In yet another chalk up for the Yanks in the battle of ‘who has the better 4X4s’, Nissan in the US are now offering a six-inch dealer-fitted lift, that is both fully legal, and remains within Nissan’s factory warranty.
The new lift packages are offered up for the Nissan Armada (read: Y62 Patrol), Frontier (read: Nissan Navara), and the monstrous Titan XD (read: We don’t have them… yet). Created by Rocky Ridge Trucks and available directly through Nissan dealerships, the new packages are designed to give the models some rather exceptional off-road capability and cred; not to mention making them look tough.
For the Y62 equivalent, the kit offers up a three-inch lift, and 20-inch wheels wrapped in 34-inch mud-terrain tyres. The Navara equivalent is offered a 2.5-inch lift, with 17-inch wheels and 32-inch all-terrain tyres.
Where things get a little excessive (because well… ‘Murica!), is for the Titan XD. The Titan XD kit offers up a whopping six-inch lift, nitro-charged shocks, new front struts and a front bash plate… Oh, and there’s also the 20-inch wheels wrapped up in 35-inch Mickey Thompson ATZ P3 tyres.
Nissan has yet to offer up a pricing for the kits, however they have confirmed that all of the kits, including the massive six-inch dealer-fitted lift, will be covered within the Nissan financing packages, and covered by the five-year / 100,000 mile (160,000km) warranty.
While the components used are sourced aftermarket and are not OEM Nissan gear, the US arm of Nissan has said these kits and the step in this direction is a no-brainer. Apparently a recent survey in the US showed that 39 percent of ‘truck’ owners in the US accessorise or modify their vehicle in at least some way, some quite often down the path that has been offered up with the new dealer-fitted kits.
Australian manufacturers of dual-cab utes, please, please, please, please, take note!
6 comments
from the looks of it. i would say it’s only got wheel size clearance added under it. All the solid bits are still on the ground. its a 6 inch bum lift.
Reply to Don….Of course! You are right Personally i dont see any significant point in IDS set ups to have body lifts. If it does not have live axles front & rear a body lift really achieves little. Even then “JS” if you are travelling in deep ruts. The low clearance points eg transmission gear ..diffs etc gonna drag on the high crown part of the track. The exception here is air suspension as seen on LR vehicles eg Disco where AS does increase whole ground clearance by few inches. Proven in my “D5” all new disco.
Only way to get real overall clearance is via use of portal axles to get the transmission stuff higher. See high clearance Army vehicles for example
Only of use to those regularly doing deep water crossings so they can keep their feet dry.
For the rest of us driving mainly where water is a bit scarce I think portal axles are much
more useful.
It’s disappointing that 4WD manufacturers don’t seem to understand that low-profile tyres are not appropriate for off-roading and no serious 4W driver would want 20 inch rims with 34″ inch wheels on a Y62. There’s simply not enough sidewall rubber in that tyre for overlanding or proper off-road driving.
If Nissan was really serious about off-roading they would offer a 17 inch rim and a 33 or 34 inch wheel. We see the same silliness happening with Land Rover and even the mighty Landcruiser 200 in the VX and Sahara model go with 18 inch rims…which why I chose the GXL model.
At least the Navara/Frontier tyre/rim package is more reasonable.
It is good to see some effort being made by Nissan to offer a decent off-road vehicle straight from the factory…shame that they spoilt it by going for tough looks and not practicality! Their designers need to get out and talk to the Aussie 4WD community and understand what actually works on the tracks and what 4W drivers want. Perhaps the Yanks don’t really get off the bitumen very much!
No such thing as “Australian manufacturers” you mean Australian Importers of dual-cab utes.
They have been doing this for years in North America. For my last tundra purchase, Toyota offered full warranty on a suspension lift up to 5”. That was in 2005! It absolutely boggles me how the same manufacturers here in Australia can have such a conservative approach to the aftermarket industry. There is so much to be gained from external engineering influences.