Nissan 3.0lt 2002 Patrol

Thanks for the reply.

20psi was the pressure

TD

gday go off road
i have just had my gu 2004 3.0 L td patrol wagon upgraded with heavy duty tjm progressive springs put on the back and front ( not progressives ) and do have the poly airs fitted already - so no probs i dont think yst as only done a month or two ago but very interested to know what i need to do to guard against this issue occurring - any recommendation as to who can strengthen this spring hanger support area and how - and maybe who to contact in brisbane
my sincere thanks greg

gday john same request as to go off road follows

i have just had my gu 2004 3.0 L td patrol wagon upgraded with heavy duty tjm progressive springs put on the back and front ( not progressives ) and do have the poly airs fitted already - so no probs i dont think yst as only done a month or two ago but very interested to know what i need to do to guard against this issue occurring - any recommendation as to who can strengthen this spring hanger support area and how - and maybe who to contact in brisbane
my sincere thanks greg

FWIW I've run around for 5 years with a H/Duty 2 inch lift, Polyairs (no more than 12PSI) and Koni's with Howing Moon on top, loaded fridge and _Affordable_Storage_Drawers.aspx in the back and off road trailer on the ball. (see rig picks). It's taken a few big washouts to the point where the a&s has well and truly been in the air. After hearing a few of these reports I got an engineer to check mine out when I got a chassis extension/dual cab conversion recently, no issues found. FWIW they were pretty relaxed about it and told me they had seen the problem but only on vehicles heavily loaded with standard suspension and upgraded my GVM to 3.5T with the suspension combo I already had.

There was a report here a while back of someone who had this happen up at the Cape, also big load, standard suspension.

OT

Ive only seen it with aftermarket suspension.

And have seen the aftermath of one overloaded, with camper trailer, on a cape trip, that broke the chassis off completely at the spring mounts.

The nissan also has a problem with tearing the front spring hangers off as well, had this happen to one on a recent canning trip, and while all the vehicles were being serviced in Alice, the 4wd workshop there reported welding 3 front spring mounts back into patrols this year, and abour bracing the rears, because the towers bend up.

Interesting, key message I guess is whatch those weights!

I had the first correction at 13,000kms with only the Polyairs as my assistance at 25psi ! I think that road shocks and weights do it. I was interested at tthe comment on the front ends though GO_OFFROAD. I hadn't heard that one before.

I have made comments before about the shocks from tyres at high pressure that are also partly to blame - BUT the front towers and that have the shocks mounted through them. It wasn't a competition vehicle GO_OFFROAD? Perhaps I should talk more with the local racer too.

Greg, I just have a plate mounted side to side across the top of the spring towers at the rear - 1/2" thick and about 7-8" wide and bolted using the bolt holes in the towers, outside of the springs. Its easier with a tray to remove it. Others have RHS mounted vertically side to side, but bolted in. That would be lighter.

ARB are aware of the issue with putting in too heavy duty a spring. Mates GU is loaded with all the accessories including a Kaymar bar with twin carriers and 33" tyres. OME heavy duty springs sagged very early in the piece. Went back to ARB and the fella behind the counter was going to install the heavy duty springs off the ute and his collegue advised against it as it .....guess what..... bends the spring towers up. Since then OME heavey duty springs are like 21mm dia steel instead of the 19mm they used to be made of.
If the spring isn't going to absorb the impact something has to bend.

Leroy

Just re-reading my response earlier, the 13,000 km reference was with the original equipment springs and I am also aware that others have had similar problems with the OE too.

Leroy, I have 21mm wire these days and that was before I started towing. Really good progression there still. Pretty happy with the suspension and the way it handles weight and shocks. It really hit the bump stops with the OE and little weight. Does damage that way :-(

thanks for the feedback guys as i said no sign of an issue with mine yet but i believe in pre emptive action where possible - i did do the cape in 2006 towing my kk classic mariner and with 3.75m boat on top and with the patrol was defintely overloaded full roof rack and rear fully loaded also - with poly air bags fitted to level out the rear and thankfully no sign of probs on that trip - but thats what decided me to get a 2 inch lift and the tjm progressive rears and standard fronts suspension upgrade but i have to say the ride in town is now defitely rougher and harder particularly when unloaded so the perferct compromise never exists i guess.
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- thanks very much john for the info i will investigate the bolt on rhs option - - also i have never heard of a prob with the front spring hangers before on patrols but had heard about the rear cracking once or twice but the posts i saw seemed to be with the utes not the wagons
thanks again guys see you greg

Didn't someone post some photos or a link to a web site with the photos of this issue on here sometime back?

one thing most people seem to forget also, is that the vehicle is supposed to sit down in the rear when its fully loaded, when set up correctly up to 25-40mm, and should come back to around level after a week of drinking beer, water, and eating food, and sitting aprox 30mm up in the rear when day to day around home, with the right rear spring, we dont recommend running any more than 10-12 psi in polyairs, if they are required, as an assist only fully loaded, so you can reduce pressure in them as weight comes off as well.

You also want a monotube type shock, when running air assist, so they can cope with the ever chnaging spring rate and stop the "bounce" air bags can create.

thanks for the info go offroad re the reinforcing of the suspension mounts for a patrol - any chance of a photo or two to have a look at showing what you do or perhaps even a rough sketch or two
my email is - matheng@bigpond.com
appreciate your feedback and any further info
my best regards greg