Xterra tow vehicle

Lwiddis wrote:
Cape, hitch, bars, chain, brackets...100 pounds.

Rovito wrote:
Be careful towing with the Xterra. We towed our KZ 19BH for the first summer with our Xterra and it tended to have a lot of sway. My guess is because of the very short 106 inch wheelbase.

rbpru wrote:
My WD hitch weighs about 50 lbs. it transfers that much or more forward to the front axel and back to the TT axel.

The WD hitch does not change the tongue weight, is just redistributes it, giving a bit less on the hitch and a bit more on the TT axels than without it.

Form experience you can easily add 200 lbs. to the dry tongue weight with the TT loaded for the road.

What I do not know is if the OPs hitch weigh rating is the same with or without a WD hitch. Nor do we know the max cargo capacity of the vehicel.

IdaD wrote:

Capeteacher wrote:

Harold Fairbanks II wrote:
Are you referring to the older real truck Xterra or the newer car-based Xterra?

The Xterra is built on the same frame as Frontier.

Yeah, I don't think there was ever a car based Xterra. Maybe confused with a Pathfinder?

I had a first gen Xterra that was based on the old Hardbody. Great vehicle. The 3.3 VG was a little down on power but the manual tranny helped. I got close to 200,000 miles out of it before I sold it for $5000 and it never gave me a bit of trouble aside from a corroded battery clamp that killed it in an intersection on a nice 100 degree day a few years back. My fault, though.

The newer generation Xterra should be a decent tow vehicle within limits. The older ones were way too down on power to tow much of anything.

Lwiddis wrote:
Regarding a slide, it really opens up a smaller TT. Glad I have one.

mgirardo wrote:
We owned a 1st Generation Xterra with the 3.3l V6. It had a towing capacity of 5,000 lbs. It had a Class 3 Hitch. I added a tranny cooler and setup the 7 pin wiring and brake controller. We also had a 6,000lb Equal-i-zer Weight Distribution Hitch with 4 point sway control. We towed an almost 5,000 lb Rockwood Roo 233. It was a Hybrid Travel Trailer with 3 fold down beds. With the beds closed, the trailer was about 19 feet long.

The Xterra towed very well on flat land. We towed from PA to GA and GA to TX with it and the Xterra did very well. Your 2015 Xterra has a much larger engine 4.0l V6 with 265 HP vs the 170 HP on our 3.3l V6. You should have no issues towing on flat land. Head west and you might have some issues climbing mountains. We towed into some of the small mountains of Eastern PA and the Xterra did well, but it was no speed demon. I would just get behind the big rigs and slowly climb up.

You should be able to tow all three of the campers you listed without a problem. Most weight distribution hitches allow you to carry a little more weight on the tongue. Our Equal-i-zer hitch bumped our tongue weight capacity to 600 lbs.

Tranny cooler? Brake controller?

-Michael