Anyone tow with a Nissan NV 3500 van?

I don't know what the base price difference is between an NV3500 and an E350, but if you don't like the rear interior and seats of the E350 Club Wagon, get an E350 cargo van instead and put in whatever seats and interior you like and you can have it as comfortable, safe and custom fit as your heart desires. :)

I don't know what the GCWR of an E350 with the gas engine is, but our '05 with the diesel has 20,000 GCWR, 9500 GVWR and 6000 RGAWR. It can pull most bumper pull travel trailers without a worry about power or weight ratings, other than the tongue weight rating of the receiver hitch itself (10K GTW, 1000 tongue weight, IIRC), which can be upgraded.

SoCalDesertRider wrote:
I don't know what the base price difference is between an NV3500 and an E350, but if you don't like the rear interior and seats of the E350 Club Wagon, get an E350 cargo van instead and put in whatever seats and interior you like and you can have it as comfortable, safe and custom fit as your heart desires. :)

I don't know what the GCWR of an E350 with the gas engine is, but our '05 with the diesel has 20,000 GCWR, 9500 GVWR and 6000 RGAWR. It can pull most bumper pull travel trailers without a worry about power or weight ratings, other than the tongue weight rating of the receiver hitch itself (10K GTW, 1000 tongue weight, IIRC), which can be upgraded.

Custom to your heart's desire?

Only the Window vans can come with dual factory rear air conditioning. The Cargo van can not have factory dual air and heat in the back. So the option left is to buy a window van with dual A/C, then get the seats sold, and install the interior that you desire.

The new Transit can come in three interior heights, so will be nice. The powerful V6 3.5L Ecoboost used in the F-150 will be installed, so will a 6 speed auto. If you want the largest van, the tall extended van, then you can decide between DRW or SRW. Other lengths and shorter height will not come with dual rear wheels. Cab and chassis can come with SRW or DRW, and at some point I expect it to have a GVWR around 14,000 like the current E-450.

Ford has a copywrite on the T-150 to T-550.

You can buy some really nice aftermarket seats. The factory seats can be sold to a company like a airport shuttle service, as they always are wearing out seats, and can use some replacements after the vans have 350,000 miles on them.

I think the air port shuttle vans will also benefit from the Transit large area behind the 15 passenger seats. Currently many will take out the 4 passenger rear most bench, to make room for luggage. Still it is difficult to fit in 10 passenger's worth of luggage in that small 4' deep area behind the 3 bench seats.

You can find more Transit information here. https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/products/trucks/transit/2014-transit.html

GVWR should be between 8,600 and 10,250 pounds on the Transit. However these tires might limit the GVWR a bit. They are not the 235/85R16E tires that are in the current E-350. The T-350 will have even smaller 195/75C tires. C weight range is pretty low.

Quote:
WHEELS AND TIRES
Wheels 16-in. steel
Tires 235/65R16C 121/119R BSW (single rear wheel), 195/75R16C 107/105R BSW (dual rear
wheel)

From a PDF found on the bottom of the link posted above.

Right now Ford is very busy producing as many F-150's as they can. They are selling F-150's every 45 seconds, and have already produced more F-150's in 2013 than a full year of 2012. The new transit will be built in the same plant as the F-150, while the old Econoline plant will change over to Class A motorhome chassis's that had been produced in Mexico now.

F-150 production news release

Good luck on your purchase.

Fred.

All the parts of the rear air system are available from Ford parts dept for the E-series vans. You do not have to buy the Club Wagon to have rear air.

Tire size for the E350 is 245/75-16E, on our 2005 anyways.

The full size Transit van does indeed sound very interesting. I like the little Transit Connect. :)

GM and Dodge have a long row to hoe if they ever want to catch Ford's F150, Ecoboost engine and HD Payload/Max Tow package trucks.

SoCalDesertRider wrote:
...GM and Dodge have a long row to hoe if they ever want to catch Ford's F150, Ecoboost engine and HD Payload/Max Tow package trucks.

Amazing that the GM V8 5.3 gets better fuel economy than the Ecoboost.

Dadoffourgirls wrote:

SoCalDesertRider wrote:
...GM and Dodge have a long row to hoe if they ever want to catch Ford's F150, Ecoboost engine and HD Payload/Max Tow package trucks.

Amazing that the GM V8 5.3 gets better fuel economy than the Ecoboost.

Not when you consider the EcoBoost is more comparable to the 6.2L powerwise, and the 3.7L non-turbo V6 is quicker than the 5.3L.

So, what will the new Transit be able to tow? I couldn't find it in any of the provided links. payload seems very good, around 4k.

TriumphGuy wrote:
My local dealer just called me and said they have a top trim Nissan NV 3500 in. I plan to look at it tomorrow afternoon. I'll take a pic of the door placard as I haven't been able to find out the front and rear GAWR ratings online.

What was the verdict? Did you get the chance to test drive one? Just wondering if I screwed up getting the van we did. For minimal cost I have added head rests for my two kids that no longer require a booster seat and none of them seem to recall that the bucket seats in our Suburban or minivan reclined so they don't seem to know what they are missing.

TriumphGuy wrote:
Hi folks...
Looking at TVs that can carry a number of people and tow relatively big. The NV with the V8 supposedly will do ~9k towing. Anyone here own one? Like to hear your experiences...

We have one. Largest passenger vehicle on the market from one review I saw.
The tow rating on a CARGO version of the NV3500 HD is 9500lbs. But on the the PASSENGER version it drops to 8700 because of the interior (seats, trim, etc).
We tow a TT we are pretty sure loaded (have not weighed it to verify yet as we just got it last month) 7000 - maybe 7300 with no trouble.
I have driven all sorts of other vans and I will say I like the NV much better. The 3500 is basicly 1-ton single rear wheel chassis. It drive as solid and stable with the TT behind it as it does empty.
In tow mode, the trans will downshift going down a hill and give you what amounts to engine braking (startled me the first time it did it).

We really like having all our "junk" inside the vehicle with us and being able adjust positioning or to take out the seats allows you to make the best use of the space. Our kids are grown, but travel with us often. Take out the back seats and there's more space for luggage than we ever had in a Tahoe or Suburban while still having 2 rows of 3 seats each behind the driver. Room for everyone to "spread out" and relax on a long ride. We love it.

SoCalDesertRider wrote:
All the parts of the rear air system are available from Ford parts dept for the E-series vans. You do not have to buy the Club Wagon to have rear air.

Tire size for the E350 is 245/75-16E, on our 2005 anyways.

The full size Transit van does indeed sound very interesting. I like the little Transit Connect. :)

GM and Dodge have a long row to hoe if they ever want to catch Ford's F150, Ecoboost engine and HD Payload/Max Tow package trucks.

I found that true when I ordered the cargo version in my signature. I even got the SS swing out "rec" mirrors. The only option I couldn't get was the multiple CD player (0nly the single) and that was because of how the options packages were listed. My Van has every option available except IIRC the Al. wheels, rear second Heat/AC pkg, dual alts, the aux fuel port and PTO(I think that was an option). I might have missed something but this was over 12 years ago. I was able to get the one up front GAWR and AIC that are/were popular on the ambulance prep pkgs. I have the full headliner, carpeting, running boards, power everything, cloth bucket captains chairs, chrome bumpers and step towing bumper, etc., etc. It did take some finesse to get somethings like the SS "rec" towing mirrors could only be added if you picked a couple of the other options in a particular order:E ... so that was just a quirk in the ordering system that one had to get around so to speak.

I've been towing/RVing with a full sized Van since the late 70's and think they can't be beat unless you are going really heavy or long in a bumper pull trailer.

Larry

Heavy Metal Doctor wrote:

TriumphGuy wrote:
Hi folks...
Looking at TVs that can carry a number of people and tow relatively big. The NV with the V8 supposedly will do ~9k towing. Anyone here own one? Like to hear your experiences...

We have one. Largest passenger vehicle on the market from one review I saw.
The tow rating on a CARGO version of the NV3500 HD is 9500lbs. But on the the PASSENGER version it drops to 8700 because of the interior (seats, trim, etc).
We tow a TT we are pretty sure loaded (have not weighed it to verify yet as we just got it last month) 7000 - maybe 7300 with no trouble.
I have driven all sorts of other vans and I will say I like the NV much better. The 3500 is basicly 1-ton single rear wheel chassis. It drive as solid and stable with the TT behind it as it does empty.
In tow mode, the trans will downshift going down a hill and give you what amounts to engine braking (startled me the first time it did it).

We really like having all our "junk" inside the vehicle with us and being able adjust positioning or to take out the seats allows you to make the best use of the space. Our kids are grown, but travel with us often. Take out the back seats and there's more space for luggage than we ever had in a Tahoe or Suburban while still having 2 rows of 3 seats each behind the driver. Room for everyone to "spread out" and relax on a long ride. We love it.

YAY! Thank you for responding ... I knew there was someone out there. If you ever get a chance to weigh your combo, I'd be really interested to know how the weights work out. Also what TT do you have?

I did not get a chance to look at the NV last weekend - it actually sold before I got there. Wow. I think it was on the lot for about a day.

One number that I couldn't find online was the rear GAWR. I finally got someone at the dealer to call me back about that one - the NV3500 has an axle rating at the back of just over 5800 lbs. Way higher than a Titan - and close to my Ford. Looks like Nissan is in the 1 ton market, but did it with a van before a truck :)

Thanks again and if you have any impressions on towing grades I'm all ears...