[Avalon]

My wife and I need to move about 45 miles away, hopefully, temporarily, back with my Father until we can find a house of our own in the crazy Markey.


I have a 2018 Midnight with still under 18,000 miles. (4x4, v6, factory tow package)


I was thinking of making a few trips with a uhaul 5'×9' trailer. I got this truck with 7,500 miles. I don't know if it's ever towed. I guess I would be best to keep it 50 mph for now since I don't think it was ever used for towing. (Hitch was still new, sealed, in the back seat)


The rear diff, front diff, and transfer case were done at 17k miles. The rear diff has valvoline synthetic 75w-90 in it with less than 1k miles. Engine is always babied with mobil 1 or valvoline extend performance every 3,000 miles.

This is my first truck and I've never towed. Given I may have to make a few 100 mile round trips, I don't know if a uhaul box van would be prudent money to spend.



Do you guys think I should be ok with the 5x9 or 6×12? I was thinking of going either early morning or later at night ,but I'm still concerned being a new tower.

 

[Nissan4Life]

How heavy is the trailer? Anything in the <3Klbs range and you wont even notice it. At some point you need to have trailer brakes, are you set up for that? Have you ever backed up a trailer?
The truck will be fine.

 

[Avalon]

How heavy is the trailer? Anything in the <3Klbs range and you wont even notice it. At some point you need to have trailer brakes, are you set up for that? Have you ever backed up a trailer?
The truck will be fine.

I think the uhaul trailers are like 1000lbs the whatever I load in it.


I don't have a trailer brake controller or anything.


I was actually thinking of just renting their box truck. If my truck breaks, my problem. If theirs breaks, their problem.


Thanks for the reply though.

 

[srick]

The truck won’t even notice a 5x9, you and the truck will be perfectly fine. Load it up and haul a** it’s made for it, they’re awesome little tow vehicles.
A 6x12 is pretty heavy empty and like mentioned, at 3000 lbs or more you’re definitely going to want a trailer brake. You can get a wireless trailer brake for 200.00 bucks. Then you’re good to go. I wouldn’t worry too much about the truck until you’re pushing 5000 lbs or more. I wouldn’t tow 5000 with my frontier. 5k is heavy for any small truck and even some half tons. Yeah it’s rated for higher but 5k or more isn’t very comfortable.

 

[(none)]

You do not need a trailer brake controller for Uhaul trailers, they have surge brakes. As long as you have the 4 pin plug or an adapter to a 4 pin, you're fine.

Also, just a note since you talk about changing the rear diff oil... Nissan recommends a heavier weight rear diff fluid. 75w140 i believe

 

[JDME]

6x12 U-haul trailers have surge brakes - so you won't need (or be able to use) an electric brake controller.
The empty trailer weighs approx 2000 lbs, and can carry about 2200 lbs of cargo. Your truck is quite capable of towing 4400 lbs. Just be sure to load it heavier in front of the axles - towards the hitch. Aim for the tongue weight (on the hitch) to be about 10% of the total estimated weight of trailer and cargo.

 

[JDME]

Also, make sure they show you how to enable anddisable the surge controller on the trailer in case you need to back up!

 

[NTxFronty]

I pulled a 6X12 loaded with furniture with my 2007 manual 6sp a couple of times, pulled vehicles on dollies several times. I could feel the trailer but it was no problem pulling it. Burned a lot of gas. The trailers had surge brakes, but I was more concerned about stopping than actually pulling the trailer.

 

[Lobo1625]

Your truck will serve you well as a tow vehicle. With the amount of miles you have, it's plenty broke in and ready to tow whatever you need. Many of us (myself included) have towed much heavier loads without any issues at all. The towing capacity of your truck is in the 6,000lbs range so you'll hardly notice it. Just make sure that you turn on tow mode when you have the trailer loaded.

 

[JVRaley]

Just make sure that you turn on tow mode when you have the trailer loaded.

No tow mode on 2018’s. Just an O/D off button.

 

[CT_Nismo]

The reason you have a Frontier is to tow! You don't need no stinkin box truck from UHaul.

You need to make sure you have a trailer hitch with the hardware to hook up to the 5X9. The brake light connector is all important. it must work or UHaul will not allow the hookup.

 

[bajasam]

Surge brakes require a 5 pin flat connector, the 5th wire openes the surge valve when you are in reverse gear via the back-up light circuit. Ever see someone trying to back up a trailer with only a 4 pin connector, hilarious!!

 

[RamTest]

Moving sukks so bad, my only suggestion is to rent a big enough truck to do it all in one trip, if at all possible. And the more chit you got, the more reason to do it.
Just watch out for those low overpasses 😜

Plastic storage totes for most of your stuff.
Contractor bags for clothes.
Mattress bags for bedding.
Boxes, tape, bungees, plenty of rope, bubble wrap for tv and fine furniture.
A two-wheeler, which sometimes comes with the truck.

 

[JVRaley]

My suggestion would be hire someone else. 😂

 

[RamTest]

My suggestion would be hire someone else. 😂

This is the best advice.
Get everything packed, boxed and ready to go, and call the movers.

 

[JVRaley]

This is the best advice.
Get everything packed, boxed and ready to go, and call the movers.

Right? I’ll burn it all to the ground before I move my own chit again!😏

 

[Avalon]

Haha I have a lot of "toys" I don't want other hands or prying eyes on. Otherwise I hate it.


I think I'll make a few runs with the frontier just packing the bed this weekend, then grab a big truck for next weekend.

 

[shift_RUSH]

At roughly 6-8 gallons of fuel per roundtrip towing...the math gets easier as to whether a great big rental truck might save you some money as well as a TON of time.

 

[skramer360]

Surge brakes require a 5 pin flat connector, the 5th wire openes the surge valve when you are in reverse gear via the back-up light circuit. Ever see someone trying to back up a trailer with only a 4 pin connector, hilarious!!

I worked U-Haul for over 10 years. There is only a 4 pin connector on all their trailers. Nothing electric at all on their brakes.

 

[bajasam]

How do they tell you to back-up the trailer when the wheels are locked?? You can do it with a lock bolt or pin, but you have to manually get out and insert it every time you want to go in reverse. You are referring to surge brakes correct