what makes a vehicle?

[Guts]

I was just thinking about the build I'm about to undertake and an interesting thought came up. What makes your vehicle a certain model of vehicle. My plan is to pretty much put a hardbody cab on a pathfinder. So, will it be a pathfinder or hardbody? Same thing with other rigs that change out their engine, trans, xfer case, custom frames, crazy body modification. When does your frontier or hardbody or any other type of vehicle become something else? I mean jeep guys will pretty much put jeep skins on a tube buggy and call it a jeep! Not looking for a specific defined answer, just discussion

[SkiBumBrian]

You live in CA., good luck. It will be a special construction vehicle with suitability inspections and tremendous hassle. Believe me.

[Guts]

You live in CA., good luck. It will be a special construction vehicle with suitability inspections and tremendous hassle. Believe me.

 

I don't plan on making it a highway vehicle. If I ever register it, I will do it in my Maine. My circumstances are a little flexible because I'm only here for military. Anyway, it was more of a theoretical question.

[5523Pathfinder]

I'd mix the names of the parts you use. In your case, wait for it, Hardfinder! Sounds better than Pathbody I guess!

[nunya]

'Technically' it will 'be' whatever vin you use, but if you want to name it something go with something like 5523 said with a jumble of the names of parts (BodyFinder! ). My old Eclipse was half Plymouth Laser so I just called it the Plymubishi.

[xterra]

Nunya may technically be right, but where's the fun in that?

 

This is like the Ship of Theseus paradox. In a nutshell, does a ship that had been restored by replacing every single wooden part remained the same ship?

 

Or even simpler, if your grandfather's axe had both the head and handle replaced, is it really the same ax?

 

So you can call it a Hardfinder, a Pathbody, or you could even call it Bob!

[gv280z]

Hmmmm....This is an interesting question and as I'm sitting here thinking on it, it seems to me like it can be broken down into several different aspects I guess you could say. Legitimacy, Technicality, Fundamentalism, Evolutionary.

 

If any of you know anything about r/c trucks like the old school Tamiya and Traxxas hobby grade brands....about 8 years ago I resto-modded (there you go, there's only a thousand different Resto-mod reality car shows on TV to gain perspective!) an old school Traxxas Sledgehammer and pretty much took away everything that made it terrible but classic, springy body mount posts, outdated suspension, transmission...and built into it all the new modern suspension parts and transmission from a current day, vastly superior racing truck. It was no longer recognizable as that iconic, classic but technically horrible old racing truck from the early 90s. I think this is an example of Fundamentalism, in that it was no longer fundamentally an old school Sledgehammer, but neither was it a modern Stampede/Rustler racing truck either, it was something else entirely. Technically it was still the old vehicle because of the core chassis which it all pinned on.

 

Granddads Axe is Evolutionary, the handle was rotten and the axe head was dull and rusted, sorry Granddad, this one is strange because that's all that's there, axe head and handle, those two aren't built onto something else so in this instance you mount Granddad's axe above the mantle and then go to Lowes and buy a new axe. Another Evolutionary scenario would be my old work truck, a 2006 Silverado with over 400,000 miles on it, all original engine and trans, that title disappears once those things start getting replaced or rebuilt. Now it's Evolved into a freshened up, beat up old work truck.

 

Then we can talk about Legitimacy. The only real main difference between the Pathfinder and the Hardbody (single cab wheelbase) is the rear suspension, if you put a Hardbody shell onto a Pathfinder chassis and changed nothing else, for all intents and purposes, I think it's still Legitimately a Pathfinder, in pickup truck form, but it's confusing to think about, I guess because they are essentially the same vehicle and named and marketed for different purposes. So maybe we can say that it's defined by the roll it fills, if it began life as an SUV but now is hauling dirt and atv's in the bed I guess now it's a Hardbody with coil suspension, which might need to be boosted for payload capacity!

 

So, I hope this helps

 

I probably shouldn't be posting in here anymore, I somehow managed to rebuild my 94 Pathy into a 02 4Runner! Oh Boy! I don't know what to call this now....hehe.

Edited April 2, 2016 by gv280z

[Mattybilt]

Eh, the model name is just a name. If your not running a bed then typically it becomes a truggy as most call that set up. Since both are in the 21 series and so many parts of the body itself are similar most people wouldn't even realize it's a pathy frame. Off-road guys will be asking where you got your link set up from in the back not realizing it's factory. That is one thing about these rigs, easy to modify but the sheep out there want to be able to walk into 4wheel parts or go to a website and buy all the fancy "kits" that bolt on etc.