Towing with a dual cab np300

Hey guys.

My old man is looking at a stx and wants to know a couple things. He is gonna tow hus van which is 3.0 tonne loaded.

Has anyone towed this big of a load? Or what are you towing and how did it go?

What was your fuel economy like when towing?

His tow ball weight is 285kg. What was yours and how did it sit did you fit airbags or not.

Thanks guys

He will need at least constant load coils, Ironman do a set or perhaps bags. A few owners have commented about the arse sagging with just tools in the back or a small trailer in tow.

Yeah he knows that. It will be getting a suspension lift from day dot. But just wanted to know how it towed power wise and gearbox and stuff like that

Fair enough mate, sounds like he is on the right track, I guess performance wise it would be similar to a 140kw D40 with a bit better economy. Hopefully an owner that tows a good size van will see this and comment.

Hey.. First post yew haha. I have a st auto np300 and have towed a fair few times now. I tow a 2.5t outback jayco. Plenty of power while towing and eats hill. The auto does drop from 7th to 5th on hills but it's quiet and smooth. I average about 12-13l/100km on the dash (so maybe add a l/100 for real figures) at 103kmh. Yes mine squats in the back but used to it now and will do airbags in future. Hope this helps

Rylz113 said:

Hey.. First post yew haha. I have a st auto np300 and have towed a fair few times now. I tow a 2.5t outback jayco. Plenty of power while towing and eats hill. The auto does drop from 7th to 5th on hills but it's quiet and smooth. I average about 12-13l/100km on the dash (so maybe add a l/100 for real figures) at 103kmh. Yes mine squats in the back but used to it now and will do airbags in future. Hope this helps

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I have a similar setup with similar figures. Mine also sagged so have bought heavy duty WDH and this has fixed this problem. Obviously the WDH brings along is own issues but so does upgrading the suspension to a heavier set. Will come down to how much towing vs how much normal driving you will do.
I have an STX and tows nicely but is it a dedicated tower, not in my case. If i wanted a dedicated tow vehicle, would have gone with something bigger in engine capacity and vehicle weight.

Rlyz113 thanks for the info this is perfectly what i needed.

Cessa said:

I have a similar setup with similar figures. Mine also sagged so have bought heavy duty WDH and this has fixed this problem. Obviously the WDH brings along is own issues but so does upgrading the suspension to a heavier set. Will come down to how much towing vs how much normal driving you will do.
I have an STX and tows nicely but is it a dedicated tower, not in my case. If i wanted a dedicated tow vehicle, would have gone with something bigger in engine capacity and vehicle weight.

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That's very good economy pulling 2.5t at 103kph, if you backed off to around 85-90 like most it would do well.

It's important to know the difference between what a WDH will do to the car versus what upgrading the suspension will do to the car. Apologies to those that know this already.

Normally the car has a certain amount of weight on each axle. Nissan's manual even defines this in its specifications sheet. For example, a 2014 STX 550 diesel can have up to 1530Kg on the front axle and 1717kg on the rear. Yes, the combination exceeds the GVM (in this case 3010Kg) but you are able to carry 906Kg in the tub (this model) which obviously places a larger load on the rear.

The problem is that when a load is placed behind the rear axle (caravan/trailer) it's not just a load on the rear - it's a lever trying to lift the front axle up. A fifth wheeler, for instance, does NOT cause this problem so there's no need to account for it. As an aside, in a fifth wheeler's case, all you need to do is upgrade the rear suspension and the car's ready to go.

Because the weight is actually levering the front wheels up, changing the rear suspension isn't going to fix it - the lever is still there regardless of how hard or soft the springs are. In fact, with soft springs - or suspension that hits or sits on the bump stops with the trailer attached - the effect is far worse and more dangerous as the lever is now acting on a solid rear since there's no suspension travel to allow some flexibility.

Enter the WDH. It's a misnomer - it doesn't really redistribute the weight, but it does redistribute the effect of the weight. The spring bars twist the hitch upwards around the rear axle, effectively pushing the front wheels down. Setting one up properly is vital. Hayman Reese had a video of it and I've posted a step-by-step somewhere here too. Basically you get the ball to the correct height (especially for double-axle vans, the chassis should be level or very slightly nose-down) then adjust the bars so that the front and rear suspension settles within a few mm of each other once the bars are hooked up.

It's my opinion that towing a heavy van without a WDH is dangerous because of the reduced steerability and braking. It's especially noticeable when descending dirt/gravel hills.

Sorry if I seem like I'm harping on this, but it's important for everyone's safety!

Drove 400kms last night sat on 110 most the way which we never usually do and I averaged 13.6l/100kms. Speedo dropped back to 95kmh on th big hills into Sydney

happy john said:

That's very good economy pulling 2.5t at 103kph, if you backed off to around 85-90 like most it would do well.

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I transported a horse float one long day, about 800km and was seeing which was more efficient, using the automatic box or the paddle shifter and also which speed was more efficient.
Worked out paddle shifters on gradients and traveling at 90km/hr kept the ute in peak performance.
I am looking at chipping and exhaust upgrade as this will dramatically improve peak performance in the D23 for this type of towing.

I tow a 28ft ally boat that comes in at 2.85t
The Np300 (ST manual) pulls it easily, and hills are no problem.
Yes the rear suspension sags, and I'll probably do something about that.

But, I am getting worse than 15l/100km economy. (it's off the scale)
And I used over half a tank from Perth to Leeman (approx 230kms highway driving)
It's a big boat, with a hard top, so I guess it has a lot of wind resistance.

I was wondering if it is OK to tow in 6th gear? I heard that you shouldn't tow in top gear in my old ZD30 D22 as it wrecks the gearbox.

Cheers,
Rob.

Personally, I used to only use top gear when on a flat. But towing less then 2T.

Exception to this, is if there was a noticeable headwind.

Personally i drove my d22 to the cape towing a camper trailer fully loaded with the ute fully loaded and id go to 5th gear. I think doing it on the flat would be fine. Just dont labour the gear. Probably get better fuel as well