Simon & B

We discovered that our first try at turning our NV Cargo into camping heaven was a bust, so we're in the middle of a do over. Check out https://oddstray.com/2019/05/06/van-conversion-take-2/ Comments/critiques welcome.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01F6S8YOY/ might have saved a little effort, time and money?

We had a big change of heart about how we want to configure our NV Cargo for 'camping'. So, out with the 2 Adrian Steel shelves like these: https://www.adriansteel.com/item/cargo-vans/nissan_nv/adseries_nissan/ The shelves are in great condition, and have all necessary fittings except the runners (4 needed) for the floor and sides. If you want them, come pick them up in north San Diego. Email is ipod.oddstray@gmail.com Now sold on craigslist

From what we've seen, those 'JUCY's' have a hard life. Not certain we would want a Fiat/Chrysler with 0 miles, never mind 200k, given my friend's experience with them.

Funny, this happened to us just a week ago. We had to dive into 'Settings' to cancel the darn reminder. At the time, we were in deepest darkest Baja, Mexico, and our first response was 'WTF, where's the nearest dealer?'. Which at the time was many 100's of miles away. Computers! They sucketh.

Firstly, they couldn't get an axle with limited slip differential, then they couldn't get any axles at all, of any ratio!!! - they were all going into F-150's apparently.

Interest? Not much except for today, when we got stopped at a Federales checkpoint north of Loreto. The man in charge eyes widened and he informed us that he was going to do an 'inspection'. He took a long look around inside (without disturbing anything), shook my hand and sent us on our way. Tee Hee. Lots of those 'global' Nissan vans around - many as passenger buses, some as cargo vans. We haven't seen any other NV's at all. Thanks for the photo compliment. :)

That's amusing. We spent more than a year trying to a buy a Transit with the 3.5 litre ecoboost engine (which by the way is a power/torque monster), 3.55 final drive and the towing package - a specification offered in their 'configure your purchase' utility. Over the course of that year, we went to 4 Ford dealers in CA and OR, and none, not one of them, could ever get that configuration on any manufacturing plan for delivery, ever! That's why we have an NV. :) And we're happy with it. Currently driving it around Baja California. Blog @ https://www.oddstray.com

Awning: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CBMD56H/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Ladder: https://www.primedesign.net/products/rear-door-access-ladder/ Hope this helps :) PS The ladder and awning served as a great pair of places to hang LED Xmas lights whilst camping these last few days.

If this image works, it should show the bracket. Horizontal dimension is 8 inches, vertical is 5 inches, made from 1 1/2" x 1/8" stock. The bracing uses thinner stock (3/64?) .There is an approximately 3/8" welded on stand-off on the inboard end. Two brackets required. The supplied (with the awning) 'nuts' work well. There is some high density foam glued to the underside of the bracket to make certain that bracket to roof contact does not cause damage. This is an excess of concern on our part.

I had a local metal fabricator make up mounts for the existing roof 'holes'. I'll take a picture when I get around to it <grin>

We haven't used it much yet, but we added the RhinoRack Sunseeker awning earlier this year. Easy to mount on existing NV roof fittings. Link https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CBMD56H

From the 'small' end of the scale: For what it's worth, we tow a 3,500# 'bumper pull' travel trailer with our NV3500 Cargo van. We don't really need a weight distribution hitch, as the tongue weight is around 450#. We tried towing it without our Andersen, and immediately put it back on, as it 'tightened up' the 'connection' between the NV and the trailer, and made for a much more pleasant driving experience. Previously, when towing the same trailer with an Xterra, the Andersen hitch saved our bacon quite a few times with its 'anti-sway' features. It certainly made driving the equipment much more tolerable. I agree that its weight transfer is not very great at all, I think we measured it at about 100#, spread roughly equally between the front wheels of the tow vehicle and the trailer wheels. On that Xterra, we had air bags installed on the rear axle, but with the Andersen setup, we never found it necessary to use them, as the rear of the Xterra hardly 'sagged' at all, when the Andersen was set up as directed. I don't think that removing 100# from the rear wheels of the tow vehicle is going to cause them to slip and slide in snow and rain, especially as you've just added 450# to them (in our case).

Not here. There are more in our blog at http://www.oddstray.com

Going camping in it tomorrow :)

We just added an awning to our NV. It's neat! Write-up at https://oddstray.com/2018/08/14/van-awning/

That's the passenger, not the cargo, hence our missing something.

Huh! We have a 2018 SL and it has neither fog lights nor heated seats. Unless we're missing something?

We've recently returned from a multi-month travel trailer towing trip, and, by the way, we love the NV as a tow vehicle. But some information about mpg might be interesting to some. mpg is calculated by writing down the mileage when the vehicle is refilled on the receipt from the pump. The info is put into an Excel spreadsheet that includes mileage, # of gallons, cost, and then calculates mpg per fill up. We've kept records from the day the NV was delivered. The first data point is clearly incorrect. All others are valid. Here's the data: Date Mileage Event Cost # Gallons MPG 17-Jan 428 Costco - Carmel Mountain CA 68.43 23.444 18.26 24-Jan 719 Loves Yuma AZ 54.86 23.453 12.41 28-Jan 958 Loves Gila Bend AZ 46.52 18.617 12.84 29-Jan 1069 Loves Yuma AZ 20.96 8.735 12.71 6-Feb 1336 Costco Scripps Poway CA 70.97 22.466 11.88 27-Mar 1538 Costco Scripps Poway 58.19 18.189 11.11 22-Apr 1665 Costco Scripps Poway 37.60 11.468 11.07 4/29/2018 1883 Costco Scripps Poway 64.83 19.416 11.23 5-May 2167 Costco Santee CA 79.30 23.33 12.17 16-May 2249 Costco Scripps Poway 25.68 7.556 10.85 18-May 2468 Chevron, Yuma 47.85 15.995 13.69 19-May 2688 Circle K, Surprise AZ 47.46 16.04 13.72 20-May 2926 Shell, Show Low AZ 58.73 19.583 12.15 23-May 3154 Chevron, Milan CO 50.87 16.63 13.71 25-Feb 3404 Conoco, Durango CO 49.93 16.93116 14.77 26-May 3526 Bayfield CO 18.93 6.355 19.20 28-May 3679 Montrose CO 33.52 11.327 13.51 31-May 3875 Gunnison CO 44.01 14.202 13.80 2-Jun 4108 Wheat Ridge CO 43.07 16.51 14.11 5-Jun 4302 Estes Park CO 39.99 14.287 13.58 7-Jun 4516 Rawlins WY 45.06 15.871 13.48 9-Jun 4728 Lander WY 38.07 13.6 15.59 11-Jun 4962 Dubois WY 48.94 15.791 14.82 13-Jun 5150 Idaho Falls ID 47.60 15.511 12.12 14-Jun 5352 Lima MT 38.76 12.308 16.41 20-Jun 5651 Dillon MT 57.75 19.922 15.01 22-Jun 5802 Idaho Falls 33.43 11 13.73 23-Jun 6069 Orem Costco UT 54.54 18.18606 14.68 24-Jun 6284 Cedar City UT 46.08 14.588 14.74 26-Jun 6527 Nipton CA 85.72 17.863 13.60 6-Jul 6825 Costco Scripps Poway 77.27 23.143 12.88 Interpretation: What seems to be clear is that when we go up in elevation, the mpg gets quite a bit better. That mpg of 19.20 is, honestly, absolutely true. We traveled the 'million dollar highway' between fill ups for that one (clearly at an average really low speed). ...Edit, oops, not true. we were running around Durango-ish, not hooked up to the trailer for that one, but the number is still true... The towed trailer weighs around 3500 lb. These numbers are, in fact, slightly better than with the same trailer being towed by an Xterra in similar circumstances. I'm not certain why that would be the case, except perhaps if the bigger frontal area of the NV is 'sweeping aside' more air to flow over the trailer rather than the trailer buffeting into it. We're geezers, so we don't travel at more than 55mph, anywhere, when towing. Thoughts? We're delighted :)

Get an Andersen. DW, B, who is not at all strong can easily heft it into the hitch. It's about 30-40 pounds in weight. It works well with our NV/Lance combo.

Yep, it's light and small. Lance 1575. Approximately 3,500 lbs. Still a barn door, though.

Here's a minor addition to this thread: We get 12 mpg with our standard roof 3500 SL - whilst towing a trailer whose cd is similar to that of a barn door. DesertTed has shown up on the Lance Camper forum - Lance Owners of America. We enjoy her posts there.

There are a couple of posts about our 'conversion' (not so much) at http://oddstray.com Early yet, but we're getting there.

We couldn't find any tailor-made seat covers since it's so new. We decided to buy cheap "fits all" covers until we could get tailor-made seat covers. But if they look OK, we may just keep using the "fits all" covers and replacing them as needed rather than investing in tailor-made covers and then needing to clean them. We're planning to do a conversion for camping, but nothing fancy. Minimalist. We generally pull a small trailer, and the NV will allow us to go places where even the small trailer won't go. Plus, it'll be our emergency evacuation vehicle in case of impending natural diasaster. In 'a previous life' we traveled in a Westfalia. We didn't even use most of its amenities.