Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

JG Shields wrote:Dennis,

Excellent! I went down to Douglas and Bloem last weekend with Lasarus. It was a 1300km round trip, including about 70km gravel road and a Ventertjie in tow. Lasarus goes very well on the open road. Almost no soud hearable, fantastic power and no more "over rev" feeling in the lower gears. The fuel consumtion was even better than before. I never exceeded 120km/h and achieved 7,01km/l true distance (GPS).

He is at the spa at the moment for his skin treatment.

Wow....JG, thats very impressive consumption for a 4.8, I`ve never heard of anyone getting as good as that before. What tyres are fitted currently?

Cheers,

Ross

Ross,

Currently it is 275/70-16. As soon as the skin doctor is finished with him, he wil get 285/70-16's. However I believe that the good consumption is rather a result of the diff ratio/rpm's. The 285 tyres will probably lower the rpm's with another 100...I think. I will have to wait and see what that does to the consumption.

JG

Carefull JG with all the inprovements in consumption you will have to take fuel out

OOm Hennie Vertmaak sê: "As hy nie 8 plugs vat nie, is hy stukkend" ... ek begin deel sy sentiment.

Lasarus is home and looks better than ever! The hail damage repair and re-paint was done very well. Koos Best's seat covers fits well and almost all the other outstanding minor things are done. New tyres and snorkel will follow soon. Lasarus is trip ready!!!!

Oh yes...let me not forget!!!

I have to thank all the following people who contributed in some form or another to the sucess of Project Lasarus.

Deon Pretorius for all the coordination in Bloem.
Attie van Biljon for a very good job done on the transplant. It is truly a masterpiece!
Danny Holtshauzen for all the small extras I needed (and he gave them to me!!) to complete the project.
Mayhem for the 3rd members exchange. He drove all the way from CT to Pta to change them.
Kobus Pienaar (Herrie) for his technical documents and so many other forms of support, even here at my home with the brakes.
Koos Best for your encouragement when I was stuck next to the road at first...and thereafter. Also for the seat covers!
Pieter du Toit for all his moral support and discussions on so many different things!
Silverton Panel Beaters for revamping Lasarus to such a good exterior nick.
Riaan, Pieter, Shaun & Hans at Imperial Nissan Menlyn for all their technical advise and help with spares.
To all the other forum members for your encouragement and support throughout the project. Your participation in that way made it a memorable experience!

Voila Patrol!!!!!

JG Shields

Mooi JG!!

Hi JG,
Regrettably (because of commitments), I have been missing out on your developments witb Lazarus and find this fantastric reading! Well done! And all those who were so willing and involving great expertise with it!
I am continually on the hunt for such fundi's and slowly we are gaining experience by the guys who have helped along the way. We need to register their names and credentials too! This, is in the face of the agents, who must eventually wake up - just look at what Oom Mac went through....?
Please could you enlighten me about your choice of 285's for tyres, AND 75mm? I am very interested in your choice, and given that I will be in the market in a few months time too? (present tyres Yokohama 275 x 70 x 16: 2004 GRX) The talk around the new Wrangler AT SA intrigues me?
Regards, Chris

Hi Chris,

In fact, the tyre size will be 285x70x16. (finger trouble) The 2001 3.0Di Patrol had 265x70x16 on as standard tyres. My argument is very much the following:

The transplant I did included engine and gearbox, but not the diffs. Since the standard diffs were 4.35 ratio, suitable to the diesel engine and gearbox, the revs/power ratio with the petrol engine was not ideal. I did not want to go the 3.83 diff ratio, which is standard to the 4.8 petrol Patrols. The 4.8 owners argue that the engine's revs hardly ever reach optimum torque zone with subsequent under utilization of the available power. Mayhem offered a set of 4.1 ratio diff 3rd members to me which we installed. In my view the result is very...very good if not ideal. I would like the revs to drop another 100 or so at true 120km/h speed, hence my decision to go for the 285 tyres with my next tyre change. So, yes it is all about combinations to suit my power/revs/consumtion requirements.

I use my car on a daily basis and prefer an A/T tyre for that purpose, rather than the 33" - 35" tyres which, in my view, are true off-roaders ONLY.

I agree with you on the Patrol knowledge and skills base that we have among forum members.

Regards
JG

Mooi JG, laat die toere begin!!!!!!
en bowen als, mag die voorspoed jou net verveel vorentoe.
Koos