The NV Cargo is the flagship of Nissan’s commercial fleet, a workman’s van with a claimed 6 600 litres of utility space. The NV Cargo usually comes with choice of three powerful engines, so Nissan figured it would be a good platform to use for a mountain-conquering extreme vehicle.
Popular off-roader Ian Johnson helped with the project, with the goal of tackling the Pyeatt Draw trail in Arizona’s Tonto National Forest. In order to do this, the NV Cargo X has been fitted with a hefty suspension upgrade, which retains the rear leaf spring setup but replaces the front double-wishbone arrangement with a solid axle.
As a result of this, the NV Cargo X stands almost 2 300 mm tall, with plenty of ground clearance, on massive tyres.
Powering this custom job will not be the standard 280 kW 5,6-litre V8 petrol mill, but rather the Cummins turbodiesel 5,0-litre V8 from the Nissan Titan XD. This engine makes 231 kW and, more importantly, 752 N.m of torque. The NV Cargo X furthermore employs a heavy-duty six-speed Aisin transmission and a four-wheel-drive system.
Seeing that the van has such an impressive amount of cargo space, Johnson decided to kit it out with an on-board air system, full-size spare wheel, a recovery rope and tracks, a high-lift jack, a portable welder and, of course, a tool bag. The exterior also gains a custom off-road LED lighting system, a front-mounted winch and a tube bumper with a skid plate.
The NV Cargo X will be on display at the Chicago Auto show after tackling the Pyeatt Draw trail later this month.