Our vehicle when purchased was a gold coloured 1999 Nissan GU Patrol ST with the 2.8TDI engine bought second-hand in August 2002. It had a genuine Nissan winch bar, towbar and colour coded flares when bought as well as CSA Assault alloy wheels and 265/75R16 Cooper Discoverer A/T tyres. The wheels and tyres were given the flick after installing the 4" lift as it looked a bit dorky with the smaller wheels. In their place I fitted a set of BFG 35X12.5R15 M/T's. One problem with doing this though is that the little 2.8 really struggled to push the big Nissan around with the bigger tyres fitted. In December 2003 I decided to fit a Motson's ECU enhancer for more grunt and change the tyres down from the 35's back to a 285/75R16 and dress the vehicle up with a set of Alloys.

At the end of October 2004, our GU developed a knocking sound in the engine which sounded shocking. Diagnosis was that the Number 2 big end bearing had failed and to fix it was going to be big dollars. This was the deciding factor at looking into a conversion - the problem being - what engine. After looking at all my options I came across a bloke who would do the job for roughly $10,000 to could convert my 2.8TDI to a factory GU 4.2TD.

With family touring in mind (and sometimes a bit of extreme offroading), we have made some changes to improve vehicle performance off-road. These include:

• GU TD42T conversion
• Hi-flowed turbo
• PWR 0381 Radiator (50% increase in capacity)
• ARB winch bar
• Premier DV9000 electric winch
• Lightforce 240 blitz spotlights
• Goodyear Wrangler 285/75R16 MTR's
• CSA Scorpion RV 16X8 alloy wheels
• Kaymar spare wheel spacer
• Opposite Lock rear bar with dual swing-a-way wheel carriers and outboard bracket
• 5" TJM heavy duty springs and long travel shocks all round
• TJM adjustable panhard rod on the front
• Tough Dog RTC steering dampener
• Custom front trailing arm drop brackets
• Strengthened rear lower trailing arms (tube in tube)
• Polyair bags on rear
• Front and Rear ARB Airlockers
• Marks Gearmaster low range gears (3.743:1 - 85% reduction)
• 4.111 diff gears (from GQ coil cab ute)
• Endless Air compressor with 9L air tank and front and rear air couplings
• 4WD Systems 159 litre long range main fuel tank
• 4WD Systems 81 litre long range auxiliary fuel tank
• CAV fuel filter and adaptor
• Airtec snorkel
• Beaudesert dump pipe and 3" exhaust system
• Extended front and rear diff breathers as well as transmission and transfer case breathers
• Diff drain plug protection
• TJM universal roof rack and custom rack sack
• Glind hot water shower kit
• Redarc dual battery isolator with 25mm² cabling
• Couplertec heavy duty electronic rust prevention system with 4 pads
• 2 x Supercharge Gold starting / winching batteries permanently wired in parallel
• 260AHr Fullriver AGM aux battery mounted in custom tray in rear
• ARB air compressor
• Custom second glovebox hidden behind unused passengers side airbag.
• Sandgrabba floor mats
• Drivers and passengers fire extinguishers
• 2" Driver and passengers seat lift
• Advanced digital turbo timer
• AusCruise cruise control
• Garmin GPS 76
• Tyredog tyre monitoring system fitted to the Patrol and camper (6 wheels)
• Outback overhead console
• GME MT410G emergency personal locator beacon (PLB)
• Icom IC-400Pro 25W programmable UHF radio
• Icom IC-41s 5 W programmable handheld radio
• Icom IC-F7000 100W programmable HF radio
• Codan 9350 Autotune HF antenna
• GME AE4705 UHF antenna
• GME AE409L UHF antenna (spare)
• Nokia N95 Bury carkit
• RFI CD2197 tri band antenna
• O2 XDA II running OziExplorerCE and Destinator PN
• O2 genuine carkit connected to GPS
• Plasmatronic PL20 solar regulator
• 1000w modified sinewave invertor
• Tekonsha Voyager electronic brake controller
• Autron dual gauge pillar pod
• VDO boost gauge
• VDO Pyrometer gauge
• Red Desert cargo draws
• Custom 56 litre stainless steel water tank
• Waeco 80 litre 3 compartment fridge freezer
• Waeco 8 litre console cooler/heater
• Tyrepliers tyre changing and repair kit
• T-Max and Opposite Lock recovery kits
• PRT ground anchor
• Spare belts, filters and fluids

Ready to fit accessories:

• Custom rock sliders

Work in progress:

• Car PC to replace stereo and navigation equipment

Wish list:

• Waeco fridge slide
• LPG fumigation