1995 Nissan 4x4 XE King Cab

I got a lot of great advice on how exactly to adjust the ride height on the Nissan pickup truck, and some of it was accurate, and some of the information was different for different years of vehicles I think. I put this page together to document the process on a '95 4x4, so folks who might have the exact same model or year can get the correct information for the correct year.

The picture above shows the torsion bar adjusters; this is the passenger side one. The driver side adjuster is visible on the far left side of the picture. Apparently, on the later Nissans, the lower nut (#2 in the photo above) is welded to the crossmember, which would make the task pretty simple. Just tighten the bolt and snug the top nut (#1) back down. However, on my vehicle, Nut #2 was not welded to the crossmember, and in fact, both nuts seemed to be stuck together pretty well. I just held Nut #2 with a crescent wrench and tightened the adjusting bolt. You can see 4 or 5 clean thread coils just above the lock nuts in the photo above. I doused the area with PB Blaster each night for a week before I attempted to break any of these pieces free, because I was afraid of twisting the bolt head off or otherwise doing damage.
I adjusted the ride height to be just a little higher than what it was, not much. My frame rails right at the rear of the body mount support (behind the front tire) are exactly 13.5" off the garage floor now. That's about an inch higher than what it was. I wanted to adjust the ride height because the passenger side of the truck was sitting a little lower than the driver side of the truck. You can see in the picture below where I am measuring the frame rail height.

	I wanted to get a little more suspension travel from the front suspension, and decided to start with lower profile upper bump stops. I went ahead and purchased the upper stop first, so when I adjusted the ride height, I'd still have room to remove and install the new bump stop. The factory stop is about 15/16" tall and pushes into a hole in the frame. The new polyurethane bump stop (11/16" tall) is from Energy Suspension, part number 9.9102GC, and is available mail order. I bought mine at Pep Boys, and paid $7.99 for the pair (of upper stops). These come with a stud and a lock nut, which isn't the easiest to tighten to the Nissan frame in this location, but it's not impossible. I stuck a wrench through the end of the frame and hand tightened the new stop down onto it, since wrench movement is very limited. I have a pair of Rancho 5000 series shocks on the front of my truck. #RS5605 fits stock height '95 4x4 trucks (other numbers may fit as well). I'm very satisfied with the ride in the front with these shocks, so much so that I bought a set for the rear to complement the fronts (#RS5601).

The front of my truck is now level, and a bit higher than stock. What I'd like next is a set of more aggressive tires (these are Michelin LTX M/S), but that'll need to wait until these get worn a little more. There's still lots of tread life left on these tires, which do plenty well in the snow and on the sandy back roads of southern North Carolina.

I think I'm happy with the tire size for now, 30x9.50x15. I keep going back and forth on whether or not I want to move up to 31" tires. I think if I did, I'd get the BFGoodrich All Terrain T/A KO tire, since that seems to be the "smallest" 31x10.50 out there, according to the specs from the BFGoodrich website. I don't want to lose any power or mileage from what I have now.