Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

Good question on the bar. 3 reasons, more cost, and weight. We really need to keep the weight down for the dunes, which is 70% of our driving. We don't have any wildlife either to justify a bull bar, which is the original reason to have one. We can trim stock plastic bumper for a better approach angle. Last reason is that local road regulations don't allow bars anymore, but people get around it by changing at the time of the yearly test, but some thing I am not ready to do. Already have to take the roof rack off during the time of the test.

Ok that makes sense. ...what about the odd camel dont they end up infront of the cars? There is a standard nissan one from factory also then they cant complain?? I

Tinus lotz wrote:Ok that makes sense. ...what about the odd camel dont they end up infront of the cars? There is a standard nissan one from factory also then they cant complain?? I

Interesting point about the camels. They are an issue on high speed roads, back in the 80's people did die from collisions with camels. Typically what occurs, is that a vehicle hits the camels legs, the poor camel collapses on top of the roof of the vehicle. 2 ton camel on the roof and you can guess what the outcome will be for the occupants. I do know people who were killed, or the vehicles have been completely written off, and the drivers ended up in ICU.

Now most of the roads above 60km/h are fenced to reduce and I can say have eliminated wandering camels. We also don't have many bushes or trees, so line of sight is not obstructed, so speeds of 80km/h and lower on the slower tarmac roads, or tracks that are not fenced, and more likely to have camels wandering across, can be spotted early on.

Most of the camels that would wonder around the roads, tracks are domesticated, very few wild camels actually exist here, when the camels are domesticated, there legs are tied in the front to limit the speed and distance they can travel.

We have more issues, from other road users, than wildlife here.

I just picked up the mount and winch, it seems to have a large relay in between the solenoid pack and battery, with some factory style plugs, I assume that the use of a large relay is for safety and also in-cabin winch control buttons. The winch came of a TB4.8 2006 manufactured LWB Auto patrol from japan. The car was in mint condition, with only 96,000kms. I heard the engine purr, whilst I tested the winch out.

I need to pickup a winch remote as the scrap dealer was asking too much for the one they had. The factory winch mount is very good, lots of steel, and slightly lower mounted.