Heavy Metal Doctor

Yeah...we drug around a larger sized pop-up right at 3K LBS for one last trip with our NV before we bought a travel trailer....hardly knew it was back there.

I pull a Passport 32RE with almost identical spec's to that 3320BH, just a foot shorter. I can tell you the length will not be an issue as along as you are comfortable towing. I have no trouble getting our camper into camping sites even at tighter state parks. I'm not sure I would spend the cash on a pro-pride. I'm a little leery of adding that much extra equipment / steel to the hitch weight. That camper will be close to the max rated 1000 pounds tongue weight once you have propane cans filled and gear on-board. I know ours is 960 / 970 lbs loaded to camp also with just the spring bars on the camper and the draw bar is another 30lbs (I use a Reese dual cam / straight line). I also think they are, front all accounts I have seen - never used one - kinda a PITA to deal with if you get out of position / not able to back straight in to hook up or get off-camber a bit. I've only got about 3 or 4 K miles of dragging our camper around - much of it across the mountains of PA - truck traffic, wind and some curvy roads and I have never felt significant sway. Occasionally get a little "push", but it settles right out, not that progressively worse tail wagging the dog thing. I would also advise to get a decent brake controller. Don't use some cheap time-based unit. I made the mistake of letting our RV dealer install one as part of the setup package deal and I hated it. after the second short trip I tossed it out and put in a Prodigy P2. Now, I never readjust the controller and barely feel the trailer brakes at all.

I think I may have solved this TPMS issue -- I played around with the settings in the dash readout and managed (without trying to) mixxup the whole TPMS so it does not even try to give me any readings.....no warnings / no nothing -- it doesn't bother me as I just use the old tire maintenance methods of a hand held gauge and check manually / keep an eye on it myself.

Just back from 800 mile round trip draggin' about 8k Lbs of camper behind us. I now completely happy / satisfied that I went with an NV. It did great across MD / central PA / NY Finger Lakes area and back. I use cruise control a lot, but do click it off for the worst hills - either slow down early for downhill or a little extra speed for a "running start" up really steep ones. The trans temp never gets above about 1/3 of the scale and leave that gauge up on the read-out to monitor it consistently. The next big plus is the overall driving comfort on a long trip is just as good as any of the big SUV's I've had and better than any other van I've driven. The NV does get looks - it drew a small crowd at the campground! Also found that the towing mirrors provided are just about perfect - the van is wide enough that you can see around the camper just fine and the fish-eye section of the mirrors allows you to see down / out along the sides at the tires of the van and trailer - nice when you are swinging tight turns around fuel islands and parking lot entrances. I ordered a set of add-on towing mirrors and ended up never using them. As for brake controllers - the tow package comes with a pig-tail which connects to most controllers out on the market. Our RV dealer thew in a controller when we purchased the trailer last fall. I knew that they would use an "economy" controller, to be nice (reality is it was the cheapest POS time-based unit on the market) which I only used last fall. I stepped up to a Pridigy P2 2 months ago. The pig-tail plug being the same made the switch take 5 minutes to remove the old controller / bracket and screw the new one in place. I don't need all the extras of anything more than a P2 (mutpile trailer memory and so on), and it has been "set it and forget it" since the camper is the only thing with brakes I have towed so far. Now, no matter what speed / conditions, I don't feel any need to readjust the controller and the whole rigs stops with the same pedal feel as the van does by itself - no standing on the pedal at hard stop or feeling like I have to dial up / down the controller due to too much / too little braking on the trailer.

I service my NV 3500 just like any other vehicle I have ever owned. I don't bother with dealer oil changes as I know most places use the cheapest supplies they can source since it's a giveaway. I'd rather know the stuff going in my engine is at least decent quality aftermarket stuff.

Yeah, it is Hurculiner and a good thick layer on the mounting feet seemed like enough cushion there. Took me a good bit more time than I expected to get that stuff painted on. I had some rubber handy to use for the feet, but decided the coating seemed thick enough when it came time to set it on the roof. As for putting a floor on the rack: I can stand on the cross bars with very little flex (and I'm well over 200lbs), so one or 2 more would be enough to use with an expanded metal if you wanted to build it that way for it's whole length. As this one is, it seems enough now that a reasonable sheet of plywood or some solid sheet metal would be enough for luggage purposes where the pounds per square foot of space is not too high. The cross bars are closer together at the rear 3 feet or so of the rack as I figured I'd be inclined to make a pile of luggage in that area only, if I ever use it that way.

finished:

I got serious about building my rack today: Here's the tie down track detail -- 44 1/4-20 holes drilled and tapped - I want to get stainless screws incase it ever has to be worked on again (track came with cheap steel screws that will rust): 10 foot side rails: I mounted feet to all mounting points - maybe overkill: Fab work complete: I put 1" cross bars at, or close to, every mounting and set back 2" from the ends just in case there's ever a reason to loop a strap around the end of the side rail. I have to pull it back off to paint it and assemble tie down track. I decided to go get some of the DIY bed liner type paint for a rubbery / wrinkle kinda finish to blend in to the black van . There is a bit of wind noise that gets really noticeable at 75, but it's not bad at 60 / 65 MPH where it will be held while towing (most often use).

Well.... We did one long TT trip about 300 miles out in the fall before it got too cold to camp..... Actually that trip was too cold since it snowed one the way there and then it dropped to 7* F the second night...but that's a story for another thread..... Towing that first long trip was great. Plenty comfortable and steady going down the road, but we do use a weight distribution hitch - Reese Strait Line dual cam setup. I had also ordered in some add-on mirrors that where highly recommend by a lot of TT users, but found they don't add enough extra view over stock mirrors to worth bothering with them. Just sliding the mirror arms out to the wide setting was enough to comfortably see around the TT behind me.

Aluminess racks -- very nice if you want drop 1500 bucks or more onto the roof of your van.

This is possible. We use our van mostly for our long trips with 6 adults, we pulled the rear row out and stored it, and then shift the 2nd and 3rd rows back a row or 2 of mounts to give more leg room while still having plenty of baggage room at the very back. We leave it this way and since we do a lot of stuff off the pavement (track dirt) I used a basic 8 foot truck bed rubber mat and cut it into big floor mats to fit around this seat arrangement.

I can almost guarantee you that the Surco ladder would require drilling the door to mount. I'm not aware of much difference in stainless hardware - 304 / 316 - I'm not aware that it would matter, but you could check on the grade strength and see which is better. I am also going for very low profile and making mine out of 2" square tube for the side rails with just enough spacing bellow them to allow the cross bars to stay off the roof when loaded with weight (I'm sure they will flex slightly). I git the tie down track this week, but won't get serious about this for a couple WE's due to family stuff happening.

If you have the ability / resources, then DIY it --- I've been 14 laps around the entire web and can't find a rack to fit an NV that does not look like it belongs on a tradesman work truck. No way I'm having that stuff riding around on my "leisure vehicle", so I pulled out some square tube form the shop, measured out the mount tabs on the roof and began a plan -- not built yet, but has to be finished soon, since spring is coming and the extra stuff / canoes will need a place to ride for the trips. I ordered this stuff to make tie down easy http://www.coretiedowns.com/product/tie-down-solutions

I have been towing a bit heavy -- pulling a 7k pound travel trailer -- and found the MPG's do eat up a full tank of gas pretty fast. It's expected and nothing out of the norm for the RV / Travel trailering world, but still annoying to have to stop for gas so often. I have thought about dropping the spare tire and mounting it to one rear door. Then, get a ready made tank (like used in custom car build / sold by Summit Racing or similar suppliers) that will fit the area and add whatever extra capacity that will get me -- whatever fits. even and extra 12 gallons or so would make a world of difference to me as that would allow me make one full leg of trip between camping stops when are RV'n. The hook up can be done fairly easily - I don't have a specific web link handy, but the suppliers like Titan Fuel Tanks link above can sell you a hook up kit that will pump from an aux tank into a fitting added to the existing filler neck tube of the OEM tank system. Just click on the aux pump when the OEM tank gets down low enough and it will transfer the fuel. No muss, no fuss.

Thanks! After 20 some years in tents and tiny pop-up's this is a huge improvement! I drove the van to one event at a fairgrounds - every time I looked toward the van, there where people standing around looking at it.....I think it drew almost as much attention as the exhibits at the event! BTW, I wish had and excuse to do the 4x4 conversion - very nice! :)

Yes, we would buy one again! Our kids are grown, but we still went for the NV passenger van over any other choices for a number of reasons. We have / had a Chevy Tahoe / Suburbans and the fleet of company "cars" for my work is all GM. Trailblazers to Suburbans. I like the old GM's, but the newer models have gone to far with making everything nice for the driver and have lost a lot of room for both passengers and cargo. I hate having to climb in the rear seat of any of the newer ones when I have to for work - I don't care what spec's they advertise for leg room / head room and son on - these vehicles feel tiny / cramped (and I'm only and average sized guy at 5'9"). GM trucks are great, in my opinion, for a truck with even less interior space (unless you get a cap on the bed)....but the SUV's all suck for interior space. Fine for 4 adults on a short trip, but not enough to travel with luggage / cargo or more people. I don't want to ever have to load a bunch of stuff on the roof like I did every time we went on any lengthy trip in one of the old SUV's. I MIGHT get roof bars to carry a canoe for camping trips in the NV, but that's all I can see ever going up top. We just did our first vacation with our adult kids and their significant others - 6 adults with all luggage comfortably cruising along in the NV. The ride is solid / stable and feels firm but not too "trucky" and way better than any of the old large passenger vans of the 70's and 80's I ever drove....or worse yet, the crappy Econline work vans that usually changed lanes on their own volition. I also like the driving feel of it having a truck style front end which also makes the drivers seat / position a lot more comfortable than any traditional van I drove in the past. Then there's just the fact that every single one of my Nissans have been reliable vehicles that gave me years of trouble free service.

Reliabilty?.....it's a Nissan....I've done about 3/4 million miles in Nissans in the past 20 years since I bought my first one and never, ever, have I needed roadside assistance / towing due to a breakdown, ever..... Period.....And prior to 09, they where all used ones 7 years old or more when I got them.....I'm not concerned I will be left walking.....