Our Nissan NV Passenger 3500 van is our main mode of transportation for all of our road trips to national parks, camping adventures and pulling our pontoon boat. We love this platform as our means of getting outside! We call her the KempBus!
I have always been a truck guy. Having a truck to throw camping gear in the bed, or hooking up the boat has always been how I get to the campsite or boat ramp. But when we adopted kids even my Ford F-250 crew cab diesel was no longer big enough to take the kids, the dog, and all our gear. Add in the fact an open truck bed is not the best way to secure valuable gear when stopped for the night, and I was looking for new options.
Finding the right vehicle for your needs can be a challenge. Hauling 4-5 people (sometimes my mom comes along) a dog, camping gear, fishing gear, luggage, coolers and more for a 2 week camping and fishing trip calls for a special vehicle. Enter the Nissan NV 3500 Passenger van!
With seating for up to 12 and a towing capacity of 8,700 lbs, this van blew away the competition! All the rear seating can be removed which gives plenty of cargo space for gear, and we use it! Most of the other passenger vans we looked at have drastically lower towing capacity. Our pontoon boat doesn’t weigh that much, but when I tow our boat as far as 4,000 miles in a single trip, I want a large margin for my tow capacity!
With this van, we have room to grow. Kids can bring friends boating or fishing. I keep telling my wife we have room for another dog! But also if we ever move up to a camper we have plenty of tow capacity for lots of options.
There are some drawbacks though. The fuel economy when towing is not as good as I would like. I wish there was a high top passenger version and more cargo space would be nice when we have all the seats in (which is rare for us). Lastly, I would love for Nissan to offer the Cummins diesel engine as an option the same as they do on the Titan pickup trucks. All in all though, I love this van. Check out our review video!
Check out our reviews on some of our favorite van accessories!
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