Towing with a 2.5 diesel 6 speed 2008 Navara.

hi there we have a 08 navara which wore the input shaft bearing at 62000 klm 8 of them was towing 2.7 ton van .fuel was about 20 liter to the hundred seem to go okay but hard to take off with that high gearing that they have.going back to the gearbox i dont know what caused the bearing to give out but possible high oil temps along with operating in 6th gear which you should be able to do .hope this helps. eric the truckie

Hi NTVRX
I have a manual 6 speed D40, have towed a Lotus track Van off rd now for three years, with 110,000 Klms on the clock we have never had any problems, on a good straight road i will sit on an average of 95 to 105 Klms hr in 5th NEVER in 6th.
Must admit, the only issue is pulling away in 1st, have to ride the clucht on a very small incline, although not very good in any soft sand or heavy wet ground for pulling away at start.

miroku 12g

A friend of mine tows a camper with a manual D40 and so far, no issues. I own a manual D40 myself and personally I would not tow a van of that size with it. As tourer with moderate off roading there fine. I brought the truck with the intention as a weekender, carting light loads around locally and personal transport, for that purpose, for me, it's perfect but as a tow vehicle forget it. Geared to high, the 400Nm+ of torque is great but in order to screw that out it I think they trade off a bit of down low grunt. Add to that the DM flywheels and it's not a good combo.

A 2.5 Litre Nissan is too light for towing a 3 tonne Van.
Have a mate towing a 3 tonne van with a chipped up 3 litre Nissan – he still has to slip and jump the clutch with starts with on an incline.

I commend you for asking such a question. Many people would not and it is not for me to say if it is too small. You will have some say no and other yes. I work for a caravan manufacturer and see lots of vans. I have had a 19 Lotus, 22.5 Kedron and a 25ft Retreat. Towed with a 100, 200TD, F250TD. Just to let you know where I come from.

My ruler for a tow vehicle is to be in this situation. Imagine you are towing your van down the Pacific Highway new Nambucca Heads on a windy and wet day. It is bucketing down with rain and the highway there is 1 lane either direction and no divider. A B double is coming the other way and your closing speed is 200 kilometers an hour. 100 in either direction. (Clever people will say it is 80 there but some parts of it are 100). Imagine how hard your vehcile and caravan will be to control when the truck passes the it sucks your van to the wrong side of the road. Is your towing vehicle big enough to control the van? You have to plan for the worst situation you will encounter.

The smaller the engine the less torque it will have down low and the harder it has to work.

If it's a manual the standard clutch is way to small and can cause issues on lift off on hills.

All too often people fail to understand that MAXIMUM towing ratings are just that.....this is why we have so many fundamantally unstable combinations on the road that are not capable or safe at highway speeds.

Also with the modern, high towing capacity, vehicles...check the fine print.....mostly to tow maximum towing capacity you need to drasicaly reduce the load carried in the tow vehicle.......some you'll end up with no more than two blokes and their lunch.
Remember the ball weight also come off the tow vehicles load allowance.

ALSO...have a look arround, there are plenty of pictures and reports of these modern high tow rating utes, particularly dual cabs with bent rear chasis.

There is no free lunch and ya cana change the laws of physics.....when the trailer weighs more than the tow vehicle...there is an issue.

BTW folks...if you have a 4wd and you are having difficulty getting off the mark in 1st high.....drop into low range.....most 4wds you will be able to shift from low to high while rolling.....first high should line up with about 3rd low.


So start in 1st or second low.....from second low, clutch down, back to 1st and low to high, clutch back up....if its a part time 4wd best to have the hubs unlocked

cheers

Hi ntvrx, have driven the navara manual as a 4by a few yrs ago, but not towing a van. nice vehicle. if you have a choice,go up a bit and try towing with a n. patrol diesel tdi 2.5-3L I had a manual one and used normal range gearing with a van .
its a dream. brilliant on its own as a 4by ( cant bog it)and i also towed with a jayco 18' poptop (over 2 ton) for 2-3 yrs, hardly knew van was there!. but..made the mistake once of riding the clutch reversing van up a small incline-coudnt beleieve I burnt it! ..lotsa$.
lucky was covered by repair/maintenance/servicing agreement on a lease. personally, poptops are good because you can reduce your tow profile.lots of info avail in public domain on towing- vehicle to tow weight ratios etc..I am sure you would consider added weight of contents/load,water in tank ( 1Kg to a L ).
MG.

Robert

Have a look at these two links. They explain in a lot more detail what Graham, OId Girl and Bantam have said.
http://rvsupertramp.com.au/Portals/0/galleries/articles/caravan_dynamics_cw.pdf
http://www.caravanandmotorhomebooks.com/pdf/vehicle_dynamics_complete.pdf

If you contact car manufacturers, not dealers, they will tell you their advertised towing weight is the maximum possible in good highway conditions and should be reduced for off road and sandy surfaces. Those utes will tow their advertised weight in good conditions but what is often not fully understood is they will not be able to safely handle anything regardless of shape and size that happens to weigh that much. There is a huge difference for example between the handling characteristics of a 3 ton short dual axle tradies trailer around the suburbs and a 3 ton van out on the highway. A van that size will have a lot of weight a long way in front of and behind the axles plus enough body surface area down the sides to catch winds like a spinnaker. They would be quite capable of sweeping a Navara or even a Cruiser size vehicle right out of the way in a matter of seconds if the right set of conditions occurred.

These links give some insight into how a slight sway caused by wind or whatever can escalate rapidly into disaster when the load out-weighs the tow car.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=rCfFbQpmqWk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=kwOqARlw1EI