ASD Dad

15 mpg is great and almost unheard of towing! I would be happy with 15 not towing, I average around 8-9 when towing. Happy to hear of no big issues but your van is barely broken in at that mileage! I put on 25,000 miles the first year I owned my NVP and many of those were towing.

Hello and welcome to the site. Since you have owned yours from new, how many miles/km's are on it now? Any issues over the past 4-5 years of ownership? Major repairs? How has your overall gas consumption been? Lots of questions but there are not as many long term owners here vs. new! Since you like to camp I am guessing you tow a camper. That is the whole reason we bought ours. It was the only choice available that could tow a good sized camper and haul the family in comfort.

Safe travels! Sorry for the reason but sounds like she led a nice long life! My Grandma is 97 yrs old and until last year still lived on her own.

Wording can be funny on straps. What you want is stretch, you do not want to use a chain, steel cable, etc unless it is hooked up to a winch (electric or manual) or some other pulley system. I have seen them labeled as recovery straps, snatch straps and all sorts of other names. The idea behind them works well 95% of the time. You hook up, slowly start to pull away from stuck vehicle and you build a large load of pressure in the strap. The strap tries to recover like a bungee and that extra little "oomph" really helps pull the stuck vehicle out. I've pulled trucks out of ditches in the winter time with a lightweight Golf GTI. The key is I had to have good traction. I'd get a little slack and a small running start and really yank on that strap, once it started to pull tight and recoil I would stand on the brakes to anchor my Golf and let the strap do the work. If stuck vehicle started moving I would quickly start backing away again. I bet I would pull at least a person a week out during winter season (I worked at a ski resort). Static load straps, chains and cables are great for pulling a static load or if you can use something like a winch, come-a-long or even block and tackle. They put a huge amount of shock to the anchor points with every tiny slip and it just brute force vs. stuck object. Biggest thing to watch for is a snapped strap of any kind - recovery or static load. You have a cable, rope, Something under thousands of pounds of pressure and if it snaps it can get really ugly fast. People have died or lost limbs by that thing whipping around. A lot of newer recovery straps that I have used are braided or woven and if they do snap they dissipate energy very quickly. They sort of explode into fibers (yes, I have snapped them!). You may get a bad welt or bruise and maybe a ding or scratch in your car vs. lopping off your foot or taking your windshield out! Oh, the tow hooks - I used them for angles. If you were Really stuck, like buried and sitting on the frame then I would absolutely use both hooks for max pull if possible. Setting up to pull out is harder though since ideally both straps need loaded very close to the same. Anybody know what the max load rating of our hooks is? I've had to use mine twice! Once was when I was hooked up to our camper too. Tow truck winched me right out but it was only a slight slope. Super wet Southern red clay soil and stock Firestones equals zero traction. I was buried 6" deep in no time.

Welcome to the site! Quite a bit larger than your old T&C. You will love the extra room. My kids feel cramped in my wife's Sienna now!

Great photos! Thank you for taking these. Wish we could create Sticky posts like other forums, I'm sure this will be referenced in the future.

The 360* birds eye view cameras have been around a while now from various manufacturers. The big old NV could certainly use it but I have seen no official word on if it is coming or not to the 2017. I would guess no since it would be a big deal.

Congrats on the install! Looks like some nice choices there, I love JL and Hertz products. Alpine and I have a love hate relationship! I am happy to hear the steering wheel controls work. For a long time nobody could figure them out and the big aftermarket companies did not have support for our van yet. I know on a lot of make and models it can depend on the head unit and your vehicle on what will or will not work. On my Tundra I could not use all the functions of a Kenwood unit as an example but a Pioneer was fully functional using the steering wheel controls.

breeze - I have to commend you in your unwavering pursuit of max MPG in a tank like the NV. There was another person, maybe others, that were also in max pursuit and did things like sealing the gaps around the bumpers and looking into side skirts and other aero bits to help out. That giant grill opening certainly doesnt help but in 100* temps I can haul a 7000# camper up mountains and the engine and transmission temp never gets out of hand. You can certainly do many small things to help the NV get better mileage. In the end it is still a very heavy beast of a vehicle meant to haul cargo - be it people or items. Never underestimate the power of your right foot. I can baby my van at 55 mph and make sure to coast to a stop or turns or accelerate very gently. Doing that I coaxed 19 mpg once. I even managed over 21 for several miles! In day to day driving it just isnt worth it to me to drive like that. I used to constantly monitor my Bully Dog readout trying to make sure it stayed "green" for driving economy. Now I just dont care, it isnt worth the hassle to coax that 0.5 to maybe, possibly 1mpg difference from just driving it like I want to! Just look to the mpg posts on this site or any other car/truck site. The actual stats are all over the place for the exact same make and model vehicle that is bone stock. More can be done for MPG using your driving habits and right foot than can be done with small mods. The small mods just eek out that last percentage out. The new motor and 7 speed should definitely do better than the old motor and 5 speed. Just laws of physics. If you can cruise at 65 mph with the engine turning lower RPM without it lugging down you will get better mileage. Just dont expect miracles!

Nobody has one or has driven one. One very large commercial dealer on here posted his first wasnt due to arrive until mid Jan at the earliest (Chris Commercial Manager). Less than one year of very limited sales is not tried and true by a long shot. The new V8 came out well after the Cummins and is brand new from top to bottom along with the 7 speed. Down here is truck country with tons of pickups including foreign models like the older Titan and lots of Tundras. I have seen exactly 2 Titans on the road that were not dealer tags and both of those were the Cummins. I thought our NV's were rare to see but Titans are much harder to find! I was actually in line to get the new NV at my dealer, I really wanted the extra power, TQ and the 7 speed. 8% improvement is not much of anything for MPG and they gimped the motor specs compared to the Titan for some reason. I'll pass.

Nice work! What are you going to paint or coat the bumper in?

Rack - You have a few options. Custom made to order, Aluminess and then multiple contractors racks. I wanted the Aluminess but price was out of budget. Custom would run me close to the Aluminess. I went with the Topper Galvanized rack and really like it. $450 shipped, well made and it is huge (12 feet long). You can easily modify it to fit your needs. I added some extra bars and carry 3 large kayaks up there along with other camping gear. I can also mount our bikes up there. The rear hangs off the back far enough to lay things on it to slide up without hitting the back of the van. It does make wind noise and it decreased MPG like any roof rack. To cut down the noise I did the normal rope wrap on the front bar and that helped immensely. If you want to go piece by piece you can do Yakima as well. There is another brand that I cant remember they make a H2 and H3 bar rack that mounts up there (it's just 2 or 3 bars vs. a full rack). Ladder - again I wanted the Aluminess and their ladder but at $2500 delivered just too much! I am using Gorilla aluminum folding step ladders, the 3 step ones made for working on 9' ceilings. Super light, fold flat and very sturdy and steady. Cheap too! Performance - You have tuners and I highly recommend the Bully Dog Platinum GT. Made a world of difference (I have a full review on this site) and others I have helped install it agree. You can do the free snorkel mod to the air box with a better filter (again see review). Titan intakes fit with minor mods, I had the Airaid for a while (too noisy when towing, also reviewed). Titan headers should fit. Titan exhausts fit with mods as well. I would guess many Titan internal mods would fit (cams, throttle bodies, etc) but I dont think anyone tried. Now if you want to get nutty the Stillen 5.6L supercharger fits! Also needs mods and also needs a custom tune from UpRev. There is one owner on here that did the install and the tune was wrong so he popped his transmission. That was sorted out I think but he had some nagging idiot lights on the dash come on a bit. He was the first to try it so was the test mule for the install. Tires - lots of options including going way up in wheel size. I just went larger on width on the stock wheels with my Hankooks and am quite happy. There are several threads here on both wheels and tires.

Thanks for the follow up! Too many here dont follow up... Do you have a thermometer? Take the temp from the front vents and then check the rear vents. I would expect some fall off just due to distance the air is travelling but if it is excessive make the complaint again. If nothing else you will have it documented with actual numbers and can compare with 1) your van if they do a fix again or even better 2) check a brand new NV on the lot. The mechanics will have multiple thermometers available to them so let them document if they want but ask for results or to see them first hand. You're heading into the middle of winter, last thing you want is no heat for your passengers!

With mileage as low as we get any increment is just bragging rights to be totally honest. I drove 25,000 miles last year 15 mpg @ $2.00/gallon vs. 17 mpg @ $2.00/gallon That comes out to a whopping $390/per year difference or $7.50 per week. Even if oil spikes and reaches $4/gal which probably will not happen anytime soon that is still $780/year I am all for getting better MPG but this van just is not something that was designed for it! Once I added my larger all terrain tires and roof rack my MPG went down into the 12-13 range. That comes up to around a $1200/year difference vs. 17 mpg or $100 month. That is starting to get significant but is still not enough for me to panic just yet! I knew going into this that the NV would not be a MPG machine. What bums me out is my neighbor bragging that his 2016 Cummins 3500 Ram is getting 20+ on the highway! Granted his truck cost tens of thousands more than my van. EDIT - just realized this got waaaay off track of the OP! Sorry about that...

Those look really nice raised up. Like the wheels you have on there too. I wish we had more running board options. With all of these being used as shuttles you'd think we would have more!

You should never inflate to max cold PSI unless it is needed. You are asking for increased wear in the center section of the tread, worse traction and a harsher ride. All tires are rated for carrying certain loads (weight). The tires should be inflated to carry that load for the best wear and traction. If you cant find a load chart for your tire you can go by the tire placard that is stuck in the door jamb or the owners manual.

SKRUGS is 100% correct, you can leave it plugged in 24/7 and it will be just fine. There are many monitors you can plug in to give you all sorts of information and even check error codes. The OBD plug is right by your shins under the dash. My Bully Dog GT is an ECU tuner but is also a monitor. I have it set to display all sorts of info from my real time MPG to transmission temps.

Wow, nice fab work! Cant wait to see it when it is done.

We just towed our camper back from FL in a bad storm most of the way. High winds met us for several hours and on the hills I managed the worst mileage ever for my van - 6.70 mpg!!! Normally when towing I can get in the 8-9 range but not that day. We drive giant boxes on wheels. Doesnt matter what you do, it isnt meant for miles per gallon.

Nissan used to spec out that the Combined Gross weight of your van and whatever you were towing would be capped at 16,000 lbs for the 3500 HD. Best way to find out weights is to actually weigh your van with it fully loaded how you would be towing. That will tell you how much you have left for a trailer. You can weigh it many places from CAT scales at truck stops to stone yards and large farm supply houses. Some areas even let you use their truck scales on the highway if they are closed to semis (you just need to call the DOT). If your van loaded up comes in at 7000# you now have 9000# total for your trailer. For shopping for trailers, if you are talking campers, you Never go by dry weights. That is fully empty with nothing in it, sometimes it doesnt even account for propane tanks or a battery! Take the dry weight and add 1000# to be safe if it is a decent sized camper. 1000# seems like a lot but it is extremely easy to put that much "stuff" in camper. You'll also want a decent weight distribution hitch if you have a good sized camper but the options are many. You'll also need a brake controller wired into your van (it has a factory pigtail plug you just tap into), again many options.

I'll play, saw one Christmas day heading North on I95 in SC pulling a small camper. It was dark blue or black. First time I've seen one pulling a camper. We were heading South pulling our big camper.

There is at least one user on here with Timbrens. I used them on my Tundra for 4 years and loved them. On the NV I think the users had to trim them down a bit in height, they would touch when unloaded which is something you do NOT want to happen. It makes the rear end way too stiff and harsh. It also hurts handling, it's like having super stiff springs only on the back which means a very tail happy vehicle. They may have exchanged them directly with Timbren for a lower height model. Timbren is pretty good to work with. Timbrens are very no-nonsense and just "work". Nothing to really fail, no leaks to worry about, no pressure adjustments to worry about, they are just big hollow rubber bump stops that help keep the rear of the vehicle from sagging. They can also be installed in about an hour! They and any other rear helper spring including air bags or actual helper springs do absolutely nothing to increase payload capacity. They are strictly for keeping the back from dropping too much or for ride quality when loaded. If you still want bags I would email Firestone and others, I bet the 2500 model fits the 3500 just fine. Bags are nice if you want to adjust them specifically for your load or if you want to have a handy onboard air compressor (if you install one, which you should). I'm still considering Timbrens for my van. The back end can get soft when towing our Toyhauler depending on how much weight we're carrying that trip. It hasnt bothered me enough to really look into them yet but I can definitely tell when loaded heavy. I may just get heavier spring bars for my WD hitch, I am right on the upper border between two ratings and can get the next size up.

I think you have the lowest price paid by far on this site for a 2016 SL. Nice job. Most are in the $37-$38K range.

I noticed the severe lack of options when we were looking. You are right, I paid $275 for some polished stainless bars for my Tundra that had a lifetime warranty and were Solid! For our vans? Big bucks as you have found. You would think with all of these being used for shuttles we would have some more options. Thankfully my kids and dogs dont mind climbing in. Even my then 3 yr old would climb right up. The biggest issue is our parents, we actually have one of those little folding step stools for both moms when they ride with us.

Well after one month it is getting worse. I called the dealer and they are just today ordering me a new bottom seat cushion. Said this is the first time they had seen these even on shuttle vans. The sad part is this is my second seat already! First one had sewing issues along the seams. New seat bottom should be in next week so I can get it swapped out before going on our FL trip. I may still look into some covers for at least my seat.