Anyone towing a 2.5tonne van with a 2.5 D40 Navara

Quote - "Nissan have stated to me (customer service via Nissan Aust. engineering dept) that as far as Nissan are concerned NO WDH is to be used on any Nissan product when towing. So, all the weight and stress is on the towbar and chassis ends. I have already had a towbar replaced under Nissan recall & prior to the towbar being replaced I had to have the chassis cracks repaired,hence my angst.."

This is just an Australian thing. The tow bars are not supplied by Nissan, they are Oz sourced by the local distributors and are not up to scratch. This not recommended started after a few Pathfinder tow bars fell off with WDH in use. The response was not to fix the problem but just to run for cover. Junk your Nissan supplied tow bar and fit a Hayman Reese one, they warrant their equipment and not duck for cover.

The basic vehicle seems to be OK. They sell them as the Frontier in the USA. They even have WDH in their catalogues - See this link. (Scroll down.)

The following is the Nissan USA towing guide. Note page 5.

There IS the very real issue that the towing capacities on many of the latest generation of vehicles are rediculously generous.

AND

Not always what they seem.
You realy need to look at the detail and in fact calculate out a few things and assume nothing..... and that includes the actuall weight of stuff including you and your family.

For example do you understand that the draw bar down load is to be deducted from the allowable payload of the tow vehicle.
Many of these vehicles will not carry their published capacity AND tow their published capacity at the same time...some nothing like it.

Some vehicles when you add up the published, GVM of the tow vehicle, and the permitted towing capacity then deduct those from the allowable gross combination mass.
Ya not left with much load carrying in the vehicle.

Then when you consider that the towing capaities quoted are for "smooth improved pavements", not off road, rough dirt roads or even poorly maintained bitumen roads

The towing capacities are not all they seem.

The reality of this is testified by the fact that chasis of many of these vehicles have been shown to bend, crack or break when seemingly being used within specification.

The pictures and stories are all over the internet and favour no brand.

The you have the complication that most caravans are long and have a high centre of gravity, thus they have a highly reactive osscilating mass and may put far greater loads on the hitch than a lower shorter more ideal trailer would.

I've said it and I'll say it again...some will poo poo the statement, BUT, when considering towing capacites we should be very conservative and I believe keep within 2/3 of the published towing capacity after all the maths is properly done for highway towing.

Under past rules in many states it would not have been permissable under any circumstances to tow more then the tow vehicles mass when the vehicle was a passenger car or light commercial.

Think about it.

cheers

NTVRX
Bantam has put the towing weight issue in perspective and well explained.

Since you have has a chassis failure and a following repair it may be wise to get a an engineers perspective on the repair and it's ability to do what you intend.

This would be to detect any area which may have been compromised at the time of or because of the repair.

I don't know what situation previously caused it to crack but having the repair able to accommodate for the same loading would seem important for safe towing.

Generally WDH tend to try and bend the rear of the chassis, up and down like bending of fencing wire and when too much, loading/induced flex, it can fail on any vehicle.

Does the Navara have sufficient suspension travel when loaded and the van on so the suspension can absorb the mass transfer without bottoming to the rubbers and causing sudden high stress on the chassis?
As Bantam mentioned, that trailer mass/inertia transferred to the towball under some situations is not desirable, WDH or not.

Cheers
Ross M

If I owned your Navara (I have owned one ) I wouldn't tow over 2T gross van weight. Just my opinion, it's a small capacity donk being asked to perform a big task.

hi NTVRX
Yes that is correct what you have to do is fit a new tow bar it is all about product
you must fit a a new but heaver and a heaver tow bar
Terry