Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

Next was time for some back door panels and a table.
I put some riv nuts in the holes, marked a piece of marine ply from the original panel, cut and painted it.
Also hid some spares bhind it.

Two days before the West Coast trip my DC-DC charger decided to blow it's fuses. I took it to the company that makes them close to my work and they put bigger fuses in but on the first day of the trip it popped again but this time some smoke escaped out of other parts aswell and so it was finished. Luckily I didn’t trust it after it’s first failure and put the solenoid in just incase.
In January I took it back again and they repaired it but I hasn't been charging as good as it did. They replaced that model in their range but not mine. So I just put in the much cheaper WRND charger and that has been reliable in 4 vehicles that I installed them in.

Now wile in Augrabies we were on a farm where the farmer took us to go watch the sun set. Most of our group rode on the back of the Cruiser. Me and my friend each drove with our own vehicles. I was in my Patrol driving at the back and closing the gates and my friend in his Hilux just following the Cruise.
I started hearing funny noises coming from the front. First I thought it was my hubs unlocking on the corrugations but at one point it got so terrible and after the third time I got out to investigate I saw that my radius arm had come loose and the whole front diff was rubbing against the bash plate. I tried hooting to my friend but my old GQ horn is so faint it was useless and his VHF radio was giving problems at the time. He didn't look back at all and just left us at late afternoon in the Augrabies wilderness late afternoon. We probably walked 2km when at last the Cruiser, our savior came to rescue us. Later that night when we returen I luckily found the rubbers but the rear nut of the arm to chassis connection was missing. I took one from the front of the radius arm. I drove with 3 connecion points to the diff probably for 1500km until January and only bent one of the plates because of all the flex

After Decmber it came time to improve, change and repair.

My bonnet gas struts started to tear out of its mountings so I improved my Bracket to have a larger foot print and more mounting points.

Baie mooi boet!!!

Het lankal gesê daai Patrol het die regte baas gekry!

Because of the body lift my fan and shroud moved away from each other. At 120km/h I started to see quite high water temps and towing was horrible 60km/h on long hills to keep temps under 105 degrees.

So I decided to buy a new radiator and have my aircon condencer cleaned.
So I started building a new shroud and put it in for a test fit...and it was to big

So I took all the measurements and took it back. They cut it down and sent is back after a week or two. But they did not correct all that I asked them to but I was getting impatient because my vehicle has been standing still for almost a month. So it was again that my vehicle was reliant on someone else’s shoddy workmanship.
And so I finished it, put it in. Flushed the system, put in expensive Nissan Antifreeze......and it leaked.


So I just took it to Silverton Radiators to fix all the leaks and pressure test it. Since then it has been doing well and temperatures are good again.

So after the trip I moved the battery, strengthened my base board for the drawer system and replaced the rear seat and moved it back so now even I can sit behind my self. I also put my fridge on a drawer runner for outside accessibility.

Wie het gesê Patrol is nie n werks bakkie nie.

Hard gereën daai dag

I also put an airtank underneath the vehicle for an air horn. So that I won’t be left in the wilderness again because the simple toeter only goes beeb beep no louder than a bicycle bell.
I put two compressors in to inflate the 35” in a decent time and put air fittings at each wheel. I have 4 pipes and connect all of them together to deflate with a single valve. I inflate them 2 at a time.