Isuzu NPS vs FSS Questions

[iac27]

Looking at these two vehicles because I’m in Canada and we can import 15 year old RHD trucks from Japan. Looks like around 2007 and older are euro 2.

Looking to put a camper body on the back that’s 4.5 to 5m long for a family of three. I want to know how the cab on the NPS and FSS is for three people across. My wife is small at five feet and our daughter is currently six years old. Is this doable or recommended? I feel a crew cab would eat too much into the hantitst space.

Second is these are both diesel options, one would be either a 4.8l or 5.2l engine. Looking to find out what the fuel consumption on the NPS and FSS is. Doesn’t have to be these exact engines but just to give me a rough idea of the 6 ton vs a 10 ton vehicle is.

Thanks for your time input.

Ian

 

[SkiFreak]

Digressing sideways a bit...
One of your primary factors in determining which truck you choose should be where you want to go with it.
The FSS is considerably wider, higher, heavier and longer that an NPS, which could limit your access in some offroad scenarios.
Just something else to think about.

 

[iac27]

Bad roads, I think the habitat will be the limiting factor really if it's 7 feet wide and roughly 14-16ft long.

 

[SkiFreak]

I don't own a FSS, so I am only guessing, but I am pretty sure you would be able to fit a 16' habitat of the back of a dual cab model.
You definitely could not do that on a NPS.

 

[Ultimark]

I own a January 2020 build NPS, the single cab model runs a drivers seat, depending upon the year, it may be a mechanical seat, otherwise it isn't.

The standard passenger side is a bench seat with a folding backrest for the centre passenger and only a lap sash, no shoulder seat belt strap.

We have fitted our NPS with Stratos (Australian made) mechanical suspension seats, and also retained the centre seat, courtesy of All Terrain Warriors in Queensland. We have had a third person a few times, but that sea belt arrangement is not what I would call satisfactory from a safety point of view. As your passengers are not oversize, if you know what I mean, then I think you could possibly be alright. The picture of our cabin shows the two suspension seats, but the original middle bench seat hasn't been cut and placed back where it came from.

I have a friend with an old crew cab FSS, bought early this year, he bought an old caravan, ripped off the wheels and their chassis components, then bolted the caravan to the tray, from memory it was around 4.5m in length and it does hang over the end of the tray, but it looked alright.

The current FSS, according to the specification sheet from Isuzu, pretty much runs the same length chassis rail behind the cabin whether it is a single cab or crew cab version. They do this by having two wheelbases.

The FSS is relatively big when alongside our NPS and I don't know it's fuel consumption, but it would certainly be more than what we consume. Our fuel consumption is around the 18.2 to 19.5 l/100 overall. In slowish dirt roads we drop down to 17.8 l/100, but in deep sandy tracks we soar to 27 l/100 or higher.

We are running just under 6000kg with 37" all terrain tyres and have the 5.2l engine outputting 114kW. Overall ex factory, the lowest possible ratio is 54:1. In first gear low range; it really can climb stuff, and that is with 37" tyres fitted instead of the factory 35" (I think)

Our NPS is running a 4200mm x 2200mm tray, super singles and all of the stuff dreams are made of. We have bolted our old slide-on camper, which is 4050mm long by 2180mm wide. Works a treat. I'm not sure about older variants, but if you fit super singles to an NPS, then your tray, or whatever, will need to be 2200mm wide to cover the wheels/tyres.

I would suggest that anything from 2008 onwards is the go, as far as the 4x4 NPS (Elf) is concerned that is. If you are after any kind of (modern) accessory, everything available starts from 2008 onwards.

Our tray is around 100mm longer than the chassis rails, which should give you an idea of what you can place, tray wise, on the rear.

Mick.

 

[Gary coutts]

I have 2013 fss its the biggest

---

pileof crap you can get
3gear box's in 50k
Dpf problems
Wiring keeps on breaking
Sitting at home doing nothing nox
Gary

 

[iac27]

I don't own a FSS, so I am only guessing, but I am pretty sure you would be able to fit a 16' habitat of the back of a dual cab model.
You definitely could not do that on a NPS.

My calculations show a FSS with a 5m box and single cab is 23 feet. A NPS in the same config is 22ft but the overhang is 68% which is a bit long. I’m in Canada and I know oz is 60% which seems wise to follow.

 

[iac27]

I have 2013 fss its the biggest

---

pileof crap you can get
3gear box's in 50k
Dpf problems
Wiring keeps on breaking
Sitting at home doing nothing nox
Gary

Sorry to hear that. I’m surprised that people like the elf but the FSS is giving you so many problems. Other vehicles could be a Mitsubishi fighter or a hino 500. My challenge won’t the hino is I have to find is if they have low range for the mid 2000’s models. I never really looked at the fighter.

 

[iac27]

I own a January 2020 build NPS, the single cab model runs a drivers seat, depending upon the year, it may be a mechanical seat, otherwise it isn't.

The standard passenger side is a bench seat with a folding backrest for the centre passenger and only a lap sash, no shoulder seat belt strap.

We have fitted our NPS with Stratos (Australian made) mechanical suspension seats, and also retained the centre seat, courtesy of All Terrain Warriors in Queensland. We have had a third person a few times, but that sea belt arrangement is not what I would call satisfactory from a safety point of view. As your passengers are not oversize, if you know what I mean, then I think you could possibly be alright. The picture of our cabin shows the two suspension seats, but the original middle bench seat hasn't been cut and placed back where it came from.

I have a friend with an old crew cab FSS, bought early this year, he bought an old caravan, ripped off the wheels and their chassis components, then bolted the caravan to the tray, from memory it was around 4.5m in length and it does hang over the end of the tray, but it looked alright.

The current FSS, according to the specification sheet from Isuzu, pretty much runs the same length chassis rail behind the cabin whether it is a single cab or crew cab version. They do this by having two wheelbases.

The FSS is relatively big when alongside our NPS and I don't know it's fuel consumption, but it would certainly be more than what we consume. Our fuel consumption is around the 18.2 to 19.5 l/100 overall. In slowish dirt roads we drop down to 17.8 l/100, but in deep sandy tracks we soar to 27 l/100 or higher.

We are running just under 6000kg with 37" all terrain tyres and have the 5.2l engine outputting 114kW. Overall ex factory, the lowest possible ratio is 54:1. In first gear low range; it really can climb stuff, and that is with 37" tyres fitted instead of the factory 35" (I think)

Our NPS is running a 4200mm x 2200mm tray, super singles and all of the stuff dreams are made of. We have bolted our old slide-on camper, which is 4050mm long by 2180mm wide. Works a treat. I'm not sure about older variants, but if you fit super singles to an NPS, then your tray, or whatever, will need to be 2200mm wide to cover the wheels/tyres.

I would suggest that anything from 2008 onwards is the go, as far as the 4x4 NPS (Elf) is concerned that is. If you are after any kind of (modern) accessory, everything available starts from 2008 onwards.

Our tray is around 100mm longer than the chassis rails, which should give you an idea of what you can place, tray wise, on the rear.

Mick.

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Thanks for the comprehensive reply. Would am FSS be that much bigger because your tray is wider than your body currently? So in terms of mobility, the tray and camper is restricting you instead of the cab. If this is true, why not go for a bigger cab? Let me know if this thinking makes sense or am I missing something, I.e. the wheels will also stick our further than your cab.

 

[Ultimark]

I have seen this NPS with it's caravan attached to the chassis rails a few times, at least I'm assuming it's attached to the chassis rails as I haven't really looked underneath; although I should've.

I first saw it a couple of years before I took these pictures, then I saw it again as I was driving on the other side of the road. This time I saw it parked and waited for a shower of rain to pass before I grabbed these pictures. I'm guessing that the caravan on the rear is around or just under 5m in length. From memory I seem to think it was running bog standard suspension; it was running the original wheels and tyres; duals on the rear axle.

I'm not exactly sure what year it is, but it is at least the model before our NPS going on the grill shape and some of the external cabin badges. I would think it is pre-2017-2018 or something like that.

Mick.

 

[iac27]

Thanks for the pictures, that amount of overhang seems totally acceptable in my eyes. I wouldn't worry about departure angle where I would be taking that thing. That would be quite a steep hill or big drop to hit that. More than what a house should do!

 

[Ultimark]

Now with regard to the differences between the NPS and the FSS, I'm not that well informed of most of the differences but there are a few I know.

I have test driven an FSS recently for a friend who (at the time) didn't have the appropriate licence, it was a crew cab model. Essentially the FSS is pretty much an NPS on steroids, was my take on the FSS. As I hopped straight out of my NPS into the FSS, then back to the NPS, that was my immediate thinking.

My NPS has a final gearing ratio of 54:1, whereas the FSS of my friends has an unbelievable 89.9:1 final ratio. As a result of the respective gearings the NPS cannot climb a 100% gradient with full Gross Vehicle Mass (GVM) (7500kg), however around 6000kg according to my estimations it possibly would climb a 100% gradient. The FSS my friend now has, can climb a 100% gradient at full GVM 11000kg. In case you are wondering, a 100% gradient is a 45º slope.

The NPS has a single turbocharger, whereas the FSS runs a dual turbocharger. This was the biggest difference to me as a driver, instant (ish) power at low revs. By comparison, the NPS takes a tiny bit to wind up.

The FSS drivers seat is an Isringhausen high quality suspension seat from Germany, your backside will be in heaven. Passenger seats may also be an Isringhausen unit, but I'm not sure and I think it depends upon the model and year of build. The NPS has reasonably crappy seating and for some reason the single cab model had a mechanical suspension seat, whereas the crew cab versions had a solid seat; weird as.

Turning circle is an issue with the crew cab FSS, 16.8 metres, whereas the NPS is 13.6 metres. The shorter wheelbase single cab FSS is 14.8 metres. The NPS is surprisingly nimble and I have taken it to some places people thought it wouldn't be able to fit. As in, tight winding tracks.

Some things to chew over.

The NPS runs hydraulic drum brakes, simple and last forever and just work in terrible terrain. No onboard compressor.

The FSS runs air over hydraulic drum brakes, which can be a blessing or an issue. The blessing is that you have an onboard air compressor, issues can be maintenance and if you have an air leak, a mechanical spring safety system should automatically lock the brakes; you won't be going anywhere.

The single cab in the NPS is small, and if you are running the seat towards the rear, it almost touches the cabin wall. The single cab in the FSS has enough room to sleep in; just, but I wouldn't want to make a habit of doing so.

With regard to cabin size and tray or body build width differences, they are pretty much narrower the lower you go in GVM capacity, and the bigger you go in GVM capacity the wider the cabin. Heavy vehicles need to be streamlined to help with aerodynamics, so their cabins get progressively wider and sometimes higher. A few years ago I was driving a Mercedes 6x4 truck, it was an old road train truck with around 900,000 km's on the clock and had been converted into a tip truck for it's final days. Cabin width was 2.5m, which is the widest allowable vehicle width on Australian roads, so while it was only 300mm wider than our NPS, I was certainly aware of the width difference. Sort of the same thing with mid sized 4x4 or 4x2 trucks like the FSS, they are wider, longer and a bit higher than our NPS; but one adjusts very quickly to the vehicle and within reason, everyone adapts to whatever you are driving in a very short time.

Mick.