navara d40 suspension...

If i did "drive it like i stole it" then i wouldnt be complaining and i would expect things to go wrong but i dont, i drive it around town and on the highway with bugger all weight on the back and i can clearly see the marks where the bump stops have been hitting and can feel when it bottoms out whilst im driving it.. obviously the suspension in your cruiser is much better than mine because i wouldnt even consider towing with my ute at the moment..

But they still won 4wd Ute of the year for two years....How can they be so wrong!

The mag said they where the best out of all the utes.

Gidday

Ute of the year is probably like car of the year. They drive them for a week, not months and probably unladen and not towing and soft road not off-road.

And you can bet the manufacturers go through their press cars pretty well before hand to make sure everything is as it should be.

Just remember that the Leyland p76 and the Holden Camira were cars of the year and they are widely regarded as the two worst assembled cars ever to come out of an Australian factory...

I looked at all the utes before buying a Ford Ranger last year and there is no doubt that the Navara is an impressive LOOKING package with some great features. What I read here steered me away from it

Cheers

Heyas

A lot of the problems with all these "new generation" utes is that they're sacrificing huge amounts of function for ride quality.

Many people don't seem to buy a Hilux or Navara for a work truck anymore. Many buy a vehicle which is "apparently" a work 4x4, but have no willingness to sacrifice ride quality. They expect them to drive like a family wagon because, fundamentally, that's what they really want. A family wagon which goes offroad. My old man is no different. He's had 60 series landcruisers, traded in on 80 series, and then 100 series...and now the Navara. Not one of these vehicles ever went off road anything remotely significantly. In fact, I don't recall they've even done beach work. How many people do you know who have "real 4x4's" in a similar usage? I know plenty.

The Navara is a very pretty vehicle. Nicely put together. Nicely appointed. None of this is remotely the point, in my opinion. It's a WORK ute. Not a small 4x4, soft roader, large 4x4...it's designed as a WORK vehicle, primarily!

I have an old 93 Hilux 2.8D ute, as well as my frontera. Has the same springs in it from the factory, and rides nearly 3 times higher to the chassis rails than my old man's new Navara. I stick a ton of sirt in the back, and it STILL rides a lot higher. Sure, it drives like a gutless pigdog, but as a function of what it was specifically designed for (ie. a WORK vehicle), it achieves everything it was designed for, even 16 years later. I use it as just that...to work around the property.

Would a modern buyer accept the ride quality of my old Hilux. Course not. They want a soft ride. Sacrificing much in the way of function in the process.

I dare anyone to regularly stick a ton of dirt in the back of a new Hilux, Navara, or any of the 1/2 arsed "tradies utes" now on the market. I know, from direct experience, the Navara has zero chance of handling it, factory set. As I said below, dad's crew cab has almost bottomed out on the bump stops with 300kg of canopy on it.

Personally, I think it's totally unacceptable for a $45K vehicle to require major suspension mods in a brand new vehicle just so it does the job it's supposedly made to do! Not to lift it for 4x4ing, but just so it doesn't bottom out on the BITUMEN! Yet, it's the ride quality the public want, so it's what the general public get.

I don't think anyones knocking the Navara, as such. But it doesn't meet it's expectations, regardless of how pretty it is, how well it's put together, and how many awards it won. It's just one of the new range of soft core 4x4's. Just what a tradie wants, apparently. That, or the manufacturers all missed the point totally.

Cause if it was mine, I wouldn't take the sucker off road straight from the factory, without replacing the entire suspension, to save myself. It'd be disasterous.

Rocko

hey there

yeh mate have seen that website before an i am hoping i dont run into all those dramas with my navara. will defiantly keep an the dealers back about it an hopefully can get something done.. Cheers

be carefull ,i thought(read) airbags were the cause of some utes(not only navaras)breaking their backs,duelcabs only.

opps should've kept readind before i opened my mouth

Let me clarify that bit about upping the springs crapping the ride quality.

Fitting harder rear springs would do that. I'm not talking about a lift kit. Personally, if it was my vehicle, I'd dump the factory suspension for a quality lift, since the ride is ludicrously low from factory. However, again the height restrictions are the issue, so a lift kit is out.
Rocko

Hey mate
i couldnt agree more, nissan quality and after sales service is terrible. Once they have their money they dont want to know you. I like the idea of the airbag an it looks like a cheaper way to go for now, rather than a suspension upgrade ( maybe down the track for extra clearance). Dont see why i should have to do anything when the load i have on is much less than what the ute is rated at.. but nissan dont seem to understand that.. About the rust on the chassis i cant say i have noticed any but will defiantly keep my eye on it.

Cheers Abe

These are where we bought them on ebay. If they don't have them listed, they'll list them for you.
http://myworld.ebay.com.au/eds4wdshop
We paid $470 with free postage

Cheers,

Scotty

I would be vary wary of the towball load applied to these vehicles, especially if an airbag system is fitted. Heavy load, applied way back from the axle and mostly to a single point on the chassis (airbag contact point) on a vehicle known for bending chassis? Not me. Let us know when your chassis bends.
Ian

Care to elaborate a bit more on that, mate?
The airbags are almost centred on the rear springs, which they augment, not replace, so you go from 2 points of contact to 3, spreading the load further. You can still happily rock the vehicle, compressing both springs and airbags, without too much effort, in the same way new springs would do it. Furthermore, they replace the bump stops, which have been bottoming out there anyway, straight from the factory, at the point where the chassis is already heavily reinforced for the bump stops to function. Can't be any worse than that!
How would airbag augments be any different, or be inferior to, new rear springs, especially harder or lifting ones? You're not replacing anything on the chassis, so why would it "bend", and how could it possibly affect the towball load? None of any of that is in any way modified from factory.

The chassis is designed by experts to have the weight supported at two points on each side, about 120cm apart, therefore spreading the load. If one puts a tonne load on the back it is supported by the 4 spring attachment points and the front wheels approx 200kilos each. The load is well spread over the chassis. The load on the spring mounting points increases evenly as the load increases. With an airbag in the middle, pumped up to level the vehicle, you probably have most of this weight supported by the airbag at a point on the chassis which is not designed for it. (You said yourself that the springs barely support the rear of the vehicle). The towbar extends possibly 150 cm to the rear of the airbags, so a 250 kg load there is doubled by the leverage, and possibly quadrupled when bouncing over a rough road.
That is my view. I may have taken small liberties with figures but you can see my point. With the history of these vehicles I personally would not fit airbags. I would upgrade the existing suspension.

Ian

Hey Flynnie......crossed the Simpson West to East in late August 09. In the convoy of 4 vehicles there were: 1xLC 105, 1x120 Prado, 1xHolden Frontera, and two D40 utes one a dual cab and the other a king cab with a camper on the back. Honestly, I thought the Simpson (French Line and WAA Lines) was one of the easiest off road trip I've done. None of the dunes were overly difficult and gotta say that I was also expecting Big Red to be more of a challenge as well. All of the vehicles in our group handled the conditions with ease.