Nissan Titan XD w/Cummins First Tow Review

[CornettoTrifecta]

I recently replaced/supplemented our old farm truck with a newer model. Yesterday it got its first run towing under our ownership, and we were quite pleased with the results. Here's a rundown of the specs and configuration:

Old Truck:
1988 Ford F-250 HD Regular Cab 8' Bed
7.3L IDI w/ Banks Turbo
3.55 Gears
GVWR: 8,600
GCWR 12,000
Empty Weight ~5,800



New Truck:
2017 Nissan Titan XD Regular Cab 8' Bed
5.0 Cummins V8
3.92 Gears
GVWR 8,990
GCWR 19,450
Empty Weight: 6,786



We avoided the big 3 this time around based on price and nothing comparable to the old truck available on the market. Everything in the "3/4 ton" category now is basically a rebadged SRW one ton 10k GVWR truck, which was more than I needed, and more than I wanted to pay for. This truck was used off-lease with 16k miles and ran us $29.2k - I couldn't even touch a gas F250 for that price in the local market of the same age/mileage. That was a no haggle price from Carvana and it showed up a few weeks later in our driveway hassle free. Great buying experience, highly recommended!

We ran the foothills of the Appalachians at 55-65MPH without any trouble. Having a heavy tow vehicle is great for highway stability, an often overlooked benefit of a porky diesel option, even if you lose some payload. It's still early days, but I would not hesitate to recommend this setup to anyone if it meets their needs.



What I lose with the Nissan:

Rear axle: It's a semi float 4900 lb. AAM axle. I would not recommend overloading this like you might have been able to get away with on the older 3/4 tons with a full floater.
Front axle: Independent 4900 lb. axle. It seems plenty heavy enough to handle the task at hand, but it's not a solid front axle - but my old truck was TTB and I'd take this new setup any day of the week. Those newer Super Duties though, nice solid front axles under those!
Payload: New trucks are heavier. If you need the payload you'll have to bump up to the ~10k GVWR 3/4 tons or larger. My old truck was ~2,800 payload this new truck is 2,204 payload.

 

[atsah]

I have done a lot of bumper pull towing of heavy equipment, never used a gooseneck, That looks like a lot of weight on the back of the trailer, I guess tongue weight isn't as much of a concern with a gooseneck?

 

[CornettoTrifecta]

Tongue on a goose or a 5th should be 15-20% ideally. That's why I ran it over the scales to see if I wanted to shift. I had 12% on the pin, which is a tiny bit under ideal and I had GVWR to spare if I wanted to shift it. The goose pulls considerably better than my old 10k bumper pull, I am very happy with the highway dynamics on this setup, much more secure feeling over the seams and bends. One thing to watch with a deckover like this is vs a lowboy is the higher CG, take these bends slower if you're a speed demon!

 

[hiddentacocatneddih]

i didnt realize you could get a low mileage one for under $30K. Still at that price you can get into a nice used 1 ton truck and never have to worry about towing capacity. I think my next truck will be a dually instead of SRW as I am towing more and more.

how long is the titan? That's one concern, I would never go less than 4 door cab 8 ft bed configuration. The length pays off on the highway and when you get a crappy load. my F350 is around 6500lbs iirc.

I am curious how different the V8 cummins drives compared to the 6BT. I had a D250 with a 12V for years. Still have the motor waiting to go into my F350

 

[CornettoTrifecta]

Wheelbase on the titan is 139.8, a whisker longer than the old Ford. The loooong CCLB are a great tow but I've always fond them a handful and never really wanted to drive around a boat that long on the daily! I haven't needed a one ton in 20 years, and I highly doubt I'll ever need one. I'd shell out for a DRW if I was pulling a monster 5er long distances though, with a gigantic wind sail behind you a DRW can't be beat! I've never driven a 6BT so I can't offer any comparison there, but that's a much larger truck/motor. 310hp/555ft-lb for the 5.0 vs. almost 1000 ft-lb in the big truck!

 

[RedNeckRacin]

Tongue on a goose or a 5th should be 15-20% ideally. That's why I ran it over the scales to see if I wanted to shift. I had 12% on the pin, which is a tiny bit under ideal and I had GVWR to spare if I wanted to shift it. The goose pulls considerably better than my old 10k bumper pull, I am very happy with the highway dynamics on this setup, much more secure feeling over the seams and bends. One thing to watch with a deckover like this is vs a lowboy is the higher CG, take these bends slower if you're a speed demon!

Your weights are on the low end for a Gn or 5th wheel. Ram and PJ trailers says 20-25% on the tongue.

https://www.ramtrucks.com/assets/bbg/pdf/2016/docs/intro/towingbasics.pdf
https://assets.pjtrailers.com/pdfs/pj_trailers_owners_manual.pdf

Nice looking rig and glad it worked out Well for you. That 5.0 cummins is very close to what the 600 series 6bt was at back in 04.5-07.5 years. I'm very curious how the axles are going to hold up over the long run. I'm a big fan of straight axles for a towing rig, they feel more stable to me and that's my personal preference.

 

[CornettoTrifecta]

Yup, that's about right, I've always heard 20% +/- 5% for a pin weight, higher is better and == faster stable towing speeds. Very few trucks other than DRW could do the heavy end at 25% for a nominal load if you run the numbers on your average SRW trucks out there today near the GCWR. I always say stay under your payload/GVWR and individual axle ratings on your combo and if you are light on a pin, slow down. No need to run 70+ on local runs as there's no races to win. You won't see the sudden instability on a kingpin setup like you will on a bumper pull at lighter pin weights, less polar moment of inertia and side loads on the rear TV axle. I've got no fear on the axles running at the rated loads, but they are not overbuilt for the truck, so no farm boy funny business like 3 tons of gravel in the bed!

 

[hiddentacocatneddih]

My 6bt is rated at 160hp 400lb/ft. But itll pull anything and would get 23 mpg at 60mph. I don't daily my towing vehicle. Its a farm truck. I don't really need a 1 ton, but I would rather have too much truck rather than not enough.

 

[CornettoTrifecta]

Doh! I was thinking of the new 6.7, he was referring to the old 5.9 up above my mistake! Yeah this should be a great pull compared to that, but you can't do apples to apples old vs. new I don't think. For one, in the older 80-90's trucks I would never have owned one with an automatic, so the old truck is a ZF-5 speed manual. Now you're pretty much stuck with the automatics, thankfully the new crop seem to be much, much better built. The stock 7.3 IDI was 185 hp, I think that Banks kit I installed took it up into the mid 200's IIRC. Now, if my old truck would have had the 4.10 rear axle, my GCWR would have been 17,000 - still about 1000 lbs. shy of this load, but that's one reason why it was only set up for bumper pull anyway - lighter empty trailer weights. They were still a great truck and always did what I needed without overloading it.

 

[hiddentacocatneddih]

My fear with a new truck is it wont last like the old. My last truck was 25 years old with 400,000+ miles. Only thing ever changed was oil and filters. My current truck is 25 years old but only has 175,000 miles

I would never buy a truck with an auto. even a new one.

Do the 5.0 Cummins have the regular DPF like the new 6.7's?

 

[CornettoTrifecta]

Every new diesel is fully emissioned up, DPF, SCR, EGR the works. You can "delete" if you want to, but not legally speaking. I doubt anything new will last like the old iron, but they are vastly better trucks these days - better power, braking, safety, towing, you name it. It's all a trade off in the end. I'll probably own this one for the same 15+ years as the old one, I don't change 'em like underwear - but I don't do the high miles either, maybe 8-10k/year max. 90% of the time the truck is moving it's working though. One benefit of the Nissan is the warranty of 5 years/100k miles. This one year old truck has more remaining warranty than even the brand new Fords I was looking at. I don't buy on warranty, but I couldn't knock those numbers especially with the new emissions farkles.

 

[Adventuris]

What size is the trailer

 

[CornettoTrifecta]

I made a post about the trailer in another recent thread, but it's a 14k 20+4ft manufactured by a local company here in Ohio. A 12-14k bumper pull will save a bit on total weight of course, but with the factory gooseneck hitch I couldn't pass up the other advantages.

 

[Monster5601]

I load the tractor backward, that is, backhoe towards the front. This allows me to get the pin weight up to 20%.

 

[CornettoTrifecta]

I've not seen too many goosenecks shorter than this one, so normally you can just pull further forward. Since I was coming back from Rural King the brush hog and grapple were in the way, but I still could move about a foot even with all that on there. The chances all that stuff will be on there at the same time again, especially with the hoe on the tractor as well, is about 0% I imagine. That'll give plenty of room to position the load to suit. How long is your deck vs. your tractor length on your setup? This trailer was either the smallest or 2nd smallest on the little lot I bought it from, and of course the tractor itself isn't all that big. It's the biggest/longest trailer I've ever personally owned so it seems like a giant parking lot up there compared to what I'm used to! :laughing: