Remember the Nissan Armada Snow Patrol from the 2018 Chicago Auto Show? Well, Nissan is moving from cold to hot with the new Nissan Armada Mountain Patrol – a concept designed for the rugged outdoors with everything you need to survive outside of a built-in fire pit and a toilet. It’s even powered by Nissan’s 5.6-liter V-8 with some 390 horsepower on tap and an 8,500-pound towing capacity. So what all does this concept offer and why do you wish Nissan would offer it as a production model? Keep reading to find out.

Nissan Armada Mountain Patrol Off-Road Equipment

Nissan took a standard Armada and packed it to the wheels with off-road equipment. First, let’s start with the basics. It rolls on a set of 17-inch Icon Rebound wheels that are wrapped in 35-inch Nitto Ridge Grappler tires. Those tires are paired with a heavy-duty coil-over suspension system and extended A-arms, both of which were required for those 17-inch wheels and massive off-road tires. Nissan also added on a swing-away spare tire, a Hi-lift vehicle jack, Rotopax auxiliary fuel storage system, and a set of MaxTrax recovery boards.

Those are just the basics, though. On the lighting front, you’ll find a roof-mounted LED bar new fog lamps, and wheel-well lighting. The standard front and rear bumpers have also been replaced with heavy-duty steel bumpers. Finally, there’s a Warn 12,000-pound winch a set of rugged Calmini rock sliders to help protect the body when you hit the rocky side of the trail.

With all of the off-road stuff out of the way, let’s talk a bit about the survival tools and the extra stuff inside the cabin. First, there’s a roof-mounted tent that sleeps four people. It comes complete with a ladder and all. There’s a secondary pop-up tent to go with sleeping bags and chairs from Alps Mountaineering. Finally, a custom awning from Rhino Racks is in place to provide a little extra coverage under bright or wet conditions.

The interior got its fair share of goodies too, including a Lowrance navigation system, a Rugged Radios off-road radio system. A refrigerator and freezer combo, Otterbox Venture cooler, and a set of extra storage trays to help keep things tidy. As far as performance goes, there’s not a lot to write home about, but it does use the Armada’s 390-horsepower, 5.6-liter V-8. It can tow 8,500 pounds in standard configuration and comes with AWD as well. Nissan did spice things up a little bit by adding in a Magnaflow cat-back exhaust system, but there’s no word on ay performance gains whatsoever.

Final Thoughts

I have to add it to Nissan for coming up with creative and innovative concepts. The problem is, however, they never inspire any production models of even accessory packages. It’s kind of like priming the market without actually delivering anything worthwhile. Models like this prove that Nissan has what it takes to provide a true off-road vehicle yet we never see anything of value outside of the drool deliver from looks at these concepts. Something like this would be ideal for the outdoor adventurist or even for someone who enjoys beyond-casual camping. Now if only we could get Nissan to actually deliver a production model of this caliber.

References

Nissan Armada

Read our full review on the 2018 Nissan Armada Snow Patrol.

Read our full review on the 2017 Nissan Armada.

Read more Nissan news.