ktosv wrote:
Did the van come with a hitch from the factory? Is the 870# also what is printed/stamped on the hitch?
Have you called Nissan to see what they say? If the hitch is rated at 870#, that might be why they put it in the manual. But, with it being in the manual there is no way to know if there is really some other reason why you couldn't put a higher capacity hitch on your van and have a higher tongue weight.
There is nothing stamped on the hitch (I just looked all over it) - there is just a sticker that says "Refer to vehicle manual for towing capacities".
As far as talking to Nissan - I did talk to a the head mechanic at my Nissan dealership about why the cargo van was different, but not about the hitch and the tongue weight. For those interested the cargo van weighs something like ~5950 lbs or something while the passenger weights ~6680 (just doing these from memory). The extra weight is from the seats (which - trust me - weigh A LOT and there is LOTS of them) and the trim and windows and stuff. From what the mechanic said the frame, engine, gear ratio, etc. is all the same between the cargo and the passenger (which you can actually confirm on Nissan's site - nothing about suspension though as stated earlier) but the weight difference of 700 lbs is why they subtract 800 lbs off the towing capacity of the passenger. He actually told me if I was to remove all the seats that I should theoretically get 8700 + whatever the seats weighed as towing capacity.
Now - I'm not 100% sure the guy knew what he was talking about (though he did say he was the head mechanic at the dealership so...not sure who to trust past that) and I don't really intend to go over the 8700 lbs anyways (besides I don't think I can remove any seats - I have 6 kids haha) but was interesting nonetheless. The only part that really interests me about all that is that the tongue weight capacity on the cargo is 950 *shrugs*.
I guess I will call them and ask about the hitch and the rating. That's why I started this post - wasn't sure if the hitch was limitation or if it was the actual vehicle and given some oddities around all the numbers I was starting to think it was the actual hitch that was the limitation, not the van - but didn't know if I was off my rocker haha :)
Like I said - I just wanted to see if I could get the tongue rating higher for safety sake - perhaps I'm anal.
