chphilo

These are really nice sturdy vehicles. Love this van. I also have 1/2 ton Tundra with 14 inch brakes and I couldn't believe that every single manufacturer EXCEDPT Nissan offers 1-ton van brakes that are substantially smaller than 1/2 ton Tundra brakes.

I envision this thread to be a place to get a small peak of what's going on with everyone's ride. I will start with my small project. I painted my tow hooks red.

When I was researching vans, Nissan seems to have much less mechanical issues than the competitors. Reliability was the most important factor for me. x2 on everything being heavy-duty.

I've seen this kind of thread in every forum I've been a member of, a thread to keep up with what everyone is doing to their vehicle. Post up your recent mods, no matter how small or how large your project was.

It was sort of difficult to dig up the info, but here are the brake size specs (diameter in inches): Nissan NV: Front 14.2: Rear 14.4 (Both are vented) Ford Transit: Front 12.1: Rear 12.1 GMC Savana Front 12.8: Rear 13 Ram ProMaster Front 11.8: Rear 11 I assumed that no other offered vented brakes. Nissan's brake performance should be far superior to the others.

Pay attention to the brakes. I think both Ford and GM equip their van with much smaller brakes than Nissan.

We had the dvd player professionally installed so I can't tell you much, sorry. The sound is hard-wired and comes through the factory speakers. Because where the light is located, we could not install it any further back than the spot you could see in the picture. We got 4 wireless earphones and they work well, except a few times the sound became choppy for the earphones in the back of the van. I have two children who are prone to car-sickness, so multiple screen was not an option for us. I was worried about the screen being too large, but everything works fine and kids love it.

Welcome to the forum and congrats on your purchase. Our vans are twins, haha. Love mine. Recently joined the forum myself. We purchased and installed this one. https://www.amazon.com/Audiovox-AVXMTG13UHD-Digital-Back-lit-Monitor/dp/B00QMSCNNQ?ie=UTF8&keywords=best%20flip%20down%20dvd%20player&qid=1462208068&ref_=sr_1_8&s=electronics&sr=1-8 For the steps, we were thinking of getting this one before deciding not to get steps. http://www.eurocampers.com/2011--2016-Nissan-NV-O-Mega-Step-set--one-98-driver-step-one-98-passenger-step--choose-satin-or-black-finish_p_1296.html. There aren't too many stuff available for NV vans, I found out. The members of this forum have been very helpful to me.

Nissan NV's sales figure is higher than what Honda Ridgeline was selling before the rumor of discontinuing began to fly. Then Honda came back with redesigned Ridgeline. I wonder how well they will sell. From the reaction of people around me, most people just don't know about Nissan NV van. "What is that thing?" is the most common question I hear. Perhaps they could invest more $$ on commercial. Once the word gets around how solid this van is, perhaps the sales figures will steadily rise. In 2011, 6444 Nissan NV vans sold in the US. In the same year, 569 of them sold in Canada. In 2015, almost 17,000 sold in the US while only 760 sold in Canada. I wonder what they are doing different in these two countries.

-- haha, Then those with even smaller ones go and lift it sky high. By the way, mine is not 'lifted'. I have suspension upgrade (off road) that lifted the truck 3.5 inches (OME). So the small lift was a byproduct of the suspension upgrade. OP, Nissan NVP is 84 inches in height and Ford Transit is 83.6. So you are pretty even on that score. My wife loves how NVP drives and rides. She used to love Tundra's ride and used to love driving it. Yesterday, she actually complained how rough it rode and how difficult it is to drive the dang thing (in comparison). Tells you how good NVP rides and how easy it drives.

I used to drive chevy van for years and hated that a part of the engine was sitting next to me. As the vehicles got old, the hatch didn't seem to close as tight as when they were new. I liked NVP's front end. By the way, the front end is slopped down so it's quite bit lower than normal truck as can be seen here with Tundra. Tundra is lifted 3.5 inches in the front, but you get the idea. For the height, I would suspect you will have the same problem with any other full size van. We park it outside. Our van is too tall for local automatic car-wash. But those are not big problems for me.

Welcome and good luck with your search. There are six of us and we traded our Sienna for NVP and this was one of the best decisions we made. We weren't sure of our daughter (who does not like large vehicles--she doesn't like to ride in my Tundra) but she seems to love this van the most. We did our share of research and came to like it much more than we expected. It is very comfortable and easy to drive and seems to be built to last a long time.

We went through similar decision process like you before purchasing our NVP. Our family is VERY happy with the purchase. I found the review you linked on Ford Transit interesting because our experience has been the exact opposite. We have Ford Transit at work and found that Nissan NVP rides so much better than Ford. It is big though and if you are getting a passenger van, you get one size option whereas if you want different size, say 9.5 seater (kidding), you could get it for Ford. More size choices with Ford. But the size of NVP is nice (there are six in our family and my children love the extra space). I do not like the Ford engine options. They offer two EcoBoost engine options and a diesel option. Do some reading on EcoBoost problems and you will want to stay as far away from that engine.as you can. When we were looking at large SUVs, Expedition was immediately rule out because you get only EcoBoost option. Diesel was not a good option for us (frequent startups, short distance trips, cold weather). Besides, I would be hesitant to go with a new diesel with all the emission stuff (good for the environment, but bad for diesel owners). I also recommend 5.6. The van is large and the engine works effortlessly with bigger engine. I would think smaller engine working harder may not translate into that much higher mpg. As far as swapping around chairs, it's easy and they come off easily. I found it more difficult to put the chair back into the latch by yourself since you can't gauge where the hole is (it's sort of like trying to get a trailer hitched up without a backup camera. With another person, it's so much easier.

Perhaps this one? http://www.promasterforum.com

Perhaps you could use a velcro. We used to use a portable Garmin unit for years, then got tired of inconvenience so now we either get factory navigation or get after-market units installed.

Your van looks awesome. I was hoping that I would be able to fit 12 mm offset wheels (I found some cool 12 mm offset wheels), but judging from yours, these will probably rub the door. I like Nitto tires.

Looking good. Is your a 4x4? What size are your wheels and tires? What is your wheel offset? I would think that rasing the rear would be simpler.

Welcome and congrats from Western PA. Post some pictures when you get a chance.

Thanks. I see it now. I think I like the Double Loop better. But unfortunately, this mod has to wait a few months. We need to put a new roof to the house, pour concrete portions of of our yard so we could park the van (no longer fitting in our garage), and do some painting. Owning a house seems like an endless string of expense. But it's definitely cheaper than the children, haha.

Seats look good. It's sorta dark in there though. Kids are okay with it?

Even if they have the new 5.6, I would be hesitant to get the first year model. I would wait till they work out the kinks first. I am weary of the engines produced under the new federal regulations. Diesel engines are not what they used to be. I would not touch Eco-Boost with a ten foot pole. They do look good on the paper though.

True, haha. By the way, what do you think about line x on the silver guide? Do you think it will stick out like a sore thumb?

Now you guys mentioned it, the silver door guide bothers me. This forum is bad for my well being, both psychological and financial, haha.

Looks great. Rockstar has 10 mm offset, it seems. That's good to know that offset works. Can you tell me how close your tire is from the door when it's open?

Aluminess roof racks look sweet. http://www.aluminess.com/roof-racks/ Could someone familiar with their product tell me the difference between Side Rail and Double Loop? According to their description, Side Rail "offers a more symmetric look as opposed to the aerodynamic look of the double loop". I look at the Double Loop and ask myself, "how could you make it more symmetrical than that?"