Reliable tow truck??

[Sundowner2]

G'day all, I'm quite new to Navara ownership, brought a 2012 D40 RX Thai built 2.5L TD Crew Cab in January.
As 'grey nomads' we brought this ute to tow our caravan around, we spend some 5 or 6 months of each year on the road...our 'van is a Jayco Outback Poptop and weighs in at a little less than 2 tonne, the Navara tows it ok, it is better than the old Rodeo that it replaced anyway. So far we have added about 6000km to it and am quite happy....but; I have been reading up on some reliability issues with the Thai built models...as far as I can see mine has been assembled very well and can say honestly that I am unable to fault it...I am aware that early failure of the single row timing chain has been an issue and mine is auto so the early clutch failure issues wont concern me.
I intend to have it serviced by Nissan at least up until the new car warranty expires anyway.....my purpose of this posting is to just see if these vehicles can be considered reliable, we intend to do some remote country travel later this year. I accept that it is possible that the Thai built versions might not be as good as the Japanese models but are they all that bad?
Previous vehicles have been a Jeep Cherokee (excellent truck but costly to maintain) and a RA Rodeo LPG crewcab which performed almost faultlessly for 170k km, in other words we are used to having vehicles we can reasonably expect to bring us home.
Any comments regarding things to be aware of appreciated.

 

[TigerST]

Hit up old tony on any towing questions.

 

[Old.Tony]

There are a number of us that do a fair bit of towing, but I don't think this is even really a "towing" question. It's more of a "will the car make it back" question.

The answer - for any model of any car - is MAYBE. At 120km/h on the CSR it'll be more like NO. Regular servicing, inspection of the common wear and tear items, carrying spares - these things will help you. Here's a couple of observations though, of my own vehicle.

1) Radiator isn't as flash as it should be. The thing gets hot. We drove from Newcastle to the Muster outside Warwick QLD last year up Cunninghams Gap with a broken fluid coupling. Had the top tank of the radiator repaired, fluid couple replaced, we're doing much better, but I can still get her (hauling 2.5T up a steep grade) to touch 105C if I leave it in drive. I'm going to get a racing radiator and separate tranny cooler (which is not an aircon plant for a shemale) installed in her next.

2) You need to change gears manually. We just hauled the van up near Hill End NSW, there were some steep climbs and the temps went up. Dropped it back to 3rd, then second, and temps fell back below 100C. Happy with that - I wanted to see what the heavier van (the previous van was 1.8T, the new one 2.5T) did to the car's operation and how quickly it did it and how the recovery process worked.

3) You should carry some silicone lube with you at all times. It cures everything from the common cold to bovine testicular cancer (depending on what you detonate the can with and its placement) and it's a bloody brilliant lubricant, particularly for idler gears on your fan belt arrangement.

4) Spare parts - I don't carry top and bottom radiator hoses, I carry Rescue Tape - Aldi had some recently for $5 a roll, but generally it's found at places like Jaycar for $20 a roll. Can't fault this stuff - wrap it around something and back onto itself and it grabs like nothing else, welding itself together. Expensive stuff to keep making mistakes with, but it gets you out of trouble. A spare fan belt, full set of fuses, globes and some basic tools is what I also carry.

Other than that, I don't do much else. I make sure the rig is hooked up properly, using the right brake controller, weight distribution hitch (and there's some interesting info I have to add to the Towing FAQ about there). I don't flog the life out of the vehicle and prefer to let the thing slow on hills rather than push it a little harder.

In the long run, any car can fail, regardless of how well it's been kept, but my motto is to reduce the risks by taking better care and not stressing the vehicle as much.

The best advice I could give you is to enjoy the journey, take lots of pics and really, that's got nothing to do with whatever you're hauling it with. I wouldn't worry about things like timing chains - if they're going to go, they will. Mine's passed the 140,000km mark with a significant amount of that towing, and she's not having any timing chain issues (or any other issues at the moment, except the girly horn).

 

[Sundowner2]

Thanks for the comprehensive response Old.Tony, yes my posting was more for seeking some 'peace of mind'...you are correct in that any car can/will fail....I had a Rodeo and a Jeep previously and if you go by some of the online reviews of these two vehicles there is no way you would buy one yet both of mine were great and only pensioned off due to age. I am quite happy with the way my Navara tows, it also rides great and gives me a sense of satisfaction and to hear that you have now done 140k km only strengthens this feeling. Now a couple of things I am struggling with, the Nissan service intervals are stated to be 10k km unless the vehicle is driven in 'extreme' situations such as towing when they say the engine must be changed every 5K km, this is something that I'm happy to do myself, that is until I looked under the hood to locate the filter..OMG!..there it is hiding down there under the fuel filter at the back of the motor, if they tried to find a more difficult place to stick it they would have failed. So, and I actually started another posting on this subject, how the hell does one change that filter?, especially when you have size 11 hands!..it seems to me that removing the fuel filter would be the way to go..what has been your experience with oil/filter changing?
Also, I have found that by doing as you do and not trying to fly over hills, preferring to keep the revs below 3k RPM, I find that diesel consumption is acceptable with an average of 15-16L/100km on a recent trip to Sydney. Thanks again

 

[Old.Tony]

I just service every 10,000km. Really, the oil is still in good condition - it blackens from blow-by quickly because it's a diesel - any diesel will do it. Air filters should be changed in dusty conditions, but some cars - diesels too - are having their service intervals extended. I really don't think it's essential to dump the oil after 5,000km even when towing in summer. If I was racing the car, I would - but really, my engine load doesn't often exceed 70%, RPM rarely over 2500, I just let things happen as they happen rather than urging things along and hurrying along the car's inevitable demise.

Our recent trip saw an average of 18LPHK used - hauling the van up the mountain to Mudgee and out into the bush beyond, then back down again. I did come back a little harder than I was anticipating, but overall I'm not unhappy with the outcome.

You can make the oil look better for longer if you block the EGR. Without the EGR, combustion occurs more completely, so the blow-by passing the piston rings is fully burnt rather than mostly burnt fuel, so there is less soot blown into the crankcase - which is what blackens the oil in diesels in the first place.

 

[Sundowner2]

Thanks again Old.Tony, regarding your comment that you rarely exceed 2500 RPM, I endeavour to do that also but often find I am up around 3000 to keep the speed up on hills..out of interest do you have a manual or auto and do you have overdrive?...what would be your revs at 100k/ph?

 

[Old.Tony]

I don't even try to keep speed up on hills. The dinky little 2.5L motor pulling 5.5T up a hill - isn't going to happen without a struggle. I avoid it, I change down gears, keep the engine load low, use the torque amplification of the of the lower gears to keep the strain down, and if you want to go past me in your hotted up Commodore, I'm not stopping you!

I drive an auto, she's doing marginally over 2,000rpm at 100km/h and if I'm not climbing serious hills, I leave it in Drive with overdrive enabled (so that 'D' displays on the dash).