New Member with loads of questions!!

[Ianinessex]

Hi to you all. I have just joined as I have a lot of questions about how to modify my Patrol.
First a quick intro: As you probably can guess, my name is Ian and I live in Essex, the home of the boy racer and the 4x4 school bus. During the last 10 years I have had 2 Patrols as company cars and enjoyed them, mainly on the road. I have also had 2 discos and spent far too much time in the garage!! Now I have retired, I have bought a 2002 SE+ TD Auto (with 167,000 miles on the clock) and have started the slow and expensive process of modifying it to make it more useful for my main pastime of shooting and therefore it needs to be more capable off road.
So far all I have done is bigger AT tyres, towbar, change the rear lights and a full length roof rack.
Next is replace all the lamps with LEDs, re program the ECU for more power, raise the suspension and fit a front winch. This is where the need for advise comes in. Any suggestions / comments on the ECU, suspension or front bumper/winch would be very appreciated.
Cheers

 

[rustic]

Hi Ian, welcome to the best club for all things Nissan 4x4, oh and Ford Maverick of course...
:thumb2

Rustic

 

[solarman216]

Welcome mate, I do not know a lot about patrols, but there are many on here who do, makitfit will be the most predominant on here re mods, so you intend to fit a front winch, this suggests serious off road stuff, wait to hear, Rick

 

[ballo1000]

Hi Ian, new gear myself but everyone on here is really friendly and I am sure someone will be along soon who can help.

 

[makeitfit]

Evnin' :beer:
Winch time is it
I guess there's three main ways to go about it:
1 buy an off the shelf winch bumper and bolt it on.
2 make one in the style of your choosing ( my favorite :sly )
3 stealth look winch tray behind/in the existing bumper.
Remember that if you're going to lift the suspension too, allow for the extra weight of any winch and bumper in your calcs for the springs :thumbs

 

[Matt B]

Welcome mate great bunch on here ! Best tenner you will spend !:thumb2

 

[Fez_uk]

Welcome to the forum mate,

As Pete aka makeitfit said thats the 3 ways of doing it.

1: Off the shelf bumpers like the ARB make can be had for about 300-500 on ebay 2nd hand. Come up now and then.

2: Price would depend on how much work you can or a mate or blacksmith can do

3: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/nissan-pa...arts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item1c45bc6386

 

[Fez_uk]

http://www.nissan4x4ownersclub.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22147&page=3

ARB winch bumper one of the members on here has

 

[Barrbeast]

Beat me to it Fez :thumb2

Welcome bud, was going to say I've got an ARB winch bumper on my Trol that I picked up from eBay. As Fez said they come up now and then, you just have to keep checking :nenau

What did you do to your rear lights by the way? I removed my bumper lights and fitted euro spec light clusters into the boot pillars. I blanked off the spaces in the bumper with chequer plate.

 

[61jason61]

winch, stealth mode, behind bumper is what i'd do. led lights, you will need to get two resisters of ebay to make the vehicle think the bulbs are ok, as led lights draw so little current, your blinkers will flash really fast indicating that a bulb has blown, which is hasn't of coarse. you could leave like this but think you will get stopped as its a in built system on all cars, to flash fast when bulb has blown.

lastly, an ESSEX TRACTOR, now thats a new one. :lol:

 

[Ianinessex]

Thanks for all the comments and info.

The lights I bought direct from a company advertising on ebay (it was cheaper than buying them from the same company on ebay!!). I think they are the ones people call Euro, they are the same colours both sides. Unfortunately they are wired for wedge bulbs so have to check they haven't come loose if the road gets too bumpy, been OK so far. I have wired them in alongside the originals so now have 2 reversing, 2 fog, 2 brake (plus the high level one), 4 rear and 4 indicators on the back. Now need to sort the front, which I will do once I have the new bumper. Some on there and some on the trooper roof rack (mounts are already on it)

On the winch / bumper, I will probably go for the ARB. Looks strong enough to withstand the occasional tree I seem to slide into! Can't get the bars to mount on the top though, now not sold in the UK.

 

[makeitfit]

winch, stealth mode, behind bumper is what i'd do. led lights, you will need to get two resisters of ebay to make the vehicle think the bulbs are ok, as led lights draw so little current, your blinkers will flash really fast indicating that a bulb has blown, which is hasn't of coarse. you could leave like this but think you will get stopped as its a in built system on all cars, to flash fast when bulb has blown.

What's the point of a resistor on an led install ? That'll put the load back up to filament style :doh All you need is a new flasher relay for LED indicator bulbs :thumbs

 

[Barrbeast]

Thanks for all the comments and info.

The lights I bought direct from a company advertising on ebay (it was cheaper than buying them from the same company on ebay!!). I think they are the ones people call Euro, they are the same colours both sides. Unfortunately they are wired for wedge bulbs so have to check they haven't come loose if the road gets too bumpy, been OK so far. I have wired them in alongside the originals so now have 2 reversing, 2 fog, 2 brake (plus the high level one), 4 rear and 4 indicators on the back. Now need to sort the front, which I will do once I have the new bumper. Some on there and some on the trooper roof rack (mounts are already on it)

On the winch / bumper, I will probably go for the ARB. Looks strong enough to withstand the occasional tree I seem to slide into! Can't get the bars to mount on the top though, now not sold in the UK.

Looking good, like I said I just removed the bumper lights - found they were a bit too vulnerable to damage when offroading in Wales :augie

Don't worry about the wedge bulbs, they won't come loose - mine certainly haven't and they've had plenty stick! (Your front indicators will be wedge as well, possibly sidelights too).

 

[Barrbeast]

Re the bumper bars it depends on where you get the bumper from as I think Ironman ones are still sold new with the bar on them. It's the EU frontal protection and bullbar regs that made ARB remove them from the bumpers in the EU as suppliers aren't meant to sell new bullbars unless they are pedestrian safe (I didn't buy my bumper new). On my bumper the bullbar is part of the bumper anyway (you can't separate it) but whether the bumper has bars or not you're fine so long as you have a winch in it as the bumper then counts as equipment instead of frontal protection and is perfectly road legal.

 

[terrano bob]

hi mate :thumbs

 

[Ianinessex]

Re the bumper bars it depends on where you get the bumper from as I think Ironman ones are still sold new with the bar on them. It's the EU frontal protection and bullbar regs that made ARB remove them from the bumpers in the EU as suppliers aren't meant to sell new bullbars unless they are pedestrian safe (I didn't buy my bumper new). On my bumper the bullbar is part of the bumper anyway (you can't separate it) but whether the bumper has bars or not you're fine so long as you have a winch in it as the bumper then counts as equipment instead of frontal protection and is perfectly road legal.

Thanks for the advise on the bull bars. I want them to protect the front when sliding around in the woods but have been told by several suppliers that it is now illegal. I will now try the "equipment" tack and see if I get further
Ian

 

[Barrbeast]

As well as the road-legality issue it's also illegal for them to sell old style bullbars new bud so if they're not happy with selling them when they form part of a winch bumper I reckon you might be stuck :nenau

Like I said you'll get an Ironman bumper with the bars no problem :thumbs

Try here

http://westcoastoffroad.co.uk/shop/product-category/accessories/winchbars/

 

[Ianinessex]

As well as the road-legality issue it's also illegal for them to sell old style bullbars new bud so if they're not happy with selling them when they form part of a winch bumper I reckon you might be stuck :nenau

Like I said you'll get an Ironman bumper with the bars no problem :thumbs

Try here

http://westcoastoffroad.co.uk/shop/product-category/accessories/winchbars/

Thanks for the extra info. I will investigate the Ironman ones to compare with the ARB.

On the rear lights, I just found the place I got them from: http://www.japanese4x4parts.co.uk/body-electricals-904-c.asp
They fitted straight in.