ASD Dad

Wow I still get replies this thread. Guess I need to edit notifications!  Lol

I still have my NV but it’s still sitting most days. Works awesome for towing the camper and hauling extended family around but that’s all we use it for now. 
 

Rad, how are you doing??  Hope all is well out west. 

On 8/20/2022 at 9:34 PM, radin2son said:

ASD Dad.  Good to hear from you.

 

 

Hey Rad!  How is it over in sunny AZ?  Been a warm summer here in SC.  Looking forward to some cooler weather.

How's the NV running for you?  Our's is going strong but it sits days to weeks on end now.  I take it out once a month or so just to drive  it a little.  

Hey everyone!  Long time never talk.  Funny I still had this thread subscribed and got notifications today.

I still have my NV but it sits 95% of the time in my driveway shelter.  We only use it to tow our camper.  I drive way too much (20K+ miles per year) to be driving a big van around everywhere sucking down expensive gas.  I now drive a plug-in hybrid (Honda Clarity) that gets me around 2000-3000 miles per tank of gas and that tank is only 6 gallons.  Much better on my wallet!  

We do occasionally use it to take the whole family out (us and grandparents) but it mostly sits all sad in its shelter.  We do still camp a lot so it is driven but that is pretty much it.  Still love the van and would have bought a diesel version if they ever made it.  Just going to keep it until it dies or we stop camping right now!  

As for the site moderation, I can be removed if I havent been already.  This site had so little traffic for so long I sort of gave up even when I was still driving the NV more often.  Hope all is well with everyone!  

Nissan has officially stated they are stopping ALL NV production.  It no longer meets their global sales design.  Its too big for anywhere but the USA for the most part and Transit/Sprinter still owns most the commercial business.  I know we all see commercial NV's a lot but Ford/Benz have way more sales.

48 minutes ago, radin2son said:

PM him as he has been absent for quite awhile. 

Hey Rad!  I have been gone a while, no idea how long though.  My NV sits now as a dedicated tow vehicle and when I take extended family out.  I drive it a couple times a month but have been camping a few times this Fall so been using it more.  Going this weekend!

The forum seemed dead so I stopped logging in to see no new posts.  Not sure what will happen now that Nissan is officially stopping production next year.  I know I am not giving mine up!  Just works too well for what we need.

My commercial dealer is closed except emergencies.  I guess a recall is an emergency but I am not driving anywhere with it so I am waiting it out.

12MPG is freaking fantastic towing.  I get around 8 towing a 30 foot 7600 pound toyhauler camper.  I get 12-13 in daily driving with AT tires and a large roof rack.

Only one to do a conversion is Cummins themselves as a test mule (they used it for a shuttle van) and the aftermarket conversion Rad talks about above.  I remember it was not cheap and did not just drop in.  

Drive any gas motor vehicle towing and your mileage will tank.  Its not a NV thing, its a gas vs diesel.  My Tundra got the same mileage towing a similar camper.  My inlaws  newish Silverado also gets the same towing a smaller camper.  It does great not towing (he gets 28 mpg on the highway) but gas motors dont like towing anything, they have to spin at higher rpm to get into the meat of the torque curve.

A F350 is a totally different class of vehicle.  Compare the NV with a 5.0 F150 or even the Ecoboost when towing.  

The NV overall is in its own class, there are no other large vans that can tow what it can and haul a lot of people and gear inside.  Since Ford stopped the Excursion and Chevy stopped the 3/4T Burbs to non-commercial sales there isnt anything else to pick from new.

On 2/16/2020 at 1:21 PM, radin2son said:

I agree that mpg + NV = same result no matter... 

 

Would be be nice if these “well used” posts could be filtered to show most recent. Although it was interesting seeing names of the “where are they now.”

Rad - if you look in the "New" content tab, all the posts with the black dot/circle before the post is a post you have read and there are new topics you have not seen yet.  If you click on that black dot it should take you to the first unread post.  

If the subject has no black dot it means you either read the whole post already or you have not started reading it, either way the whole thing would be new to you.

This is on a computer, not sure on mobile site...

He is right, they have not touched the NV since the last change of engine and transmission.  I'd like to see a mild refresh but doubt it will happen.  Nissan has a lot of other issues to worry about vs. a niche vehicle.  

10 hours ago, aztec said:

still don't see any delete option.  Oh well, the video is useful for anyone wanting to see the inner workings of the latch hardware, and it certainly motivated me to fix the issue.  For these reasons I am grateful to the guy who made it.  Just please don't follow his advice.  I don't know know if tightening that cable is the cure or a bandaid.  What I do know is it stopped the bleeding.  I'd like to know if anyone found an adjustment to the door latches themselves which stops the thing from binding in the first place and needing a bit more cable pull to unlatch.   

Hey aztec, I am still figuring out what all I can do with this new site format.  I deleted that video for you.  Hope that was OK.  I am not sure I can put it back!  I still cant do some things I used to be able to do on the old site but I can do other things like delete that vid.  Weird.

Thanks for posting a possible fix!  Hopefully others will find it useful.

Seems I can no longer move threads.  This really belongs elsewhere but I cant move things now.  Bummer.  I really cant seem to do much of any "moderating".  Oh well.

What rad said is true - Aluminess is considered the "best" and offers many options.  Expect to pay $2000+ easily.  Any decent off-road fab shop should be able to build you one custom for similar money or even less.  You could have tons of off road shops around you depending on where in OC you are.  

Wheels - there are lots of options, just search.

Yes, they are covered.  Mine lost all the "dye" in the pleather on the drivers side bottom cushion and they replaced the cover.  Took HOURS to replace, they had to take the seat apart and actually replace the outer cover.  This was a few years ago and the new cover has been fine.

Wow, this is crazy!  Thanks.

Can we upload photos again?

We are taking the Sienna, no camper this trip like last trip.  Too much driving and setup time needed for camping.  We looked at the Grand Tetons and some of the hotels were half the price of West Yellowstone or North.  We were worried about drive times during June.  We planned on 2-3 days in Yellowstone.  Figure it would be a really really long drive from Tetons up to the areas kids would want to see like Faithful and the hot springs.  

I truly cant believe they can charge $300/nt or more for a little 2* hotel around Yellowstone but I guess its just that popular.  Makes our trips to Disney look like a giant bargain and I NEVER imagined I would say that...  

Thanks for the apps.  I use Picture This or something close that is very similar to iNaturalist.  It does work really well but I will try this one to compare.

Chimani and REI both look like fun apps.  We are in the middle of finalizing another two plus week trip out west for this upcoming summer.  This time we are heading more North vs. staying along the southern states.  We wont make it all the way to the Pacific again due to time but plan on places like Yellowstone of course.  Yellowstone is our current nemesis with prices and dealing with getting around for at least a couple of days.  The rest of the trip was easy. 

Your best bet would be to find a local truck/off road shop.  They need to do fab work all the time on all the crazy stuff 4x4 owners like to trick out their rigs with - bumpers, racks, rock guards, etc.  A good custom shop may be able to work it out.  Just be a matter of measuring things up, finding the closest off the shelf model to that matches dimensions and then making custom brackets.  Not sure how tight they can get it to fold up against the body but it would be cool to see.

Good luck with the sale, I would also suggest FB a there are many looking on various groups.  

Also - All SL models come with leather standard.  You either have an SV with the added features in the SL or the dealer (or you) removed the leather.  Not that big a deal but a heads up.  

Price seems reasonable as well considering the work put in.  Happy you are still enjoying the high top NV!

Not sure anyone has done it yet, they are not available off the shelf as far as I know so it would be a custom fit job.

rad - we carry a cordless vacuum with us when camping even though we have power.  Just easier with no cords.  We also just use a broom a lot to sweep stuff out the door!  

Wow, it looks brand new in that photo.  It is definitely wearing well up there in MI!  

We will never sell ours unless Nissan is going to stop making them.  Then we will buy the newest model to keep it as long as possible...  Its been a fantastic vehicle for us overall and suits our needs perfectly when camping.

There was a used 4x4 on the FB forum posted recently.  Cant remember the year or details as I am not in the market but they do show up now and then.  They normally dont stick around long.

I was a ski and snowboard instructor for well over a decade.  I had one 4x4 in all those years.  Most years I drove sportscars - MR2, RX7 Turbo, RX8, GTI's, etc. with snow tires to and from the ski resorts.  As along as I had enough ground clearance in my low cars I was fine.  In fact I did quite a few winter rally runs in my GTI's running studded Hakkas even on sheet ice.  I'd go cruising right on by all the big 4x4 trucks and SUVs stuck in the ditch on their crap tires.  

Welcome to the site!  Hope you have many carefree miles in your new NV.  Sounds like you have a solid plan.

Welcome to the site.  There is info here but the site has been a wee bit slow for a while with not much back end maintenance.  I am more of a figurehead mod now.

13 dogs is a lot, I assume they are smaller!  I have two dogs, both 100 lbs and they take up some room!

What exactly are the issues with Tim Dahle?

Lack of customer service, issues with delivery, damaged delivery, malfunctioning conversions, etc...  The NV FB page has quite a few unhappy customers or potential customers.  The only time resolution happens is when you tag their manager Tyler Slade.  

I personally dealt with Slade and it made me walk away from the dealer.  Total lack of communication or any professionalism.  I then saw the complaints from people who did buy and I ended the conversation with him.

Dahle does two things that other dealers dont and for one they are the only option - 4x4 with FACTORY parts.  No aftermarket stuff, its all Nissan parts.  Pretty nice.  The second is they seem to have a full procedure in place for the lack of rear AC that comes up now and then on here and FB.  They pull the whole headliner and side wall out and redo all the duct routing and seal things up like they should be from the start but Nissan is cheap and lazy.  People seem very happy with the results.

Have you checked the fan control switch?  Its getting power from somewhere to tell it to turn on a certain speed.  Does the switch do anything at all like speed up or slow down (I know it wont turn off)?