I have a 2001 SE, automatic with 83,000 miles and the original shocks, front & rear, and standard suspension (no lift). I keep the car at my house in Southern Baja and the dirt road to the house is about 3 miles long. The road has serious washboard (especially on the uphill parts), potholes and rocks. The X is getting shaken to death with many of the plastic bumper/grill clips breaking or popping out. I'm always re tightening screws and bolts in the interior. Are there any shocks out there that would help with these roads. I usually am driving anywhere from 20 to 40mph on the road and I go back and forth a few times a day. When going camping I also drive 40 to 60 miles a month on dirt roads slight better than the road to my house . I don't want to go too soft as the car already understeers when cornering at higher speeds on pavement (30mph+). I also do a fair share of driving in soft sand but I don't know if shocks make any difference with that.

You could go with the Rancho shocks for a lifted Xterra (they will fit on non lifted too). I've heard a lot of people use them and love the ride they get with them. I'll be putting a set on my non lifted X when I get home. Hope this helps.

What kind of PSI are you running in your tires? Your OEM shocks were shot about 50K ago soreplacing them are a no brainer. I am running ranchos, a lot of people run bills but at that point it is really a personal choice.

On my 4x4 I'm running stock P255/65R16 all weather which they recommend 26 psi cold back and front. On the bad dirt roads and in the sand I run them at 20 psi cold which seems to work good and lessens the bounce/shaking. The xterra has only been running on dirt roads for the last 16k miles which are spread out over 4 years (about 4k per year).

I would like a softer or less vibration ride on the dirt washboard but a firmer ride on the highway to counteract the understeer.

I'm looking at the HD 5100 Bilsteins for the front and the rear but does it matter if I get the ones for a non lifted X or the ones for the an X with a 3" lift? How much firmer than OEM are the Bilsteins and is the firmness of the non lift model and the lifted model the same? I don't mind a firmer ride on the highway as long as the ride is also better on the washboard and not stiffer.

I'm asking all these questions because when I'm not in Mexico my other home is in the Caribbean so in either place I just can't mosey on down to an auto parts store and check out the goods. I'll have to order online and hope for the best so I want to make the right purchase on my first try. I appreciate any help that you might be able to give me.

After researching this and other forums I'm pretty sure I'll get the following Bilsteins:

Fronts: F4-B46-1099-H2 (-H0 & -H1 non existent)
Rears: F4-B46-2126-H1 (-H0 & -H2 nonexistent)

I've read a lot about the -H0, -H1, -H2 designations and the % of stiffness they give over stock but on the Bilstein site/catalog/part change cross reference the only part #'s they show are the ones I have above. There are absolutely no -H0 or -H1 designations for the front F4-B46-1099 and no -H0 or -H2 designations for the rear F4-B46-2126.

Any comments on my choices?