For anyone who was wondering-
The 07 Front Differential is a Dana M205, the rear Differential is a Dana R230. I went to the local differential guru to see if we could find a locker that would work. Nada-zip- apparently the case is too weak to take the enhanced torque, and the angles and joints in the axle shafts won't take the torque.

Nissan went for lightest weight, minimum acceptable strength standards instead of doing the right thing.:cool:

Oh well, either I need to find a steel cased larger diff and have them fitted to the sub frame, followed by stiffer double cardan axle shafts, or just wait until I get stuck again in 4whl hi/lo and just shoot the sucker!

Anyone seen abored and stroked 5.6 anywhere bringing it up to a 6 or 6.3ltr?

Hmmmm.... Stuck huh??? What did you get stuck in??? IMHO, I've always found that 4LO has always been a total waste for me unless I have a decent sized load on a trailer I'm towing through light mud. I think we can give you some ideas to maybe help from getting stuck too often if we know what you are diggin' in. :D

I don't know of anyone who's torn apart one of these VK56's yet other than to add Cams and an S/C. Qaher currently has the fastest Armada that I've known of. Some of the Titan guys over on ClubTitan.org are running some decent times but I don't think anyone has bored yet. Toomnymods, DF6_Titan, and Papa_D are pretty decent Titans to check out.

I was on a 10 percent incline, pulling out a 17ft johnboat over wet grass on a lake shore with a slight coating of mud and goose mines. In 4whl hi, with the center diff locked I got the car doing the dance. Front wheels-left/right/left/right, rear wheels- left/right/left/right. With no forward movement. When to 4 lo and got a sort of an uncoordinated dance. When it shifted into 2nd and went to about 3k rpm, the dance got quick enough so that the car walked left and right and burned it's way up the lawn. (Contitracs) I suspect that if I had real tires like grapplers, I wouldn't have had any problem.

Still- I was once stuck on top of a peat bog at 16,400ft in a LC locked in 4whl low center diff only would lock.... That taught me the real meaning of the word lockers. Luckily an Ecuadorian Col. came down out of the mountains in another LC and winched me out. My wife watched me jack the car up and place boulders under the tires for 5 hours. Last time she went 4 wheelin' with me.....

Yea, any wider than OEM A/T's help with pulling a boat out on a lake shore or mossy boat ramp. I cannot brag enough about these TerraGrapps but the Bridgestone Dueler A/T Revos are also excellent for slick Boat Ramps too.

As far as the Peat Bog, I think you'd be looking at wanting some more ground clearance and some good M/T's. The PRG is great for a Mini-Lift and the ProComp is a decent full lift. I'm still curious about the Rancho 4". Toyo Open Country M/T's and Cooper Discoverer STT's are the tires I'd be looking into in a 35x12.5-18 if I was going to a full 4"-6" lift because of their Offroad traction, onroad manners, and good TWI.

With those setups, you wouldn't miss having lockers as much anyway.

You mentioned sand on another thread, I haven't been in much sand yet other than on a beach in Destin last summer wearing the stock ContiTracs. They felt like they needed to be aired down but the Armada seemed to handle pretty well. So far I've been alone with noone along to pull me out so I have been a bit timid for the deep stuff other than a decent sized muddy water hole or two, not to mention I'd hate to get a $45k beast stuck too bad.

Dumb question. I just test drove the Armada and tried reading the manual - where is your option to lock the differentials?

The Armada doesn't have locking differentials.

The stock conties are crap. When I ran them I would get the back end to slip taking off from every traffic light in the rain. It is no wonder you had issues on wet grass.

I am now running the dueler AT revos and slippage is rare.

It seems that nissan really skimps on the tires as my old 2003 maxima was flat out dangerous in the rain.

Upgrade the tires first.

It seems that nissan really skimps on the tires as my old 2003 maxima was flat out dangerous in the rain.

Upgrade the tires first.

My 2000 Maxima was the same way, did you have the Bridgestone RE92 by chance? I replaced with Michelin Pilot Sport A/S, and it completely transformed the car, made it stick like glue in the dry, and driveable in the rain.

Keith

The Armada doesn't have locking differentials.

Thanks - that is what I thought from what I had read, but the original poster wrote "with the center diff locked I got the car doing the dance." so just wanted to check on that. Assuming he means the center diff. was engaged by the car

Thanks - that is what I thought from what I had read, but the original poster wrote "with the center diff locked I got the car doing the dance." so just wanted to check on that. Assuming he means the center diff. was engaged by the car
He was driving a Land Cruiser, not a Armada when he was talking about having locking differentials.

If the Armada rear diff can be confirmed that it really is an R230, then I just might have found a Locker. Check this out, an ARB - RD137 is supposed to work with a Nissan/Dana R230 Diff:

http://dedq15.mindfly.com/uploads/PDF/onlineManualsGuides/0-00.pdf


Here's ARB's website and it looks like 4wheelParts carries their products:

http://www.arbusa.com/

Page 6 on this application guide states it again: http://dedq15.mindfly.com/uploads/PDF/onlineManualsGuides/airLockerAppsUSA.pdf

Pops,

I have been a long time lurker, but now I think it's time to post to be somewhat helpful.
I have a V8 Pathfinder, which shares almost the exact drivetrain as the Armada.
Both have M205 front diffs and R230 rear diffs. The Pathy has only the 2.947 ratio while the Armadas have the the 2.947 and the 3.357 ratios.

The V8 Pathy and the Armada also share the same rear R230 diff as the worldwide Pathfinder Turbo Diesels, i.e. Australia. However, these diffs have 3.538 and 3.692 ratios. Unfortunately, there is a carrier break at the 3.538 and up ratios. What this means is that the pinion gears are smaller, but the ring thickness are the same. So, the ARB will not fit our ring and pinion ratios, only 3.538 and up. I dropped by ARB in Washington to have fitted, and sure enough, did not fit.

But wait ... there is some good news... they measured my diff when I was there and they said they can modify the current locker to fit our diffs. Not too hard to do. But I need to gather more interest from the Armada folks and the V8 Pathy folks to make it worth their while. So if you all are interested, let me know and I can tell Marc they can make the locker. Maybe the moderator can put a poll up and I can forward the link to Marc at ARB.

The other option is to source out a 3.538 or 3.692 outside the US, but then we have to find the gears for the front. However, Just Differentials in Washingtin claim they can fit a Dana 44 3.538 gearset on our M205 fronts with some mods. They have a Titan diff they are toying around with and say it is possible. This maybe a good option for those running bigger tires.

Welcome to CA ragpaoa!

Fascinating!!!! I'm not interested, too broke right now but quite a few others have posted wanting one. You can open a new thread and open a Poll, I'll help you if needed.

Alot of Titans have been putting in TruTrac lockers. If ARB will come up with something that's competitive with TruTrac, there's a good chance that the combined sales of both lockers will gain enough sales to justify it.

BTW: It's about time you started posting!!! :D

Yo Pops! You-da man! I was rereading old posts and replies in the daylight and found this again. I just might have to get sumadese when my warranty gets older.

Thanks again.

My e series grapplers are the best. Rain, Snow, sleet, ice, goose mines, -everything. If Nissan sold their cars with these, they'ld sell a hell of a lot more of them! They also corrected my speedo error. I'm runnin' them at 50psi on a max allowable of 80psi. They run cool quiet, and sure.
Thanks 2X for the info!

ragpaoa,
Good info- I'll contact ARG and see what's in the works. My LE has 3.3's, but my concerns are the exceptionally poor differential case casting quality and minimal strength internals. My bud has a jeep with Dana 44's and 33"'s and he blows the diffs about 4 X a year in moderate off roading. He upgraded the axles and gears to OX Locker standards, and still breaks stuff routinely. He built a duplicate for his kid who goes to Moab regularly and he also breaks Dana 44 parts on a monthly basis. What we need is the Dana 50 independent suspension, or the Dana 60 independent suspension. Unfortunately, both require a hand built box structure to mount them. I spoke with Dana shortly after I bought the mada and the tech I spoke with was very open and helpful, but was on the verge of crying with laughter at the thought of putting lockers in the mada due to the inherent weakness of the nissan contracted case/housing. So it just means that we will have to hunt longer and harder for a worthwhile set of differentials.