radin2son

2 more NV dealerships to add to the list: Scott Clark Nissan in Charlotte, NC. Had a persistent check engine light and showed up without an appointment around 11:30 am. Michael Redwine, the service advisor, got our NV in right away and the problem was fixed. We had intended this to be a social visit with Chris Nagy, but not that long of a visit. South Colorado Springs Nissan in Colorado Springs, CO. Needed an oil change. Showed up without an appointment around 2:30 pm. Anayansi Adame, the service advisor, got us in and out in an hour. Since we had 2 dogs, I asked where we could sit outside, and he said just bring them in with us in the waiting area. So we sat at a table under the "No pets allowed" sign. Staff liked them better than us; we were scruffy looking after being on the road for over a month

It's working...

If "reboot" means turning the phone off, then on, this did nothing. Over the course of a long road trip, I turned my phone off numerous times in no service areas. On my iPhone, the last post was 5/23. Going from mobile version to full version did nothing except I could read more recent posts. I could not sign in on either. As of this post, still not working.

Same issue with the mobile site. Contacted Nissan and Rob indicated they were no other complaints. If not fixed let Rob know via "Contact us."

Thanks for taking the time to document this. Maybe the NV engineers will similarly take the time to design and offer lift and seating options on the next generation NV.

Welcome. Stand alone is the way to do it. There are 2 dealers in WA selling, or who sold, NV SMBs. Any interest? A lot campground "What is that?" No one, however, is rushing to buy one.

1 white NVP driving north on I-25 near Asheville, NC. 1 black NVP driving south on I-77 near Columbia, SC. No silver NVP seen in SC. Numerous cargo NVs in and around Charlotte, NC. Also have seen many NV 200s on this trip. It looks like some regular Nissan dealerships can sell them. Saw a used one for sale on the side of the road in TN.

Meant to say TN thing. Saw 2 other cargo vans near the Smokies...

1 high top cargo converted to camper in Alamogordo, NM. 1 passenger near Amarillo, TX 1 passenger near Nachitoches, LA 7-8 near Nashville, TN. 1 cargo HT, 2 cargo LTs and the rest NVPs. Must be a southern thing...

Why do you need 2 fan-tastics? I believe the NM van only had one to leave enough room for solar panels. 1 or 2, your van needs this. For roof top AC, you will need shore power... Shore power for you now only needs to be a good extension cord, a place to plug it in and a power strip. Are you planning to install windows? If not, you will need to crack your front windows. Skeeter Beater makes screens to fit NVs. The list goes on and on no matter how simple your design or intentions are. Managed to drive away from and out of tornado watches and warnings. Weather driven route so far, but will still get us to the southern start of the Natchez Trace Parkway.

We have AGM batteries. Word is they last 2-3 years and we are in that zone. You will need shore power or idle your engine to use your microwave. Now is the time for you to pre-wire for solar. If I were doing a build, I would seriously consider Goalzero's solar gererator. Fixed panels on roof and an easy to store generator. Generator you would need is $450+, same for the panels. You can easily run lights and a refrigerator. You probably cannot make a cup of coffee. When I looked at another brand I would have had to spend $1000+ just for the generator to do this. Advantages over standard generators, NO fuel. Met a guy in NM who coverted a V6 high top. He put 350 amp solar panels on the roof. Started with 50, then 100... Runs lights, refrigerator and stereo. No plumbing other than 2 five gal water containers. He went without windows for awhile and settled on 3 windows he bought from a tear drop trailer manufacturer. 2 for back and 1 for slider. 3 for the price of the full size slider window. On a different topic. He claims to get 19+ mph per gallon. He set front tires to 65 psi to see if he could increase this. This is a 2012 and has mpg displayed. If he uses this, it is about a gallon more that reality. Still, very good mpg. Traveling, so will try to send photo of his van later.

It was a formidable system: all it needed was gun ports. One of my first impressions of NVs was an armored truck carrying casino $.

As I mentioned before, our dogs have never set off the alarm when we leave them in our locked van. Short or long periods. The difference may be that they are less hyper or your van is mostly empty and more sensitive to motion or whatever sets off your alarm. As you build your van, it may be less of a problem. It will be interesting to see what the alarm people say. In the Hazeltons, BC I met a Swiss woman traveling alone in a 4x4 Sprinter. All the windows and door locks had slidding metal covers. If only I had anticipated your question, I could have asked her about her alarm. There is a story about thieves in Europe climbing on top of "pop top" vans to force down the top onto the sleeping occupants. They then can burgle the van. Where there is a will, there is a way.

Why lock the doors when you are inside? Unless you install a ceiling fan and add louvered windows, you are going to have to leave your front windows open in warm weather. The "evil doer" will have access to the unlock button unless your boxers give him pause. Just keep your key nearby and you can lock up as needed. Campgrounds, probably not. Boon- docking, maybe. Stealth camping in sketchy areas, probably. We have seen a lot of solitary women cycling and car tent camping the past 2 years. Just be cautious about your choices. There are a lot of campgrounds that have become semi-permanent housing for workers/families where no housing is available or affordable. Like most workers, they are too tired to do much more than eat, sleep and get up early to go to work. Bottom line is, do whatever is comfortable.

Are the NVP mirrors the same as those on V8 commercial vans? The 2012 or 13 NVP without the tow option definitely had inferior mirrors. Maybe this was the case for commercial NVs as well. Edit: I'm so used to the mirrors being extended, the NVP photos looked different. Can you adjust the driver's seat (Are they the same in NVPs and commercial?) position enough to improve what you see in the mirrors. I have the driver's seat up high and close, since my wife also drives. (It looks high compared to the passenger seat.) We can pick up passing vehicles before peripheral vision kicks in. Also like having rear windows no matter how restricted the view is. Early posts on towing mirrors were positive and no temporary mirrors were needed.

Interesting posts on this forum. Like the area around Pasadena. Read something interesting in Consumer Reports that headlight bulbs deteriorate over time and should be replaced every couple of years. Also, you can improve brightness but not increase range/distance. This is predetermined by the headlight design. CR testing, not manufacturers ads and tests, show more expensive bulbs aren't much better than OEM. If white light is what you want, your decision should based on price. The range, if I remember it right, was $40-80 per set.

Good luck with bolting your build together.

Go over to Ace Hardware and have someone take a look. This is a difficult topic to discuss without double meaning... Have you checked out Van Life blogs and videos? Mostly VWs and young couples, but you may get some build ideas. They also are fun to read even if they think they discovered van travel. Several van life bloggers are sponsored by Goal Zero. Interesting way to power your electric use if you decide to add that at some point. You always have NV's inverter in the interim. We met a NV SMB couple who used this to brew tea. I wonder if the Nissan engineer was a tea drinker or if this was an unintended benefit.

With our poptop, we get a lot of wind noise and latch noise depending on how the roof settled when taken down. This, however, is not as annoying as the loud hum of roof bike rack and open sunroof.

Since it is a very tight fit in our x1 carport (no access to hood or driver's door), I was surprised how much room was under the hood, particularly near the headlights. I was expecting something like the Honda Element in the video. Although, I don't see a need (rarely drive at night when traveling) for us to do anything beyond a "better bulb" replacement, a photo of your installation would be helpful. Did you resolve the driver side illumination?

We are more than happy with our NV SMB, but want to make improvements, not major modifications, where they matter. The existing headlights being one. I!m interested in a "single bulb replacement." Under the headlights topic, Jean Desjardins posted a video on how to install an HID headlight kit and pictures of the before and after results.

Welcome. Does your "must" headlight upgrade include the unit itself or adding lights? Attach* photos when you can of this and other projects. *If you are a Mac, iPhone or iPad user, this can be somewhat convoluted. Basically, export your photos one at a time to your desktop (JPEG medium) and then you can chose and upload. I have had to use my old lap top to do this. There probably are other work arounds. In a couple of weeks, we'll be in SC, working our way to DC, and plan to check out Congaree NP among other places.

I've noticed that dealers set psi at 1-3 psi over what is required for NVs.

If you reduce the tire pressure below the TPMS setting, you will get a low psi warning message. (You can experiment with how low you can reduce psi before it kicks in.) When it does, you can make the message go away until the next time you turn on the ignition. It is just annoying! Jon Nelson mentioned recalibrating the TPMS for larger tires, same rims. I did not think you could recalibrate it, but it makes sense. The system is probably shared with many Nissans. If I had to do this, I would go with the Bilstein shocks. No messing with tire pressure and not as radical as removing a leaf, particularly for resale down the road.

Sorry to hear about the non-warranty/dealer result. Still think the commercial manager should have handled this; eg, repaint it or offer to fix it at cost. This would have gone a long way to promote good relations. Wonder if he expects you to buy another vehicle from him or if he noticed overall vehicle sales were down last month? I forgot about moving the steering wheel. It does happen on every vehicle...