neotim

Mine works normally. I guess the front sensor doesn't see it.

Nice design CaptainLarry. I wish I had the skills to have done it myself like you did. Your post reminded me to post a pic of our rig fully loaded. There are 4 bikes on the front when we travel. I have used mine once to park our 7K lb in a tight spot. I use it all of the time to park my 5x8 cargo trailer in a tight spot in my backyard.

I've also considered getting a Bully Dog tuner, thinking that might help with towing shift points. How might that compare with the new 7 sp tranny?

Hey all, I currently have a 2015 NV SL. We've had it for 2 years and it works pretty good for towing our 7,000# travel trailer. Our current NV has a hard time with transmission shifts when towing the TT. At 65 mph or so (going up hills), the tranny will frequently shift to 3rd gear and hold it there much longer than it needs to. I sometimes have to go to manual mode to get it to shift back to 4th. I see that the new '17 model has a bit more HP and a new 7 speed tranny. How much better will the new NV tow compared to my '15? Is it worth the major $$$$$ to upgrade?

I just got back from towing our RV from Tulsa, OK to the Black Hills of SD and back. Total mileage was right about 2000, 95% of it towing our 2016 Salem Hemisphere 29BH. The dry weight is stickered at 6,000 lbs, but I suspect that it is more like 6,300 lbs because an identical 29BH on the lot and the manufacturer states 6,300. We have a '15 NVP SL with tow package, and we had two adults and 5 kids plus bicycles for all of us. On the way back I stopped at a weigh station and got these results: 3560 for front axle of van 5180 for rear axle of van 6460 for both axles of travel trailer. Total weight is 15,200 lbs We have a weight distribution hitch. How can I estimate the actual weight of the RV with these numbers? I'm guessing that about 500 lbs of the rear van axle weight is tongue weight, so I think the RV is probably 7,000 lbs or so. The van also had a full tank of gas when weighed. All seats were installed except half of the last row. The beast (as we call the van) towed pretty well. We had a slight to moderate headwind most of the way and got between 6.5 and 8.5 mpg. Our speed was usually between 65 and 70 mph. We had plenty of power, but the tranny had to go in third quite often, and then it would not want to shift to 4th until way later than I wanted it to. For instance it would shift to 3rd gear going up a hill and race to over 4k rpms, but then it wouldn't want to shift back up to 4th until the bottom of the next hill... it was somewhat frustrating! Interestingly it would only hold 3rd gear when I wasn't using cruise control. With cruise control on it shifted much better.

It has held up perfectly so far. I've only used it once with 3 bicycles on it. Even though they were kids bikes I could still see them pretty well from the driver's seat. But they really didn't pose any issues with the line of sight.

Yes, they removed the hooks. They used one of the hook mounting holes on either side to bolt in the receiver.

The receiver is pretty much flush with the bumper. I like the idea of the step! It cost $450 and was done by Broken Arrow Hitch and Trailer (bahitch.com).

Last week I got a custom front receiver on my NV. I'll use it to hold a bicycle rack while we are towing our travel trailer. The installer says that it'll hold as much weight as my rear hitch (factory SL), so I might be able to use it to maneuver our camper into our tight driveway (600# tongue weight). It's a little lower than I thought it would be, but I haven't scraped it yet!

Hey all, I'm wanting to add a front receiver to my NVP SL so that I can carry bicycles while towing our TT. Has anyone tried this or know how to do it?

Where have ya'll mounted the brake controller in your NV's? I'm thinking maybe directly below the steering column in the middle of the plastic panel.

I'm guessing tongue weight is between 200 and 300 lbs, around 10% of trailer weight.

I just bought a NV 3500 SL, and I'm wanting to tow our Trail-Lite 17' hybrid camper with it. I have a brake controller in it. I'm wondering about the necessity of getting a weight distributing hitch. The camper has a GVWR of 2800 lbs, and I'd guess that, with our stuff, the trailer probably weighs that much.