eightball298

I know there's a lot of mixed opinions on this, but I'm wondering if anyone with an 8th gen Maxima has tried this & has any experiences to share. I had a "hidden" hitch installed on my 2011 Dodge Charger, and while that car certainly was not intended to tow anything, it was perfectly adequate for towing a small trailer & my dirt bike. It kept me from having to drive a pickup truck every day, and didn't even break a sweat on long road trips through the Colorado mountains. I'm looking to get rid of the Charger now, and the only other car I'm considering is a 2018-21 Maxima. I had an '89 & a '99, and they were 2 of my favorite cars. I only wish they still made a manual transmission. Anyway, should I buy one of these, I'm going to still need a way to tow the dirt bike, so I'm wondering if anyone in here has a setup to recommend. I've found what seem to be a few pretty well-built examples here. I'd of course prefer to get a 'hidden' one like I had before on the Charger. When I removed it, you really couldn't tell it was even there at all. These look slightly more visible, but it's still better than buying a pickup. Thanks!

eightball298

2011 Dodge Charger with Hidden Hitch

wytnyt

dang that much of a squat on the rear for a small bike?

eightball298

Oh no, that’s from all the stuff I have loaded into the trunk… luggage for a week, camping & riding gear, a 50lb R/C car, etc. The best part of that trip was that I towed that thing 1400 miles total to COL & never took the bike off the traiker - got altitude sickness in Breckenridge & wound up in the hospital 🙄 I’d made that trip to COL 3x before, towed the bike to Moab, UT, all over Northern AZ, etc. Never had a problem.

It’s definitely well under the manufacturer’s limit (they don’t say ‘no trailer’ like Nissan, but do indicate a limit of around 1500lbs I think .. It’s a small trailer & the bike is about 240.

I also use a hitch-mounted bike rack for the mountain bikes which i really prefer over other styles. The only part that is new here is the one thing that makes me hesitate on choosing the Maxima at all - the FWD.

compyelc4

I wanted to mount a hitch on my '17 SL. Everything I read said to not do it, because the CVT trans would not take it. I ended up mounting it on my wife's Malibu. That hitch takes a max 300 lb. tongue weight and max 1500 lb. pull weight. While the Malibu trans and car chassis handles it okay, I can tell it is straining to back up my steep driveway. I can imagine the Max trans would struggle even more. My dealer mechanic said one of the things they check when encountering bad CVT's is to see if there is a trailer hitch installed. I asked him if it might void the warranty and he said for sure, although I don't really see how they could prove that. I just didn't want to take the chance.

robtroxel

Smart move not to install the hitch. The car was not designed for this. I saw a new Altima with a bike hitch and 3 bikes stowed on it. The rear was squatting and nearly contacting the pavement as we followed @ 70 mph on the interstate. The wrong car for this hitch or any roof mounted refugee rack some are trying to mount. Get a truck!

EnduroDad2k

The curse of modern mountain bikes is they pretty much require one of the modern platform bike racks which are almost always hitch mounted (1up, Thule T2, rockymounts etc.).

Understood it's not a car for towing anything, but for a single bicycle I can't image a hitch rack would cause any issues beyond a minor reduction in clearance. It's like a 35lb bike and 25lb rack.

Read through the Maxima and Altima reviews on etrailer to get a sense of what people encounter. The install is more involved than most cars but doesn't seem too bad:
https://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Hit...cc-onlyreviews

wild willy2

I would not tow anything heavier a matchbox car with a CVT

robtroxel

WW is correct. Don't get me wrong - but the CVT is made to pull the car. If you add the wind resistance to a load of bikes the CVT will fail much faster. Just too much heat for the CVT design and putting extra weight and the drag past the rear bumper is all wrong( see my earlier post). In this case, a small 2-wheel trailer might be far better for weight distribution.