ASD Dad

First go here - http://www.nissancommercialvehicles.com/nv-passenger/specs If you look under capacities and scroll down to payload ratings the V8 SL is 948 pounds more than the V8 SV. Why would the leather, fully loaded model have almost 950# more payload rating vs, the cloth SV?!? I thought they were identical other than fabric and maybe some other small things but not enough to equal that large a difference. Curb weight is only 32# difference between the two so that makes sense on trim but the payload shouldnt be 950# different. GVWR is 20# more on the SV which again doesnt line up with any other measurements. How are they getting these numbers?!? If anything the payload should be 20-30# LESS on the SL based on these numbers and nowhere near 948# More! Also noticed they dont list a combined weight rating which I believe used to be 16,000#. Wonder why that went away.

Wow, that looks like it was cut with a dull butter knife! Is that from the factory?

Sounds like something is loose inside the door and isnt catching or a tab broke off. I used to drive and race 80's and early 90's VW's and that was quite common on those. Pretty simple fix of taking the handle off and checking on those but I havent looked at how the NV handles are attached. If the locking rod is loose you'll need to pop the interior panel off and fix that way. The rods are normally just slip fit into a hole in the locking mechanism. I assume when you are locking and unlocking you can hear the actuator working inside the door. If you dont then the actuator either went bad or the wire came loose.

Thanks for the update. When it happens on mine the key cycle does indeed work. Not exactly ideal in the middle of towing a 32foot camper down a mountain but the cycle fixes things (for now). I havent used it much lately, I did for a few days just for fun to see if anything happened and of course it didnt when I was looking for the problem to happen. I have 3 trips to FL planned in the coming several months to go camping. Each one will be around 1000 miles around trip. Once south it's pretty flat so I wont be using the manual mode much after I get out of my state but I do use it for this section of the trip.

Nobody has been able to figure that out yet. I had asked if there would be an error code if you simply disconnected the fronts and if that would affect the rears but I dont think anybody has tried it yet. Give it a shot and see what happens!

Did my drive this morning in manual mode for the fun of it. Worked fine switching in and out of manual and actually using the paddle. I'd use it to downshift coming to a stop or slow corners. Yes, we have a gauge! My Bully Dog tuner will also show the actual temp of the transmission.

Overheating transmission?! Even towing big hills with the AC maxed my temp gauge never reaches halfway, we have a big cooler sitting right out in the airstream! I'll start using mine on my daily drives and see what happens.

Mine acted up on one camping trip over the summer. It would not get into Manual mode no matter what I did. Once I stopped and restarted the van at a gas stop it was fine. I only use it when camping and on hills but I tried it out last week after your first post and it was fine. I will definitely be keeping an eye on it though.

Congrats! You have some patience!

That looks great! Nice work and look forward to seeing it finished.

Sorry, you are correct - the AT2 tires was recommended over the MS for a HD tire. Transforce gets mixed reviews online and I had contemplated swapping them out. The small independent shop I like using told me that all of the local EMS/Fire/Police vehicles run the Transforce and love them. They only replace them with those and they get a voucher to use pretty much any tire that fits. I am actually looking at getting a set for my camper now. I like them for the most part on our NVP but do wish they had better traction off pavement. Michelin and BFG are one and the same now. I used to swear by both but it really depends on the actual tire and usage. The BFG's on my wife's new Sienna have been fantastic. The stock BFG on the Tundra were junk and most owners replaced after two years max. BFG TA KO2 are pretty awesome offroad tires. So it all depends on the actual tire... BTW - almost all of our local car dealers have been advertising the buy 3 get one free deal. They dont care if you have the vehicle make they sell or not, they just want to make sales in the service dept. DT will also price match the dealers (here at least).

I had Michelin LTX MS/2 on my wifes old Sienna and my Tundra. On the Sienna they were wonderful and we got well over 60K miles out of a set. On my Tundra they were terrible. I mean really really terrible! First set lasted 30K! That was after getting a free alignment twice since they could see the tread wearing when I brought it in every 5K miles for rotations. They replaced that set and the second set wasnt doing any better when I traded it in on the NVP. I live where they are made and have friends that work both in the corp level and in the factory. Both told me the MS/2 wasnt a good heavy duty tire. The corp guy was mad they ever released it in truck tire sizes! He told me if I wanted to stick to Michelin to get the ATS tires, they would last a lot longer and had similar traction. BTW - the "treadwear" guarantee is bunk. They will prorate the tires life, so if they die at 30,000 miles they take that amount off the 70,000 tread warranty. You must then buy the exact same tire at MSRP. You cant switch, upgrade or downgrade plus MSRP is always higher than what you can buy them for at a store or dealer. Mine were replaced for free since I raised a bit if a stink in the dealer showroom and they could obviously tell something was very wrong. I paid a grand for tires, I wanted them to last!

That is nice work! Any reason you chose black? I can see it hiding dirt and scuffs but it is really dark in there and I am guessing you need to see well. Either way, it looks nice.

As far as anybody knows, Nissan is not doing it. That being said there is a user here that claims to have ridden in a Cummins NVP while visiting the Cummins plant to check out the new Titan (he is a Nissan dealer). They wouldnt give him any specifics about the NV but it did have the motor in it. I would LOVE to have the Cummins in the NV if the price didnt skyrocket like it does with a domestic diesel. Since they havent even released the Titan for sale yet (and wont until December) who knows if or when they would add in a NV diesel. We dont even know pricing on the new Titan!

I still dont see many NV's around. I have started seeing more commercial NV's but very very few NVP's. I have spotted one silver one like mine in the past few weeks and that is it. There are two other NVP's but they are both shuttles so I dont count them! I do get asked often about my van. Gas stations, stores, even drive-throughs. The kids at my boys school all love it when they come out at dismissal. Adults all ask how many it seats and then ask how many kids we have. When I tell them just 3 plus 2 big dogs they ask why I drive such a giant van so that leads into towing and camping. The kids all just think its a giant personal bus.

Really nice pictures! I'd like to check that out. You dont have a Quigley, do you? Ever wish you had the extra traction?

Tundra has several forums and they're all huge. Tundra has a ton more sales and a lot more years under it's belt. Titan also has a few large forums but its also been around a whole lot longer, same with the Armada but that forum is smaller. The Tundra forums all had unique feels and unfortunately cliques. If you were new and asked a simple question you would get blasted for not searching. Way more participation on those forums, again due to much larger user base. In one day your topic would be a few pages back on the "New Topic" search page. It was hard to keep up at times. Even with niche vehicles there were other forums with a lot more participation. Example would be the Toyota MR2 Spyder. I owned and raced one 3 years and was the racing forum mod on a Spyder site. That car has low sales but the forum was quite active. I think the big difference is people loved to mod their cars. From looks to audio to performance almost every single user was doing something to their car. The Nissan NV on the other hand - you have the mods for commercial use, the mods for camping or trekking and then NVP mods. Most of the NVP drivers I would venture buy their van and just drive it. They may add running boards or tint the windows but they just own and drive. They dont have a need for a forum unless they have a problem or specific question. Even with towing, you can get a much bigger response on places like RV.net or the campers company site (like Forestriverforums.com), those forums are huge. If you had specific towing questions they could be answered here but basic ones are just as quickly answered if not quicker on other sites. What I have noticed is there are a lot of photos in the gallery with no threads. One guy on here has The Beast, a modded NVP with custom rack, ladder, LED lights, bull bar, etc. Another a Quigly with bigger wheels, tires, a 4" lift, Aluminess rack, etc. One has a crazy custom interior done with LED lights, multiple monitors, etc. BUT, you search their username for a thread about their vans and 9 out 10 times there is nothing. Why?? I'd love to read about their vans and have been PM'ing a few of them to get info. Put it out there for all to see besides a photo.

Since nobody seems to be talking much about the NV/NVP lately maybe people are bored and want to talk about random stuff! I know hobby topics are popular on other forums I visit so figured why not here. Me: Lifelong hobbies - watches mainly. Mostly mechanical (automatic or handwind) but I do like some cool digital watches as well. I also love mechanical keyboards (typing, not musical!) and have several I rotate in usage. I type a lot for work so I learned to love a good keyboard. Younger days - I autocrossed and did track days for over 15 years. Loved working on the cars and helping friends out. I've been snowboarding since 1985 when it was in it's infancy. Taught skiing and snowboarding for many years. Was a tech rep for several snowboard companies and got to compete for them as well. Did a lot of mountain biking in the summer when I wasnt racing in my car. These days - cant race the NVP! Been out of racing a while actually. I got back into RC planes, mainly electric and gliders. Havent gotten into the whole quadcopter/drone thing other than a little mini quad I fly inside the house. Do a lot more camping and hiking now too.

If you search the gallery photos there are several people that have LED bars. A few have put them in the bumper slot. That's where I plan on mounting one if I dont get a roof rack.

Did you ever bother to weigh anything or did you just say the heck with it, it will work and let's go? Weighing not only tells you if you are overloaded but it also tells you if your WD hitch is properly adjusted.

Crickets... I was really active when I bought mine and did a few write ups. The past couple weeks have been dead in here. Maybe there's no problems to complain about? Maybe people are just going day to day now. Still like mine a lot with the Bully Dog installed. Still want to add a rack, better lighting for the road and ideally some wheels and tires. Lacking in funds for all three right now! Next priority is new leaf blower and new tires for my camper. Don't trust the cheap oem tires and have 3 trips that are 7-10 hours one way coming up on the next several months.

Wollip is correct. http://www.amazon.com/Mount-Cable-Imports-200mm-Length/dp/B0040CVTOU/ There are others too that are shorter and some just have a T flange vs the round. Amazon carries quite a few by different companies.

I did a review on the Airaid MXP on this site, I lost mpg! That was babying it too and it's happened to other Nissan 5.6 owners. It's not common but I don't think anyone has ever gained mpg. You do gain horsepower.

Thanks for chiming in Ksh74c! The difference it makes is truly shocking off the line. It's like a totally different van from stock. I am dreading putting it back to stock for my upcoming dealer service visit!

I think you'll love it if you want some more "go" from the van. Ksh above bought one and I helped him set it up. He just towed a large camper with it and liked it a lot, especially off the line. It's even more dramatic without towing, he was surprised with the change. I'm trying to get him to post up a review on here! Btw, my MPG seems to have gained about 1/2 to 1 better than my normal. I'm averaging around 15.5 now with mixed driving. I've found monitoring the BD my foot is better than cruise control even keeping the same average speed. It's nice to have instant feedback at all times of any number of things.