New Truck on the way

[Duke]

Hi all,

I am just in the process of getting a 2011/12 D22, but I want to kit this one out a little. I had a 2005 3.3V6 before and didn't really do much to it as its came with a few cool things when I bought it.
But I want to do a few little mods to the new one. I live in Newcastle and interested to know who is worth going to for what, or if anyone knows of some good online shops to get some of the kits from, what brands I should go for and any advise you can give me. Bare in mind I am not a HUGE 4x4er but I like to get off road and go camping, I don't go looking for trouble but hell sometimes it finds me.!

Here is the list,

Bull Bar, Winch, tubliner, towbar, keyless entry, cruise control, lift kit, only 1 or 2 inch, Spoties, Soft Tonneau (had a hard top on the old one, pain in the arse) & tires( I have a set of Cooper AT3 which I like so Ill probably stick with them.)

Anyway, if you have any advise I would appreciate it.

 

[sparra04]

welcome mate
see zordo for lift kits
http://zordos4wdsuspension.com.au
great service
enjoy the forum

 

[Old.Tony]

Welcome Duke.

I'd consider going to Rhino linings rather than getting a tub liner. Nice thick coating that isn't going to promote rust underneath like a liner does.

The towbar is going to come from Hayman Reese, unless you get an ARB rear bar although from memory the rear bar does reduce the departure angle a little. Bullbars from Nissan are made by ARB with a different area around the indicators - if you like the look then get it from ARB instead, so that it also has fog lights.

As for spotties, HID will easily outshine halogen and round lights always look like they're sitting properly on your car unlike rectangular ones which sometimes look like they're crooked. Metal-cased lights will not suffer from exposure like plastic ones and river crossings won't fill them with water like the plastic lights will. IPF make a decent light, but consider Lightforce, Narva and Hella too.

Look through the garages and see what others have fitted - it'll give you some ideas. I heard that the 4WD place in Islington near Jaycar is staffed by assholes but since I haven't been in there I can't say for certain. ARB at Lambton isn't a bad mob and at least you know the stuff you get is going to last reasonably well. You might get cheaper at Supercheap or even Rays Outdoors at Kotara - but be careful because some Chinese knock-offs are really substandard in quality.

As an example, we were looking at Maxx-Traxx roll-able equivalents (so they roll up and store more easily than the big boards do). ARB have some that look like heavy-duty sections of 4WD tyre cut into strips and joined by heavy cable. Over $300 thank you sir. At Supercheap they have a Chinese copy for just $75 or something like that. They're essentially small plastic-coated steel box tubes connected by thin wires. The first time I put the 2.5T of my Navara on them I'd bend the bloody things ... paying the extra is sometimes worth doing.

Lastly, we're doing both camping and off-roading in February (date to be announced, look in the NSW state section for the 2012 schedule thread). It's up in Coffs Harbour where there are all sorts of tracks, from mild gentle drives you could do in a Lightning McQueen 6V car up to tracks that you need a half-metre lift for - and everything inbetween.

At the very least, if you don't have your winch/hitch fitted, get some recovery points and have your own straps and bow shackles ready in case they're needed.

And remember the garages - plenty of ideas in there!

 

[joshman]

+1 on the rhino linings! I had a tub liner in my vehicle. 3 months down the track I pull it out and find a whole bunch of sand and other assorted crap* has got in underneath and worn all the paint away!** also, tub liners are slippery! Everything goes a-slippin' and a-slidin' around on them. And they aren't very tough at all. My tool box had worn holes through it in a matter of weeks.

I went and spent the money on a good quality rhino lining. And, damn, that stuff is good. Its a 3-4mm thick 2 part spray on lining, and it's tough. And very much non slip.

It should be mandatory on all utes!

 

[LLadnar]

Howdy, welcome another local too the crew. As tiny said we try too do something one a month from camping to day trips if your interested.

 

[Duke]

Righto will certainly check out the Rhino liners, sounds like the go to me. I did call into "that store in Islington" got a qoute for some of the gear. The 1inch lift kit they wanted close to $2k for a Blistein set up, not I have no idea if they are any good or not, but I have been reading around and looking into kits and they appear to be overcharging just a tad. $1350 seems to be more average.

Ill get in touch with ARB as I am interested to see what their Bars are worth, and winch set ups. Cant wait to get a hold of the new truck.

Certainly be up for some camping, and some tracks... ill keep my eyes open for updates. Like i said though not massively into it, as my other hobbies keep me pretty occupied, and broke as well.!

 

[gadgets]

What they said about the tub liner, so true. When I took mine off to fit canopy it had rubbed all the paint off the top edges of the tray ( where the lip of the liner curves over the top from inside to outside) .

Spotlights, I spent alot on mine but if I ever need new ones I will just get a mid range price set ($200ish) and put a hid kit in them, even cheap lights put out really good light with a hid kit in them.
I'd also look at getting a snorkel, even if you only cross high water once in the life of the car it will have paid for its self. If you do go down the snorkel path don't try to save money by getting a cheap one, remember its a permanent fixture to your car.

Roof racks also real handy , I've an arb trade rack and its carried easily over twice its rated carrying capacity, not cheap though!

 

[nic.t]

We picked our New D22 up about 2 weeks ago and had a fair few mods done to it with in the first week, My advise on the the accessories is to check ebay for the genuine price and tell the dealer that is what you want to pay, they should match it to seal the deal.
For example the factory steel bar has a retail list of $1950, ebay a nissan dealer in melbourne has them listed at $1040, keyless entry $385 + fitting , ebay $210 + fitting. I am in the auto industry paid about 10% less than the ebay listed price for our accessories so there is still margin for the dealer to move.

you mention cruise, i dont believe this is a factory option?

out of interest, and if you dont mind me asking what are you paying for the Nav?

 

[Duke]

Well I am getting it under lease, so I am not paying GST and they bloke listed the discounted prices as 24500 but then you need to add paint, delivery and all that stuff. So to be honest I am not sure on the final price as yet.

Yeah the Nissan Bar doesn't have room for a winch, or so I am lead to believe? so I am going with an aftermarket mob. Which by a quick look of things is going to be ARB, and Rhino liner for the tray.

Interesting what you said about the central locking, ill see what the guy says as I am going back in there on Wednesday. Cruise Control, yup they don't make a factory cruise control for the D22... WTF is that about... in fact I am not even sure if this years model has a dimmer for the dash lights either? I know my 05 doesn't.

Anyway on a side note, the ARB crew said they would fit Old Man emu?? any good? they estimated $1500+ fitting? which was better than some other guys at around $2100+fitting...

 

[nic.t]

Yeah the Nissan Bar doesn't have room for a winch, or so I am lead to believe? so I am going with an aftermarket mob. Which by a quick look of things is going to be ARB, and Rhino liner for the tray.

Interesting what you said about the central locking, ill see what the guy says as I am going back in there on Wednesday. Cruise Control, yup they don't make a factory cruise control for the D22

as far as fitting a winch, you can to a steel bar, the alloy you can not.

Also note, if you do plan of fitting a winch or spot lights etc nissan have removed the dual battery system from the 2012 model.

They do not have a dimmer for the dash light and a couple of other basics that were left out are vanity mirror on the Left hand visor, map pockets on the back of the front seats, decent cup holders and grab handles, also noticed the rear head rest trim does not match the front. I really dont care about the couple of little things that got left out, however, it would be interesting to see how much money nissan knocked out of the production price buy removing them.

 

[Duke]

LOL yeah cup holds are crap I have to say... but yet I still love my truck man.

I have been tossing up the idea of a D40, but I think for a good ute to get off road the D22 is hard to look over, even with the missing, keyless entry, cruise control, climate control, dimmers, mirrors and all that jazz. As for the head rests, nothing a set of nice wooly seat covers wont fix... besides its in the back I am not going to be looking at them.

I was wondering about the batteries today, was talking with one of the shops about a snorkel and he wasn't sure why they only made it for a single battery system. This might explain that.

Ill be interested to see what the sales guy says to me on Wednesday then.

 

[Tappet]

Keep in mind if your not paying GST. You won't be paying GST on genuine accesories fitted before delivery.

Not sure on the D22 but when I brought my D40 in November. The steel genuine bar (the D40 one) can have a winch fitted. Turned out the genuine bar was $50 less than the ARB bar and it's more or less the same bar. I had a genuine snorkel fitted to, which was more expenisve than after market, however the genuine one looks good fits well and after all it is part of the engines induction system.

As for the liner it came with. I flung that soon after delivery. Did keep the section on the tail gate. In it's place I used some rubber from clark rubber that is particularly suitable for utes it has holes in it. Little noduals on the underside to hold it just off the tray so it breaths well and it's quite grippy so things don't slip around on it.

So perhaps consider the genuine accessories for the larger ticket items and it's covered with the car warrenty

 

[Nocturnal Animal]

Thanks guys for the info on the lack of dimmer on dash lights, i thought i wasn't looking hard enough. What idiot deletes that. Even my 1970 original HT GTS Monaro had one. Just on dusk and dawn is a killer.

 

[bods]

you think that's bad, how about only having one interior light switch on the driver's door, none on any of the passenger doors...

 

[nic.t]

you think that's bad, how about only having one interior light switch on the driver's door, none on any of the passenger doors...

this is the main thing that really gets to me, i have mine booked in on wednesday to have another fitted.

 

[Nocturnal Animal]

Previous owner must have got the shits with it also, cos now when any door of mine is open the interior light comes on. By the looks of it there was a baby seat in it, so maybe that was the reason why.