Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

Hi Guys

Having test driven a manual now, the is quite a few grx in the market now but i need to know how good the triptronic gearbox is.

My main concern is the following: my main off road activity is dune driving and a auto box is not good enough due to the following two issues:
1. Cannot rev the engine to the limiter and keep it on the limiter without gearbox changing up. (third to fourth for example)
2. Instead of staying in second while climbing a steep dune it will change down to first and get stuck where a manual will crawl over without putting too much power on the wheels. Hope you understand what i'm trying to say.

Now in triptronic mode will this auto box let me rev it to the limiter and secondly , will it down change into 1st ?

This is my only concern regarding buying an auto (well maybe the durability of the box with extra power from an supercharger (320 kw and 700mnt estimated) but the same issue will be with a manual box)

Boet, the manual Patrol box does not come close to the auto in sand! Tiptronic, choose a gear 1, 2, 3, whichever and you can live in the limiter until you change it up. Gearing down, when it gears down you dont feel it and if it was manual the vehicle would have stalled by then! One thing only, first gear is not as nice and low as the manual's. Regards to too much power on wheels and spinning in sand, that sounds like a right foot problem. Have had both auto and manual in various vehicle's, auto is awesome.

Thanks , good news then, normal drive style when we start to play is to live on the limiter and let the dune pull the revs down. Regarding down changing ? Yes the vehicles with less power do stall (manual) some times , but then its right on the crest of the dune. I am spoilt by the supercharger's torque in those cases, even at 500 rpm if you floor it then , just before or on the dune crest it has the power to accelerate and pull you over. Thats why the patrol's 1st mod will be a supercharger...............

Keep us posted on the supercharger, interested in doing the same conversion!

seen the cost as per rgm ?????

Turbo route will by much much cheaper

G-MAN wrote:Boet, the manual Patrol box does not come close to the auto in sand!

Hi Bartho, I can vouch for that. With lot of experience on sand driving towing various size ski boats with manuals and autos , launching these crafts and retrieving it going over steep dunes ect. the autos is by far superior. They dont stall, they can change gear faster without getting bogged down ect.
Last year on a 4x4 trip through the Kalahari we were six vehicles , 3 x manual and 3 x autos. The autos out performed the manuals on every occasion.

But remember, sand dune driving has got nothing to do with power , its all in the type of tyre and the flotation its got and the pressure of that tyre
In my forestry career, we had to get lot of equipment over vast stretches of sand bars and steep dunes, we did it with Unimogs, trucks and normal 4 cyl 4wd's, none of those were powerfull vehicles.But were all fitted with the right application tyres for the job.

agree on driver ability and tyres , BUT , going up a slipface of 150+meters you need power and momentum

Have a look at my posting in trips , section , will look for pic for the highest dune we ever done , to date only my cruiser and Basil smiths blue printed cruiser could make the climb from bottom to top , 186 meters slip face up

Start of challenge dune


building up speed/momentum


Going up..


up


and over

Bartho, love those Namib dunes, they are awsome. I will bring my LS2 powered patrol up there when the conversion is done so that I can also join in on the fun.
I would love to have had an auto, but will stick with the manual and the power. I agree with you, you do need raw power for dunes like that.

Let's make it an patrol extreme trip, i'll organise the trip from this side , we need to be 8 vehicles and we can do a private (only patrols) trip. I'll make sure we go to all he challenge dune we've one up to now .....