TT Nissan Armada?

[letsgorving]

What are u towing with your Mada? I'm always reading all kind of information. Edmunds has called it a "tow beast", others say it's towing capability is over rated. We considered getting an '09 rockwood 8317SS, but passed due to heavy hitch weight. To be totally safe we went with a Surveyor S294 with a low hitch weight of 547 dry. (Still getting quad bunks we needed plus nice big dinette)

What and how much do YOU tow?

K & J from MD
2007 Nissan Armada
Surveyor SV294
3 kids, 1 black lab

[Beer Thirty]

Had an 04 Armada towed a sv264. The rear differential would get very hot. Had to be replaced at 12,000 miles, also had the brake system rebuilt. I would highly recommend you change your rear end oil after the first tow. Then I would change it at least once a year. Had a 05 Titan same problems as the Armada. I do not think Nissan expecting people to tow alot with these trucks. I bought a real truck 07 Chevy new body style Z71 4x4. Also traded the Armada on a new rx 8. Good luck!

[letsgorving]

sorry you had trouble with your nissan. did it have the heavy tow package with auto levelers, low gears etc? ours does. I recently have talked/blogged with many Armada/Titan owners towing at least, if not more than what we are with ease. since we are well within our tow capacity, if we have any problems we will bring it to nissan, since we also have the 100,000 mi/5 year warranty. If I'm not mistaken, your "real truck" isn't rated to tow much more, or even as much as the armada, depending on which one you have. good luck to you.

[Beer Thirty]

I have the Max Trailering package, Vortec 6.0 with 10,500 towing capacity. The Armada is the best looking suv on the road. Trust me, I would have like to keep my Nissans. I was not real happy about supporting the unions by buying my Chevy. With that said, the Chevy truck is built to tow. I did have the big tow package on both nissans. Go to the Titan club web site and research rear differentials problems and brake problems. You will be up all night reading. Keep your rear end fluid like new. I changed mine twice a year and still had problems.

[letsgorving]

This is my hope..........
We had 3 Dodge Caravans before the Armada (Oh how I love it so much better)....anyway, the 3rd one we didn't have long before we sold it for the mada. One of them ran like a dream the 7yrs we had it and the other-HUGE LEMON. One problem after another. Every problem chrsysler was having, it had.
I know they worked some bugs out on the madas after 04. Hoping we got a good one with our 07.

Thanks for the heads up on problems you and others had. Will do some reading on it and keep an eye on the rear end.

[rockwood06]

Originally Posted by Beer Thirty

Had an 04 Armada towed a sv264. The rear differential would get very hot. Had to be replaced at 12,000 miles, also had the brake system rebuilt. I would highly recommend you change your rear end oil after the first tow. Then I would change it at least once a year. Had a 05 Titan same problems as the Armada. I do not think Nissan expecting people to tow alot with these trucks. I bought a real truck 07 Chevy new body style Z71 4x4. Also traded the Armada on a new rx 8. Good luck!

Beer Thirty, that's different. I am a 1/2 hour ahead of you, I like Beer O'clock I have all ready started. to FRF.

[Jhawkfan44]

So what is the jury saying about the 2010 Armada and towing? We're looking at a 26TBSS, dry weight 5800lbs.

[smithmdsmith]

Originally Posted by Jhawkfan44

So what is the jury saying about the 2010 Armada and towing? We're looking at a 26TBSS, dry weight 5800lbs.

Don't worry about the jury. Every vehicle on the market has had lots of problems that you can spend days reading about.

The dry weight isn't really what you need to look at. What is the gross weight rating of the trailer? If its within your tow rating, you should be good. There are a lot of other factors (tires, what you carry in the truck, etc.).

If you have the Big Tow package with the 3.36 gears, you should be good. Otherwise, it could be a little close.

[Jhawkfan44]

I have the "Tow Mode" button on my console. But we bought used so I don't know 100% that it has the "Big Tow". I don't even know if that was an official option for the 2010.

[smithmdsmith]

Originally Posted by Jhawkfan44

I have the "Tow Mode" button on my console. But we bought used so I don't know 100% that it has the "Big Tow". I don't even know if that was an official option for the 2010.

I have a Titan, which is very similar to the Armada. On the Titan, the key to the Big Tow package is the rear-end gearing. Starting around 2008, every Titan and Armada got the transmission temp guage. All of them have had the tow mode button from the beginning. If you have the 3.36 rear end, you likely have the Big Tow. you can find out for sure about your gears by looking at the sticker on the rear differential case. Also, take a look at the titantalk.com forums or clubarmada.com forums.

If you have the 3.36 gears, your max tow is 9100 lbs. With the 2.94 gears, your limit is 6500 lbs. As stated many times on this board, there are a lot of other numbers to consider, too...GVWR, GAWR, etc.

Add 1,000 or 1,500 lbs to the dry weight and you will start to get into the ball park of the camping weight of the trailer. Unless you have the 3.36 gears, I think you are looking at too much trailer.

[baldy]

So, I looked at the Titan and really liked it then heard of the rear diff issue. I did some research and they corrected the issue by installing a diff cover with heat sinks to dissipate the heat.

[smithmdsmith]

Yeah, my 2008 Titan has the diff cover with the heat sink fins. I've only owned it for a year and its been great. It has 52,000 miles. I've put about 6,000 miles on it...most of them towing my TT. The previous owner was very hard on it, but I got it for a steal (repo). Judging by the condition of the receiver hitch, he towed a lot.

One of my trips with the TT was into a 45 mph head wind for about 5 hours. Maintaining 60 mph wasn't the issue...6 mpg was.

[Surveycop]

I've got a 2005 Armada and I've towed a 29' Cherokee with it. The Cherokee is up there in weight, but it is under the tow rating and the whole package is under the gross vehicle weight rating. The Armada towed like a dream - absolutely no problems.

I would like to know what you are doing about tow mirrors. I've got Titan/Armada tow mirrors, but the Armada has the puddle lamps, so the plugs don't match up. I'm having trouble finding anyone to rig up an adaptor. Right now, the tow mirrors are manual. Thanks for your input, and sorry to hi-jack the thread!

[Jhawkfan44]

I've got mirror extensions, which worked ok for my pop up. I'm not sure how they will work for the TT. The strap to the existing mirror.