There are a bunch of hitches on the market for a 2018 Maxima but after reading my wife's owners manual, I see it says "Don't tow a trailer." Is this a strict rule or just something to cover Nissans backside? I would only tow a very light trailer and very little weight. We already had U-Haul install a hitch before we read this. I'm hoping some members here tow light railers.

 

Oh for the love of Pete no trailer hitch on a Maxima please! Thank you.

 

I'd imagine a light trailer would probably be fine, but any added weight I'm thinking is probably just adding more stress to the cvt.

 

No, Nissan just likes to screw with their customers. They put stuff like that in the manuals just to joke around.
Tow away.

 

Thank you. I would only be towing very light items on a light trailer very rarely. Guess I shouldn't have traded my pickup in on a Honda Insight.

 

Tow away champ i used my 18 maxima to tow my little trailer my brother just used it the other day to tow his furniture, no problems at all

 

Am I wrong on this - 4 people in the car (800lbs) or driver (200lbs) + 600lbs in a trailer, CVT still has to move the weight, what's the difference. For the load I disregarded trailer tongue weight to keep the math easy.

 

Wouldn't tow more than 1500 lbs total (trailer + cargo).

 

Well you will screw your CVT up over the long run. WRONG car for this task! Why not rent a small truck for the few times you do this.

 

I don’t think it will kill your transmission, any more than hauling around two three hundred pound in-laws in the back seat is gonna hurt it.

on the other hand , the damage it does to your image will be irreversible

the “hamburger box” on the roof is out of the question too

 

I'm afraid I've probably already screwed up my warranty. It's my wife's car and I didn't thoroughly read her manual before we got the hitch installed. I doubt I could convince the dealer we never towed a trailer if there was a CVT issue. As far as actual usage, I will probably be the only one in the car towing a load less than 1000 lbs total (trailer and cargo.). Live and learn.

 

Well, if you've screwed up your warranty then you have a ton more to lose by towing. I would not take that chance. For this reason I installed a hitch on my wife's 2014 Malibu to do "light towing". Sometimes that light towing ends up being more weight than you thought. It is not necessarily just the weight of the trailer as much as it is the harsh up and down motion and forward and back motion causing stress on that CVT. Heck, the trans in the Malibu strains just going up and down driveway curbing and climbing my steep driveway. I can feel other trans stresses as I approach a light and the trans tries to engine brake. I really don't think the CVT in the Max was designed for that type of strain.