Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

Hi Guys,

Jules decided that his wife needed a bit of refresher training (she is taking his beloved GQ on a ladies' trip into Moz in the near future), so he invited a couple of guys to keep him company. The vehicles were: Jules' 4.2 Y60/GQ, Donald's 4.8 Y61/GU, my 4.5 Y61 and Gawie's 2.8 Clot. After the original mission had been accomplished, it was playtime.

Pictures are supposed to be worth a 1000 words, so here they are. The ones below are a mixture of ones Jules mailed me and that I took. Hopefully we can add some more of Jules' and Donald's images to this thread:


Kicking up dust at the beginning of the trail:







And now for some cross axle leg stretching: Jules in the Y60 (OME and standard size rubber)...










...and Donald in the Y61 (OME and standard size rubber, I think):










I bring up the rear in the old Y61 with stock suspension (but 33" BFG MTs):











Lined up after the cross axles and the rock garden:





Donald tackles a rather steep, loose and undulating descent:




Check the flex on the rear in this shot of Donald on the way down...




This my Patrol at the top of the descent with me checking that all is clear...




...and down we go:






Donald going down again:





Crossing the river:











...and straight out of the river and up that steep incline that we came down...



My daughter was playing around with the camera and took this shot from the lapa at the end of the day that somehow manages to capture the setting and mood quite nicely. Perhaps she is a budding photographer. What do you think?

Pragtig , mooi manne , eks was vandag daar in die vallei, dit nog nooit so droog gesien nie.Van die lemoenboorde, en Casuarina bome wys tekens van droogte vrektes.
Jules soek jy nie so n dakrak soos Gerrit s'n nie? Ek het een goedkoop.

Thanks Gerrit, Donald, Gawie and the ladies it was a great outing , great setting. I think your daughter captured the mood well in the end tranquility in sunset Zululand with a dash of Dad's Patrol showing.

THE AXLE stretching was great, first 2H to see if articilatrion was sufficient without engaging 4x4, Peter Bain made sure holes are lekka deep so tou end up with wheel in the air , next put in 4x4 go very slow and you find wheels in the air if you gee n bietjie spoed your speed actually carries the wheel past the airborne part so you can do without difflock but might damage your Patrol. Difflock on you take foot off petrol and idle through. Must say Gerrit your stock standard U with those huge '33 impressed me, those big pieces of rubber is awesome, it looked like ASTERIX ON STERIODS.

Both Gerrit and Donald confirmed what late Chad Bain said when you drive a Patrol you just steer it in the direction you want to go and you go that is what makes our vehicles so special. We just need mech's who can work on these machine.

the sand driving was a blast and the girls enjoyed it BAIE, once or twice I thought oopsy hier sit ons vas, but like true old school zululanders brought up by a very adventorous father with whom they had spend many many hours of driving on the beach in the 70's their memories kicked in and they kicked sand in my eyes by ettin out of a tricky situation . ONCE AGAIN MY PATROL WILL BE IN GOOD HANDS


I will make some pics smaller and post them soon.


Shalom

Koos DEFNITIEF, maak n draai by my laat ons kan gesels

Shalom

gerrit ek hou van jou nuwe Avatar

Dankie, Jules, maar eintlik moet ek vir jou bedank vir al die mooi foto's wat jy geneem het (ook daardie ene).

Jis boys julle laat dit darrem lekker lyk

I definately play too seldom. I have always said there is no reason to be driving a big 4x4 on the road all the time, but when you get a chance to play they definately make up for it

Thanks guys, nice pics.
Peter

Great pictorial Gerrit, thanks for sharing with us. Those GQ's and GU's flex so well hey. You got 285's on ? they look huge! Also, that climb in the second last pic looks bloody steep!

Gerrit I meant to ask, what pressures do you run in those 33inchers when you go playing? There is quite a lot of sidewall flex visible in some of the photos great for traction!

Russ, they are 285s. I must say that they are quite amazing in the rough stuff. The grip is astounding.

The climb is quite steep and it flexes the suspension quite a bit on the way up. It is slightly different every time you do it, so always interesting.