If the Toyota Land Cruiser is a McDonalds Big Mac then the Nissan Patrol was a Burger King Whopper. The latter was an almost there and slightly cheaper homage to the former...and never quite as successful as a result.
Regrettably, Nissan have killed the homage and replaced it with a fattened up SUV with the same name but none of the practical heritage or the off road ability.
However, that’s only slightly related to what this is about.
As the image says this is a 2002 Nissan Patrol Coil Cab Chassis utility with a model designation Y61. The Coil Cab moniker comes from the fact that this version has a coil sprung solid front axle and, at the time, it could also be had with a leaf spring front end.
Out the back is another solid axle held up by leaf springs. Over that sits a 2.4 X 1.2 metre steel tray that is, after 15 years, looking well used. This particular tray has an extra trick in that it is a tipper. Hydraulic cylinder with electrical motivation.
Under the bonnet is the venerable 4.2 litre straight six diesel that bought Nissan many kudos back in the 80s and 90s. By this stage, they were keeping the engine in the hunt by adding a turbo to it. It could also be had as an intercooled turbo diesel. The turbo is only small and the boost pressure is bigger all but it was more than sufficient. The engine in this particular example has just 68,300 kilometres on it. I would also like to point out the size of the air filter to our LC fans...
Inside is pure Japanese late 90s plastic in various shades of beige. Crucially, Takata products are absent from this model. The factory faux bench seating is in excellent condition and still remains one of the worst set of chairs that Nissan ever put their name on. Air conditioning was a standard inclusion.
Why all the fuss and build up? Well... it’s now ours. It was my mother’s and step father’s. It was their property ute. However, he passed away a couple of years ago and my mum has just sold the property to move into an apartment in town. So she has gifted it to us to clean up and use as we see fit. Hopefully, it will become our property ute! But it may also overland one day.
We have a TJM bullbar to go on it plus there’s a winch as well. It needs a dual battery setup plus some additional lighting. And those seats may have to go too. The radio cassette player doesn’t work either.
Fun times are ahead...