Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

Guys, for overlanding purposes, what should go into a 4.8 GRX spares kit? What's most likely to need attention or replacing out in the middle of nowhere when you're travelling solo?

Hmm, anything that you do not have in the spares kit is most likely to break!

All fan belts will be a good start ....a spare feul filter ??
If you are going to do a lot of deep wading a spare fan blade

In my car,

Spanners (all the necessary sizes), and one good shifting spanner, just in case
Recovery box (which includes the tyre patches, bloudraad, pratley steel, etc)
Recovery straps etc
4 extra bottles of engine oil (to ensure I refill with the same make and grade as the main oil)
2 bottles of power steering oil, some diff oil
One spare fan belt (even if the fan belt is in good condition, you never know what small and hard thing may skid up into the engine and hit it)

In my case in particular, I also have a printout of the route of the fan belt around each of the pulleys (7 pulleys in the Lexus, which is difficult to figure out without the picture).

The other point to make is that one should do more in prep of a trip to limit the chances of things going wrong.
E.g. you can never grease your universals too frequently.
I have mine re-greased at least once a year.
Rather than taking extra universals with you on the trip. They should not break if well looked after.

One fire striker under my seat. Must be available very quickly.

add a bottle, 750ml, of OBS in case you need to wait for DHL to deliver parts.

add a tube of superglue and/or Q Bond.
spookpis/Q20
some termianals and wires.
spare bulbs

and maybe a 2nd bottle of OBS, 5 litre, if Nissan don't have stock and parts must come from the rising sun valley.

AND breaklines (ready made up flex pipes that connects the steel pipe to the calipher) + breakfluid

Also some form of digital communication so you can contact the forum. The rest of us will discuss the matter, PC wil give some form of sensible and definitive answer, Tinus will put the plan in action and Grant will finish of by saying it must be stainless steel tanks or Safari snorkel and nothing else. Nissan will shrug their shoulders.

Thanks for the input guys. Please bear in mind that I've done a fair bit of overlanding in the past so I know about the "general stuff" to carry. My question goes rather to the peculiarities of the specific vehicle - what on the car may possibly give trouble while travelling solo in comparatively remote areas. To give you an idea, my Land Rover spares included, amongst a whole host of other stuff

Polyvee belt (one standard and one shorter to bypass aircon with failed bearing, without which you are immobilized - less of an issue on the Patrol because of the very sensible multi-belt setup)
Rear wheel bearing with special tool and wb grease (Disco front wb are lubed by swivel housing oil rear is only grease packed and seve wading with lack of maintenance can cause seizure)
Propshaft UJs (extreme wading conditions travelling flooded plains for extended periods of days can stuff UJs terribly)
Alternator (the magneti marelli wasn't bad but could sometimes give trouble)
Water pump (don't die very often on the 3.9 but they do die and immobilized without it)
Power steering pump (ditto)
Spare shock (front only - rear was twinned anyway) (stored behind bashplate)
Front shock tower (stored under the car) (they don't break often but they do break and we were pretty merciless over bad roads)
Full set of water hoses
Spare HT leads (stored in engine bay)
Bottle brake fluid (stored in engine bay)
Bottle ATF (if ps hose leaks) (stored in engine bay)
Inner tube for emergency use
Tyre levers, full sze (stored under vehicle on chassis)
Tyre pliers
Bottle of lighter fluid ('sop jou vingers)
All breather pipes were raised as high as possible into the nearest roof pillar (appears to be fine on the Patrol in the standard setup - was surprised to see even the swivels have breathers).



Und so fort

So then, what on the 4.8 GRX most likely to need attention when in the middle of far away?

Clem, I don't know of any specifiec items on the 4.8's.

Probably one of each shock absorber. I have never heard of a front shock mount fail, but apparently the rear ones can, however I have never met anybody who actually managed this, and if it happens there isn't really much you can do about it.

A set of fan belts.

I have had two flexible brake hoses fail, but I believe that is age related, and shouldn't be w orry on a new car like yours. If you are worried about it, you can get spares, or even better get Aeroquip braided metal hoses made up that will last for virtually ever, and give you better brake feel to boot.

The front breathers (gearbox and front axle) all go into the front fender where the engine gets it's air. If you get a snorkel, you can connect these to the snorkel. However, the rear axle breather goes into the chassis cross member, and the ends of that are not properly sealed with rubber plugs. For the type of places you go, it might be worth relaying that to the front as well. Note that I have not done this, and have had no problems yet.

Perhaps taking a grease gun is a better option than taking u-joints? At least you can use that to also take care of the slip joints and steering ball joints? On the other hand, a yoke takes up very little space...

Thank you Peter, that's good advice. I'll take it onboard. I do have a small "travel" grease gun somewhere - not sure how well it works. A full size is just too messy... I'm going to leave the brake hoses for now but will go braided in about 5 years time I reckon. I'll have a look at that rear breather too. That should be capable of improvement.

Clem
I have done about 150000 km in a 4.8 in moz botz and namib and a lot was on tar I have never had any failure wat so ever ...
I think a full set of belts ..a spare fan blade (becouse it left us stranded in moremi when gerrit broke it on a river crossing )
Some scotch 23 . Or even better mastic 23 combo , pratley putty and a grease gun ....dont forget the 2 rolls of duct tape .it comes down to proper pre trip inspections mabe a spare radiator cap?