Hi,

I have a 2012 V6 4x4 pathfinder with the sport shift style transmission. I don’t have a tow/haul button and the owners manual says nothing about what to do if you don’t have a tow/haul button.

My thoughts are since there is no overdrive, there is no need for tow/haul…maybe?

I’m in the market for a travel trailer and I’ll be towing it in the Canadian Rockies now and again.

Should I be aware of anything I need to do when towing to ensure I don’t fry my tranny? Like use the sport manual mode when towing or something …

TIA!

Justin

My controls are slightly different since I have the V8.
But I used to own the V6 and seem to recall being able to lock out overdrive (which is IMO what 5th is), via the manumatic function and/or set the car to a "3" setting in the hills?

Hi Justin, I posted about my own learning experience towing with my 2012 SV a couple years back: topic20753.html

In short, my towing issues were more about my own lack of knowledge than the R51. I had been trying to drive too fast with too much payload. She performed as expected, considering the load she was under. My advice to anyone looking to tow with their Pathy?
1. PAYLOAD, PAYLOAD, PAYLOAD! I had been overloading the vehicle (adults, teenagers, dog, bikes, cooler, BBQ, etc... I recommend loading up and going to your nearest weigh station to check all your weights. Shift your gear out of the truck and into the trailer where you can.
2. Turn off Overdrive or shift into M4 - our models do not have any overdrive lockout, but you can shift "manually" into 4th. There's a couple threads about this:
topic9009.html
3. I don't know the history of your pathy, but regular tranny, diffy and transfer case fluid changes, and an occasional coolant flush are imperative if you're gonna be towing.
4. Don’t rush, the Pathy’s a comfortable ride, bring some coffee and enjoy the journey

Spatula wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 15, 2023 11:43 am

Hi Justin, I posted about my own learning experience towing with my 2012 SV a couple years back: topic20753.html

In short, my towing issues were more about my own lack of knowledge than the R51. I had been trying to drive too fast with too much payload. She performed as expected, considering the load she was under. My advice to anyone looking to tow with their Pathy?
1. PAYLOAD, PAYLOAD, PAYLOAD! I had been overloading the vehicle (adults, teenagers, dog, bikes, cooler, BBQ, etc... I recommend loading up and going to your nearest weigh station to check all your weights. Shift your gear out of the truck and into the trailer where you can.
2. Turn off Overdrive or shift into M4 - our models do not have any overdrive lockout, but you can shift "manually" into 4th. There's a couple threads about this:
topic9009.html
3. I don't know the history of your pathy, but regular tranny, diffy and transfer case fluid changes, and an occasional coolant flush are imperative if you're gonna be towing.
4. Don’t rush, the Pathy’s a comfortable ride, bring some coffee and enjoy the journey

Thanks Spatula! Sounds like your in Alberta too! It’s been too long since I’ve camped at Cypress, maybe next year when I’ve got an outfit! I also see you’ve got a nice MTB. That’s the main reason I want a camper so we can start doing family MTB trips. My son and I hit Hinton this year and had so much fun.

This is great info and really tracks with how other manual transmissions should be used to tow. Now why couldn’t Nissan have included this in the dang owners manual!!???

Much appreciated!

Hi,
I tow a 26' Jayco with a GVWR of 5500 lbs. Spatula is correct, don't overload your Pathfinder or trailer. You're vehicle's payload is on the tire size/inflation sticker. It varies depending on how each vehicle is equipped. Payload includes passengers, cargo, trailer hitch (a load leveling hitch insert assembly can weigh 50lbs) and trailer tongue weight (usually 10% to 15% of the actual trailer weight).

Don't fall for the Pathfinder 6000lb GVWR, 6000lb tow capability hype - that equals 12,000lbs. It's really more of an either/or situation because in the towing section of the owners manual it says the Gross Combined Weight of a V6 Pathfinder and trailer is 11,135lbs.

My PF is RWD so I'm totally unfamiliar with the 4wd driveline but assuming the trans is the same I'd like to offer the following. I tried several different methods of cooling the trans fluid while monitoring the engine temperature with a real time OBDII scanner. Unfortunately there is no means available that I've been able to find of monitoring the trans temp with a code reader/scanner.

The PF has a trans fluid cooler built into the radiator and an auxillary cooler mounted in front of the radiator on the drivers side. I tried a 10" fan in front of the auxillary cooler with no reduction in coolant temp. Got rid of the fan.

Next - added a small Hayden cooler located on the passenger side between the auxillary cooler and the transmission - a small decrease in coolant temp

Better - deleted the radiator trans cooler from the flow - greater decrease in coolant temp

Best - with the radiator cooler deleted added a second small Hayden cooler located in the center behind the grill - significant decrease in coolant temp. So my current configuration is:

trans out--> center Hayden cooler--> factory auxillary cooler, drivers side--> passenger side Hayden cooler--> trans in

My reasoning behind all of this:
With a trans cooler in the coolant radiator there must be some undesirable heat exchange between the two.
The factory auxillary cooler is intended to work in conjunction with the radiator mounted cooler and probably can't cool sufficiently by itself under extreme loads.
Using two additional small coolers is less restrictive to overall airflow in my opinion.
A tissue test, grill removed, hood closed (very scientific) tells me I have really good airflow through all three coolers at idle.

If anyone's interested it appears to me a second factory auxillary cooler could be mounted on the passenger side framework. At some point in time the auxillary cooler was mounted there and the mounting points are still built into the framework (threaded hole up top, standoffs on the bottom).

Fifth gear is infact overdrive. On my gear selector handle there is a button to turn it off/on. I put it in that order because the normal mode is on after start up. However it is not in 5th (overdrive) until after 4th is engaged and the torque converter is locked. The torque converter locks in 4th gear but only after trans fluid temp is 140°F and speed exceeds 40mph. I suppose that could be a problem in really cold weather but one could always cover the small trans coolers.

My experience towing with the PF is that even on flat ground the transmission shifts a lot more than I like. I wish I could manually lock/unlock the torque converter. That alone would give an extra 500rpm or so in fourth when needed.

Sorry for the lengthy post.

pathy-logical wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 29, 2023 6:38 am

Hi,
I tow a 26' Jayco with a GVWR of 5500 lbs. Spatula is correct, don't overload your Pathfinder or trailer. You're vehicle's payload is on the tire size/inflation sticker. It varies depending on how each vehicle is equipped. Payload includes passengers, cargo, trailer hitch (a load leveling hitch insert assembly can weigh 50lbs) and trailer tongue weight (usually 10% to 15% of the actual trailer weight).

Don't fall for the Pathfinder 6000lb GVWR, 6000lb tow capability hype - that equals 12,000lbs. It's really more of an either/or situation because in the towing section of the owners manual it says the Gross Combined Weight of a V6 Pathfinder and trailer is 11,135lbs.

My PF is RWD so I'm totally unfamiliar with the 4wd driveline but assuming the trans is the same I'd like to offer the following. I tried several different methods of cooling the trans fluid while monitoring the engine temperature with a real time OBDII scanner. Unfortunately there is no means available that I've been able to find of monitoring the trans temp with a code reader/scanner.

The PF has a trans fluid cooler built into the radiator and an auxillary cooler mounted in front of the radiator on the drivers side. I tried a 10" fan in front of the auxillary cooler with no reduction in coolant temp.

Next - added a small Hayden cooler located on the passenger side between the auxillary cooler and the transmission - a small decrease in coolant temp

Better - deleted the radiator trans cooler from the flow - greater decrease in coolant temp

Best - with the radiator cooler deleted added a second small Hayden cooler located in the center behind the grill - significant decrease in coolant temp. So my current configuration is:

trans out--> center Hayden cooler--> factory auxillary cooler, drivers side--> passenger side Hayden cooler--> trans in

My reasoning behind all of this:
With a trans cooler in the coolant radiator there must be some undesirable heat exchange between the two.
The factory auxillary cooler is intended to work in conjunction with the radiator mounted cooler and probably can't cool sufficiently by itself under extreme loads.
Using two additional small coolers is less restrictive to overall airflow in my opinion.
A tissue test (very scientific) tells me I have really good airflow through all three coolers at idle.

If anyone's interested it appears to me a second factory auxillary cooler could be mounted on the passenger side framework. At some point in time the auxillary cooler was mounted there and the mounting points are still built into the framework (threaded hole up top, standoffs on the bottom).

Fifth gear is infact overdrive. On my gear selector handle there is a button to turn it off/on. I put it in that order because the normal mode is on after start up. However it is not in 5th (overdrive) until after 4th is engaged and the torque converter is locked. The torque converter locks in 4th gear but only after trans fluid temp is 140°F and speed exceeds 40mph. I suppose that could be a problem in really cold weather but one could always cover the small trans coolers.

My experience towing with the PF is that even on flat ground the transmission shifts a lot more than I like. I wish I could manually lock/unlock the torque converter. That alone would give an extra 500rpm or so in fourth when needed.

Sorry for the lengthy post.

Dont say "sorry" for the lenghty post.
This is the kind oif exchange our little group thrives on

I have a feeling the combined radiator is a compromise that helps it heat up the transmission fluid faster in cold winters. Maybe it's cheaper to manufacture as well?

2012SV wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 24, 2023 6:21 pm

Thanks Spatula! Sounds like your in Alberta too! It’s been too long since I’ve camped at Cypress, maybe next year when I’ve got an outfit! I also see you’ve got a nice MTB. That’s the main reason I want a camper so we can start doing family MTB trips. My son and I hit Hinton this year and had so much fun.

We're in Sask, so we usually visit the "our" side of the park lol. There are some great trails for mountain biking, and I'm usually the only person on them, which is nice. Hinton looks amazing though! I'd like to make a trip out west to there or Fernie. We are thinking about selling our Bushranger trailer and building our own overland trailer with RTT, which will make shorter trips to smaller parks more feasible... But we'll see what happens.