ASD Dad

Welcome to the site! I really like that pearl white color.

From the pic of your camper I can see that it has an electric tongue jack. Did they tell you to raise it up AFTER locking it to the ball to put on the bars (or chains/ring on the Anderson)?? I am guessing you are not doing it or not doing it enough. It should be possible to raise up the back of the van and ball high enough on the jack to make hooking up the bars a non-issue. You can put them up with finger pressure let alone wrestling them. If it is not going high enough put a block under the jack to get it to go higher. What you should be doing: Raise camper high enough for ball to clear Back up under the ball. Lower coupler onto ball just enough to latch and then latch it down so it is locked on like you are towing. Raise camper back up with tongue jack (back of NV will rise too) Connect WD bars Lower completely and retract tongue jack up Since you have an electric jack it is minimal effort. I have manual jacks and I get lazy but still raise it up once locked to make it easier. On my Blue Ox it is easier since it is a rotating latch and I use a 3 foot breaker bar. You'll get a feel for how high to raise it once locked on to get it easy enough to get the bars on. If you go high enough you can literally put them on with zero chain tension but that could stress the tongue jack and is not necessary. Try it if you are not doing it, you'll be surprised and may be a lot more enjoyable. It does not help with the sheer weight of things which is where the Anderson helps. It is the lightest WD hitch made.

You want light weight? Get this - https://www.amazon.com/Andersen-3380-Distribution-Universal-Brackets/dp/B006X21BH0 Dont have to get it there, shop around but it was an easy link. That is super light and it works really well on light trailers like yours. I had one a long time ago when they first came out but I didnt like it with a heavy trailer and my Tundra. I couldnt get it to transfer enough weight forward. It would be a non-issue with your NV and Lance. Reasons to get - it is very light overall, it is easy to hook up, it is very clean (no grease), there is no noise, and it takes up a very small foot print when unhooked - no big bars and the ball out back could even stay in since it is smaller. Reason not to get - it's an extra $500 to spend when your current setup works. There are videos of it which I recommend watching but the basics are the bottom of the hitch at the NV just slides on and off and is held by a pin. Those long chains and bushings control the amount of pressure put on the hitch to adjust your weight distribution. Those bushings are really hard rubber and dampen bumps and smooth the ride. You crank down on the large nut behind the bushing to transfer weight. Easy way to do it is get a large ratchet and socket that fits that nut (vs wrench). You count how many threads are exposed and that way you crank down the same amount every time you hook up. You'll have cranking to do but it should be easier than wrestling a normal WDH. If your tongue jack on the Lance is electric you can also raise the tongue up high enough to release pressure, drop the collar on the ball and be done...

Funny how the only post by NVPeoria is to come on here and bash Nissan. Good luck with Transit, I had one as a rental when my NV was in the body shop. Kept it a day and returned it, that was how bad it was to drive. I live in SC and travel to FL all the time where it gets plenty hot and have never had an issue or complaint. The only complaint I get is how hot it gets back there in the winter and have to turn the heat way down.

Mine only does that when the temps are Not synced. My wife never keeps her side at the same temp so I always sync them back when I am alone in the van!

I think it should, I bought an adapter for my P3 off Amazon and it plugged right in. Definitely the easiest way to wire it!

9400 would be the upper limit, like I said you really want to be under 16,000 combined and if you are full timing it you will have a lot of "stuff" in the van and camper. They do make ultralight campers now, some are 34' and weigh in at 6000 lbs dry. The issue is the lighter weight can sometimes mean cheaper material and you end up having to reinforce stuff all the time or fix broken items. That adds weight! Old Airstreams are quite light for their size but can be rather expensive. They are built to last decades though. We bought our toy hauler for the separate rooms as well. My kids or dogs can hang out in the garage and make a mess and my wife and I can hang out up front. The only toys we haul are kids stuff or things like bikes or kayaks. If you want that style just keep looking but maybe go down in size a little. If you ask around a lot of long time campers the general rule of thumb is to try and stick to 20% under your max rating. That would mean something around 7500 lbs. I am sure your NV will pull 10,000 lbs easily, especially on flat ground. If you keep pushing the limit you will end up with more wear and tear on the van. I also just noticed you have a 2500. I think the 3500 has beefier rear springs so you may need to look to make sure you can handle the tongue weight OK. Finally, not sure if you read much into it but the V8 towing a tall heavy camper will get you around 8 mpg... Just something to consider if you are hauling his all over the place. You can only get 160 miles or so per tank before you need to hunt down a gas station!

I had nothing on my roof but that was a 2015. Maybe it was there during shipping and the porters at the dealer didnt prep well before delivery. Welcome to the site BTW! I really like my Luverne steps but they were a total nightmare to install. If you get them installed, great - let them deal with the headaches. Once installed they have been rock solid and my kids and family members like them a lot. I would not worry about airbags too much. The NV 3500 is a 1 ton van vs. your Tundra. I owned a Tundra for 85,000 miles with many of that towing various campers around and I know how soft that suspension is. It was tuned for ride comfort and not hauling a load. I added Timbrens to my Tundra which helped a lot while keeping the ride normal during unloaded driving. Even with the heavier tongue weight of my toy hauler the NV handles it fine. If I do anything I may upgrade my WD bars to the next size up, I am right on the line of each bar rating so my current bars are near max. It rides fine but I need to pull max chain links to get the weight moved properly.

Waaaay too heavy. 8400 Toyhauler means it is built to carry a lot of weight in the garage and will have a huge tongue weight. 1200# dry from the specs I found. That is bad. Second, the GROSS carrying load is 14,000# from the specs I read. At bare min figure 1000# for a normally loaded camper so you are at 9400 lbs. My issue is that every model I see for sale including brand new ones list the Dry weight at 9500#. Combined capacity for a low roof NV is 16,000# for camper and NV. I dont see you staying under that with that large of a toy hauler plus all the payload inside your van unless you carry dead empty and even then i dont see it happening. Sorry. The toy hauler in my sig line is a Hyperlite 27 that weighs in at 7600 lbs LOADED and that is checked on a CAT scale.

Aluminess has your rack and ladder. One of the best out there and they are custom made to your specs from a drop down list of options. Figure about $2500 plus truck freight for the rack. Ladder I think was $300.

Welcome to the site! I see you have a high roof - contractor? camper?

Appreciate the update! Hope it is an easy fix and you get it back quickly.

Why cant you post it here? I am sure a LOT of people would like to know how to make them work off a switch up front.

Aluminess makes some but they are BIG bucks. They are "overland" style - heavy duty offroad. Several online places sell chrome or black models. About $400 for chrome and $350-ish for black? Been a while since I looked. I need to pound out or replace my front that has a nice dent in it from my wife backing into me!

First time I have heard of that problem here or the FB page. If it's out of warranty I would see about repairing it vs. buying a new seat, they are not cheap!

Last I looked it was $450 for a chrome front bumper and about $325 for the black bumper. Lots of bolts to pull off as well as inner fender liners but it is not overly complicated looking.

Bumpers are not too expensive and they can be replaced with a decent set of tools. I actually need to work on my front bumper. My wife backed into me!! Dented the center of it and now my sensors beep a lot. Not all the time but enough that I just turn them off. I plan on trying to pound it out first and if I cant I will get a new one. I think a new aftermarket bumper that looks like factory is around $300-$400-ish.

800# isnt bad but it's getting up there. My old camper was around that and it towed really well, better than my Tundra. My new camper has a much higher tongue weight due to it being a toyhauler. They expect you to load something heavy in the rear which will offset the tongue weight. Throw a couple Harley's, a side by side or even a golf cart and that is a lot of weight. We just carry kids "toys" - bikes, kayaks, etc back there. I think unloaded my tongue was around 1100#!! We shifted a lot of weight around from storage up front to the rear and make sure to pack anything heavy back there now. I got it down around the mid to upper 800's if I go heavy in back.

Buddy of mine had it on his Tundra. It raises the rear of the vehicle up a lot of times due to the extra tension and the ride can be a bit more rough. They can also get noisy due to movement. They are better than adding leaf springs from what I am told. They are more trouble free than an airbag system that can leak and you need a compressor. I used Timbrens on my Tundra and they worked well for my needs when towing. Keep in mind that they will do absolutely nothing to increase your payload or tow ratings. All they do is stiffen up the rear so it doesnt sag. That holds true for any suspension "helper".

My Hankook ATM Dynapros are NOT wearing well. Two are rapidly wearing even with rotation, they were on the rear during a couple long tows. They also are getting louder and louder. I have about 30K miles on them. The two bad tires are down past first intermediate wear bars already. Two good ones have a little more meat left. I will not buy them again and loved them when broken in and new. I had KO2 on my Tundra and liked them, just wanted to try something different. I dont have any long tows planned this year so am trying to wait till next year to get new tires.

Definitely take it to a dealer. That is what warranties are for, to fix things on new vehicles! That issue is absolutely not "normal" and something is out of adjustment or hung-up. The good news is you can pinpoint to the dealer the exact cause of the issue so they dont have to mess with it too long and then claim they cant figure it out! I would take a video on your phone of it not working and/or working if possible to show them when you take it in. That always helps.

I expected better MPG with the newer motor and 2 more gears in the transmission. I get the same as you and I have AT tires and a giant roof rack. Before both of those additions I was getting 14 mpg fairly regularly.

What Mark suggested was the first thing that I thought of - the child lock. If that is off then agree with everyone else as well, take off the panel and poke around to make nothing is jammed or disconnected.

EDIT: I stand corrected on below. He replied back that it only weighs 6800 lbs dry. That is amazingly light, my much shorter camper weighs the same. Still not sure I would want to pull a 34' camper with the NV but it's great he knows the weights. Idiots strike again. Today there is a family posting photos of a 34 foot triple axle (!!) Airstream hooked up to his NV. Beautiful campers and the vintage ones can be fairly light for their size but I am guessing that camper loaded has to be over weight plus at 34' you really want a long wheelbase truck if possible.

I am pretty sure it is 5yr/100k bumper to bumper. No? O2 sensor is normally considered "emissions" which can also have a different warranty. Should not have gone bad already. Since you are in MI I wonder if salt corroded the heck out of the wire connection.