Put a few bags of cement in the trunk to haul home and the whole floor over the spare tire colapsed. It was nothing but cardboard under a piece of carpeting. I'm going to make a plywood replacement.

 

The same people who designed the Frontier, Pathfinder, Murano, and X-Terra....those vehicles designed for the type of cargo you tried to haul.


I am not saying the Max should not have handled it but you also need to be aware of what your vehicle was designed for and also check out where you are placing things. Not the car's fault you did not spread the load out more and not focus weight on the weakest part.

 

 

Same thing happened to me when I was laying in my trunk reinstalling my power cap. The board under the mat bent in. I have a really heavy speaker box back there, but it isn't as heavy as me apparently. 180lbs.

 

in all fairness, i had the same thing happen to me when loading some heavy luggage and a computer monitor. i would think that's normal for a passenger vehicle, but the center of the trunk just bottomed out.

 

Funny, I have often carried 5 40lb bags of dog food with no issues whatsoever. I just make sure the load is spread around.

 

I think Nissan tried to design a spare tire cover that would go over both the compact spare and a regular wheel. I mean, what are you going to do with the regular wheel if you have to mount the compact spare and drive to a service station and you have luggage. My other rides have the trunk floor cover sitting right on the spare hence they never collapse, but if you have to deal with a flat you have to have the passenger hold the wheel you just took off because the spare wheel well isn't deep enough. Still Nissan should have done a better job and used someting more substantial. I mean if you guys are going to crab about the paint.....

 

Nissan has had the same type of POS cover back there for 8yrs+
So do many other makers.

jjs you crack me up. Had me ROFLMAO

 

Big talk there!! Hey, the paint sucks, we all know it, and it chips without our having to do anything but drive the car. It is clearly inferior.

That having been said, your situation is quite different. It is through your own actions and lack of checking and proper loading that this occurred. Don't fault the car. It would be different if I haven't had so much experience loading it with no ill effects. I buy about 200 lbs. of dog food every 6-8 weeks.

 

In my case the problem is the oppositte. The full-size tire causes the floor carpeting to get pushed upwards by maybe an inch or two. Is this an issue only if you have the compact spare?

 

what the hell kind of a dog do you have??

 

Actually 3. A Yellow Lab and 2 Siberian Husky's. All full grown adults.

 

What kind of dog(s) do you have? I have a big Dane/shepherd mix. He's basicly a giant shepherd with droopy ears and hints of grey in him. goes through 40lb bag and 15 cans a month.

 

ooooh. nice stable. jealous i can't have huskys or malamutes here in so cal. just too dang hot.

 

Pretty frickin hot here, they live inside!!!

 

"a few bags of cement" ??? Let's guess that's 3, maybe 4, at 80 pounds per bag.

You mean you put down 240 or 320 pounds without looking to see what it was going on ??

We blame nissan for some pretty dumb stuff (did anyone see that "maxima needs a letter or number to make the name tougher" thread?) but this is all on you.

Next people will say I should blame nissan that I got rear-ended this weekend. I mean, 4 wheel anti-lock disc brakes made me stop faster than the guy behind me could so he hit me... I feel a lawsuit coming on!

 

 

I don't have any problem with the Nissan paint chipping. I keep a bottle of touchup in the glove box and I use it each night when I park the car. I just have to take it easy when driving in reverse on the interstate so I don't mess up the trunk too.

 

It holds all the groceries just fine.

 

Is there any other cars that have this cheap *** cardboard in the trunk? I've rented countless cars and never had such a weak foundation in my trunk.

 

Nope, just one 80 pound bag. I suppose tossing it in didn't help but never had this problem with any other car.

 

My max handled like over 200 pounds of cement in the trunk. The rear end looked pretty low.

 

 

 

My spare cover caved under the weight of a 4-way lug wrench on a bumpy rode. Maybe it was already damaged (85k on it when I picked it up).

 

There is something YOU Can do to prevent this. if you lift up that cardboard/particle board cover. YOu see your small sunken in spare tire. If you put like a phone book on top of that spare tire..problem solved. Or if you get a normal sized wheel (factory OEM) the cover will sit just right. small peice of 2x4 wood works also.