Winch Use!

Got a chance to use the 2010 mount in the snow! I was stuck with bald stock tires. Got one front tire of of the packed and sunk down to the frame. Mount and winch (ENGO) worked GREAT!

Xterra Stock Winch Mount

I was lucky enough to get Engo 12k Winch from a group buy on thenewx.org.  A user on there makes winch mounts for the stock bumper that fit the second gen Xterra.  I finely got all of the parts collected to do the install.  

My truck before the Install:

Unpacking the bumper:

-I started by removing the outer bumper cover.  It was relativity easy, just tons of little tiny phillips head screws.  I used rags on the edges to prevent scratching the paint on the fenders.
-After removing the bumper cover there were 4 bolts holding the stock mettle "bumper".
-Then I installed the ROCKYMTNX winch mount in place of the original.

-After getting the bumper bolted up, I installed the lower frame mounts (These come with out holes drilled to account for any differences in frame tolerances).
- I used the included transfer punch to mark the holes.
-I pre drilled with a 1/4 inch drill and then moved up to 1/2 inch drill.

-Brackets drilled and ready for install.  I used a old CD to "mask" off the silver while I sprayed bed liner in the holes to prevent rusting.

-Lower brackets all bolted up.

-The hardest part of the install: cutting the stock bumper.  I had to use a combination of tin-snips, sawzall, and jigsaw to get it perfect.

-Got everything all bolted up and put back together.  Cant see it in the picture but I bought Warn Steel Fairlead from Amazon.  Only thing I have to do now is get some longer wires, to relocate the solenoid box.  

Reverse Camera Install

Since I have the Pioneer AVA 2300DVD already installed and I figured I would add a reverse camera.  I purchased a reverse camera from Amazon for about $15.  You can get it on amazon here: Universal License Plate Vehicle Back Camera.

The camera is designed to be mounted on a licence plate.  I don't want it to get stolen or disappear so I decided to mount it inside the vehicle.  I cut off about a half inch from each side of the camera mounting bracket to make it fit.

The reverse signal in the rear is located in the drivers side pillar behind the tail gate.

You can see that the red with purple stripe and black wires on the connector match up to the red and black wires supplied with the camera.  I used heat shrink butt connectors to prevent any short circuit later down the road.  

Now for the tricky part!  Getting the power, and RCA wires through the wire boot for the tail gate.  I wrapped all the wires with electrical tape and a zip tie.  I fed the zip tie through the rubber boot.  Once the zip tie is through the boot I sprayed some spray silicone inside the boot to aid in passing the wires through.

You can see in this picture the zip tie wire mess i used to pass the power and RCA through the tailgate boot.

I then ran the RCA down the drivers side of the vehicle all the way to the head unit.  I had to buy a 3' RCA extension from Radio Shack because the RCA that comes with the camera was about 12" too short.  

I then went to Home Depot and got a piece of 1.5" angle aluminum to make a bracket for the camera.  I finished the bracket with Duplicolor Spray Bed Liner.

Here is what the camera looks like when its all setup.

Xterra Under Seat Subwoofer

I wanted to find a solution for getting a sub woofer into my Xterra with out sacrificing cargo space.   I found some plans for an under seat sub on a Frontier forum.  I converted his drawing into a simple Google Sketch Up file, and built it.  The under seat area seems to be the same between the Frontier and Xterra.

Here are the drawings I came up with based on the above URL:

I used 7/16" birch ply and carefully cut out the pieces on the table saw.  It was rather tricky coming up with a cut list.  The overall height of the box cannot be any bigger than the above listed height (even a 1/4" would make it too big!)

Once all of the pieces were cut out, I used wood glue and brad nails to hold it together.  Once the wood glue dried I sealed the box up with silicone.

Here is a picture of the finished box:

A picture of it installed (excuse the install mess):

It sounded great for what it was.  I felt that it lacked low end bass.  Before bolting the seat down make sure you do something to sound deaden the underside.  I didn't and the seat rattled on certain notes.  

Xterra V1 Mount

Back in march I set out to make a clean mount for my Valentine 1 radar detector. I wasn't too confident with the suction cup's ability to stick to the black coating behind the rear view mirror of the Nissan Xterra. I went to tap plastic and got all of the parts. They can be located here Tap Plastics I was out the door for $3.30, $0.30 was CA sales tax 

Parts list:
-4"x2" ABS plastic (one side smooth other textured).
-2 Clear Plastic screws with nuts.
-1' Velcro


1) Gather all of the parts:

2) Next cut the plastic to size, I believe it was 3.5" x 2" and round the corners. Drill two holes so that they line up with original V1 mount (where the suction cups used to be)

3) Bolt the plastic piece you just made to the original V1 mount. Make sure you put the textured side towards the V1 mount (this will make it look like the factory mount). 

4) Cut out Velcro strips to place on the ABS plastic (smooth side towards windshield). 

5) Place it on the windshield and enjoy!

6) To wire it into the vehicle I used (Direct-Wire Power Adapter Kit - Item 00030) from Valentine One's website.  It cost ~ $20