Battleship: 2001 Nissan Frontier

[OnlyOneDR]

Seat Heaters:

The price to get good quality seat heater kits to install inside the original seats was getting close to the price for new Wet Okole waterproof neoprene seat covers with built-in heaters, so I bought new seat covers to freshen up the interior. The original Nissan neoprene seat covers are starting to show their age.



They arrived with pendants to plug into 12V sockets but I wanted a built-in setup instead. With that in mind I tore open the pendants, traced out the wiring, and tapped the circuits to so I could build a harness to run them with switches mounted in the console.







I bought some neat two-color LED seat heater switches off of Amazon, some relays from Radioshack, and wired and installed the whole thing inside the wasted space under the console. I used colored wire so I could have a color code for the harness. Everything was done from scratch.







With the switches on the console and the circuit powered by an ignition hot I can use them when the engine is running and they turn off when I kill the ignition.



Completed:

 

[OnlyOneDR]

AC Inverter and In-Bed Power Panel.

I have wanted AC power in the truck for years. It comes in handy from time to time and I have some ideas to use it for cooking with crock-pots and other low-power slow cooking devices.

I bought a Whistler 800W unit and mounted it in the cavity where the factory jack used to go under the jump seat on the driver's side.







I modified the inverter to pull out a pair of leads to make a remote power-on switch up at the dash. I simply opened the case, popped out the power switch, soldered on a two-conductor cabe, drilled out the face of the inverter, and ran the lead out and crimped on some connectors. I installed a round rocker switch with a blue LED on the side of the lower dash to turn the inverter on. It is positioned here to be reachable while standing outside of the truck and reaching in the driver's door.



To power the inverter I ran a set of power cables to the rear battery, and while I was cleaning this wiring up and installing a 100A circuit breaker I also re-worked the battery mounting to include a proper battery box. The cover and box is notched to clear the battery hold-down that was previously installed.



Then on to the power panel in the bed. I cut a section of black UHMW PE plastic and installed an Amazon-sourced three-pod panel in it and a 120VAC receptacle with a snap close cover. The panel has a 12V socket, a pair of USB charging sockets, and a digital DC voltmeter. I installed a momentary pushbutton to activate the voltmeter only when I want to check the battery charge.

 

[OnlyOneDR]

Best mod yet!!! Bottle opener on the tire carrier.

 

[OnlyOneDR]

Hubcaps!

I missed my Nissan logo hubcaps, so I cut some discs out of UHMW PE and bought Xterra back-hatch logos (they are flat) and made these up.

 

[fsj80]

Very nice

 

[WARRIORWELDING]

Very good build. I really like purpose built trucks over point a shoot buggies.

 

[OnlyOneDR]

Very good build. I really like purpose built trucks over point a shoot buggies.

Thank you! Yeah this truck is built for overlanding trips including highway miles; I do shy away from the extreme stuff when actually out on the trail if there is a strong chance for a rollover, but will attempt a lot of stuff anyway. I do one or two big trips per year the some normal long weekends to parks within reach of here. While she does not get good fuel mileage (just too heavy for the little V6) she will cruise on the freeway at 65 mph all day, carry all of my camping gear, tools, extra fuel, etc, and not have a difficult time with any moderate trails and some more difficult stuff. The big trip I did last May ran 1500 miles with three offroad parks thrown in and she brought me home safe and sound.

 

[OnlyOneDR]

Dual Battery Isolator

So I needed a way to charge the rear battery to use the above inverter, the rear winch, and anything I plug into the rear power sockets. I have had a dual battery isolator laying around the house for over a decade that a buddy and I found in a junkyard when I was living in Houston. I pulled it off the firewall of an old Scout II but it looked like the previous owner had never used it as there were no wires going to it and barely any scratches.

Enough words, see pics.

I needed a new battery, the 8-1/2 year old Optima Yellow Top gave up. In it's place is now a Northstar-made X2 AGM by Batteries Plus. 5 year warranty.



I needed to make up a way to mount the Sure Power 9523A isolator, so I bought some 16 gauge steel sheet, cut, drilled, and bent it into an "L" shape, sprayed it with rubberized coating, and mounted the isolator on it:



I had to pull the under hood fuse and relay panel apart to disconnect the original leads coming from the alternator, then I ran an interposing wire from that lead to the isolator, then another right back to the terminal in the fuse and relay panel to power the truck "as normal". Using that bracket I was able to position the isolator immediately adjacent to the battery:



Terminated all the wiring with stainless hardware and wrapped the cables in corrugated tubing:



Then I found some little rubber caps I had laying around the garage and cut slots so I could use them as terminal boots. This may be temporary as the "L" shaped boots for winch motor connections are cheap and cannot slide off:



I fired the truck up and due to the diodes in the isolator the alternator was outputting over 15.2 VDC but with the 0.6V drop across the diodes it charges around 14.6 VDC at present main battery voltage.

Not shown in the installation process was a part of the engine accessory mounting bracket that had to be cut off to allow enough clearance around the isolator, or the long charging lead that was run from the isolator all the way to the rear battery. I need to install a circuit breaker at that end of the run but it works for right now.

 

[gmentavlos]

Who built your front bumper?

 

[WHITEY]

Very nice build! I'm really impressed with the clearance you have under your truck (among many other stats on your truck). I only have 9.5 inches clearance under my diffs. I noticed the weight on your truck looks like its creeping up. Any plans on reducing weight? My truck is 8600lbs and may become a problem to me soon.

 

[fsj80]

Who built your front bumper?

He did

 

[OnlyOneDR]

Very nice build! I'm really impressed with the clearance you have under your truck (among many other stats on your truck). I only have 9.5 inches clearance under my diffs. I noticed the weight on your truck looks like its creeping up. Any plans on reducing weight? My truck is 8600lbs and may become a problem to me soon.

Thanks! The truck is a pig. Stock was around 3700#, now it is north of 6000# with the same engine. Power mods are in the works. I have a factory supercharger, manifold, intake, boost controller, injectors, etc from an Xterra that will get transplanted into the truck sometime before the end of the year.

Who built your front bumper?

I fabbed almost everything you see. The only things that were not welded by me were the portal mounting plates on the rear axle (needed multi-pass TIG and I do not have a machine) and the front axle Cs. Bruiser bent up the one piece of tube for me on the rear tire carrier (I don't have a tube bender either). Other than that it was all done at home in one bay of my two-car garage.

 

[scotch737]

Those factory rods are decent, I myself have not done much research on underdrives on that particular supercharger. I used to work on Nissan's alot, and still have a little beater truck. But I'm betting there's a way you could turn up the psi on the stock charger with some pulley manipulation Good luck, and nice build!

 

[OnlyOneDR]

Those factory rods are decent, I myself have not done much research on underdrives on that particular supercharger. I used to work on Nissans a lot, and still have a little beater truck. But I'm betting there's a way you could turn up the psi on the stock charger with some pulley manipulation Good luck, and nice build!

Thanks. I should be getting a little more than stock Hp numbers out of the supercharger anyway since I am using the NA rotating assembly which is 8.9:1 compression ratio and the SC is 8.3:1, which will have an effect similar to running an overdrive pulley. The Nissan VG that is in this thing is a pretty stout engine and mine has really low miles for its age (72k) so i am sure it will hold up.