Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

Patroliax

he he he - SKERPPPP Theuhan - dit was by Suspension Part Sales in Pta Wes toe hulle die vere 're-set' het ...

Theu... loer bikki daa opp Nissan werf - daar is oukie wat nie sy chrome bumber en grille laaik nie - dalk wil jy hom ruil ??? [sommer gedagte]http://www.nissan4x4.co.za/forum/forum_ ... PN=1&TPN=2

Maar hier is darm itzi van Agarob [De Wildt]

Both of mine at the same spot... guess which got more flex...

Fanus, your Patrol Bakkie is looking really cool with all the kit you have added! I think it flexes really well to be quite honest, specially for a HD rear leaf sprung vehicle.
Specially cause there's no weight on the rear there either.
The front tyre also tucks up nicely into the arch, thats what you want.
You wont see a 79series cruiser even close to that, standard or modified, they just dont flex at all.
If you had 250kg on the rear you would be surprised how the standard leaf packs will conform to the terrain, i may even say better than aftermarket packs.

Hope I can post in this section, the Sani is slowly becoming a Patrol with the drivetrain going transplant. I know its a very slow process here, but finances are the limiting factor...

SO

A few weeks ago I got to do my first flex test on my ramps. To say the least, I am very disappointed. We are still only two wheel drive, so traction was a bit of an issue to get onto a 500 high ramp. We did not make it to the top, but we revealed a problem or two...

The pics... Here is the major problem of getting the MQ to flex under the Sani... Shocks don't have enough travel. These are standard Disco 2 shocks, and with this little flex, I have compressed totally on one side, and fully extended the other side.
Rear end is still Hardbody, so I am not sure how that is going to change once the Patrol Diff is in.

Leaf spring compressed flex on the front...
What does make me feel slightly better about the test, is that the left rear wheel ended up in a sand hole of close on 150mm deep. This made the trip up the ramp less successful, but does account for a little more flex than what is initially seen.

If you would allow me to comment:

Your rear suspension seems to be too stiff, compared to the front, given the vehicle's mass distribution. The bodywork is following the rear axle quite closely, with most of the flex actually coming from the front end. This is the opposite to the way vehicles are normally set up, where the rear does most of the flexing. There is a reason for this: if the rear suspension is relatively stiff compared to the front (given the mass distribution of the vehicles), the vehicle will be more prone to oversteering on the limit. Oversteer is viewed as less easy to control for inexperienced drivers than understeer, so cars are normally set up to favour the latter. In terms of offroad comfort and driver confidence it is nice to have the suspension stiffnesses balanced so that both the front and rear axles contribute equally to the total flex.

Gerrit, its work in progress and I don't want to Hijack this thread with the obvious discussion that is about to ensue. I have a build thread here ( http://patrol4x4.co.za/viewtopic.php?f=72&t=4977 ) where we can discuss this further..

Thanks for your input. Some of the things I am experiencing with this vehicle are exactly as you describe. But as mentioned, this thing has been built on a very low budget and mostly donations of parts and moneys from forum members. So we have taken what we can and used it where and how ever we thought would be best.

Gerrit, I should maybe have posted this pic as well, it may give you a better idea of how much or little flex we have on the rear.

David what I find very interesting is the difference in body angles between your Nissan and Fanus's Patrol..Fanus's patrol body is still level and full flex