By Gareth Bosley
Thought I would drop you a line and
share with you some photos and details of my Nissan Patrol GT-R coil cab ute. I have
personally built the vehicle from scratch, it is based upon a 1992 model TD42 diesel coil
cab ute.
The vehicle regularly spends it's days towing a 2.8 ton trailer and tractor combination, at other times I utilize it as a support vehicle for my activities with a Rural Fire Brigade. The vehicle quickly converts to a fast response support vehicle by the addition of a 800kg fire trailer.
Whilst the vehicle has a tare weight of almost 3 ton it still manages to accelerate 0-100kph in under 10 seconds and has a top speed of 220kph, which is not too bad for a 3 ton diesel truck.
The
following modifications have been made to enable this: The Standard TD42 6 cylinder diesel
power plant was boosted from it's factory 85kW to 155kW and almost 500Nm of torque through
the addition of a Safari turbo charger and intercooler kit peaking at 15psi (1.07bar) of
boost. This kit was further enhanced by replacing the factory injectors with a set of
matched Safari/Barema injectors, the addition of a safari snorkel, replacing the exhaust
system with a three inch mandrel bent system and increasing the fuel pump rate. The
standard fuel filter was replaced with a high capacity waterproof Racor filter to ensure
greater power yields and better injector life. The battery has been replaced with a heavy
duty Caterpillar battery to cope with the higher temperatures and the heavy pounding that
it receives. The addition of bonnet grills was necessary so as to reduce under bonnet
temperatures. The temperatures where reaching such levels that the vent air for the cabin
was being preheated to very high temperatures and also resulted in extensive heating of
the fire wall. After fitting the grills the under bonnet temperatures have fallen
drastically and has also assisted in increasing air flow through the engine bay and
cooling system.
Due to the increased power output the clutch also had to be heavily modified,
finally after trying 3 clutch kits which only lasted 15,000km each, the final combination
of a heavy duty pressure plate from a Ti Efi Patrol and a motorsport clutch plate has
managed to handle the massive amounts of power and torque. The clamping pressure now
utilized in the vehicle is almost three times that of the factory vehicle.
To handle the increased power the vehicles suspension system was replaced with a complete Old Man Emu kit from ARB. The kit was then further enhanced by the addition of Polyair suspension bags (see attached photo) to the front and rear coil springs. This has resulted in a vehicle that has no body roll and can out handle many performance sports cars. The handling has also been improved by increasing the track of the vehicle by approximately five inches. This has meant that the vehicle is much wider than normal on the road and has improve stability and traction whilst cornering and driving under high speeds. The vehicle has been fitted with 10R15 Cooper Discoverer's; these tyres are only lasting a maximum of 30,000km, not surprising when you consider that it still develops wheel-spin in third gear on dry bitumen. A sharp tap to the accelerator in third will make the back end step out without any difficulty.
The braking system has also been increased by utilizing motorsport brake
pads and through increasing air flows to the disk rotors. In the near future the existing
calipers and rotors will be replaced by drilled and vented disks and Brembo 4-pot
calipers.
The cabin has also received attention the standard radio has been replaced with a Kenwood stereo system, the tray space under the radio has been replaced with a Uniden 40 Ch UHF radio, a center dash pod has been added and is fitted with a boost gauge and 40 Ch Uniden AM CB. The vehicle has also been fitted with a Garmin GPS satellite navigation system that is in a custom cradle on the dash pod and can be easily removed from the vehicle when walking, hiking or adventuring away from the vehicle. The spare space under the center console has been utilized to carry the hardware for a phone booster system and allows phone coverage almost anywhere. Other additions to the cabin includes a Turbo timer, Recaro race seats, an electronic brake controller and an internal/ external thermometer display.
If anyone has any
queries please contact me. This vehicle serves several purposes, heavy duty towing
vehicle, off road 4x4 and performance sports car. And if you are wondering whether it is
any good off road, well it's left all other coil suspension 4x4's that it has come up
against for dead and they had diff lockers... (c) Gareth Bosley 1998
Email: Gareth Bosley J.P, 11/1998
These pages were last
updated on 25th July 1999.
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