Power Patrol

The unique tub tray and clean lines of this sweet patrol ute hide a very big secret: a cummins diesel shoehorned into its engine bay. Go-anywhere rig? Yep, we reckon so.

- Justin Walker

It was a very sad day in the 4x4 world when, in 2016, Nissan’s uber-popular GU Patrol was discontinued. The venerable off-road workhorse – in both wagon and tray-cab ute form – had been a firm favourite of experienced Aussie tourers for many years. For the real hardcore Patrol fanatics, it was even harder to let go, and that’s why you still see plenty of these tough trucks kicking around in the most remote parts of Australia. Not so common, though, are Patrol utes with a ‘ute-style’ rear tray and a beefy six-cylinder Cummins diesel, like this big bopper built by Guy and the team at Patrolapart, in Lilydale, Victoria. As the name suggests, Patrolapart is a one-stop Nissan Patrol specialist shop and the ute was built as a promotional vehicle for the business. It’s also very comfortable when put to work as a fully-fledged touring rig – a fitting result after 18 months of work during down-time by the team.

A DIFFERENCE THAT COUNTS

LOOKING at how well that rear tub tray fits in with the big Nissan’s silhouette makes you wonder why it wasn’t made available to Aus-based Patrol ute buyers back when it was on sale. Guy and the team saw it on some Japanese-based Patrols (it was factory-fitted over there) and thought it’d make the Patrol stand out visually from the rest of the many thousands of Patrol utes on Australian tracks, and, with a few additions, it was a relatively straightforward fit.

“They come as just a bare tub when you import it,” Guy says. “So we imported the flares and the other bits and pieces, to make it fit and finish it off.

“We weren’t expecting it to look quite as good as it does. We thought it would be a little bit of an eyesore, but it came out really good. We’re really happy with it.”