Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

biggles wrote:Towing was a dream... it seriously had no issues and overtaking was a dream. Enough power to take gaps with confidence.

Steve, if the consumption does not hurt you, that is great.
It seems like that build was made to last, and it is not just a street racer.
But for me personally, 3.7km/l would hurt too much in the along run.

Steve, I think you have summed it up very good in your signature "With great Power comes Great Fuel Consumption"

In the real world, you cannot have both, if you want horses you must feed them. I think you have your dream vehicle and every time you fill up, the extra 1.5km/l it is basically just a down payment of the joy it offers.

Would love to see it in action!

Alex Roux wrote:

biggles wrote:Towing was a dream... it seriously had no issues and overtaking was a dream. Enough power to take gaps with confidence.

Steve, if the consumption does not hurt you, that is great.
It seems like that build was made to last, and it is not just a street racer.
But for me personally, 3.7km/l would hurt too much in the along run.

The fuel consumption is a bit like one of traumatic experiences that you steer clear of thinking about...

But let us analyse the consumption. Previously I drove back to Cape Town with the Caravan, so downhill mostly with the X5. Now the X5 is a brilliante tow vehicle. I would maintain the same cruising speed but lacked the overtake grunt of the storm trooper. I achieved 7km/l so almost half in diesel.

Cost to drive with the Patrol: R5,651
Cost with the X5:R2750
So driving the patrol cost me R3000 extra.

biggles wrote:So the Patrols second long trip. This time Cape town to Otavi in namibia. 1849km done in a day and a half. Towing the Jurgens Explorer with roofrack on...

Camped overnight in Marientaal.

Fuel consumption was rock solid at 3.7km/l. Pump attendants eyes almost popped out when I told him down to the liter how much was going to go in. So that is cruising at 115km/h on the GPS or 120 on the clock.

I was getting to a destination so not on an economy run.

Towing was a dream... it seriously had no issues and overtaking was a dream. Enough power to take gaps with confidence.

So I was pottering around in the caravan prepping it for the holiday. It is parked at the mine and I just towed it 2000km from Cape Town...

On the way up the fuel consumption did seem on the high side
I picked up a fishtail around marientaal that forced me to stop. It is usually due to too much weight at the back and never happened before with the xplorer. Anyway I threw all the stuff to the front and the fish tailing stopped. It was very strange to me as the xplorers are notoriously nose heavy when unloaded.

So I was pottering around yesterday and testing out everything I pressed the water tank level indicator to make sure it had power... and the tank was full!! Looks like the guys that did the service filled up the tank. So I lugged 100l of water from drought struck Cape Town to Otjiwarongo where it pees down daily. Paid to do it. Only advantage is I have a tank of sweet water

biggles wrote:

Alex Roux wrote:

biggles wrote:Towing was a dream... it seriously had no issues and overtaking was a dream. Enough power to take gaps with confidence.

Steve, if the consumption does not hurt you, that is great.
It seems like that build was made to last, and it is not just a street racer.
But for me personally, 3.7km/l would hurt too much in the along run.

The fuel consumption is a bit like one of traumatic experiences that you steer clear of thinking about...

But let us analyse the consumption. Previously I drove back to Cape Town with the Caravan, so downhill mostly with the X5. Now the X5 is a brilliante tow vehicle. I would maintain the same cruising speed but lacked the overtake grunt of the storm trooper. I achieved 7km/l so almost half in diesel.

Cost to drive with the Patrol: R5,651
Cost with the X5:R2750
So driving the patrol cost me R3000 extra.

Steve Steve Steve....Not everbody has a super charged Nissan Patrol......

Sooo... we have a weight-bridge at the mine so at lunch I popped out to get the patrol. Jurgens Xplorer was still hooked up after the Botswana trip and save for an extra fridge I am taking home so it is her full overlanding glory...

All 4,650kg of her!!

So 550kg over and above the standard patrol 2,475+ 1,650kg Xplorer is not too bad.

So the first bit of maintenance occured with the supercharger, well actually the waterpump for the charge cooler. It is a bosch item and I was led to believe you could not obtain them in S.A.... special order from Germany, etc.

The brushes had worn out in it so I set about fabricating new brushes but after about 4 hours trying to get the armature back in while holding the brushes back I gave up and decided to order from Germany. A different helpful chap at Bosch said try goldwagen... R700 later and I had a brand new pump.

Bosch 0392022002

Running noticeably better now.