My 01 Pathfinder is beating me to death! I will never go off road so I'm looking for the most "Cadillac" ride I can obtain. Also having a hard time finding shocks and struts for it, if that's what I need? Monroe Sensa-tracs show a part number but no autoparts store in Austin, TX have that model?? Any other brands that will fit? If that's what I need? Thanks,
If you were looking for a smooth ride, you bought the wrong SUV. The full frame of the truck gives you rigid strength but the sacrifice is the ride. Shocks may lessen the trauma but not a great deal. the LE has a more comfortable ride due to shocks but not much difference from the SE.
Not sure about the switch year but the advertising brochures for my truck boast about the frame and welds to make it strong and rigid. The ride is not smooth at all but not as rough as some I have experienced.
Checked my sales brochure (which I still happened to have) Nissan calls the frame "monoframe". It shows a diagram of the full frame with 4200 welds which "bind the single structure" For what thats worth!
BTW, I believe they went to the larger V6 in the 2000 model year
Yes, from 1996 to present, they are Unibody or what Rattle found in the brochure "monoframe" but really, there is no traditional frame. It's a Unibody design, no separate body that 'attaches' to a frame like the older D21 and WD21 Pathys and Hardbodys.
For a smoother ride, different coil springs, struts and shocks could help, but there are people on the board that know this stuff better that could probably offer some ideas.
In general unibody vehicles don't ride as smoothly as full-frame cars. This is why the Lincoln Town Car and Ford Crown Victoria still use full frames. Full frames are also much stronger than unibodies, which is why full-size trucks and all heavy-duty trucks use full frames. Unibodies are usually cheaper to build and lighter, meaning you stand the chance get better fuel economy and performance from the same powertrain package. I think the jury is out on safety differences between the two. I think many unibody vehicles have the advertised "crumple zones" that I think full frame cars generally don't have. But on the other hand, lots of people swear by the rigidity of a full-frame car in something like a side impact.
I own both types of vehicles, but I really can't compare the ride between the two. My unibody is the '97 Seville and it rides like it's on a cloud. I've ridden in many unibody cars and trucks, though, and in general, you feel a lot of the road harshness and small impacts more than a full-frame car because you don't have many of the body bushings and mass of the frame to drown some of those impacts out.
There are two kind of SUV's out there now. The SUV's that were designed as SUV's and the automobile chasis that had SUV bodies mated to them. These are like the old station wagons. Since they are on car platforms, they ride like cars. By design, true SUV's are made to withstand more punishment and therfor ride quite harsher.
I had a 92 pathfinder, and I enjoyed the rough and stiff ride it gave. (haha....uhh) i personally feel more secure in an SUV like that, and yes rattle is right about the 2 kidns of SUVs. Personally once again I prefer the SUV on the truck chasis...
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