ASD Dad

14" are a pain, I used to have them! If you are diligent you can find them - look for commercial duty van tires for 14"! Here are two that I remember and I am sure there are more out there. This site wont let me link direct to Tire Rack for some reason! Look up the Yokohama Y356. They make a high load 14" commercial van rib tire. https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Yokohama&tireModel=Y356&tab=Sizes This is the Vanco tire, more of a 4 season but still has ribs. They used to be more available with a smooth rib but are hard to find now. https://simpletire.com/continental-lt195-70r15-04574410000-tires?stmodel=vanco-4-season&stcategory=highway&sttype=light-truck&gclid=Cj0KCQjw--DLBRCNARIsAFIwR25QNDG96p43eJWw3NydfZzumnA5LLj4n80jV4SpLqOqKFvASC83ePcaAuvhEALw_wcB

andy-george; Goodyear Marathons used to be great tires but they are outsourced now like the other cheapo trailer tires. That is the problem, there is very little QC going on at these plants. Same with Carlisle, they used to be great and now it is hit or miss. Maxxis was the step up for a long time but I actually blew one of those. It was then I decided to switch to LT tires. Have had zero problems over tens of thousands of miles of towing and I dont have to be super paranoid about speeds. I dont tow fast regardless but the 55-65 mph limit on trailer tires is just too low, there is no margin for error. Just for info sake - I now use Goodyear Wrangler HT load E tires. You really just need a good highway truck tire in the appropriate load range for your trailer.

What is that rack setup? Nice boat, I used to sell MasterCraft many years ago. Buddy back at my old home just bought a used X-Star 3 years ago for wakesurfing. That thing throws up a huge wake.

Your MPG will always be bad towing with any gas vehicle (vs diesel). Just the nature of towing. I average around 8 mpg when towing and we do need to stop after 150-ish miles to be safe. That is fine for us right now since the kids are usually ready for a stop by then. You do have to plan for stops though if you are someplace with gas spread out. I use an Android App called TruckerPath. It is made for big rigs but will use your phones GPS to locate the closest stations that are big truck friendly. When towing with a new long trailer the last thing you want is to try and maneuver in a small station. All trailers will have radials (they dont really sell bias ply anymore but Goodyear still makes some). They will be very cheap ST (trailer) tires on them. They will look fine but unless they are one of the better brands they are a roulette spin on longevity. The best ST tires are Maxxis, Kumho, and some Carlisle and Goodyears depending on where they are made. There are others but you need to research based on size and load rating. The best upgrade is finding some LT tires that have the load rating needed. Basically the same tires that are on our vans, they are heavy duty truck tires with a highway tread. If you go to any RV forum - Keystones, Forest Rivers, RV.net, etc and look up tire threads you could read for months on debating the options you have.

I had asked about a trans fluid change since we tow our camper a few times a year and had suggestions from 30k miles to 50k miles to wait till 100k miles. If you do not tow or have high duty cycles they said "never". Really?! I know my Tundra was similar, it was also a sealed system and a huge pain if you wanted to change fluid. You sort of had to do the math and guess when changing fluid to make sure the proper amount was refilled. I would check what dealers charge in your area. On the Tundra it was not that much of a savings to do it yourself. The factory recommended fluid isnt cheap and you need a lot of it to do a complete change.

Nice camper you are looking at! We love bunkhouse campers and we had a Salem Sport SP295 prior to our Toyhauler we tow now. The TH is more or less a bunkhouse with how it is setup for us. Those weights are fine for the NVP. My TH is around 7500-ish pounds when we are loaded for a big trip and the NV pulls it well even in the mountains of NC and TN. Do I wish it had more power? Always! Does it maintain speed on the inclines? It does, but it does it in 3rd gear with the RPM's wound up which is normal for a newer gas motor like ours. It may sound alarming but there really is not much harm being done at all. The other nice things about the NV is the monster sized transmission and oil cooler sitting right behind the grill. Even in 100* heat nothing gets too hot when towing. Towing through streets is just fine, if you are not used to towing something that long just make very wide right turns and make some practice runs on empty streets. Be Very aware of the tail end of the camper swinging wide. The axles are near mid point to keep tongue weight down but that means you have 10 plus feet of camper hanging out the back pivoting when making tight turns like in gas stations or through a campground. You can clip things with it when you think you had plenty of room. I did it with our first long camper even after towing it over a year... Not fun! My biggest caution for you is to make sure you get a GOOD WD hitch. Not the cheap ones they toss in for free with the purchase of the camper. Those are usually the EZ or Curt round bar hitches with a single friction bar. At that length they require two friction bars, one per side. Do they work? Yes! Are they a pain? Yes! You have two bars to hook up then you have two friction plates to hook up every time. They are also LOUD when turning at slow speeds (to be fair, so are other higher end models like an Equalizer). With all the newer hitches out there you would be better served by upgrading a little. Check out review sites or places like RV.net for suggestions. Everybody has a favorite. I happen to prefer a Blue-Ox Swaypro for my setup. Easy, clean and quiet and it just works well. Downside is that it is very heavy with a huge one piece head that is around 70 pounds to carry around. There are lots of new hitches out there though. Second caution - do Not trust the dealer to setup any WDH correctly. They want you in and out fast. They will go by some generic setting that will get you close and call it a day. When you do pick a hitch, read up on it and then read up on proper WDH installation so you can either check it at home if you have the tools are watch over them to make sure it is right before leaving the dealer. You would be surprised how one extra link on the bar chains or a small angle change on the head will affect the actual weight and handling. Lastly - Check your trailer tires religiously. Most likely they will be cheap generic tires and they are well known to literally blow up going down the highway. We just witnessed one blow up 3 days ago on a fifth wheel. We were next to him on the highway and it sounded like a shotgun went off. Looked over and his tire was in shreds. I've had it happen twice in many years of towing and it is not fun!! The only fix is to swap out the cheap tires for better ones. I did that immediately on my TH, I only had 50 miles on my brand new dealer tires and I swapped them out. It is not worth the headaches and risk. If you keep the originals on there, keep them inflated to max cold, keep them covered from the elements and do not go over 65 mph on the highway. Period. Some owners get several years out of OEM tires. Others get several weeks. It is a roulette spin to see if it happens. Sorry for the novel... We love camping as a family and have been going for many years even before kids. I started in tents, got married and we had a pop-up, had kids and moved up in camper size as we had more kids (and dogs). You'll be fine and the NV will be fine, just take your time and read up.

Welcome to the site! The NV has no comparison to any other vehicle in it's class for towing, it is nearly double the next competitor. That is why we bought it, I tow the camper in my sig line all over the South and East coast including the mountains of NC and TN. You have even more power and the new 7 speed transmission so it should be a nicer towing experience. Congrats on the new NVP.

Robert has not been on this site since July 12th. He still hasnt read either of my PM's. I know this site doesnt get a ton of traffic but at least check in on it once a week if you are the mod! I guess there really is not that much to mod here, even over a week there are not many posts and the spam seems to come in bursts where we get hit for a couple days and then nothing for weeks.

Aluminess makes custom racks American Van sells a couple (I have the galvanized Topper steel rack and like it) You can also build a Yakima setup from off the shelf parts. Vantech sells oval racks For steps there are a few out there. Eurocampers sells a couple as well as others. Luverne is one popular brand. Do some searches on here and there are threads for both, some even have install notes.

I have been eyeing these for a long while but have not ordered yet - thought they would be great when camping, especially the beach! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00913JUTO/

I am happy they listened and setup the new forums for us! They still need to do a site announcement to let everyone know. I would never have looked unless it popped up with a new post. The new mod has not been online since the 12th... I sent him two PM's and neither have been read either.

Simple. Call Advanced 4x4 in Utah and tell them to ship you a lift kit. Several members here have it and like it. A couple searches should pop up their posts.

See title. I just noticed that 2017 and 2018 were added to the model years. When was this added? There are zero posts in them so they never popped up on my "New Content" feed I use. Things like this needs a site wide post from the admin or mods so we know! Thanks for adding them, hopefully they start seeing some posts soon.

Congrats and welcome to the site! Did you get the V8? What trim level? Still not many '17's around.

Any update on what that dealership found? I get random beeps but not nearly as many as others. I also do Not have a front plate or holder for a plate.

I was a mod for years on other sites including vehicles (a couple car sites and a truck site). You do need to be active but it depends on the site. On some sites you can be a mod of just one sub-forum and still get hammered with 100+ posts a day to weed through. On slower sites or highly specialized sites you can be a full forum mod and still only deal with 15-20 posts a day. I am guessing this site would lean towards the latter! It is good to have redundant mods as well so one person does not get overwhelmed or if they cant make it to their computer for a while - sick, vacation, just need a break, etc. Normally there is a "Head" admin/Super Mod who controls the whole site. Then there are sub-mods who can also control the whole site or just certain forums. The head mod can do things like ban a member from posting vs. a sub-mod. A sub-mod can do things like delete posts, warn about banning, etc. they just cant outright delete the member. Day to day stuff would be reading posts, deleting/editing objectionable content (swear words, NSFW stuff, etc), delete spam posts and things like that. On large forums we had specialized mods in the sub forums. I raced and wrenched on my car a lot so I was a sub-mod in the racing/performance forum. We had others who were specialists in the audio/video forum. Others who were paint and detailing experts in that forum and on it goes. On this forum? I really think you just need a couple sub-mods who can weed out the spam and/or objectionable content that pops up or any arguments. I'll send you a PM. I am not nearly as active as Mr Rad is but I am normally around!

That looks amazing! Congrats and enjoy the trips ahead!

Welcome to the site! Hope you love the new NV.

My seat belt light for the passenger also stays on for about 20 seconds. Dealer said it was normal and it hasnt bugged me since. I still get random beeps now and then (and I have no front plate) but not enough to annoy me. During the winter if we get ice it will beep constantly but that I can accept, the sensors are covered! I will also get random beeps when backing up if I leave in a small 2" ball hitch I use for hauling around a landscape trailer.

Welcome to the site! Nice to see more 2017 models showing up.

My wife drives a 2011 Sienna. With third row folded she has quite a bit of space. I have the second and third rows in the NV in their "extra leg room" spots. She has more room in the Sienna than I do in the NV in that spot. But with the third row folder it means all kids are sitting next to each other and it is very tight. The NV they can spread out and we still have a good amount of room behind the 3rd row. I honestly cant remember how much room is gained by moving the seat rows up to the forward slot, we love the huge legroom available even if my kids are small. One other nice bonus, you can carry really long items easily as there is room under the seats to slide items up or you can take the single seats out fairly easily to carry long items. You take both singles out and you still have 4 seats/belts so still more room than our Sienna with 3rd row folded down. The NV can then carry reasonably wide items up to 8 feet in length inside the van! We did a lot of shopping at IKEA for our new home and it was awesome to fit those long flatpacked items inside the van and still have plenty of room for the kids. I can also carry 4 x 8 sheets of plywood at a slight angle inside or 8 foot lumber easily.

Welcome from Greenville, SC!

They do not slide or recline at all. You need to release the latches that hold them into tracks and then move the seat to the new position and get them back into the tracks. Seats are pretty heavy and my wife has trouble on her own if she tries. I drive it and we dont move seats much so it is a non-issue for us.

Welcome to the site!

I am seeing more NV fleet vehicles lately but they are all similar so could be older now. I see fewer Transits than I used to. I asked the granite installers about their Promaster and he did not like it. He liked the space and the diesel had OK mileage but he hated the way it drove, handled, braked, etc. He also doesnt like the front wheel drive when he is on construction sites like ours. Zero traction in the clay mud.