2012 NV 3500 from Southern California

[irv]

Hello, I've been reading here since earlier this year and that helped me to go ahead and get my new-to-me 2012 Nissan NV 3500 SL. I was originally looking for a cargo van to haul inventory for business, but the option to have seats for family road trips and camping was quite compelling so I decided to go for the passenger version.

 

We love the NV and I'm pleasantly surprised with how smooth it drives, with the power, even it's turning radius and how fairly easily it parks for such a big vehicle. I've used it to haul stuff, transferred inventory pretty quickly and emptied a storage unit in one trip. I do wish the double seats weren't as heavy so I could easily transform it between passenger and cargo mode, unfortunately it's a two-man job. I'm thinking of getting a shop crane / engine hoist to see if that would allow me to install and remove the seats by myself.

 

Big cars weren't really my style, all my other cars are compact (Nissan Leaf, Honda Civic, 1st Gen Nissan Frontier). But we really like this monster, the kids call it Gipsy and think of this as our Jaeger (big robots in Pacific Rim movie)!

[radin2son]

Welcome and great choice and name.

 

Did you happen to see Nissan’s video on converting a Leaf into a pickup that they used at the Phoenix area test facility. Recently, there was a one off project where they used recycled Leaf batteries for a pop up tent camper.

Edited March 3, 2019 by radin2son

[irv]

I looked it up just now, that seems like a pretty fun project for them. A cheap, light, and compact electric truck for driving around town would be a really nice second car :)