GU patrol warning

Submitted: Wednesday, Apr 19, 2006 at 23:12
ThreadID: 33066 Views:2377 Replies:7 FollowUps:6
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Just a warning for the GU 04 Patrol owners . There has been a incident were a kitted up Patrol ( rear bar/ lift kit / roof rack /front bar+ winch ) has cracked in the chassis close to were the rear spring sits. I am waiting on more info on the out come and ill keep you all posted as more info is available.

This is not a Cruiser against Patrol thread , as I own both, just something that has come to my attention in the last 2 days.

I would like to hear from any other Patrol owners that may have come across the same problem and what was the outcome .

Regards RC
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Reply By: rolande- Wednesday, Apr 19, 2006 at 23:23

Wednesday, Apr 19, 2006 at 23:23
G'Day Eric,

Not so unknown. Was just looking through the "industrial springs" catalogue. It has a note which says that the rear spring mounts need to be re-inforced if using their 22mm heavy duty springs.

Most lifted springs are around 18mm, but if you add poly-airs or the such to these, pump them up, load up the vehicle, then the problem may occur. In effect transferring a lot of the load form the spring to the spring mount

Has been posts on this on the Patrol forum in the past

Regards

Rolande
AnswerID: 167958

Follow Up By: Rock Crawler - Wednesday, Apr 19, 2006 at 23:33

Wednesday, Apr 19, 2006 at 23:33
Well my question then would be .

If a customer walks into a well known 4x4 accessories place and says , I wasn't a lift kit to carry all this weight and throws a open cheque at the store owner , with a just do everything you think needs doing , Who is to Blame ?

The owner for lack of research ? or the store for not setting up the vehicle properly ?

Now before everyone jumps the GUN . It isn't ARB , but I wont name who did the job. FOR NOW
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Follow Up By: rolande- Wednesday, Apr 19, 2006 at 23:40

Wednesday, Apr 19, 2006 at 23:40
Well, if it was industrial springs then certainly not them. Would also depend if the vehicle was over GVM, not real hard in a GU, load it with gear and 4 people and that is pretty much the limit.

This would go along similar lines to who ended up paying for the guy in the 100 series whose front end broke in the Simpson a few years ago, after being fitted with a lift kit.

Believe the same kit now comes with a re-inforcing bracket

Regards

Rolande
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Follow Up By: Member - Paul P (Bris) - Wednesday, Apr 19, 2006 at 23:49

Wednesday, Apr 19, 2006 at 23:49
G'day

I agree with Rolande

The lift kit and/or the extra weight, may be the cause of the problem. The lift kit (longer coils) is not required to carry extra load/weight, just heavier rated coils.

I would suspect that the supplier would argue that the extra weight caused the problem.

Now if the vehicle was weighed fully laden and found to exceed the manufacturers GVM.........

Blame/liability in this scenerio I would suggest, has many variables and may be likened to walking through a minefield......

My thoughts

Regards

Paul
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Follow Up By: Rock Crawler - Wednesday, Apr 19, 2006 at 23:57

Wednesday, Apr 19, 2006 at 23:57
One could argue that when walking into a shop to have this work done , that they expect to get the right advice. If you got this done here and that done there, one could argue that it didnt have these things on when we did it .

Now if the supplier and fitted recoments polly air bags and HH duty springs , he should also advise on what could happen , and what is needed to prevent it.
due to he is suppose to be the expert and thats what we pay for.

I do agree its a mine field and could go either way .

The one thing that sux , is that a person who walks into a store and say's I have no idea , tell me what I need , shouldnt have to go through this.
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Follow Up By: Trevor R (QLD) - Thursday, Apr 20, 2006 at 07:57

Thursday, Apr 20, 2006 at 07:57
Nissan must have done something different in the earlier GU's as mine is severley loaded (read overloaded) 80% of the time without probs so far. Now has 260k on the clock, maybe I'm just lucky so far???

Trevor.
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Follow Up By: Member - JohnR (Vic)&Moses - Thursday, Apr 20, 2006 at 08:25

Thursday, Apr 20, 2006 at 08:25
Eric, I wrote about mine within the first six months of getting it as it was suggested to check it by the local service guys. It was belted back to shape by the dealer under warranty then plated over the top of the towers at my expense with bolts to hold the towers in shape.

The actual plate has distorted to some extent but hasn't got in the way when I put in the 3" exhaust.

I am sure it is a combination of speed and the shocks transmitted through the springs. I had been carrying with polyairs, but more recently with heavy springs to the extent of 21mm wire. I uess it is always going to be a problem with weight and if the shockers are a poorer grade too. I have heard of the towers ripping out of the chassis or people having to repair the towers while in the Outback but mine are strengthened.
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FollowupID: 423231

Reply By: Raymond from Wanderin 4 Wheelers - Thursday, Apr 20, 2006 at 07:38

Thursday, Apr 20, 2006 at 07:38
The problem is when too thick a spring is fitted and the dump stops are not altered to stop the spring compressing all the way and thus putting all the force through to the spring holder. With the slideon camper we had meadium/heavy springs and Polyairs and travelled for 100000 with no problems at all and it was heavily laden.

Regards Ray
AnswerID: 167985

Reply By: Voxson (Adelaide) - Thursday, Apr 20, 2006 at 07:42

Thursday, Apr 20, 2006 at 07:42
I will be keeping a close eye on it....My car is on the heavyish side...
AnswerID: 167986

Reply By: warthog - Thursday, Apr 20, 2006 at 07:51

Thursday, Apr 20, 2006 at 07:51
We own a '00 gu and our mechanic has also encountered this problem. On gu's carrying weight and doing lots of dirt work he has come across them cracking the chassis in front of the rear spring mounts. Said it is a cases of plating them when this happens, chassis is quite a thin guage. Telstra also plates their gu utes in front of the leading rear spring hangers from new. Ours hasn't cracked the chassis yet despite the previous owner living past Arltunga on some rough dirt, though we have had a seam rewelded on the rear diff.
AnswerID: 167988

Reply By: Member - Beatit (QLD) - Thursday, Apr 20, 2006 at 08:15

Thursday, Apr 20, 2006 at 08:15
G'day Rock Crawler,

I have a 2002 model and like to have a heavy load when travelling. So I had the ARB mob fit their heavier springs before my last trip, developed a sag (not serious but I could notice it) when I was in Katherine. Popped into the local ARB agent and had a discussion about my options. One option was to fit the coils out of a trayback - they are rated to carry a greater load than their standard wagon replacement. Anyway following a call to ARB Darwin by the guy in Katherine I was advised that these heavier springs were known to crack the spring tower and that they would not install them for fear of having it returned.

My guess is that this is the problem with the one your talking about. BTW fitted airbags and fixed the sag.

Kind regards
AnswerID: 167992

Reply By: Member - Phil G (SA) - Thursday, Apr 20, 2006 at 12:37

Thursday, Apr 20, 2006 at 12:37
I had a friend who had this happened to his coil cab GU. So when he replaced it with another coilcab GU, he had a local 4wd shop weld up some reinforcement when it was brand new and before the tray was fitted. He carries a traytop camper.

Cheers
phil
AnswerID: 168044

Reply By: DesC - Thursday, Apr 20, 2006 at 17:44

Thursday, Apr 20, 2006 at 17:44
i split my chassis lengthways between where the rear coil towers mount at 140 000 km. No big deal only a 3 hour repair and is now better than new. Tojo's do the same in the 80 series.
AnswerID: 168119

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