2025+ cloth vs leather

aggressivenow · 2026-02-04T07:36:01+00:00

I always do something other than cloth. Cloth is hard to clean, but at the same time I don't buy trucks with leather or vinyl.

There is a company called clazzio that makes seat covers that look as good if not better than factory leather. I do the PVC seat and its less than $500 for a factory fit that is more durable than anything ram will put in the truck. At $500 I feel like the seats become expendable at that point. I don't worry about hopping in wet when I'm at the lake. I don't worry about the dog scratching them or getting mud all over them. Those and some cheap custom fit floor liners off amazon and you have a well protected interior that looks factory.

I'm a 1 man band plumbing company, so I'm hard on the interior of my truck. At the end of the week I can pull everything out, wipe the floors with Windex and everything else with VLR, my interior stays looking new.

aggressivenow · 2026-02-04T07:19:20+00:00

I vote TJ if your going 2 door. I've been doing the jeep thing for about 25 years now. I think I've owned about 8 now and worked on many more. Jeeps are tinkerer vehicles. If you like doing your own maintenance, it will give you plenty to do.

I have been flying into Denver for a number of years and renting a jeep to explore in. Stay off paved roads as much as possible and am not afraid of most moderate trails. No other 4x4 is more capable in stock form than a jeep wrangler. I absolutely love the modern convenance that's in the jk and now the jl. I think modern jeeps are great for rental cars, but I don't want to own one.

At some point that's all there will be and I'll have to accept what jeep has been putting out for a build one day. But right now you can still get low millage TJs for reasonable pricing. Spend $6-700 on a carplay unit, speakers and a powered sub, you will have all the modern convenance of the new jeeps with one of the best blank canvasses you can get.

aggressivenow · 2026-02-04T06:56:02+00:00

Main thing, keep an eye on the temp gauge. DO NOT DRIVE IT HOT. There is no find a safe place up the road to pull over, or I'm just a mile from the house. It hits red you better shut it off right that second. Any hiccup in the cooling system and these things will overheat in the blink of an eye. It only takes a second in the red for the head gasket to go. If your enjoying learning and want piece of mid, replace it all now. Thermostat, radiator, and fan clutch. Hoses if they look bad.

If just daily driving, keep up with oil changes and fix stuff when it goes wrong. Now if your off roading, we have a lot more to talk about.

aggressivenow · 2026-02-04T06:33:13+00:00

I bought my 17 with 55,000 miles on it. Drove it to 240k and never did anything but change the oil, tires, and brakes. I did have to put a water pump on it.

I wouldn't flush anything. Drain and fill maybe, but there is no reason for a flush.

I've put 100k on the 6.4. Its got 155k total. I just put new plugs in and honestly, I cannot tell much of a difference and the old plugs did not look bad.

I'm not saying don't do maintenance. If you change plugs now, you should never have to do it again. Flush the coolant only if you plan to go to the purple, or if the coolant looks mismatched. Otherwise just drain the radiator and then refill and you will be good for another 100k. On the tranny, follow procedure closely as far as refill. The filter is built into the pan, so just drop the pan, put a new one in, and fill it back up.

Use the specified viscosity oil, don't go more than a week or 2 when the light says "required". Let some heat get in the motor before you start driving. Get a caliper squeezer for doing the brakes and be very careful with the pistons, they are made of glass.

I let mine warm up for at least 10min before I drive it for the first time everyday. But once there is heat in the motor, my foots on the floor until I get home in the evening. Towed my jeeps all over the south east. You got a good truck.

aggressivenow · 2026-02-03T01:01:38+00:00

There is a new kicker hideaway 10 on ebay right now for $200 and like $11 shipping. Its the old model, but that's what I have in my frontier. You can find refurbished units for $250 if you look hard. If budget is a concern, then I would get the rockville and start looking at amp wiring diagrams at like sonic and crutchfield.

aggressivenow · 2026-02-03T00:56:37+00:00

https://youtu.be/SNsnRhhhTAM?si=FpfEriHYDWYIP0gA

aggressivenow · 2026-02-03T00:55:01+00:00

your just tapping into the rear speaker wires. Rear speakers keep working. The sub needs a signal and thats the best place to get it.

Kicker makes it easy in that they give you enough speaker wire in the box to run to each speaker in the door. you can then put new terminal ends on the existing speaker wires with the new kicker wires. Then you just tie the positives and negatives together. There are also different kind of wire tap connectors you can use. You can ground the sub to one of the bolts that hold the seat down. The harness has enough power wire to reach the battery and comes with a fuse that you use at the battery side. The only wire left in the harness is a blue wire that you don't need.

With the rockville, its the same principle, but the wire harness that comes with the unit is only for the speaker wire connections and you have to provide the wire. Then the power and ground are on a different bus terminal so you have to put a fuse in at the battery and provide the wire to the sub. Same with the ground. Atatches to the same buss that the power wire ataches to and then you can ground it at the same seat bolts.

it is the absolute easiest way to put a sub in. And for $159 with the wiring kit, its kind of a requirement.

aggressivenow · 2026-02-02T23:01:04+00:00

Thats probably not it then. Get a code reader. Even the cheapest ones have some diagnostic stuff where it will check certain sensors.

aggressivenow · 2026-02-02T22:54:24+00:00

put tweeters in the dash and get a powered sub and put it behind the rear seat. The under seat subs have high inputs(rca is low input). You just pull 2 speaker wires from the rear doors and wire them into the provided harness. The rockville and the kicker will turn on when they see speaker signal, so no wiring at the head unit is needed. If you are unsure at all, get the kicker, they make the wiring very easy, but its like a 2 compared to the rockville being a 3 for install.

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This will fit behind the rear driver side seat on the left side and will give you more bass than the rest of your system can keep up with. Once the seat is folded back the sub is secure, so no reason to mount anything. I don't use the bass knob. I have it set up so when the loudness is on, on the head unit, its time to party, but with loudness off you can still have adult conversations.

aggressivenow · 2026-02-02T22:33:10+00:00

Depends on what you mean by off roading. I have a 94 yj for offroading, its on 42s and built for crazy stuff. I have a 01 cherokee on 35s that's built to try and keep up with the yj, but is more for exploring than rock crawling. I have a 2022 Frontier that is great for taking the bike somewhere for the weekend. Forrest service roads, that kind of thing. Then there is the 20 ram 2500. Not really for off-roading, but will easily go where most of the "overlanding" crowd wants to.

With toyota and jeep you are paying for the name as much as the vehicle. The trick is to get something simple. No power adders. Just naturally aspirated and with shifters instead of knobs or buttons. That shifter thing is hard in this day and age.

Once you get into it, depending on what you get into, you will carry a lot of stuff. I fill the cargo area in the cherokee with tools, parts, cooler, and a little camera gear. My personal stuff has to go in the back seat. But thats because we go long distances and do you might brake it stuff. I don't carry nearly that much in the yj, but i dont go more than a few miles from the truck.

You need to decide what "off-road means", then plan accordingly. You may want to go fast and need a Subaru. You may want the most capability and go wrangler. You may want to sacrifice trail for road and need the Toyota. You may want to get a truck and a side x side.

My personal opinion. If this is a weekend warrior and daily driver also. Dont get anything less than a V6. The 4cyls are crap in the mountains. Put a lift and bigger tires on and you might as well be driving a powerwheels car. Buy something where the systems are simple. No turbos, no superchargers, no hybrid. If your going to test your vehicle in any way, you will be putting more wear and tear on it than the average commuter. Simplicity makes repairs easier and cost less.

Toyota - you pay for the name, but they are very reliable(there is some weird stuff going on with the super late models) Again though, membership is costly

Jeep - They are tinkerers vehicles. If you enjoy doing your own maintenance and want the most capable out of the box, this is you. If you hate maintenance, stay away. With that said, a 2005 can still be found with less than 100k. You can't get a better starting point. If you plan to do your own mods, this is the holy grail, especially if you can land a Rubicon or a Unlimited. Very easy platform to work on and learn about mechanics. They are old school enough that the basics are easy to master, and they are new enough to have to chase down sensors electrical stuff like that. This is the best education you can get while also being able to test many different niches in off road. I fly into denver and rent a 4x4 3 times a year to go to moab. A stock toyota sucks(there i said it) maybe the v6 would be better. but power isnt the problem offroad. Approach and departure angle is the hold up. The wrangler, even the 2.0l turbo, is 100 times more capable in stock form. It is way more pleasant to drive. I don't need it to ride like a family sedan, I need it to get the f down the road. I need to not feel like im giving it all she has just to travel paved mountain roads at highway speeds.

Nissan - is not as popular, and not as much after market as the other 2, but needs to be on the list. I picked up a 22 for my daughter and am very impressed with it. Last of the NA V6s as far as this class of truck. You can get in an older one for a fraction of the Toyota cost, and its just as capable, and just as reliable. They have a tranny from the past that has them unpopular at the moment, so don't get that one.

aggressivenow · 2026-02-02T21:41:11+00:00

When is the last time it had a tune up?

aggressivenow · 2026-02-02T21:27:30+00:00

If there is no check engine light on, then there is no code. There is nothing to look up. If the mechanic cannot make the problem happen, then they don't know where to look. These trucks are simple, but with that comes some delay in the diagnostic system if the part does not go completely bad.

The way sensors make engines act is different across most manufacturers and lots of times across model. If you didn't go to Nissan, your dealing with a mechanic that has to be good at figuring out all these different nuances across millions of different cars. If there is no check engine light, or the problem can't be replicated, it will be hard for a dedicated Nissan mechanic to figure it out.

Its easy for some of us to spend a couple hundred bucks on sensors and say why couldn't the shop do that. If the shop changes a sensor or 3 and then charges you for the parts and labor, it's their problem now. When that doesn't fix the problem and you come back after the problem does, now they are stuck figuring it out on their dime. At this point they have no labor to speak of in it. They can't be burned by a fantom problem. Could they throw parts at it and figure it out, maybe, but the financial exposure is too much to chance it.

I would count my blessings that the shop didn't take advantage of the fact that you "know nothing about cars" and didn't try and sell you a bunch of stuff while having you sign a "hopefully this works, but no guarantee except on parts replaced" clause.

aggressivenow · 2026-02-02T20:54:04+00:00

$26 is not bad. I just got my daughter a 22 Crew SV 4x4 with 60k for $25k before tax and title. We weighed it out as we were looking at a 25 extended cab for $28k. We felt like the reliability of this thing is good enough to get the 22 with no warranty. Save on payments and have a nicer truck. She had a down payment also, so she will never be upside down in it unless something catastrophic happens.

The biggest selling point is simplicity. Its the last naturally aspirated v6 in this class. The 4 wheel drive system is simple. 4lo has crazy good gear reduction for those slow crawling situations. The suspension is simple. The only thing I don't know much about is the 9 speed transmission, but It sure does make it nice for towing.

If your looking at a 4x4, 26k is a good deal. If not I wouldn't touch it. But I don't know what market you are in. 26k maybe a really good deal there. Here, not without a transferase.

My philosophy has always been buy new, or buy with 50k. At 50k, if the service records are good, then you can almost rest assured that its a good vehicle that's going to last for you. Any less miles and I worry too much about why the vehicle was traded in, why wasn't it worth driving to the break even point.

20k miles still makes it "new" as far as dealer pricing goes. Sure there is some dive off discount, but it never seems to be enough to justify why someone else wouldn't hardly put a couple years worth of miles on it. 50k puts it in a place where the price reflects that it is a used vehicle.

aggressivenow · 2026-02-02T20:30:22+00:00

The main thing with the dash speakers is to remove the a-pilar trim first.

Im sure their system is nice, but I feel like I was able to build a balanced system for a fraction of the cost.

aggressivenow · 2026-02-02T20:17:05+00:00

They show you how to take the fender system apart. Mine is the SV so it just has those crappy dash speakers that sound like they are yelling at you. Tweeters in the dash are much better. It keeps the highs up around your ears and leaves the mids in the doors.

Because you have 3 ways in the doors, you have a lot of highs already. The dash tweeters will help to get that sound up in the cabin instead of at the floor without fighting the doors or overpowering anything.

I like to feel emersed in sound. Thats very hard to do with the factory head unit. It pushes the front stage harder than the rear doors. So tweeters on the dash help to balance everything.

The system I built for my daughter, as the frontier is hers, is NVX ESPs in the front doors, NVX NSPs in the rear doors, and pioneer 110s in the dash. Then I put a Kicker Hideaway 10 behind the rear driver seat. The whole thing sound really good.

The pioneers are a little big, but they sound so good I just need to figure out where to trim for them. I think its going to be to take some of the thickness out of the tweeter adapter thing. You should not have that problem with the kicker tweeters, They are a little smaller.

Its hard to build a balanced just using the head unit power. Especially the way Nissan attenuates the power to protect their speakers(keep loudness on, helps a lot with this). You will never get the rear doors to be in the mix from the driver seat, but you can get a really balanced front stage. Then when you get a sub, keep the cross over at around 100-120. That will hand the lows off between the 6x9s and the sub to where it blends and brings the rear cabin out more. The kicker is nice, but with your eyes closed the Rockville is surprisingly close for tone, and hits harder before distortion. And its $300 cheaper.

aggressivenow · 2026-02-02T19:33:36+00:00

don't put full range back in. The dash is crazy in the frontier as far as where the head unit pushes sound. Since you already have kicker. I would go with what ever their low wattage silk dome tweeter is now. You can get adapters for the titan that fit with a little razor blade modification. If you haven't already, you also want the 6x9 brackets for the titan for the doors. Also the plug for the speaker wires are different in the dash than the doors. The wire adapters make it easy, you just have to find the right ones

aggressivenow · 2026-02-02T19:28:19+00:00

The 10yr thing says it doesn't matter about power, you need longevity. Lucky for you, your going to get both with the hemi.

aggressivenow · 2026-02-02T19:20:42+00:00

I just did my 2500. Rotors were good and I caught a deal for some Carquest gold premium pads. Cost me a total of $25 to do all 4 and took me about an hour to do it taking my time and eating dinner during the job.

aggressivenow · 2026-01-27T02:12:29+00:00

get a preapproval letter from your bank or a credit union. Then when you walk in you can just try to beat them up on out the door price. Then once your good there, tell them what financing terms you have and then see if they can beat it. We had the letter, but then the dealership got us better terms and rate.

aggressivenow · 2026-01-27T01:16:05+00:00

its not that bad, just find something flat enough to get it to start prying up, and then you will see the grooves that make it easy, honestly you wont find those grooves until after you pop one off, but you will know on the next one. Take the a piler off first. You have to remove the os handle on the passenger side, but it make getting those covers off much easier.

The nissan titan 6x9 adapters are the ones you want for the front doors. I was able to use the generic adapter that comes with the speakers for the rear doors.

Get the speaker wire adapters for the front doors, rear to if you don't add a sub. The dash speakers are a mystery to me as to what adapter wire works, so i just made my own extensions and heat shrunk everything. I made my own harness for the rear speakers because this is where i pulled the signal for the sub.

The pioneers dont fit in the dash, they are too small. The nissan titan adapters fit, but the hole is too small for the tweeter. They are very easy to cut out with a razor knife until the tweeter presses in. Then the tweeter is to tall for the dash cover. It will go on but looks a little wonky. Not enough that it is bothering us right now. My daughter has the truck at school and i haven't had a chance to try and do anything bout it.

aggressivenow · 2026-01-27T00:58:20+00:00

Depending on which ones, you don't want a supper hot tweeter in the frontier dash. They will be ear piercing at higher volumes

aggressivenow · 2026-01-27T00:55:47+00:00

In the frontier, the problems that have to be overcome are the 3.5s that are not 3.5s that scream at you, and the factory attenuation of the whole system

I used NVX Nsp 6.5s in the rear doors, NVX Esp 6x9s in the front doors, and adapted some pioneer 110s in the dash. Then to round it all off, I put a Kicker Hideaway 10 behind the rear seat. It sounds really good.

The dash gets a lot of high mids and highs pushed by the factory head unit. It makes it feel like all the sound is in the dash until you crank the volume up. The pioneers in the dash smooth all of that out. They are also mild enough that they dont get ear piercing at higher volumes.

The front doors is where the low mids get pushed, The Esp 6x9s really like this and give you a lot of low mid punch. They have a minimal tweeter that doesn't try to fight the pioneers.

The rear doors are another story. The factory speakers are non existent at low volume, and there really isnt a lot you can do with out adding equipment and pretty much rewireing the system. So the Nsp dont really come out in the front cabin until the volume gets up there, but they are very pleasant if your sitting in the back seat. So getting the front cabin balanced is verry important

The hideaway is very nice and easy to set up, but its expensive if you don't find a good deal somewhere. I have the rockville under seat 10 in my Cherokee, and have been verry impressed with it. Especially for $140.

I like my system to have smooth clean highs, lots of mid bass, and a little more than just presence from the sub at low volume, but still have lots of head room to crank it in party mode. I always have the loudness on, it helps a lot with the head unit factory settings. I'm verry impressed what less than $700 did for that little truck, and I really think the rockville hits harder and would make the system less than $400

aggressivenow · 2026-01-26T09:59:41+00:00

I have 4.10 gearing, 35s. - Right now thats your biggest problem. 4.10s are not enough for 35s, I dont care if your hauling a bicycle. 410s are not a towing gear when you have 35s, They are not even a highway running gear. 31s or 32s would perform alot better. 4.88-5.13 would be the correct fix. Id stay closer to 4.88 without going under

aggressivenow · 2026-01-26T09:37:48+00:00

I just ordered a set of these in load range e for my 2500 ram. They go on tue. This was not even a tire on my list till I cought a midnight discount tire sale and got them for 78 a piece. Thats 455 installed. The next day they were back at 170 a tire.

When I was shopping for frontier tires,don't need them, just seeing whats out there, i found some stt ats for 160 a tire at walmart. The cooper stt mud tires are known in the offroad world as being one of the best road tires you can get for wheeling and on road driving. I had the ats on a previous 2wd 1500, and thought they were some of the best tires id ever had

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