Towing with a Nissan Frontier

Recent posting on someone looking to change from a Nissan Frontier:

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Bill

I used to pull my little 13 ft Scotty with my little Nissan pickup.

We owned a 2000 Nissan Xterra. It is the SUV version of the Frontier with the little 3.3l V6 - 170 HP and 210 ft/lb of torque. It had a towing capacity of 5,000 lbs.

We towed our 4,500 lb Hyrbid Travel Trailer with it. It towed great and even though it had a small engine, it didn't lack for power. Gas mileage was about 10 mpg at 62 mph. Over that and mileage dropped to single digits. I installed a B&M Tranny cooler and put it inline with the stock cooler.

The only downside with towing with the Xterra was not being able to run the AC when it was really hot outside. It would cause the engine to run hot. I had planned to get an oil cooler, but we ended up getting a Motorhome and didn't need to tow with the Xterra anymore.

With the larger Engine of the second generation Frontier/Xterra (2004+/2005+) towing a sub 5,000 lb trailer would be a breeze. You'd still want a tranny cooler. Although the frame did change between the first generation and the second generation, wheelbase did not change enough to change the characteristics of towing.

-Michael

I am towing an Econ 16RB, GVW 3,850 with a 2010 Frontier. The trailer has brakes and is 7 feet wide. We travel really light, no bikes, no watercraft or golf clubs.

Had to make one panic stop already when a deer ran out in front of a car 3 cars ahead of us. Never felt the slightest bit out of control. It just stopped, right now as the traffic was only flowing at about 40 MPH.

I do use WDH and have to balance the load when packing as the trailer is tongue heavy due to dual 20 lb propane tanks and dual golf cart batteries. Been on several mountain passes in WA and OR and had no trouble maintaining legal speeds.

I can't imagine towing anything bigger but I feel comfortable towing this trailer.

It would do very well with a Scamp, Casita, or something similar. In more boxy TTs I would recommend keeping the (loaded) weight under 3500 lb or so.

Great little truck I have '07 V6 4x4. These are a far different animal than the earlier model in the link above. I know they'll pull a 19' Escape trailer just fine, fully loaded at 15 MPG to boot on long hwy trips. With mine I wouldn't hesitate to pull a typically constructed travel trailer up to a dry weight of 3000 maybe 3500 lbs. These trucks have 260 HP and are quite heavy. They also have very direct and solid handling and come equipped with decent tires.

There's two weak spots on these trucks to be aware of. One is the transmission cooler coils in the radiator have been known to leak coolant into the transmission fluid. I replaced my radiator proactively. The other is there were some issues with the timing chains on earlier models. I had timing chain replaced at about 100K miles. Otherwise these are tremendously cool little trucks and great to drive.

I towed a 21 footer with my 2008. It did a good job on the interstate at 60 mph, any faster seemed like too much for it.