Nissan Patrol Y62 review and buyer’s guide

Let’s address the primary benefit of buying a Nissan Patrol: heavy towing. We’ll assess payload limitations using the facts, too. Perhaps you’ll consider one over a LandCruiser.

---

Nissan Patrol is kind of interesting - being one of the only two Nissans a rational person would buy. And being the only Nissan currently on sale that an economically rational person would buy.

The only other non-absurd Nissan is the GTR - and even then, you’re insane if you don’t buy one used - they depreciate like stuck pigs.

Every other vehicle in the Nissan portfolio is either an industrial-grade lemon or simply out-classed by the competition. They’re in something of a rut. See what I did there?

LC300 GXL: $102,000 driveaway

Patrol Ti: $92,500

But Patrol makes sense - it’s a niche thing, but I kinda get it - it’s fairly bulletproof, dating back to the design era when Nissan was un-burdened by the millstone around its neck we know today as Renault. 

A Patrol Ti-L is certainly not cheap at about $100,000 drive-away, but it is relatively affordable compared with the king (of mediocrity) - a LandCruiser 200 Sahara, at about $130,000.

The Patrol is certainly less fuel efficient - but you can drive for decades in a Patrol before the dude in the LandCruiser catches up financially - in the context of what he saves on fuel incrementally.

The $30k you save up front on a Patrol buys a shitload of fuel, in other words.

Here’s the other problem buying a late-model Toyota >>

And if you’re looking to go heavy on towing, here’s my pro guide >>

I'll help you save thousands on a new Nissan Patrol here

Just fill in this form. No more car dealership rip-offs. Greater transparency. Less stress.

---

LOAD BLOW

So, here’s the problem:

Looking to buy a Nissan Patrol Y62 Series 5 Ti.

I am confused with how a towball download of 250 kg should be treated. I understand the deduction of 70 kg from the payload for a 300 kg ball and a deduction of 130 kg from the payload for a 350 kg ball.

Where does the 250 kg get accounted for - the GCM? 

It is my interpretation that you can have a 785 kg payload with a 250 kg ball weight.

I have asked two Nissan dealers and they have no idea. I have rang Nissan twice for technical help and can’t get a return call. Could you please advise?

I plan to buy a caravan in the near future with between a 250/300 kg ball weight. I wanted a vehicle with good power and to tow with ease. 

- Brendon

Just clearing up the main problem here, there is 785 kilos of payload in the Ti Patrol, but 250 kilos of that is eaten away by the towball download. Towball download is part of payload capacity. 

So, in Brendon’s case, you get 535 kilos of remaining load capacity in the vehicle, with a 250 kilo towball download. We’ll get into that in more detail later.

The pain in the arse with Patrol and heavy towing is that Nissan is forced to cook its books when the towball capacity gets to 300 kilos or more. There’s a series of additional reductions in payload you must accommodate. And this figure-fudging causes a great deal of confusion among people who just aren’t wired for that, technically or systematically.

---

Argy Bargy

There’s a great deal of debate in forums on this - which to me is like reading the auditions for the next series of Dumb Shit Australia - an excellent concept for reality TV. So much raw talent out there. 

Here’s an example of the confusion:

Nissan head office customer service tells me that the vehicle has been engineered to accept the first 250 kg without affecting the GVM.

Any thoughts because it's one third of the carry capacity which substantially reduces load capacity affecting my van purchase

- bazza1950

My thoughts are: Towball download is carried by the tow vehicle. It is a load just like 250 kilos of bricks (or whatever) in the cargo bay. You cannot disregard it.

I suspect Bazza here has comprehensively misinterpreted Nissan head office’s advice on this.

What they’re saying is that up to (and including) 250 kilos of download, you don’t need to impose additional load restrictions.

But when you go on forums there’s always a moron with internet access prepared to share his - let’s call it - ‘knowledge’.

6 years since release and this question gets raised and debated on the 62fb page nearly once a week. your towball weight doesnt affect gvm unless over the 250kg

- simcoe

This dribbling doesn’t help, in my view.

GVM is a limit imposed by the manufacturer. It’s the limit of all loads imposed upon the vehicle - the vehicle’s own mass, the fuel, the passengers, the equipment you carry, the accessories and the towball download (if you’re towing).

In the case of the Patrol, the GVM is 3500 kilos - that’s for the Ti and the Ti-L. Of course, the Ti is 2715 kilos (both tare weight - which is vehicle completely empty except for 10 litres of fuel) and the Ti-L is 2750. So, you get 35 kilos more payload if you buy the Ti, and you save a few bucks too.

3500 minus 2715 equals 785 kilos - that’s the payload capacity for a fully loaded Patrol Ti. And you can figure all this out by downloading the 22-page Patrol brochure from Nissan.com.au

---

Fact-Finders Keepers

Unfortunately, Nissan is, in my view, a bit inept especially in terms of marketing - because when you flick to the back of the brochure for the specs, and look at towball download, rather than give you the numbers, all it says is:

Towball download (kg): See towball download table

-Nissan Australia’s useless website

...and, unhelpfully, they have seen fit not to provide that table. 

Not anywhere in 22 pages - not that I could find, and I did look in some detail - which is kind of a massive marketing oversight in my view, given the importance of towing to so many potential Patrol buyers. 

So I went to their useless website, with no search window. Thanks a lot. 

So then I went to Google and searched ‘Nissan Patrol towball download table’ and got a spec sheet PDF from a dealer, for the previous generation Patrol - which is the same vehicle minus the facelift.

Here’s the table >>

So, essentially, up to 250 kilos there are no additional loaded mass limitations imposed by the manufacturer. If you impose 300 kilos of towball download, you need to reduce the payload by a further 70 kilos.

At 325 kilos you need to reduce payload capacity by additional 100 kilos, and by 350 kilos of download you need to cut 130 additional kilos from the payload capacity. What they’re essentially doing is reducing the GVM incrementally as towball download increases to 300 kilos and beyond. And the place this plays out is the payload: It reduces the total of what you can carry in the vehicle.

So, for Brendon, earlier, with a 250-kilo ball load he’s got 785 kilos of payload capacity, which we worked out earlier. And 250 kilos of that is towball load. So he’s really got 535 kilos of payload in terms of people, equipment, luggage, accessories, and even the additional fuel.

Fuel is important because Nissan quotes tare mass - and that’s the empty vehicle with just 10 litres of fuel in the tank. And Patrols have massive fuel tanks - 140 litres. That means, with a full tank, you need to account for 130 additional litres of fuel, at about 800 grams per litre - so that’s about 100 kilos of fuel right there.

And suddenly you’re down to 435 kilos of actual payload. Two adults and two kids: 240 kilos - and now we’re down to about 200. And if you add a bullbar with a winch and a roof rack and a towbar, second spare wheel for outback travel, some tools, second battery - you’re overloaded, basically.

It’s even worse if you enter 350 kilo download territory. Because you don’t have 785 kilos of payload any more. You have to take off the 350 kilos, plus an additional 130 - specified in the elusive table which Nissan either intentionally or incompetently didn’t print in the brochure. That’s 480 kilos of payload reduction before you even full up the fuel tank.

785 kilos minus 480 is 305 kilos of actual load capacity. And of course it’s unlikely you’d set off on that big trip with just 10 litres of fuel. You’d top off the tank, and that’s 100 kilos right there. And we’re down to 205 kilos.

A towbar is going to weigh - I’m guessing - 25 kilos. That’s 180 remaining. If you weigh 80 kilos and your wife is 60, and you’re not taking the kids … you better not stick more than 40 kilos of crap in the vehicle, because if you do, you’ll be overloaded. No bullbar, no driving lights, no roof rack, no extra spare wheel and tyre, etc. It’s pretty unrealistic.

---

Scales of Justice

So, there’s a couple of observations here: 

One: If you’re ever on a forum and some dipshit suggests towball download is not part of GVM, he’s full of it. If you are towing, the loaded mass of the vehicle is not to exceed the GVM limit specified by the manufacturer of the vehicle. Towball download is absolutely part of the loaded vehicle mass. It reduces your payload. Every kilo you add to the towball is a kilo you cannot carry as fuel, occupants, accessories or luggage, etc.

Two: Patrol’s not really designed to carry more download than 250 kilos. These kinds of further reductions in the table are an example of extreme engineering compromise. Sure - the vehicle will tow up to 3500 kilos, but the heavier you go, the more absurd and impractical the compromise becomes.

Look at it on fundamentals - the more mass you hang out the back (the bigger the boat, trailer or van) - the more potential it has to nudge the vehicle dynamically … with disastrous consequences, potentially.

In my view it’s a really bad idea to tow a trailer that’s heavier than the kerb weight of the vehicle doing the towing. Coincidentally, this is about the 2500-kilo ballpark, in the case of the Patrol.

It’s borderline irresponsible for manufacturers to allow more than that, and ditto the state and federal governments. If you want to tow 3500 kilos responsibly, you really need a truck with a kerb weight of, like, four tonnes. (I mean an actual truck, not a pickup.) Anything else - in my view - is just too much of a compromise.

---

Finally, just to answer Brendon’s final question: Towball download is NOT part of gross combination mass. GCM is just the loaded weight of the trailer plus the loaded weight of vehicle. In the case of the Patrol, not to exceed 7000 kilos. 

Of course, having had fun in the past, occasionally, I can tell you that driving a seven-tonne Patrol combo to Dingo Piss Pass would not be fun. It would be just this side of ridiculously dangerous and also quite stressful.

If you’re thinking of doing this kind of thing - and I’m looking at you Landcruiser dudes as well - limit yourself to a much safer, easier and more conservative 2500 kilo caravan. If you can’t package everything you need to go away for a few weeks into a 2500 kilo box, stay home.

Have your say