Adding three seats to last year’s Basecamp Titan, the 2018 Mountain Patrol has arrived ready to head into the wilderness for an overlanding adventure. It’s been built from the tent on top to the tires on the bottom.
The Mt. Shasta tent from Cascadia Vehicle tents is labeled four person, but best if that’s two adults and two kids, and it’s augmented by a wraparound Rhino Racks custom awning. Alps Mountaineering folding chairs and sleeping bags are included to keep you comfortable. An ARB fridge and drawers, Dometic refer/freezer, Pelican cases and an Otterbox Venture cooler handle stores. The rack also includes a tray and dedicated mounts for a shovel, Hi-Lift and MaxTrax recovery boards.
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To choose these upgrades, Nissan crowdsourced the answers from social media, allowing regular people to vote on which parts to use. So what you see in front of you today is the result of input from the internet.
For travel beyond the maddening crowds, the Armada MP gets lifted via Icon Vehicle Dynamics heavy-duty coilovers and extended A-arms in front and uses the stock arms and airbags in back to maintain leveling and load functions, albeit with Calmini 6-inch subframe drops to clear 35/12.50R17 Nitto Trail Grapplers on Icon bronze Rebound wheels. It worked on Basecamp so it works here.
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Apart from a Magnaflow exhaust, the driveline is entirely stock. No power adders, extra cooling, brake upgrades or differential changes. It does carry additional fuel in RotoPax carriers for when you’re far off the grid. Should you run into an issue the custom steel Calmini bumpers include a Warn Zeon Platinum 12S winch with Factor 55 closed loop system and recovery hooks up front. A spare tire mount on the stern, an ARB twin-screw air compressor, League/Lowrance navigation and Rugged Radios two-way comms should also help when the highway is long gone.
Other potentially helpful touches include Calmini rock sliders, nine forward-facing Baja Designs LED lights, and Katzkin seat covers, but we’ll call the wheel well lighting and IF Signs Custom Wrap from Rocket West Off Road merely cosmetic, at least until we have to repair a brake in the dark or find the wrap eliminates Arizona pinstripes.
As usual, we inquired if the bumper had any effect on front crush for airbag operation and were told it all works as stock. We also asked how much effective payload was left, but no one’s weighed it yet so we’re guessing a half a ton.