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Nissan Hits Overland Expo West With Armada Mountain Patrol Concept
The Overland Expo West is the place you want to be if your truck sees more dirt than asphalt in its overall use. The event is an ever-expanding conference of all things camping and "overlanding," the practice of driving cross-country with as little use of paved paths as possible. The overlanding community is a big one, with some serious money being thrown around to create self-sufficient, go-anywhere, live-off-the-grid machines.
So, it makes sense that Nissan would debut its latest crowd-sourced concept truck, the Armada Mountain Patrol. Nissan had great publicity success with last year's Titan XD Pro-4X Project Basecamp pickup truck and figured it would try again this year with the Armada full-size SUV. Nissan let the public vote on the features and parts it wanted to see on the Mountain Patrol using its social media outlets, with the finished product on display at the recent expo.
The concept started as a new all-wheel-drive 2018 Armada equipped with a 5.6-liter V-8 engine making 390 horsepower. From there, the public voted on what parts they wanted to see on the Mountain Patrol, and it ended up with a laundry list of fun parts. A four-person Cascadia Vehicle Tents rooftop-mounted pop-up Mt. Shasta tent was fitted to the top of the tent along with a Rhino-Rack awning. An additional Alps Mountaineering pop-up tent, sleeping bag and chairs is included in case four berths isn't enough. Polishing off the roof is a Baja Designs LED light bar, matching the lights mounted in the bumper and wheel wells.
Inside, the Armada Mountain Patrol has everything one needs for life in the wilderness without sacrificing much in the way of modern comforts. To help find your way when there aren't any road signs, the truck has a Lowrance GPS navigation system and Rugged Radios off-road radio system. Pack all your gear away on the Rhino-Rack aluminum backbone pioneer tray and ARB pullout drawer system in the cargo area. Inside you'll find a Dometic refrigerator/freezer, Otterbox Venture coolers and Pelican heavy-duty gear cases, all designed to keep your stuff secure when you're bounding over hill and dale.
Nissan decided not to mess with the standard Armada powertrain. The truck is known in the rest of the world as the Nissan Patrol, which for decades has been Nissan's rugged off-road SUV that rivals Land Rovers and Toyota Land Cruisers. That means it didn't really need much, so Nissan didn't add much. A Magnaflow cat-back exhaust gives the V-8 a more pronounced rumble, and 17-inch Icon Rebound wheels on Nitto Ridge Grappler tires help it tackle the dirt. Custom Icon Vehicle Dynamics heavy-duty coil-over shocks and extended A-arms help those big tires fit under the truck, although Nissan did not specify exactly how much the stock Armada has been lifted (but we're guessing at least four inches).
To aid in off-road duty, and to help the Mountain Patrol get unstuck if necessary, there are Calmini rock sliders, a swing-away spare tire carrier and custom front-and-rear heavy-duty steel bumpers. That front bumper includes an integrated Warn 12,000-pound winch, while rack-mounted MaxTrax vehicle recovery traction boards are fitted along with a Hi-lift vehicle jack. As you'll find on just about any overlander vehicle, RotoPax external fuel storage cans are mounted out back.
It's all wrapped up in custom orange vinyl body wrap by Rocket West Off-Road to help it stand out in the forest or blend in among the ochre desert rocks of Arizona and Utah. While Nissan has no plans to produce anything like the Armada Mountain Patrol, the company often uses concept vehicles like this to gauge public interest in aftermarket parts and accessories that it may offer through its dealers or specialty equipment companies. We've already found the on-road Armada to be an exceptional vehicle, placing a strong second in the Cars.com 2018 Full-Size SUV Challenge. Given the global Nissan Patrol's long-standing off-road chops, we're willing to bet that the Armada Mountain Patrol is as capable as it looks.
