chphilo

Welcome and congrats from Western PA. Same here. We used to get stares and questions quite frequently. Our Nissan van is the only one in small town where we live. Perhaps it's because everyone knows about our van now.

I have Audiovox, ceiling mounted one. The screen is 13.3 inches. As you could see, you probably don't want any larger screen having down from the ceiling.

Welcome and congrats. Smart wife. We traded in our minivan for Nissan NVP. The increase is in rooms was quite dramatic.

Now I have some experience driving on DuraTrac, I have to say it made a dramatic difference in snow/ice. We have unpaved driveway. The entrance gets piled up with plowed snow (form city plowers). So this piles effectively becomes ice piles. NVP with DuraTrac did not even spin going over these. Now my wife is not afraid to drive the van in winter. (She is overly afraid of snow/ice. She's from Virginia)

Welcome to the forum. Post some pictures when you get your van. We have four children and basically ran out of room in Sienna. Supermommy, we installed audiovox dvd player soon after the purchase of the van. We couldn't go without one. One we got was Audiovox 13.3' with four wireless headphones. The phones generally work well. Sometimes, if one child is sitting all the way back of the van, it kinks up a bit. We also have it hooked up to the factory speaker and it sounds great.

Welcome and congrats from Western PA. DVD player was one of the first mods we did. We really needed one for our 4 children. They have iPads, but they tend to get carsick if they use them white the car is in motion. DVD player seems to be okay. We had to choose between a DVD player and having to listen to "Are we there yet" almost continuously, haha.

I see that you bought a Java/white model, haha. Java was my wife's first color choice. But apparently this color is very popular. None was in stock when we were trying to purchase one and since we have to drive 2 hour to buy an NV, we just bought a black one.

Welcome to the forum and congrats on your new van. post some pictures when you get a chance.

Agreed with expert opinions. Compared to dedicated snow/ice tires (which have tons of siping), DuraTrac's siping is quite modest. But they are a lot more than Nitto Trail Grappler on my Tundra (which basically has none). DuraTrac was a compromise for us. My wife did not want to switch out tires every season. She does not drive on ice. But she does drive on snow. Since we got the tires, it hasn't snowed at all. It was snowing earlier today and I got excited to finally try the tires out in snow. But it stopped snowing. Just my luck, haha.

My wife did not like how NV drove in snow. I guess her AWD Sienna spoiled her. I am not planning to convert it to 4x4, so we changed out the tires. We went with GY DuraTrac 245/75/17 instead of 245/70/17. The van definitely is higher now. I am anxious to see how they do. Haven't had a winter storm since we change the tires.

Congratulations. Got any pictures?

Personally, I buy Toyota/Honda/Nissan new. I would be willing to buy Ford/Chevy/Dodge used. Their resale value drops quickly enough to the extent that makes it worth the risk.

I recently noticed this product. Looks promising. https://www.carid.com/2016-nissan-nv-grill-guards/trailfx-grille-guard-205393370.html

Not as cool as your anti-gravity model, but . . .

Welcome to the forum. We went from red Toyota Sienna to black Nissan NVP. Love this van.

Welcome and congrats from Western PA. I would like to see exactly what you do to your van. I am new to the van scene (the last van I had was 30+ years ago).

Andy, I use iPhone also. What's bad is iPhone automatically flips to the right orientation on the phone (while the picture is still flipped). I download it to the computer, open the file, simply copy the whole picture, then open the file saved on the template, then resave it (computer does show the right orientation). For someone else's photo, I just download it to my computer, copy the file, open it from the template, then resave it. Then I could post it as if it's one of my own picture. (before resaving it, I have to turn it to the right orientation)

I am itching to take a trip like that. Unfortunately, we got a puppy this summer. So all our trips have been short ones. Take some cool shots along the way.

Those are some nice mods, Carmen. Nice air compressor. Where do you plan to install it?

Before formulating the SAE standard for towing (which Ford was one of the participants in formulating process), manufacturers advertised whatever towing number they could. Both Ford and GM are guilty of playing this game. Then everyone thought it was a good idea to have some kind of standard, hence came the SAE standard for towing. Guess which company refused to test their vehicles by the standard first. Ford. Other companies followed. Then a few years later, after working on their vehicles for a few years they began testing according to the standard. But even now, it's an interesting read to read their spec page. They have a numerous configurations and only a very select few has number even remotely approaching their advertised towing number. Look at their advertised mpg number and go to Ford forum and compare to the mpg numbers reported by the owners. You will see what I am talking about. Large brakes are definitely plus in stopping, but for towing purposes it is very important for heat dissipation. Ford is known to have tiny brakes (even in their 1/2 ton trucks (their 1 ton truck has similar size brake as Nissan van). I remember seeing a video of different trucks towing up and down a steep hill and remember that Ford truck had very high brake temperature after coming down the hill. That would be a serious concern for me. When the brakes get too hot, they tend to fail. I do feel more comfortable with 1 ton brakes on a 1 ton vehicle.

Welcome and congrats. Nice color. I've experienced none of the issues you mentioned in your post. I would certainly take it back to the dealer and have them take a look. Got some pictures of your mods? I would love to see what your dash cover looks like. Are you planning to take your headlight assembly apart or are you installing the led strips on the outside?

We came from Sienna to NV. We are a six-person family and all of us love this van. We thought we will miss some of the luxury items in Sienna. We did have to put a DVD player, but every single one of us love this van. Lack of cargo space? We pulled two-seat unit in the back and that gave us more than enough cargo room (kids love being able to exit through the rear door). So we have 10 passenger van with plenty of cargo space. We didn't do it for cargo though. We did it for our German Shepherd. Even without puttling the seats out, there are room under the rear seat that you could utilize also. In comparison to other full size vans, mpg is pretty much comparable. Ford has tendency to tweak their numbers so I would not consider that a major plus. In the actual application, mpg is pretty much comparable, unless you get a diesel. But then again, diesel is not problem-free either. Let's face it, if you like to maximize your mpg, you certainly should not make it large. Vans are not designed for mpg. Everything about this van screams out 'heavy-duty'. FYI, Nissan van has substantially larger brakes than any other competition, which I think is a very important factor.

Which light did you go with HIDs? Have you considered LEDs? Did you retrofit the housing or did you just change the bulbs? Did you notice any heat issues? edit: I found the thread where you talk about your lights. I see that you went back to Extreme Vision. For my Tundra, I went with Crystal Vision (a little less throw but whiter than Extreme). There's a guy on a Tundra forum who went with Philips LEDs which looked promising.

Awesome! Do you guys have some pictures of your mods?

I agree. Just because you traded your NV doesn't mean you have to leave the forum. How do you like your new ride? Any pictures?