ASD Dad

Article states the van hit 500K in just two years. That is 685 miles per DAY, every - single - day of the year. It would have to be all highway driving for 11 plus hours per day again - every - single - day. Regular driving would eat up too much time each day. Anyone else find that hard to believe? I know we have some other super high mileage vans (one member is FedEx Custom Critical driver) but I dont think even he hit that kind of mileage and if he did I would have a better time understanding that vs. a private label company specializing in delivery just in the areas west of the Mississippi.

Nice job. I have been using my Tekonsha P3 for years but if I upgrade I will probably try one of those new remote style units.

Just got back from a 9 day camping trip in Orlando.

Let us know what you pick out and how it goes. How much weight are you planning on putting up there? I can tell you getting two very heavy multi person kayaks up there is a giant pain! With a full rack of 3 kayaks and gear plus a few bikes the rack was 100% full for space. We try and avoid bikes up there just due to being hard to do. You have to remember the rack is over 7 feet off the ground! I bought two Gorilla aluminum folding step stools with a really wide top platform. They use them for hanging crown molding or painting the wall/ceiling line a lot. Super light but very stable. Makes it perfect for my wife and I to get the boats and other gear up there.

3 kids on the spectrum?! I am right there with you! See my screen name... I think I would go crazy with a rattle and nobody seems to know how to easily stop it. I actually really like the roller idea, it would be easier to load long or heavy items but not at the expense of a constant rattle. I have a Topper Galvanized steel rack if you want to check it out. I have had issues with the mount breaking but they replaced the mounts. It is a bare bones contractor rack but it is 12 feet long and very strong. About $400 or so online. You definitely need two people to install. I have a mini review of it along with updates with the broken mounts on the forum. I like the idea of aluminum with much less weight. One nice thing about the steel rack is that I could easily modify it with my welder. I added wider bars to hold extra racks for our big family kayaks.

Only complaint I have seen on the roller racks is the roller rattles and it transfers all that rattling into the van. That would drive be crazy so I never pursued it further.

The most common area that is out of the way is in the rear door where that big indentation naturally sits. You can fit a good shallow mount sub in there. I think someone else fabbed one into a side panel in the back.

Welcome to the forum. Not sure how much of that is "needed" vs. any other new vehicle. Brake controller - needed if you tow, need that on any vehicle you are going to tow. DVD - ? - we traveled coast to coast this summer (13 states visited) over 2-1/2 weeks with 3 kids under 11. Had no electronics in the vehicle for them and didnt need them. Rack - several options from crazy expensive to pretty cheap (Aluminess to DIY). Snow tires - Definitely recommended where you live. I Hated the stock Firestones, they had no traction in wet conditions let alone snow.

A few have LED bars in that slot available. Some even put it behind the grill. Search and their threads should come up.

Welcome to the site!

I am very happy with the Goodyears so far. The long tow was no problem at all and they felt great. Now I also liked my Hankooks for the first 20,000 or so miles so time will tell on these tires. I only drive the NV for towing and when taking extended family out with our family so it is being driven very little. Maybe 2 times a month now... I have 3 very long tows already lined up in the next few months including through the Appalachian mountains on one so they will still get a workout.

https://www.carscoops.com/2018/11/2019-nissan-nv-cargo-nv-passenger-vans-bring-updated-infotainment-610-price-hike/ Pretty boring update. Bigger "Infotainment" screen and a small price hike. Yay...

I never said you had to remove all the loaded weight placed on the rear axle using the WD hitch. Go back and read my posts. The fact that WD hitches are Required for many trailers on many vehicles by the tow vehicles manufacturer should be enough of an excuse to use one. You get over a certain tongue weight - use the WD hitch period. You do want to try and restore weight back to the front. The reason Anderson would not work on my Tundra was it could not transfer enough weight back up front. My front steering was way too light and it would actually trigger the ABS/traction control system on off/on ramps for highways due to the front slipping. Not fun. The Tundra suspension is tuned for comfort in daily driving, not hauling a load. The rear end squat was ridiculous and the front unloaded hundreds of pounds with a modest tongue weight. The Anderson design was simply not setup to transfer the amount of weight I needed to get my steering back. I will agree it is a great design for the right setup. You get a strong enough WD system and you can almost suspend the back axle of the tow vehicle. I never once said to do that or to set it up that way. I will agree 100% that is wrong and dangerous. What your buddy did with his snowmachine setup was wrong. I have been in plenty of slippery situations with my camper in tow (rain, sleet and sand) but no snow as we dont camp in the winter. I have never once had a traction issue due to weight issues over the rear axle and I still have a good amount of squat on the rear of my NV even with a properly setup WD hitch. I am removing a percentage of the weight and moving that weight off the tongue and back onto my steer axle and trailer axles. Not all of it or anywhere close. I am done. I left links for people, anyone, to do their own research and they can contact their hitch company and/or tow vehicle company if they want further information.

I am 99.9% sure this will not change your mind but I dont care. This is for everyone else to do their own research based off physics. What you are suggesting to people is borderline dangerous in my opinion. https://www.etrailer.com/faq-weightdistribution.aspx http://rvlife.com/how-weight-distribution-hitches-work/ http://www.trucktrend.com/news/1602-five-things-you-need-to-know-about-a-weight-distributing-hitch/ https://auto.howstuffworks.com/auto-parts/towing/equipment/hitches/towing-weight-distribution-systems.htm

You are still wrong. It is simple physics on how a WD hitch works and is the whole reason they are made in the first place. Go ask Anderson - they will tell you that their hitch is designed to move weight off the rear axle and back onto the front axle. Period. Want more proof - go ask ANY manufacturer of WD hitches how and why they were built in the first place - Reese, Curt, Husky, Anderson, Blue Ox, even big dogs like ProPride and Hensley. They are ALL designed to transfer weight from the rear axle that was loaded with your trailer and move that weight back to the front axle. All. Of. Them - even Anderson. All your airbags are doing is reducing rear end sag. I hope with 1000 lbs of tongue weight and 22,000 lbs gross you are not in a 1/2T Silverado... My assertion is from decades of towing, doing research and talking to the actual manufacturers of the hitches. No, I am not commercial driver but I know plenty of them. I also dont tow daily but I do tow thousands of miles a year and have 3 more 1000+ mile trips coming up very soon. By your reasoning there is no reason to have a WD hitch at all. Just put your trailer on a ball and add airbags... Dont tell me it is to reduce porpoising.

Moved to correct forum.

Sorry, but you are wrong. A WD hitch sole purpose to is to DISTRIBUTE WEIGHT, hence the name. When you load your rear axle up with the tongue of the trailer you are removing weight from the front of the tow vehicle. The WD hitch's purpose is to transfer most of that weight back to the front axle. If you have inadequate suspension and excessive sagging you need to weigh the whole setup. The only time you should need airbags, helper springs, Timbrens or anything similar is if your factory suspension was never tuned for towing in the first place (like many 1/2 T trucks these days that are designed for comfort vs. actual usage). Even then the only reason to use the helpers on the rear is to get the tow vehicle level, cosmetic (looks) or comfort. You then need to tweak your WD setup once the bags are inflated or you added the new suspension helpers. If you are not using the WD hitch to transfer weight you may as well just use a hitch ball. If you tighten the chains on the Anderson or the bars on most any other hitch to the point you can "smoke the tires" you have set it up wrong and should not be driving it like that period let alone rain and snow. Again, that is not the point of the hitch. You can also have so little tension that if you have a heavy enough tongue weight you can lose all steering due to no weight on the front axle... I owned an Anderson for over a year. My issue with it on my Tundra was two fold - 1) it was not made to transfer a lot of tongue weight and that is a well known issue on many forums. I could crank those chains down until the bushings almost burst and I still could not get the amount of weight transfer I would like to see back to the front axle (This was done with multiple trips across a CAT scale). 2) the design puts a lot of stress on the coupler of the trailer. The couplers of most trailers (the lift up latches) were never designed to have rearward pressure put on them and it is a lot of pressure. There were premature failures of couplers in the past and some owners swapped out their coupler to a different design so they could keep the Anderson. BTW - Anderson actually bought my hitch back from me after I proved I could not get the weight transfer needed with photos and videos of setting it up at the scales. I bought it when it was first released. The Anderson IS a very unique and light weight design. It is dead quiet, clean and it removes porpoising better than others and is pretty simple to setup. If you have the right combo of tow vehicle and trailer I still highly recommend them to many people. As always it is up to the buyer to do their research. Maybe they have tweaked the design since it was first released, I have not looked since I returned mine. Maxxis and Kumho both make excellent ST tires. Goodyear also has a new made in America ST tire that is getting excellent reviews. I am not sure I would just inflate any of them to max pressure although that is the easiest. You should follow the load chart from the tire manufacturer to get optimal pressure. Weigh the trailer then figure out the best cold pressure off the chart. If you over inflate you are going to get excessive wear on the center tread over time and make the trailer more "bouncy" on rough pavement. Over inflating when towing is 1000x better than under inflating though so if you dont know your trailer weight then it is better to just max the tires.

Pick a decent WD hitch from a good company- Reese, Blue Ox, Anderson, Curt, Husky, etc. Then READ the instructions. Do not depend on the dealer to install it correctly if they are doing it. If they are including one it most likely a cheap basic model which is fine, they work, just dont have all the newest designs and ease of use. Most cheap ones will have both spring bars for the WD part and a separate friction anti sway bar that attaches to the tongue of the camper. They work. They are also noisy and have more moving parts to keep track of vs. a newer design. Pick a decent electric brake controller and mount it somewhere that is within easy reach in case of emergencies. Also READ the instructions. Most people never read anything and then cant figure out why their camper is towing bad or their tow vehicle is all over the road. Do your research, read reviews and read instructions and you'll be good. You may want to find a big empty parking lot to practice backing up and maneuvering if this is your first time towing. Lastly and I honestly cant stress this enough 1000 times over - be overly OCD about your camper tires. Most campers come with the cheapest tires possible and they have tendency to literally blow up if abused (or even not abused). Always check tire pressures, always check condition and just take good care of them. Always. OR - take them off and swap them out to a better tire. We do that on all our campers now as soon as they are home. Seriously. With zero miles on them. After having dealt with blown tires in the past with the damage and delays they cause it is not worth leaving on the original tires.

So why do you want air bags? You DO have a weight distribution hitch right? That is required - period - for that weight camper. Air bags are not cheap, can leak, can tear, require a compressor to inflate when needed since if you leave them inflated they will raise the rear with no load and will ride like a logging truck unless they are deflated. You cant deflate fully since they can tear then as well. They always need a little pressure in them.

What do you mean by "camping"? As in you have a camper conversion and the rear is sagging or the rear is sagging when towing? It should not be sagging too much period if the load is correct either with raw weight you have in the conversion or with a properly setup weight distribution hitch. If it is just sagging too much for aesthetics or comfort than an airbag may help. Firestone used to make a set that would fit but were not a direct "3500" set. I believe there is a company in Canada that makes a set that fits the 3500 out of the box.

We LOVED visiting the canyon on our big summer trip we just took. You are 100% correct that photos do no justice. It is just jaw droppingly beautiful.

Correct! The fuse is a pain to get to though, it is under the main fuse panel in the engine compartment in a second fuse panel. I honestly cant recall the fuse/relay number. OK, found it from old post. I personaly hate the DRL's on my van, if you do too it's very easy to turn them off. Under the hood, locate the fuse panels on the passenger side, open the one closest to the firewall (main fuse panel) and pull out the tray of fuses (there are tabs on either side and lift it up and out), locate the DRL fuse (F3, DTRL RELAY PWR), pull it out and no more DRL's and no warning lights on the dash.

Cant speak about that brand but all the brands I tried including the ones I am using (Nineo I think) work just fine with the factory harness. I deleted my DRL's within the first week of ownership by pulling the fuse. I hate the dim highbeam DRL look and option on vehicles.

Wonder if the highroof helps cut wind resistance to the trailer behind you. I get 8-9 mpg on average towing our 7600 lb trailer. The 1 mpg could be a multitude of things - slower speeds, pretty flat driving, etc. but I am genuinely curious of the roof does anything.

Been with Travelers for many years and love them. No problems ever and they went above and beyond for several accidents that were not our fault.