I put a hitch on mine last year and have towed a 12' jon boat a couple of times and a trailer with my 4 wheeler on it. Well today I bought a larger boat, 16" aluminum, but Oh My God just because it's aluminum doesn't mean it's lightweight. I have no way of knowing exactly what it weighs but the tongue weight has gotta be in the 300lb range....too much I know. It's all I can do to pick it up. I'm guessing the boat and trailer is probably around 2,500 - 3,000 lbs....again too much, I know. I towed it home about 40 miles, some interstate, some hills, some stop and go, and honestly the car never felt under powered or funny in any way. Tracked perfectly straight, turned fine, stopping was fine although I made sure to leave extra room in front of me than normal. I wouldn't be affraid to tow it again and again except for the tongue weight being so much. I'm affraid one of the two is going to have to go.

 

Towing with a max is a horrible idea. I know someone who used to tow a lot with an Aztek, it was a horrible looking vehicle but it was designed for towing and even had a towing package on it, and the engine died very early from towing. The max isnt designed for it so im assuming it will have an even worse effect over a year or two.

 

Not me, that is a scary story. At least you have a 6spd. If it was an auto, you'd probably already be broken down somewhere.

I advise against it.

 

If I had an auto I wouldn't have even tried to pull it out of the driveway . One thing I liked about towing it was that the Fujita intake really screams when you drop it in 3rd gear on the interstate next to a concrete barrier. It always screams but since I was towing that boat it took longer to run out 3rd gear so the scream just went on and on....God I love that sound.

 

towing with a maxima is no better than using nitrous. Things will break or wear out much faster. Be nice to your max and go get a junker jeep or 4 runner for 2k and tow to your hearts content.

 

ive never seen a maxima towing anything...id imagine it looks quite ghetto.

 

F.U. C.k It Just tow the ***** lol

 

Nitrous = Towing? Please explain ( I don't know much about either)

 

He's saying both are hard on the car. It's funny because I've got a nitrous kit with a 15lb bottle I've been dying to put on the car. lol I figure if I spray a 75 shot while towing the car would run about like it does when I'm not towing the boat.

I'll get a picture of the boat hooked up to the Maxima sometime this week so you can see if ghetto or white trash fits better.

The Aztek, other than being the ugliest vehicle made since I was born, also had the GM 3.4L engine which had a horrible problem of intake gaskets leaking coolant into the engine. I'm sure towing didn't help matters any but every GM with that engine had that problem. Appreciate the info though, not trying to sound like the Maxima tows better, just saying that engine was probably gonna die regardless.

 

Never would do it. That's what trucks are for.

 

That would be a no go on tow

 

I would think that the 3.5 with the 6 speed would have no problem towing your 2.5k lb bout/trailer. If you drive carefully and give enough room to brake you should be fine.

I wouldn't try to lunch the boat on a dock with this set up but to bring the boat from one place to another should be fine.

I am a bit worried about the tongue weight ripping your receiver out. All of the receivers that i've seen for nissan sedans mount to the spare tire well and the bumper reinforcement. Though the rear bumper reinforcement is pretty strong, I doubt it was designed to with stand almost 3k pounds of vertical force. If it was me, I would weld reinforcement brackets to the receiver and bolt the assembly to the frame of the car. I would also look into getting stronger springs in the rear.

I would love to see some pics of this set up. post them up.

 

It has plenty of power to pull the boat, but it's the tongue weight that worries me. The hitch I put on does bolt where the spare tire is and to what you would call the frame rails of the unibody I guess. Had to drop the mufflers out of the way to bolt it up. Something that would help would be about a 5" raised receiver but that would only marginally help the tongue weight issue and would probably worry me even more. Looked at trucks but thinking of getting 15mpg makes me sick.

 

LOL damn it looks ridiculous.

 

Thanks for the pic. actually dosent look ghetto or white trash, it just looks like a bad idea!

 

Maybe you can call me something now...I ordered these airbags that go inside the coil springs. Will put them on this weekend and see what happens.

 

AN EXCELLENT IDEA

why not start towing huge stuff with my car that breaks down from tranny over heating issues even if i drive it normally

-_-

 

I towed SUV on emergency for a few miles. Car held up great and ran for many miles after. Do not recommend doing it on daily basis though

 

It's a 6 speed.

Decided to go ahead and put the rear tein springs in while I was at it. I doubt they will drop the rearend any. If they do I'll put the stockers back in. Will run air lines to the bags tomorrow and see if they actually do anything.

 

this is getting more and more interesting...

maybe you should add the electronic trailer brake assist?

 

The little air bags? Wow dude, you are going for it. I like it! I appreciate the pics, doesn't look so bad after all. I have Teins, they are good springs.

 

Maybe for when I pull a 24 foot camper.

I'm working on some pictures but the airbags did the trick. Also, the tein springs didn't lower the car at all...actually raised the rear a 1/4". Haven't driven it much yet so they might settle a little bit, but it can't be much. So without any air in the airbags, and with the tein springs installed, the rear end sits 1/4" higher than with the stock springs (all measurements at the wheel well). With 35psi in the airbags (highest recommended setting) the rear sits 3/4" higher than stock. With 35psi in the airbags and the trailer hooked up the rear is now 2" higher than it stock with t he trailer hooked up. So for me the air bags were definitely money well spent. They were easy to install and actually work.

I know most people think I'm nuts for all of this but I really don't care. I'll get some more pictures up soon for those that are curious.

 

got pics of the hitch. i make them for a living. i made one for a maxima and its a pain in the ***.

 

Sorry it's been a while since I said I'd have some more pictures etc on here (not that most of you care). Below are some pictures with somewhat of a description. As far as towing goes, so far I've towed that boat over 500 miles, including 150 miles from this past Sunday. Car has been fine with it so far but I only get about 18mpg while towing on the interstate. On the other hand, if I had bought a truck I'd be getting 18mpg without pulling the boat so I can't complain too much about that. Smaller hills on the interstate are no problem and I just leave the cruise on 70mph and leave it in 6th gear. However, being in WV, there are some larger hills that require me to go down into 5th gear to maintain 65mph or so. These are the hills that have an extra lane for semi trucks because they slow wayyyy down going up these hills. Another funny thing is if I turn the traction control off it will straight murder the tires while taking off pulling all that extra weight. Only did it once but it was hilarious seeing people's faces watching a maxima smoke the tires while pulling a boat. Anyways here are some pictures with a little description on each.
Here is the hitch installed.


Here are the center 2 bolts that got up through the spare area of the trunk.


Here is a picture of how it mounts above each muffler. You can see where I had to cut a hole into the unibody/frame whatever. That was so the nut and metal sleeve that keeps the nut from turning could be placed where the bolt comes through that holds the hitch. Probably a better/neater way to do this but whatever, it's done. At least I undercoated it when I was done to help keep rust away.


Didn't take many pictures of the wiring because it was so simple. I bought a harness that already had the nissan ends and you basically just unhook the pigtail going to each tail light, plug this inline and reconnect it. All I had to do was run a hot wire back from the battery which I ran under the car. I just followed the brake lines back and came through the spare tire area. I looked at coming through the firewall and running it inside but didn't see an easy way to do that very quickly so I ran it under the car. It's fused and tucked out of the way so it will be fine. You can't see in the picture but to the left of that mess of wiring is a pocket/cubby hole in the trunk that all that wiring fit into. So the truck floor is still flat all the way across. The 4 wire connector for the trailer I ran out through a vent that's on the bottom of the trunk on the driver's side.

 

Next up were the airbags to help the rear end from sagging so much with the trailer hooked up. A couple posts ago I mentioned some measurements from before and after the install of the airbags and tien springs and those measurements are still the same over 1,000 miles later. Here's a couple pictures of the airbags and and airline installed. You can see I mounted the air valve on the bottom of the rear bumper near the hitch.


That's really about it. With the airbags aired up to 35psi and the trailer hooked up the car sits pretty much level (with tien springs front and rear). And the car feels/rides the same whether you're pulling the boat or not. I did forget and drive the car around with 35psi in the airbags and no boat behind...it is a rough rider that way. Once you let the air pressure out it rides like normal. Hopefully the next thing I do is install these cattman headers that have been sitting here for almost a year.

 

I know this thread is old now but just to show what the maximas can really tow here is proof. six speed maxima with headers full exhaust no cat injen cold air strut bar aftermarket springs stillen big brakes with cross drilled and slotted. had so many of my friends call me crazy but it seems to do just fine to me

 

lmaoo my dad has a aluminum boat and he uses his 4 door titan to pull it but he told me he wanted to get a beater maxima or v6 accord or v6 camry to pull it cause its light boat and to save gas and he only bought the titant to pull his alot bigger boat that he sold so there no need for a truck. if it is once in a while i dont see why not?