Patrol chassis cracks

Hi Aus,
I have been told that if they are inflated too much, they make the suspension too ridged, and that this can crack chassis and or diff banjo.
niss42.

Hi Austravel, from what I have gathered researching the same subject the problem exists with both leaf and coil models that are loaded well up, with some saying that the bags increase the occurence of the cracking.

Before I had my new suspension fitted I was flatly told by my prospective installer that he wouldn't fit the new suspension UNTIL I had first reinforced the spring towers and the chassis ESPECIALLY as Poly Airs were also to be fitted.

Now, the said installer has a fair bit of credence in the industry (Brad Newham - ARB Gawler) and said the majority of the cracks were only around the spring towers/towers to chassis - he never mentioned any other chassis cracking points.

The chassis specialists who ended up doing my reinforcement also do GU's that end up in the mines - they do not reinforce the chassis behind the cab, only around the towers to chassis area. The only other cracking they mentioned was the tray to chassis mounts may crack due to the inflexibility of steel trays.

Hope this helps, but would also like to know exactly what happened to your rig during your Kimberley trip.

Best regards,

Craig.

Search back on a post i made mth or so ago about dude in our club whose LWB chassis cracked clean in 1/2 on both sides. (both rails)...

He has had it reenforced for the second time, and has sold his dual rear wheel carrier..

His car is 3200kg before packing for a trip..

The thing is this, some of us seem to think we can just keep loading stuff on. The fact is you cant. They design these things to do a certain job, OVERLOADING is a recipe for disaster. The suspension is designed to take up the load as travelling equally between all the pivot points. When you add things like air bags and the like, you are stopping the load being distributed equally over all the pivot points thus causing overloads to accure as is the case here.

Hi,
I have a Landcruiser leaf sping with bellows so do not know if this applies to a Patrol. I was given a pretty clear message on two points. Inflate the bellows to an appropriate pressure for the load. If the load changes, change the pressure in the bellows. Secondly not to try and carry more than the rated max capacity. Bellows do not change the maximum load capacity, they just allow you to carry a variable load in comfort. I think some of this comes from the fact the bellows are rated to 4T and obviously this is somewhat over the rated max load of the vehicle.

Steve

Somewhere I recall there being a Nissan reinforcement part for this issue but only for the leaf versions
I think it is welded on and goes just behind the cab
Maybe try a dealer who handles lots of Telstra/country energy utes
Dubbo for example - Western Plains Automotive
Some leaf versions are uprated capacity 3400kg from new and would be prone to this problem
JR

Go to my Pic's and you'll see a piture of my fix at the bottem.