Thread: Nissan X-Trail for towing boat

Originally Posted by uk_exile

@MB what's Nissan spec say for towing ratings? What's boat, trailer, fuel and gear weigh? Braked or unbraked trailer?
If you're buying brand new might as well make it a legal vehicle & trailer combo, otherwise your insurance company might try to wiggle out of a claim.
https://www.nzta.govt.nz/resources/g...0of%2030km%2Fh. says this
Most vehicles have tow ratings given to them by the manufacturer specifying the gross trailer weight braked, unbraked, or both, that the vehicle can safely tow. Although the law does not require these tow ratings to be followed, the NZ Transport Agency recommends that they be taken into account.
In addition to the requirements above, the law requires that every light vehicle and trailer combination must be capable of stopping within a distance of seven metres from a speed of 30km/h. In effect, this means that the maximum allowable weight of an unbraked trailer is limited by the weight and braking ability of the vehicle being used to tow it.


I was towing 6.2m boat on tandem braked trailer with 3.0L Subaru Outback. Towed it easily and never felt unsafe in any way, but after a while I changed to a Toyota Fortuner because
1) Subaru towing spec said 1800kg and all up the trailer, boat and gear could be greater.
2) Shit happens and my family is important

I know. Nearly every car in NZ has an unbraked trailer limit of 750kg. Nearly every boat you see on the road is being towed in contravention of these guidelines.

consider a subaru outback. my friends have various older generations (second and 3rd) with different motors and they are very reliable and nice cars.

legacy is just the same but lower to the ground

Any reason you are looking at petrol over diesel for towing? Our little Kia Sportage diesel (2 liter turbo) has about the same power as the X Trail you are looking at but 400nm torque starting from about 1500rpm.

Originally Posted by Shearer

Any reason you are looking at petrol over diesel for towing? Our little Kia Sportage diesel (2 liter turbo) has about the same power as the X Trail you are looking at but 400nm torque starting from about 1500rpm.

No, right finance deal that's all. Was previously looking at a Kia Sorento diesel and considering a ute even though I don't really want a ute.

See if you can take it for a test drive with your boat attached. I know of i had done this o would never have bought my petrol navara. Find some step hills and try drive it conservatively too. Allowing to power up half way up a hill to see its true torque .

I think it's got to be a diesel.

Had a nissan xtrail 2004 model for several years.
I would not tow a boat with it.

I've got a 2008 xtrail and the towbar is for the bike rack only.

for those with earlier xtrails, i think they run a 205/65 tyre. go to 205/70 . yous speedo will be accurate and better mpg. with the 65's 100k on the clock is 93 physical.
also if it refuses to idle at low revs dont trust the diagnostics which is that the 02 sensor is fubar, chances are there is a small crack in the manifold next to it causes air to be sucked in between pulses.

IF you got a CVT transmission....just forget about it. I have 2.0 x trail and tow a 3.5 meter boat for duck hunting has no problem.

Originally Posted by MB

I know. Nearly every car in NZ has an unbraked trailer limit of 750kg. Nearly every boat you see on the road is being towed in contravention of these guidelines.

Cars in NZ run to the ADR rules which specifies unbraked towing of 750Kg. But, we run NZ trailer rules which allows unbraked trailers of more than 750Kg to get a WoF.

The two rules are completely out of step - but various interested groups got into the ear of NZTA and confused the issue as it would mean that there are a lot of trailers that would suddenly cease to be useful overnight and in some cases unable to be towed on the road at all as the unloaded weight of the trailer is more than 750Kg. As I understand it there has been a program of work looking at this and bringing the two specs into line with each other, but every time it looks like they will do something it all goes quiet.

With ADR being recognised in NZ (from the days when Aussie had car manufacturing and cross portability of AUS/NZ standards) it won't be the ADR rules that change I reckon!

NZ's trailer rules are completely stupid - like having a breakaway switch on heavy trailers but then allowing crossed safety chains to prevent it detaching so the breakaway switch is useless...

For the Nissan CVT - in a Tiida with no trailer they seem to work. A lot of ram raiders can't be wrong... But the basic design of the transmission is weird, the Nissan one seems to work opposite to how the mitsi one is designed and I can't really follow why they did that.

the issue with the nissan is that the belt pushes force onto a pulley rather than dragging it, causes the belt to "whiplash" and the metal inserts get loose.
bloody awful things

Originally Posted by MB

No, right finance deal that's all. Was previously looking at a Kia Sorento diesel and considering a ute even though I don't really want a ute.

A vote here for kia sorento. Good value, relatively nice cars

Originally Posted by Brad S

A vote here for kia sorento. Good value, relatively nice cars

Yes, Sorento on the short list. Diesel engine.