bachex

We have six kids (for now) and tow a big travel trailer with our NV. It does great except when there's a headwind. Last week we took a trip about 300 miles south with the trailer. Most of the driving was freeway and I kept it at about 75mph. I got 11 miles to the gallon over the entire trip, which isn't bad at all with a big TT fully loaded with kids, gear, bikes, etc. It did great even on some of the steep grades....definitely slows down a bit but that's understandable. It sounds like this is the perfect vehicle for your setup.

Ok dumb question. Do I really need an air filter? Why would Nissan include a spot for the filter but then not put a filter in? Makes me believe it's probably not that critical. Am I wrong?

Sampson - Haha! You just won major points with my wife....she's a car seat nut and wondering if maybe you're one of her buddies from car-seat.org. Here's what we have and a question... Question: We never thought about having the single seat in a different position than the rest of the bench. What does that do to the single seat in the third row? Can you post some pics of this? <the wife> We have a Radian (now Diono) rear-facing in the same position you do, also with an angle adjuster. (Depending on when you got your angle adjuster, you may need a new one. The first batch didn't work well and left deep impressions making the angle adjuster hardly worthwhile. The newer ones are thicker and sturdier and they'll send you a new one for free if you call them.) Our 21 month old sits there. That's it for the front row. (Although I have ours installed with the seatbelt because I don't trust the LATCH since Sunshine Kids had some issues with the SuperLatch and tried to cover it up.) I have it tethered to the driver's seat (at the bottom near the console) with the D-ring. 2nd row, we have a Radian in the middle seat, forward-facing. And a Britax Frontier 85 next to it on the driver's side. The Radian does not install well forward-facing in the passenger side position due to the long buckle stalk. I have them both tethered to the seat next to them. (A technical no-no, but I have many tech friends who don't think it's the end of the world.) 3rd row I have a Sunshine Kids (now Diono) Monterey booster seat. It is LATCHed into the only position with LATCH back there. In the past, I had 2 Radians rear-facing in the middle row. One on the driver's side and one in the middle and that worked well. </the wife> The overall safety, headrests, seating flexibility, number of LATCHes, etc was one of the primary reasons my wife wanted this van. It hasn't disappointed at all this regard.

KMGLTZ, How badly has it impacted your MPG? Any other downside to doing this? Is it louder? Is the ride more rough?

I'm 6' 4" but most of the height is in my torso. My wife had a rear facing carseat right behind me and it was a bit tight....I never hit my shin but it grazed it a couple times. She moved the car seat to the center position on the first row and now I can scoot the seat back just a bit. Unless you are super tall and can't put the seat back you should be ok with it in that position.

I mounted mine just to the right of the steering wheel but down low. It almost hits my right shin.

We used to have a Chevy Express and one of the things we have loved about our NV is the significantly better fit & finish in the NV compared to the Chevy. Everything in NV interior is very well done and it's so quiet compared to the "tin can" Chevy. The one exception to this is the latch thing at the top of the back door. It looks completely unfinished, ugly and like it was an afterthought. I'm wondering if they're going to fix this in future model years (I've got a 2012). Anyone that has a 2013....I assume this hasn't changed? Any idea if there's any way to cover this up?

I bought some foam blocks to go on the rails of the canoe and they came with a strap that had some "S" hook things. I threaded those under the mount things on top of the NV. It worked fairly well but I want to get something slightly more permanent.

We had two hybrids before we bought our Shadow Cruiser. Hybrids are nice and light but watch out for the wind....we had some heavy winds that busted the bracket that holds up the tent. Investing in a weight distribution hitch like Equalizer (http://www.equalizerhitch.com/) is a good investment. WRT brake controllers, make sure you get a good one. I got the Tekonsha (http://www.amazon.com/Tekonsha-90195-Electronic-Brake-Control/dp/B000P17NXQ) and installed it myself. The install wasn't horrible but if you're not super handy you may want to pay someone to do it.

I have almost the exact setup. Our travel trailer is the Shadow Cruiser 280QBS and is supposedly about 5500 lbs dry. I'm about 7000 lbs fully loaded. Our NV 3500 HD SL does very well pulling this, much better than our Chevy Express van. I live in the rocky mountains so we end up going through the mountains quite a bit. The van does slow down considerably on the steep uphill grades, but that's expected (need a diesel to avoid that IMO). I can pull the trailer down the freeway at 70-75mph and the van stays at about 2500 rpm. Make sure you have a weight distribution hitch (and of course the brake controller) and just be prepared to be patient on any big hills. I am considering getting the roadmaster suspension add-ons in the back that one other member on this forum has. Not sure if/when I'll do it but that apparently makes things even better.

Thanks for the reply. Do you know if the roadmaster will void any part of the warranty? I looked online and couldn't find anything. I tow a travel trailer quite a bit that weighs about 7-8k fully loaded and I'd really like to improve the ride while towing. Love to see more pics. BTW, your wheels look great!

How do you like the Roadmaster Suspension? Any noticeable change in ride quality or handling? Do you two much? What about the 20" wheels? Have they made your ride more harsh?

I want to secure a canoe to the top of my NV3500 but I don't want a full rack. I want to get some sort of tie down to attach to the OEM mounts on top. I was thinking about getting the "short trax" here and hoping it would screw into those holes. Has anyone tried anything like this? http://www.coretiedowns.com/product/tie-down-solutions#top3

We've had our NV3500 for a year now. We have 6 kids and it's great to have the extra room. We drove it from Utah to Texas last summer and it was great. I had the van on cruise at about 95mph through some barren areas and it was amazing how smooth it was. We had a Chevy Express before this and the NV makes the Express feel like a tin can. We also haul our 28' travel trailer that's about 7k pounds fully loaded. No real problems other then the fact that it bogs down on hills and gets about 10mpg when I go over 70mph. We have just about 12k miles on the van. My wife loves it. She has a bit of a lead foot so we only get about 12mpg because most of the driving she does is around town, but this isn't much different than our Express. It's hilarious how many looks we get. We are asked about the van quite often in the parking lot, in restaurants ("Is that your van out there? Can we look at it?"). I want to put some 20" wheels on because the factory wheels look so dumb. I'm worried that this is going to make the ride more harsh though. Any thoughts? Also, I want to be able to tie a canoe or sea kayak on the roof. Any ideas how to get some anchors or tie down things that can go into the factory screw things on top?