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Max tow rating?


Mr. Pickles
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LOL, call me Captain Obvious, I forgot I have a manual! My brain must be recovering from birthday partying last night. :rolleyes:3500lb is the magic number. I'm shopping around some for a small travel trailer, hopefully that can be pulled behind the Pathy. I've found a few in the right weight range but nothing I wanna buy yet. Wish me luck!

Edited by Mr. Pickles
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I have a fairly light trailer under 2000 lbs and the gas milage goes way down almost half :)

Bah, I've towed 500 miles with a boat of about 2000-2500 loaded with gear and 4 people in the truck and only had a slight drop. Besides, mileage isn't he biggest concern, most of my trips would be within a couple hundred miles. Its that whole wind and rain beating on the tent while you're trying to sleep, along with the hanging arse over a log. Guess I'm getting old... :D

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my 92 manual says 3500lbs, max tongue weight 350lbs. its probably the same numbers for the '94

yeah, it is. and no, you never wanna go max weight allowed, either on yer truck or hitch.

i tow our 86 (18'6") bayliner (about 2800lbs) with mini me and she LOVES pulling the boat :blink: i swear she runs better.. and i barely notice a difference in gas mileage. i drive 55 and she does great. stopping can be scary sometimes... thank god fer 5 speeds! :clap:

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I have a 1995 SE-V6 5spd with 170,000 miles on it. It never towed anything until 150,000 miles. My engine is strong, but I still think the Pathfinder sucks as a tow vehicle. I can't even think how bad it would tow if you had to tow even close to 3,000 pounds. It is underpowered as it is then add towing to the mix and it is horrible, as well as the prior mentioned gas milage, which gets VERY BAD as you tow! I would say it drops to about 9-10 MPG. Again I love my Pathfinder, but as a tow vehicle it is the worst! Get another vehicle to tow with!

 

Zack

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It is underpowered as it is then add towing to the mix and it is horrible, as well as the prior mentioned gas milage, which gets VERY BAD as you tow!

that's why you drop a chevy 350 in there, no more power problems then! although if you're concerned about getting good gas mileage.... have a friend tow it for you.

 

p.s. i'm still amazed that i saw that pathy with the 350 in it. ol definitly weird, definitly awesome

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I have a 1995 SE-V6 5spd with 170,000 miles on it. It never towed anything until 150,000 miles. My engine is strong, but I still think the Pathfinder sucks as a tow vehicle. I can't even think how bad it would tow if you had to tow even close to 3,000 pounds. It is underpowered as it is then add towing to the mix and it is horrible, as well as the prior mentioned gas milage, which gets VERY BAD as you tow! I would say it drops to about 9-10 MPG. Again I love my Pathfinder, but as a tow vehicle it is the worst! Get another vehicle to tow with!

 

Zack

:blink: i have absolutely no problem towing our 2800lb boat, (and towed it ALL summer long) and i get MAYBE 1-2mpg worse gas mileage...... now. if you want to tow 3,000lbs and go 90mph, yeah, gas mileage is gunna suck.... and pathys weren't built for towing..... tho they do get the job done.

want a towing vehicle, buy a titan. ;) want to tow under 3k lbs, get there in 1 piece and not utterly concerned with gas mileage... then a pathy will be fine. IMOO

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I have been towing for years - from utility trailers to 32' racing yachts to our current travel trailer. Tow ratings and weights are heavily "massaged" by marketing pukes. A few things I'll point out for you to consider:

 

1) Weight is a significant factor. It affects how hard the truck has to work to accelerate and climb grades.

 

2) Frontal area and aerodynamics are a rarely discussed but very significant factor. It directly affects how hard the truck has to work when pulling on flats. A 2500 lb travel trailer will work the truck much harder than a 2500 lb boat. A 2500 lb pop up trailer will be easier to tow than a hard side conventional.

 

3) Towing ratings usually assume the truck absolutely empty, or maybe with one occupant! Read the manual carefully. You may need to subtract occupant and truck cargo weight from your tow rating.

 

4) 98% of first time trailer buyers learn this the hard way: Trailers ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS weigh more than claimed or published weights! Usually 10 to 30% more, sometimes even more. Caveat emptor!!!!! And that's before you put anything in it - like propane, batteries, food, cooking stuff, clothes. Most "2500 pound" trailers will end up weighting well over 3500 lbs by the time you hit the road. Trust me or learn the hard way. Always weigh before buying. You WILL be shocked.

 

5) Sometimes power is the limiting factor, but most often, it is the durability of some other drivetrain component. I am positive it will be VERY difficult to keep an A/T properly cooled in a pathfinder with 2500 lbs in tow. Absolutely put a temp gauge in before trying to tow with an automatic! To tow our trailer with my Chevy, I had to add 2 huge extra coolers (keeping the stocker in line as well) AND a manual TC lock up control to keep temps in control. The A/T won't blow up immediately - it just wears dramatically quickly when it gets hot. At 300+ degrees, life of the A/T will be shortened to just a few thousand miles.

 

In closing, I towed a full size flatbed trailer with a fully gutted out van carcass on it across town with my pathy (5 speed) - probably 3500 pounds. It did it, but ain't no way I would go more than 10 miles or exceed 35 mph with it. If you are going to carry passengers with you, I would say a TINY pop up trailer is about all you should consider. Even an ultralight hard side will lead to a premature death of your pathy.

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I have similar towing question, but about my '97 pathfinder if anyone cares to chime in...

 

http://npora.ipbhost.com//index.php?act=ST&f=7&t=12132

sssh where did you find a hitch strong enuff to tow that much weight? also, you run the risk of frying yer tranny (clutch OR a/t), overloading/working your suspension and axles. have you tried to tow the boat up a hill? or stop fast? have you tried to launch the boat? can you get it out of the water without using 4wd and the t case?

 

i see this all too often working for u haul..... trying to overload something that just wasn't built to take the load. it's your decision, and your pathy, but as an installer and pathy owner, i don't recommend it.

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OK i know that I am gonna get a bunch of ,gods, and crazy baldheaded f#$%er

with this one ;)

but here goes

I have a 91 pathy five speed with an aftermarket class lll hitch and its fair to say that ive probably abused the hell out of it but, i also trust my pathy 100 more

mechanicaly more than say my 89 GMC 1ton dually .Granted the dually pulls so much more so easily and handles better under load (max load so far 22,000lbs

truck ,trailer,and load )But when i first started my scrap metal buis I used the pathy to pull all of my loads. Now the reason that i bought the 1 ton was to aviod

destroying the pathy BUT I have and dont recomend pulled damn near 18,000 with my pathy now Ive pulled trailers all of my life but I would never do that with an autotragic

Ive never liked even pulling with a full size truck with auto

 

Any who the pathy is a very capable tow rig just be carefull and no auto tranny

 

my .02

jason

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as long as your careful and dont over load your hitch and have your load as equal as possible, it should pull just fine....I have pulled many trailers with many different trucks....I have a 1986 mustang that I have pulled with my 4 cylinder ranger w/ a 5 speed up to pulling over 15,000 pounds with my 72 F-100 with a auto. as long as you know what your skill is and your trucks capability, and dont go beyond that, you should be ok.

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Yeah, one account from Jim was that he came across a stalled semi truck on a freeway overpass that was blocking traffic, so he asked the guy if he wanted to try a pull with the Pathy. The driver didn't think it'd do it, but Jim strapped up to a semi with a trailer and stuck it in 4-LO and pulled that puppy across the overpass and onto the shoulder on the other side.

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Yeah, one account from Jim was that he came across a stalled semi truck on a freeway overpass that was blocking traffic, so he asked the guy if he wanted to try a pull with the Pathy. The driver didn't think it'd do it, but Jim strapped up to a semi with a trailer and stuck it in 4-LO and pulled that puppy across the overpass and onto the shoulder on the other side.

:o

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