Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

Hey Cedric

Do it properly, and just go and find yourself a nice cross-axle. Put the diff-lock on and park with two wheels in the air.

On a more serious note, OME (depending on the springs selected) can tend to lift more at the back than the front, making the car look like the front is sagging.
Peter

Thanks Peter..... And the 31" tyres don't really help my body height clearence either
I think this could become my december project .... if some money comes in though (not much left after the rebuild of the Maidens motor)

Peter,

What is the solution to the "rear higher than the front" OME problem? It is exactly the case with my Patrol. However, when laden its looks good.

Keep her laoded.... !!!

Hello JG

Not sure that it is a problem one wants to solve? On most of the cars I have looked at, while the front is lower than the rear, it is still considerably higher than standard. In use the weight on the rear springs change considerably while the weight on the front changes much less, so in my opinion it is better that the car noses down when unloaded than that it noses up when fully loaded. Also, one must remember that a harder spring results usually in a harder, bumpier ride (unless they are very fancy variable-rate units). Furthermore, the higher you lift the car the more issues there are with wheel alignment, steering angles, bump steer etc. and most of these really only apply to the front axle.

If you do feel the need to change, I think you need to speak to the agents (OME) to find heavier-duty front springs (designed to carry the extra weight of bull-bar and winch) or front springs that are meant to give a higher lift.

Personally I would just leave it, unless the front end of your car is actually lower than it was when it came out the factory.
Peter

Thanks Peter!

You are right. Leave it as is. The lift in front is perfect and ideal. It almost seems to me as if the front actually lifted according to the 2" spec but the rear did closer to a 3". It only looks funny but works very well under load. No, I do not experience any harder drive from the back either.

I will rather follow Cedric's advise by keeping her under load. Cedric, do you perhaps know of any fuel sponsers?

Hi JG

The rear springs (both Nissan and OME) are rising-rate coils, pretty fancy stuff. Which is why I am glad Adriaan managed to find some springs without having to resort to the local spring works who probably do not have the necessary equipment to do that. If you are interested, you can tell whether a spring is rising rate just by looking at it. There are three ways to make a rising rate coil spring:
1) The gap between the coils changes along the length of the spring (this is what Nissan and OME do for the Patrol)
2) The winding diameter changes along the length of the spring (in other words the spring either tapers or looks a bit like a rugby ball with the ends cut off.
3) The wire the spring is made from changes in diameter (this was done on the old Porshe 356 racing car, in Titanium nogal. I don't want to pay for one of those!)

Remember that shock absorbers also play a huge role in ride comfort, which is why they ride better on OME's.

And yes, in case you were wondering, I do own several anoraks.
Peter