it would probably start without any issues… until the first cold snap hits Utah, and zaps this battery for good.

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The battery definitely needs to go. However, that’s not the end of the story. Batteries are getting damned expensive, and I needed to determine if the inverter is really drawing enough power to kill the battery while off. Side note: I had read that they can do this, and the best way to avoid killing your battery is to install a switch, either a master shutoff switch or a solenoid. And I did think about it when I was doing the project. But I decided against it. Hindsight 20/20? Or not?

What needs to happen is an understanding of a few things. First off, modern vehicles draw off the battery all the time. The various ECM’s and electronic modules are always taking power, regardless of the key position. The memory for the radio requires a constant 12v source, key off. The security system sucks power too. I always leave the vehicle unlocked in the garage, so that part is more or less a moot point. But the point is, something is always draining the battery, regardless if you have an inverter wired directly to it or not. The best way to see if I have a parasitic load from the inverter is to use a DC amp clamp.

This first picture is to illustrate that even though it’s been zeroed out, it still registers 0-1/10th an amp. While I can’t explain it entirely, my guess is that 1/10th amp reading likely has something to do with electrical noise in the area, or the clamp jaws as they open and close. Indeed, I’ve made it a habit of waiting about 10-15 seconds before recording any reading I get using amp clamps because there always seems to be some fluctuation when you open and close the jaws. That said, this thing shows zero, with some quick flicker to .1 amp and back down again. So I’m calling this zero

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Clamped around the lead cable going to the inverter. Same reading. In fact, when disconnected from the battery terminal, the reading doesn’t change. It acts as it did when it wasn’t clamped around anything.

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Now, I won’t declare that the inverter isn’t drawing anything. It may still be drawing current lower than the minimum threshold of what this clamp can read. At these levels, my DMM might have better resolution in the hundredths of amp draw, rather than relying on the tiny magnetic fields generated by such a low power draw. But more than likely, this vehicle should be able to sit for a week or so, and start up just fine.

So, what do we know? We know the vehicle sits for long periods of time without starting. We know that there is always some draw in the battery at all times, but these current draws are low. And we know the battery is weak. We also know that a few days on my Battery Tender will recharge it enough to start just fine. So the current draw isn’t so much that the charger can’t keep up.

So what is the solution? Well, twofold. First off, it needs a new battery. Second, knowing the inverter isn’t drawing significant current from the battery, a switch or solenoid isn’t really called for at this point. Rather, more appropriately, a battery maintainer is needed to keep the battery in fighting shape while the vehicle is not used. Being as I already have a battery charger/maintainer, I can use it at home. But I think I want to be a little more clever than that. I’m going to opt for a waterproof unit that can mount under the hood, close to the battery, and sneak the AC plug somewhere out in the lower grill. This way, I always have the charger available to me, in case I need to park it somewhere else.
 

reaver

Lockers Installed
Supporting Member
Location
Caldwell, ID
Nicely done.

My inverter is wired to my auxiliary electrical system. It's only 400w, so I can get away with it not being wired directly to the battery.

I do have mine wired to a relay, which is activated with a switch, but your post convinced me of something I've been thinking about myself.

I need to install a battery maintainer under the hood. I've been thinking about this for a few weeks, and I'll likely order one soon. What amperage are you planning on using? I'm thinking a 5A noco would do the trick, but maybe a 2A would work fine, as the fridge comes inside when we're not using it in the rig.
 

XterraRising

Bumpers Installed
Location
Utah
I ordered a NOCO 2D. Scott O, from the South Main Auto Channel on YouTube installed one on a customer’s truck, and he seemed to not hate it.
 

XterraRising

Bumpers Installed
Location
Utah
I had originally looked at Battery tenders, but they are all too big for what I want under hood. The charger I’ve had for years is a Battery Tender, and it has been great. But I only use it in the garage.
 

XterraRising

Bumpers Installed
Location
Utah
I received the charger a day or two earlier than expected, so I installed it.

Handsome packaging.

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The unit is pretty small, but the space in an Xterra engine bay is limited.

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I found the best place to put it was in the small space on the passenger inner fender, next to the battery. Unless you feel like cutting, splicing, and rewiring, this spot is as good as it gets.

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If you want to see the flashing light super easy, this spot isn’t for you. But I’m less worried about seeing the flashing lights, as I’m not home most of the day anyway. But it can be seen easy enough.

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Viewed from the top. The slow blinking red LED means the battery is less than 75%, charging.

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Charging voltage. Not too shabby. Still need a new battery. I plan on cleaning up the wiring a bit when I get a different battery.

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The short AC power cord is short enough to tuck in out of the way while driving, and not get tangled in the fan. So a good extension cord laid under a mat will prevent my wife and kids from tripping it when they leave for school in the morning.

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XterraRising

Bumpers Installed
Location
Utah
My sense of timing must be good because I came out to get a voltage reading on the battery, and right after, it went into maintain mode.

So after I plugged it in initially, I took a reading, and it measured 13.4 vdc. Then again an hour later, and it measured 13.2 vdc. Today, I took a reading with the steady green light on at 13.0 vdc, and one more time with the flashing green light at 12.9 vdc. This is about as I expected. I’ll check it tonight when I get home to see if the voltage drops some more, but I don’t believe it will go below 12.8 vdc.

The fuse on the positive lead is a 4amp, and the literature states this is a 2 amp charger. This means I can snip off the terminals and run it through my fuse block in front of the battery, since I’ve got a black and red wire mainlined to the battery terminals already.

Once I have a new battery, I’ll tackle that.
 

XterraRising

Bumpers Installed
Location
Utah
Last night, I debated with myself whether or not to relocate the charger somewhere more visible, like on top of the IPDM cover. In the end, I decided I like the stealth factor of where it was installed. But rather than mainline the charger directly to the battery, I decided to do what we do in the power generation industry: install the wires somewhere else. It’s cleaner looking and doesn’t crowd the battery terminals. And just because I can put more stuff on my battery terminals, doesn’t necessarily mean I should.

So with the battery out of the way, you can get a better taste of how the charger is mounted. I loosened the ground wires just enough to wriggle that little guy in there, and tightened the ground lug.

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The Noco Genius 2D has a 4amp fuse on the positive lead wire. So with that in mind, and the fact that the wires reach my fuse block, I wired the existing terminals to the positive and negative wires going directly to the battery. Cleaned up the wires afterward. No cutting or crimping necessary.

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While I was working on the battery and charger, I cleaned this up and painted it.

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I called Costco about AGM batteries, and the closest one is in Boise. Well, that’s out of the question. So I decided to buy a Group 24F battery. Dang cheap. $100! This has the advantage of 60 more CCA than the Group 35 and a higher reserve capacity. Perfect for the inverter!

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Treated with a little schmoots to keep the terminals clean.

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Charger on and doing it’s thing.

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Makes me wonder why there was a Group 35 in the vehicle before. The 24F fits, and looks better filling that hole.

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XterraRising

Bumpers Installed
Location
Utah

XterraRising

Bumpers Installed
Location
Utah
There’s a really dark stretch of gravel road a little under a mile south of my house, and she pitch black unless there’s a full moon out.
 

XterraRising

Bumpers Installed
Location
Utah
If you are running an OEM receiver, like me, you might have noticed the hitch pin hole is pretty close to the end of the receiver opening. I’ve noticed that most of the receiver-mounted shackle recovery points stick out a long ways as a result. Quadratec has the solution. It is short enough to fit without sticking out too far.

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Here’s how far it sticks out.

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It clears the cotter pin. No interference from
The shackle itself.

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Since I tow with this Xterra far more than doing recovery work, I am storing in the back with the rest of my tools and recovery gear. Besides, I don’t want these things to grow legs and walk away in a Walmart parking lot. The shackles I got when I bought the front recovery points. I may get a third one. Not really sure. I store the shackles inside too.
 

TheCrabby1

I Smell Fishy
Supporting Member
Location
Burtonsville, Md
Knocked out a little side quest that has been on my mind for awhile. On top of the grill shell, I replaced the plastic retainer clips with body bolts and rivnuts. The first couple pictures are screen shots from a video I’m making at a friend’s request.

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That's nice !! I just bought a box of 100 retainer clippy thing's because it was easier . Now I'm double thinking that :oops:
 

XterraRising

Bumpers Installed
Location
Utah
I bought a box of like 10,000 clips and retainers, and maybe 5 of them fit lol. Some of the plastic retainers I chucked yesterday were ones that I bought and broke when I pulled them out. I was at the hardware store getting a new plug for my extension cord and saw the body bolts for like 89 cents apiece and scooped them up.
 

XterraRising

Bumpers Installed
Location
Utah
There was some paint damaged on the core support from the grill rubbing it. So I scuffed it, and laid down a few coats of paint. Since I was already there, I blacked out the space behind the grill completely.

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Speaking of the grill, Chemical Guys VRP makes those black recesses blacker.

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