ASD Dad

There is at least one and I think two on here that did the custom route. They removed the big tow hooks and used those mounting points. Hopefully they chime in but some members are not very active. I do not believe there is a ready made aftermarket mount yet. I actually needed to use those tow hooks when I got stuck with the stock Firestone tires in our wet southern clay once and a sand clay mix the second time. Swapped out to wider AT tires and it has been much better!

Are you going to be towing anything for that trip? If yes, 100% do an oil change before you leave. Even if the answer is no I would still be inclined to do an oil change before the trip. It's cheap insurance to make sure you have fresh oil in the motor for 6500 miles of driving. If towing I would also do some test tows while home to make sure you have it all dialed in and are comfortable. It's going to tow a lot different vs. the Ford Diesel. You can also expect around 9 mpg when towing pretty much anything with decent weight or drag to it. Once out west and in the mountains expect that to go down!

Welcome to the site! I am sure you will enjoy your new NV, we love ours. Just returned from a week long camping trip in Little Talbot Island, FL and the van did wonderful yet again.

I got stuck camping which is why I went to the Hankook AT-M I have now. They are wider than stock but still 17". Have had great luck with them in mud and sand. I looked at 20" wheels and tires and decided tires were enough other than pure looks.

Travelers Insurance. No issues at all insuring it as a passenger vehicle. I've had them for over 10 years and they've been fantastic to us. Over 3 accidents (not one that was our fault) they were super fast with claims as well with no increase in our premiums. Two of the claims they had to step up and not only cover us but go after the other people since they either had no insurance or not enough. Still no issues on our end. I honestly cant remember what we pay for insurance but it was not much more vs. my Toyota Tundra truck. Now the state of South Carolina will let me register my van as a "bus" or commercial vehicle since it holds more than 10 passengers! I can even get special plates that will let me park in certain commercial loading areas. The plates are really expensive and I happen to really like my current plates so I am not getting them.

Airbags are not instant totals anymore, costs insurance too much. Girl that hit me had her bag go off and she was bleeding from her mouth and nose when she smacked into that airbag. Her car was fixed. I know because she ended up at my local body shop and I saw them fix it!

Plasti Dip everything. Only one that may be trouble is door handles due to constant use. If you don't like it, peel it off.

Have to admit I never read the manual enough to see that warning! That is pretty crazy, I have no idea why it would damage anything. I would guess it is so you dont try to go into park or reverse when shifting into neutral but the ECU should block the transmission from actually shifting into R or P. Two miles is a long way to coast! Charlotte is pretty flat too, just some rolling hills like around me. Asheville has some long hills!

Nice looking camper! I assume that is an outside kitchen behind that big rear door. We miss that feature a lot in our new toy hauler but we wanted the garage more than the kitchen. We had the kitchen in our last bunkhouse camper (Surveyor Sport SP295) and it was used way more often than the inside kitchen. We didnt see them that often when we bought ours a few years back so people would stop by when camping to ask about it. We have little kids so it was nice in the evening when they were inside sleeping we could use the outside fridge, sink, etc and not bother them. Looks like the dealer setup your hitch nicely unless you did it. Looks very level for both your van and camper. That setup getting correct is rarer than you think! What hitch did you go with? If it was one of the freebie hitches with the clamp on friction sway control you may want to add a second sway control bar. Reese, Curt, EZ, etc. all recommend two bars for longer campers. No harm in trying just one bar for now. Enjoy the camper!

No issues with mine and I've driven a lot of vehicles. I would get the alignment looked at by your dealer. The steering isnt as precise as a car but it is as good as any large vehicle I have driven.

Is it just me or has the site been really "dead" for the past couple weeks? I check in daily and it seems like nothing new has been posted in a long time. Still a little peeved when you help somebody and then there is dead silence afterwards. Really discourages others helping out!! Guess we are all just happy with our NV's! I am getting mine ready for our annual Spring Break beach camping trip in a couple weeks. Towing our camper down to FL to check out Talbots Island.

That's awesome!

Manufacturers normally set a top speed based on the OEM tires fitted. The Nissan Titan had a limit of around 112 mph stock. A tuner like a Bully Dog or Superchips can remove that top speed limiter. With it off several have gone over 135 mph. I think our stock Firestone Transforce were rated as "R" which is 106 mph so I would guess we have a similar top speed limiter.

http://vantech.us/H3-for-Nissan-NV-Cargo-Van-2012-On_c153.htm A few people have or had this rack on their NV and other than wind noise were happy. You can get rid of the noise with the rope trick. You can buy two, 2 bar systems for $500. Buy 4 Rockymounts trays - https://www.rei.com/product/800067/rocky-mounts-tierod-bike-mount- $500 $1000 all in. You may need to do some more measuring and digging around to make sure the Rockymount will attach to the Vantech rails but there are lots of universal style bike racks. The H3 has a slotted track system so maybe you can find a direct mount or slide a T-Bolt or similar down the channel to bold the tray on.

Wow. That is a lot of steel! Very Mad Max looking NV you have now. Do you have a lot of critters you can hit or were you just going for that look? I've hit deer before and it was ugly. My friend hit a moose in MT and lost badly! Local NVP owner hit a big buck with their 3 week old NVP and did over $10K in damage. Very nice job on the bumper.

Plasti Dip is/was crazy popular for a long time. You can do pretty much any part of your vehicle and when tired of it you just peel it off (if the surface was prepped right). Wheels were super popular since you could black them out or change colors along with shiny emblems. I never tried it but have friends that used it. I think you'll be happy. Our mirrors take a lot of abuse being stuck out there and they are huge. Bugs, pebbles, even rain or sleet at 60 mph will be a lot of abrasion. If the coating gets marked up you can just redo it easily. You did a nice job with the coating. Let us know how it holds up!

That is quite the rig you have there. Why are you selling it? Is it an optical illusion or are the wheels not centered in the wheel wells? Any rubbing? Good luck with the sale.

Nice work on that trailer!

I see several NVP's now vs. when I bought mine. Back then I saw 2 total and one was a shuttle for the local Westin hotel. I see a lot of cargo vans but they've always outnumbered the NVP. When travelling I still see more Transits vs. Nissans. Do you all wave at each other? Most of my fellow NVP owners will give a wave when driving by. Not quite as much as when I rode my motorcycles but definitely more than any other vehicle I have driven.

Welcome. Not much to do with mpg. It's a huge, heavy, box with old engine technology and transmission. Good news is that the old engine tech and transmission are reliable! Just drive it and enjoy it. Best you can hope for is around 16 mpg on the highway at moderate speeds.

We do have big brakes and it was a nice plus to the NV. My Tundra also had huge brakes and I loved them. The Transit has puny brakes in comparison! I know some have put on better pads and cross drilled rotors on their NV but I have yet to fade them even a little bit and that's towing through the some steep grades in TN, NC, VA and WV.

http://nissannvforum.com/topic/1309-topper-roof-rack-galvanized-steel-mini-review/ I dont have photos of my bikes up there but you can get an idea of how they would mount. There are plenty of cross bars to mount bike trays or any other bike rack. Be VERY careful mounting to your travel trailer bumper. Most are not rated to hold any weight and even have warnings from the manufacturer to NOT mount bikes there. I know many Forest River models have that warning. The rack will literally twist the bumper right off the TT unless it is reinforced. My in-laws camp a ton and their good friends lost their bikes somewhere in VA. They pulled into a gas station and the rack was parallel to the ground, bumper was twisted almost off and they dragged their bikes straight off the rack!! They were upset nobody flagged them down but it is that it is. If you have welding skills or a good local shop you can reinforce the bumper with some angle iron or channel and you'd be set. That is what my in-laws did to their camper. It is triangulated with the actual camper frame to the bumper.

Yes, that is my camper. I weighed it a couple times at a CAT scale and it normally comes in around 7600 lbs loaded for camping. One time it came in near 8000 lbs loaded when we had all our boats and bikes for a longer trip. We pack light when we can, especially when carrying the "toys" and we rotate out stuff depending on where we are going. We dont need all the beach gear if we are headed up to the Smoky Mountains! Hitch weight unloaded is high due to it being a toy hauler, they expect you to load the garage with big toys like a golf cart, motorcycle, etc. We just load it with out boats/bikes/kids stuff. The NV tows it very nicely honestly. You always wish for more power and the new 2017's have that but it is adequate. I used to tow with a Tundra 5.7 and it definitely had more grunt but I think the NV is more stable.

If you wire into the door switch which would be easiest, I would think it would activate the door open warning light and chime that your keys are in the ignition when you turn the switch on. That may not matter to you or somebody doing it but something to think about. I swear there is at least one person that did it on here and they wired into the overhead lights I think... I may need to do some digging.

I dont know if I ever posted a photo of our Topper rack in use. I've been using it for quite some time now and overall am pretty happy with it. I was going to do the DIY route with superstrut channels from Lowe's (or similar anywhere else) but found the Topper and went with it. I wasnt sure how much weight I could put on the channels as the main reason. http://www.toppermfg.com/products/van-racks/ you can see it on the NV mid page This rack is fully galvanized steel, supports 450 lbs with the standard feet or you can add two more for 700+ lbs. It was pretty inexpensive at around $450 shipped. Installation was not hard at all, I just needed a helper to actually get it mounted to the roof. Once mounted there was a LOT of wind noise at any speed above 35 mph. To solve that I simply did the old Yakima rope trick of wrapping some all weather rope around the front bar. That spiral interrupts the air flow to stop the harmonics. There is still a little bit of noise but it is a large rack! I ended up modifying my rack just a little by adding two wider bars to carry my kayaks outside of the main rack. We have two, 3 person, sit on top fishing kayaks that are very wide and deep. They're also not light! The wider bars are simply galvanized fence posts from Lowes. With the new bars it is fairly easy to mount our kayaks with two people. We use Gorilla 3 step aluminum step ladders to get up there. They are super light and fold flat. They have a very wide top platform so are also nice and stable to stand on when lifting the boats or anything else up there. I can take more photos but here is one from a recent camping trip.