The Imperial Armada

I thought I'd write a quick note about our 2004 Nissan Armada, pictures of which have made it into a couple of our recent blog posts. The short story is that our 2008 Nissan Frontier was a great truck, but didn't provide the passenger space we needed on many trips. The Frontier worked when the kids were smaller and there were only the four of us, but the kids are not small anymore, and we often want or need to transport more than just five. We were reluctant to go to a gargantuan SUV because of the higher cost of the vehicle and the poor gas mileage, but our options were limited. We could possibly have gone with a minivan -- that worked for us for several years -- but we also wanted the four wheel drive and extra ground clearance. The Armada seats up to eight passengers, and while the gas mileage is impressively low, it's actually only slightly worse than that of the Frontier. As for the cost, we found this 2004 Armada with less than 80,000 miles, fewer than we had on the Frontier, and since it was older, the cost seemed reasonable. So we did it, for better or for worse. We call it the Armageddon, and sing The Imperial March (Darth Vader's Theme) when we start the engine.

We plan to acquire a hitch-mounted bike rack to use on the Armada, rather than putting the bikes on top as we've been doing on our vehicles for the last 15 years. That will leave room on the top for a big cargo box. We will also put our two tandem racks up top, one on each side, even though it's been a while since we went anywhere with the tandems. That arrangement will allow us to carry four single bikes and two tandems, or six single bikes. We hope it will provide us enough space to go mountain biking and camping with six people. And a dog. It might, if we we're careful.

There are a couple of interesting stories about the Armada. Note that in the first picture below, which is from our ride the day after Halloween, the roof rails were different from the rails in the lower picture, which was taken today. Those half racks that came on the 2004 - 2007 Armadas are less than ideal - too much span front to rear if you use the singe bar up front, and too little if you don't -- so I replaced our half rack with a full rack I found on a salvaged 2009 Armada. It seemed like it would be a straightforward swap; I had read that the mounting holes were the same on the old and new racks -- so just pull the bolts, remove the old rack, and bolt on the new.

It wasn't quite that simple. In fact, it was quite a process. Some of the bolts on the old rack came out, and some just spun in place when I turned them with a wrench. It turns out that half of the rack mounting nuts on the Armada are rivet-style nuts; inserted from above and then sqeezed so they are mushroomed out like a rivet. Most of these had loosened and just spun in place with the bolts, so the bolts would not come out. We had to drill out four of the bolts to remove the old rack. That worked, and the rack was off. Next we had to drill out the original rivet nuts, and replace them with new ones. That actually worked pretty well. I used a little epoxy with the new nuts so that when they mushroomed into place, the epoxy would seal the hole and I hope will keep them from spinning if I ever need to remove the rack. After all that, the 2009 rack bolted in just like was supposed to. I'm pleased with how it worked in the end. It feels very solid.

Here's the stupid half rack:

Here's the full rack from the 2009 Armada on our 2004 Armada, below. In this picture, I have temporarily mounted a couple of our bike trays to the factory cross bars so that Quinn and I could get out and ride today. That won't be the permanent setup.

One last story. Another issue that had come up was that the rear liftgate strike plate kept coming loose, allowing the liftgate to rattle. The strike plate is the little bar and mounting plate that the liftgate latches to so that it stays closed and doesn't rattle. I don't recall when I first noticed that the plate was loose, but right before our Thanksgiving trip to GJ, I noted the plate had loosened again, so I tightened the two bolts with a big flat-bladed screwdriver. Noting that the bolts didn't seat properly in the tapered holes of the plate, I began to think that something was amiss. When we got to GJ, the stupid thing was loose again. So Chris and I looked at it, and might have pulled it clear off, but one of the bolts was stuck. So we stopped at that point and dripped some threadlock down the bolts and tightened them again, hoping that would get us home. When we got to Vail that afternoon, the bolts were loose again. I just hoped the liftgate would stay closed for the rest of the drive home!

Saturday morning I pulled one of the bolts, the one that wasn't stuck, clear out. To my surprise, the nut that was holding the bolt was a not a nut, but an ordinary 3/16" dry-wall anchor! The sort that is made with a little mini nut and two expanding, spring-loaded wings. In addition, the holes in the frame had been cut wider with a saw to make enough room to insert the drywall anchors. This was a completely stupid attempt at a solution. It was nowhere near strong enough for the task of holding the liftgate closed, and the cutting could have caused even more problems! Eventually, I got the second bolt unstuck (by breaking the stripped-out drywall anchor) and removed the strike plate entirely. Down inside the body, inside the closed frame box, I could see the original strike plate backing plate with two large nuts welded to it (along with bits and pieces of broken drywall anchors).

So I ran out to Lowe's and picked up some correctly sized 8mm machine bolts, with a tapered head to match the tapered holes in the strike plate. Easy enough. I used a magnet on a stick to raise the backing plate from down inside the frame, and with a bit of trial and error, eventually got the bolts threaded into the original backing plate. I also added a little bit of rubber from an old inner tube to the metal sandwich to help keep the strike plate from sliding. It feels quite solid now, and I don't think the previous owner's cutting to widen the original holes will cause any problems. It stayed in place and tight during today's trip to Monument, so I think I've solved the problem. I'm still rather dumbfounded by the use of drywall anchors and a hacksaw. It was so easy to do it right.