Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

SRX how do the 4.2's handle dunes or what are their weaknesses?

For dunes you need power and speed, but not a lot of torque, a NA Diesel has the latter, but not the first two.

@Stefan: To me it's acceleration and power that are needed for the dunes, you need to get to a high speed to build up enough momentum to carry you over in a short distance. If you have a long enough run up you can get enough speed in pretty much any vehicle. I agree with your point in general though, but it depends entirely on the N/A diesel you are comparing. My N/A 4.2 has the same power as the current turbo diesel Defender and feels like it has more pull when you compare the two back to back. That's simply due to the larger engine capacity though...so it's not really a fair comparison (although it's what the original poster was asking about initially). oh...btw...Did you ever build that roof rack?

@Dieselfan: If you want a toy to jump dunes then get a petrol engine. I've never have any issues in the Atlantis dunes...except in the most extreme cases where only a tricked out V8 Disco got up, but driving a diesel in the dunes (whether it's a turbo or N/A) just feels like engine abuse to me. Diesels are not designed for out of the box acceleration. A series 1 Disco with a V8 is a great dune toy!!! Man that thing is fun to hammer around the dunes. My personal tastes are for touring or the more technical rock climbing routes....this is where the diesel shines (and where having the hand throttle is awesome!!!). If OB-1 had asked for a vehicle to jump dunes with then I would suggest a petrol engine, but he was more concerned with long term running costs...that's why I suggested the TD42. All this being said...Ross's turboed TD42 has no issues with dunes or anything for that matter. It hauls ass....even though it's moderately turboed (120kw and 400NM).

Thanks for input all.

I think I am sticking with Diesel for now. Grew up with them know them well. And my applicationw will be the odd dune or so, but mostly holiday overlanding.

ob1 there are not a lot of patrol repair experts around because in general they do not break . there are guys on this forum that can help like frans in the cape graham in pta and nissan all over .read the reply that hein put on def. vs patrol it sounds like u r looking for proper overlander in petrol or diesel? that you must decide just start with a spacious capable machine and keep it simple . the patrol does not change its engine every now and then because it works !and keeps on working . my 4.8 does ave of 5.4 kml and i will not change it for any other one !!!