There have been several points throughout automotive history when automakers have tried to blend truck traits into vehicles that are not really trucks. Recent examples include the Chevrolet Avalanche, the GMC Hummer EV, the Telo MT1, and the GMC Envoy XUV. But all of these truck-SUVs are just two-row vehicles. What if you tried to do the same with a three-row vehicle? Meet this 2004 Nissan Armada that’s blended into the bed of a Titan. I’m calling it the “Armitan” and it’s either a genius idea or purely insane.
There’s so much going on in this listing. This Nissan Armada sports three rows of seats, six wheels, an intact tailgate, and a truck bed. Someone either just created an entirely new genre of truck, or it’s catastrophically crazy. At the very least, I’m not sure I understand it.
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Nissan Takes On American SUVs
The first part of this concoction started life as a first-generation Nissan Armada, an SUV that I think is sort of underrated today. Sport utility vehicles were a massively popular market in the early 2000s. So, to the engineers, designers, and planners at Nissan’s American arm, building a big body-on-frame V8 SUV was a natural evolution of the company.
What’s interesting and probably somewhat forgotten about the Armada is that, at first, Nissan called it the Pathfinder Armada. According to Motor Trend, Nissan brass in Japan wasn’t confident about the idea of making a big SUV. The bosses might not have understood why anyone would have wanted a thirsty SUV that’s significantly larger than a Pathfinder, but they greenlit the project, anyway.
According to Car and Driver, Nissan chose to name its big truck the Titan and its big SUV the Armada because, well, American truck buyers love it when their rigs sound all butch-like. From Car and Driver: Nissan says it had to establish a strong macho image to convince traditional truck buyers that both vehicles are in fact trucks and not converted cars.
The publication continues:
The Armada shares its steel ladder frame with the Titan and has the dimensions to fit in with the big guys. Although the 206.9-inch-long Armada is shorter than the 219.3-inch-long Chevy Suburban, it has about an inch on the Ford Expedition and 10 inches on the base Chevy Tahoe, two of its chief competitors. Its 123.2-inch wheelbase is 7.2 inches longer than the Tahoe’s and 4.2 inches longer than the Expedition’s. And there is nothing subtle on the outside of this thing. From the flared fenders to the huge chrome grille, the Armada is only a few notches down the butch ladder from the Hummer H2.
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The maximum towing capacity is 9100 pounds, with an optional towing package that includes a shorter final-drive ratio (3.36:1 versus 2.94:1) and load-leveling rear air shocks. We didn’t get a chance to tug that kind of weight, but the new V-8 engine certainly feels up to it.
The V-8 shares the double-overhead-cam and four-valves-per-cylinder layout of other Nissan engines, but it was specifically designed for use in the Armada and Titan. Displacing 5.6 liters, the engine has an aluminum block and large coolant passages that reduce engine temperatures when towing. It produces 305 horsepower at 4900 rpm and 385 pound-feet of torque at 3600 rpm. (The Expedition’s 5.4-liter V-8 makes 260 horsepower and 350 pound-feet, and Chevy’s 5.3-liter V-8 produces 295 horsepower and 330 pound-feet.) Nissan says 90 percent of the V-8’s torque potential is available below 2500 rpm.
While the Armada is based on the Titan, it was actually released two months sooner in 2003. The Armada would go on to sell in the 31,000 unit to 39,000 unit range until the Great Recession. These sales numbers weren’t spectacular — roughly half of the Toyota Sequoia’s sales and only a fraction of domestic brand SUV sales — but the Armada found a niche. At the very least, Nissan keeps trying to sell the things despite the fact that Armada sales have often dipped to half of what they were two decades ago.
Sadly, it’s clear that most SUV buyers would rather buy something else. But maybe this bizarre build that I found in Glendale, Arizona, will make you want an Armada?
The Armitan
Annoyingly, the seller of this build did not return my messages or my call, so I suppose I’ll have to use my eyes to tell you what’s going on here.
Based on the photos, the Armada here is unchanged until you get to the rear wheel wells. This is where someone grafted on the bed from a Nissan Titan. It looks like the front of the bed was mated to the end of the Armada’s rear wheel well, so, presumably, either the bed is grafted over the existing metal, or the existing metal was cut out and the bed was shoved in.
Either way, because of this, the bed is about a foot or two shorter than it should be. Based on the photos, it looks like the bed is around four or five feet long.
Thankfully, it looks like the seller did let an influencer look at the Armitan, and through his video, I was able to figure out more details. (Click here if you have access to Instagram.)
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The bed does have a frame underneath it, and while the third axle does have brakes, it’s entirely unpowered. That part is not at all surprising. It’s one thing to weld a bed into the back of an SUV; it’s another to make a functional 6×6.
One thing that the influencer’s video shows is that the tailgate is functional. Yes, that means this contraption technically has three rows of seats and a midgate! That’s either insane or genius, and I’m not sure which this falls under. What’s also neat is that a Nissan Titan is 17.2 feet long. If I’m right in that the bed adds around four feet, that means the Armitan is about 21 feet long, or just a touch longer than the lengthiest Ford F-150.
What is pretty questionable, at least in my eyes, is what happened up front. The matte hood scoop and the aftermarket headlights make this build look cheap in my eyes. But that’s easily rectified with OEM parts. Then again, the truck also has a big ol’ dent and no paint in the area where the bed was grafted on, so this is not something that you get because you want it to be pretty.
That said, whoever built this rig went through the work to give the interior a leather interior with a new headliner and everything. Maybe this was a project that just wasn’t finished yet.
The bigger issue, I think, comes with the transmission. The seller says that the truck needs transmission work, and the fact that there are blocks in front of the wheels is concerning. It’s also said that the truck has been sitting for a while.
I also wonder about how the bed would work off-road. Truck frames are made to flex a little, and you’ll notice that body-on-frame trucks tend to have their beds separated from the cabs. If you go wheeling hard enough, you’ll see the bed jiggling behind the cab. I wonder what happens when you take this rig into the sticks?
I mean, trucks like the Mercedes-AMG G63 6×6 prove that this format can work. Meanwhile, SUV-trucks like the Chevy Avalanche use structural sail panels behind their cabs to shore things up. But I wonder more about how the custom work here would hold up.
Genius? Crazy?
I suppose that’s not going to be for me to figure out. Not only is the Armitan located practically across the country, but I’m also not crazy enough to take on a project like this.
It’s a shame that the seller never got back to me, because I have so many questions. Why did someone build this? What was their inspiration? Is the frame of the bed connected to the frame of the SUV? Has it driven much after the build got to this state? Does it even move under its own power?
If you want the answers to this question, the seller wants $10,000 for the rig. Weirdly, that is a price increase, as the seller was asking only $9,500 when it was posted a week ago. That brings me back to my original idea here. Is this thing genius? Or is it crazy? I love silly things, and a big part of me likes this, so my answer is probably a little of column A and a little of column B.
Top graphic image: Facebook Listing
One man’s trash is another man’s trash minus $10k.
At first glance I was inclined to give it a pass as a funny project car, but combined with the horror of the front end and whatever is going on with that headliner…I can’t imagine this thing even surviving a speed bump.
Also, are those improperly installed seat covers, or do Nissans come like that from the factory?
I would just do a wheel and paint-matched trailer made from a Titan truck bed. Also, without a tag axle, this thing must be difficult to steer with its wheelbase proportions.
I know there are massive engineering, craftsmanship, usability, and style problems with this. But my brain can’t resolve this into a real thing. It just sees Google maps streetview glitch.
“John Hammond: I don’t think you’re giving us our due credit. Our scientists have done things which nobody’s ever done before…
Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn’t stop to think if they should.”
Wow! Only $10,000!
I’ve seen MANY vehicles like this, but only in places where the StreetView images merge clumsily.
But somehow, broken Streetview images are cleaner looking than this monstrosity!
IMHO a 3 axle vehicle is garbage. I assume the article was done for the tire ads. But the ads can’t even show proper tires for a select vehicle
Perfect choice of vehicles to do this to as there’s no way they could have made it uglier.
Strangely enough, I just ran across this. Must be the day for six-wheelers.
Not a fan, personally. It’s just not appealing visually, and the armchair engineer in me can’t help but wonder how much this thing is going to flex at the seam when hitting a particularly nasty pothole, or maybe a curb at the local Walmart.
Plus, aside from novelty, what’s the point? Unless you need to have all three rows of seats filled, and also need a pickup bed for messy stuff, and are willing to restrict access to the rear interior storage (behind the hatch)?
IF you actually have all those requirements, you might be one of the very few people for whom a domestic full-size truck is warranted. 😉
If the frames matched up, it should be easy enough to weld in some big plates over the join to reinforce it and make it as strong as a single piece.
Of course, there’s no telling what this builder has done. Maybe they just drilled some holes and used zip-ties.
Ah, zip ties! The quick fix-it equivalent of ‘that’ll do pig, that’ll do.’ 😉
I think this is another example of creative vision in need of corrective lenses. A crew cab Titan, or utility trailer is the straight path. But what do I know I’m just a peasant with a 20′ F150
Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
Gross.