2014 Nissan Titan PRo-4X

[BrunMike]

We own a 29' TT that weighs 7100 pounds dry. For our first season we used a 2008 Tahoe as our tow vehicle, travelling no more than 100 miles. While the Tahoe had enough power is was not a very stable towing vehicle.
We have found a 2014 Nissan Titan Pro-4X with low mileage at a good price. It is rated for 9300 pounds and has leaf spring in the rear. It also has some off-road features that are not relevant.
Does anyone have any experience with this make and model as a tow vehicle? The power is there, but will it give us the stability we are looking for?

[PacNWChris]

We tow a rear kitchen (pronounced: "heavy behind the axles") with a SRW, short bed F350. Even when the trailer is fully-loaded, it's about 7,900-8,100 lbs, so we're well within the capacity of the truck. However, because of the trailer's layout, we feel completely comfortable with the power and heft of the TV with a trailer like this one.

Aside from any liability issues that may come up if a problem occurs, I can't imagine that if someone has a towing capacity of say 7,500 lbs, that everything would be brilliant up to that, and it'll all instantly go to hell at 7,501 lbs. Having said that, I like having a healthy buffer between towing capacity and towing reality. 🙂

[silverfz]

gmw photos wrote:

silverfz wrote:

hohenwald48 wrote:
A lot of folks on this site think you can't even tow a utility trailer unless you have a 1 ton, 4WD dually crew cab with a diesel engine. 🙂

Funny as my friend after reading got convinced into buy a Ram 3500 dually to tow his 7k camper. Absolute hates that thing....
strange to hear him say I prefer my ram 1500 Laramie to this truck I payed 30k more for.

So more is not really good. I drove that thing and man it was not fun coming from a tundra. I also grew up driving turbo diesel cars. but these trucks do not drive like the cars from 20 yrs ago I used to drive. they are like the 24 footer uhaul trucks.

But to say simply, "more is not good" is misleading when discussing this. If the 3500 series truck is a safer and more effective tow vehicle than the 1500 for the trailer in question is one issue.
To say a driver/owner "hates the thing" tells us little about how effective the truck is at towing the trailer.

The truck is more effective for sure, as he said he was doing 85 without much stress. Where we live , new England the campground are tighter and not really the open kind. so the parking has become harder for one. Also., he does not like driving it. I think its a combination of factors. I think he never ran into a payload issue as he had a ram 1500 double cab where he never put anything in the back to not to scratch the paint. So it was usually him, his wife and son with a dog in the cab. towing a 7k camper. He does not like how rough it drives.

the guy he brought it from used it as his commuter for a year and hated driving into boston with a dually and sold that to him.

[gregrc75]

Steven68502 wrote:
I'll throw in my experience as well. I have a 2015 Pro-4X King cab. I tow a Keystone Passport 23RB (26' long). I'm just at about 6100 lbs loaded. I have a good weight distribution hitch. I never travel over 60mph. I haven't towed a whole lot yet but so far a trip of 500 miles up to Estes Park was not nerve racking at all. Plenty of power. I do only tow in 4th gear, not 5th. My transmission temp. guage didn't get anywhere near the high mark. Gas mileage sucks but Titans are not known for good gas mileage anyway.

Yes, good point, the manual says tow in 4th with tow mode on. Like you, my trans temp gauge does not move much on the bigger hills. Towing I have got anywhere from 7-11mpg on a trip.

[Steven68502]

I'll throw in my experience as well. I have a 2015 Pro-4X King cab. I tow a Keystone Passport 23RB (26' long). I'm just at about 6100 lbs loaded. I have a good weight distribution hitch. I never travel over 60mph. I haven't towed a whole lot yet but so far a trip of 500 miles up to Estes Park was not nerve racking at all. Plenty of power. I do only tow in 4th gear, not 5th. My transmission temp. guage didn't get anywhere near the high mark. Gas mileage sucks but Titans are not known for good gas mileage anyway.

[gregrc75]

My 2 cents...I tow with a 2012 Titan SL Crew cab. My payload is 1477 lbs. To compare my trailer to the trailer you referenced it is 6000 lbs dry, 675 unloaded tongue, and 33' bumper to hitch (the box is 29').
The Titan tows the camper well. I never feel like I am compromised. It has plenty of pulling power and it is stable with my Blue Ox weight distribution. It is mainly flat here except when I drive through western Mass to go to the Catskills. It pulls up the hills on the MassPike without loosing speed. It is interstate and I stay at 55mph up the hills. I wouldn't tow anything with much larger dimensions/weights, but it sounds like your set up would be similar to mine.

[hohenwald48]

I agree completely. There are lot's of non-pickup tow vehicles out there that work just fine even for what may seem fairly heavy trailers. However, the user needs to fully understand the relationship between tow vehicle and trailer.

[gmw_photos]

....snip.....

Not everyone has the finances to afford a dedicated tow vehicle so they need a dual purpose vehicle. Not everyone has a need for a pickup in their daily lives and look to tow with something else. Many folks on here tend to write off any tow vehicle other than large pickups.

....snip.....

And therein lies one of the critical decisions in these processes of picking a tow vehicle:

Do you want towing performance, or do you want compromise ?

Each individual has to make up their own mind what they are willing to do in their particular situation.

[jerem0621]

BrunMike wrote:
Here are some updated numbers:
Truck Payload is rated at 1644 pounds
Dry Trailer tongue weight is 704 pounds

Correction I stated earlier the dry weight of the trailer was 7100, it is actually 6400 pounds. (I noticed when I was looking for the tongue weight)
for what it is worth the cargo capacity of the trailer is rated at 2400 pounds, though I cannot imagine ever taking that much with us.

Little close on the tongue weight but very manageable!

Thanks for the updated weights, set the hitch up correctly and you should be good to go!

Thanks!

Jeremiah

[hohenwald48]

A lot goes in to the selection of a tow vehicle. It can't be reduced to simply a weight rating issue. If all you're looking for is what would be the safest most effective tow vehicle we'd all be towing with a semi. If all you consider is comfort we'd be trying to tow with a BMW.

It seems that on here most people want it to be only about weights. Of course it's unwise to tow a 35' trailer with a Toyota Camry. However, towing near the ratings of your truck should not be a problem.

Not everyone has the finances to afford a dedicated tow vehicle so they need a dual purpose vehicle. Not everyone has a need for a pickup in their daily lives and look to tow with something else. Many folks on here tend to write off any tow vehicle other than large pickups.

I've been told on this forum that my Armada shouldn't be used as a tow vehicle regardless of the fact that I'm under all the ratings. I have no idea why people say that other than their bias toward a large pickup. I've towed over 10,000 miles. I've had several "panic" stops and a couple of quick lane changes to avoid road debris. All without incident, violent sway or ending up smashed in the median.

[gmw_photos]

silverfz wrote:

hohenwald48 wrote:
A lot of folks on this site think you can't even tow a utility trailer unless you have a 1 ton, 4WD dually crew cab with a diesel engine. 🙂

Funny as my friend after reading got convinced into buy a Ram 3500 dually to tow his 7k camper. Absolute hates that thing....
strange to hear him say I prefer my ram 1500 Laramie to this truck I payed 30k more for.

So more is not really good. I drove that thing and man it was not fun coming from a tundra. I also grew up driving turbo diesel cars. but these trucks do not drive like the cars from 20 yrs ago I used to drive. they are like the 24 footer uhaul trucks.

But to say simply, "more is not good" is misleading when discussing this. If the 3500 series truck is a safer and more effective tow vehicle than the 1500 for the trailer in question is one issue.
To say a driver/owner "hates the thing" tells us little about how effective the truck is at towing the trailer.

[gmw_photos]

To the OP the first thing I often suggest is to consider whether you feel you "must" stay within the ratings or whether you can "push the limits" some.
Lots of folks come on these forums and say, "I've towed over the limits for decades, and everything has been fine". That's one way to look at it.
Honestly, the only way to know whether you are within limits or not, is to take the trailer and truck to a scale, loaded as it would be for a camping trip. The numbers don't lie. But again, different folks have various ways of interpreting the numbers.
Going by trailer companies stated weights is often not real accurate.
I use a Frontier for some of my towing needs, and a F350 diesel dually for my other trailers. Personally, I like to stay with limits.
I agree the Titan is a nice truck, and is a $$ bargain in the market. I've driven them, and considered buying one to replace my Frontier.

For me, a trailer of the size you are talking about is a good match behind a F250/2500 series. Of course in the end, your money, your choice. Best of luck with it and safe travels.

[silverfz]

hohenwald48 wrote:
A lot of folks on this site think you can't even tow a utility trailer unless you have a 1 ton, 4WD dually crew cab with a diesel engine. 🙂

Funny as my friend after reading got convinced into buy a Ram 3500 dually to tow his 7k camper. Absolute hates that thing....
strange to hear him say I prefer my ram 1500 Laramie to this truck I payed 30k more for.

So more is not really good. I drove that thing and man it was not fun coming from a tundra. I also grew up driving turbo diesel cars. but these trucks do not drive like the cars from 20 yrs ago I used to drive. they are like the 24 footer uhaul trucks.

[hohenwald48]

A lot of folks on this site think you can't even tow a utility trailer unless you have a 1 ton, 4WD dually crew cab with a diesel engine. 🙂

[silverfz]

You will be fine , the shredding the titan axle was in the earlier model due not even cooling capacity. ofcourse Nissan put a new cover with fins to resolve this.

so as this is a weakest link, I would buy the truck replace the oil with a qualify synthetic oil, the new ones have the finned cover. . There is also a aftermarket cover that suppose to offer better cooling for extended heavy towing.

But as I have not seen a failure in the past 09-10 model when they fixed this issue you should be good. If it bothers you run royal purple of Mobil gear oil in the rear differential. it a easy change and in 10 minutes you can worry less.