Tow test: Nissan Titan

It’s a difficult choice facing many Australians planning extended travels with a large caravan: to stick with a locally-available 3.5-tonne rated SUVs and Utes, or look Stateside.

Until recently, choosing a US-built and locally-converted ‘Pick-Up’ was a right-field choice. It set you apart from other travellers and branded you as a blue singlet ‘truckie’, but with the advent of ever-large caravans that now more closely resemble apartments on wheels, that stigma has long gone.

The reality for anyone planning to haul a caravan or fifth wheeler with an ATM of 2800-3000kg upwards, is that it’s now the smart choice for a number of reasons.

For a start, even with the heaviest Toyota Landcruiser or Nissan Patrol up front, there’s a good chance that your laden, large off-road caravan will weigh up to 700kg more.

That weight imbalance won’t change, even if you fit your Landcruiser with one of the excellent GVM ADR-rated upgrades offered by suspension specialist Lovells, although it may save you changing tow vehicles if you already own a 200-series ‘Cruiser.

However, if you’re starting with a clean sheet, as many retirees and long-term travellers are, a big pick-up like the US-built Nissan Titan we reviewed recently is a real alternative.

Built to tow

Weighing in at just over 2700kg, the Titan XD Platinum Reserve Crew-Cab with its advanced 5.0 litre, 32-valve Cummins V8 turbo-diesel engine, tips the scales empty at much the same as a Landcruiser 200 Series Sahara or Altitude Special Edition, but that doesn’t tell the real story.

Thanks to its metre-longer wheelbase, conservative 4.5 tonne tow rating, plus a 907kg payload in its vast load-bed that you can load with chairs, tables, a generator, bikes, an extra fridge and so on, it’s a veritable rock on the road that defies side-winds, undulations and trailer-push like no other regular 3.5kg-rated tow vehicle can.

For these solid reasons it’s why Queensland’s Bushtracker, which makes some of the largest and heaviest off-road caravans in Australia, now uses nothing but US-iron to haul its behemoths to and from shows, with more and more of its customers following suit.

Traditionally there have been a number of reasons why Australian travellers have shied away from this path.

The first is the perception that big American pick-ups are crude and thirsty.

Well, Bushtracker’s sales staff are well-qualified to comment here, having towed caravans to and from shows in Melbourne and Sydney from the factory on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.

Plying the 2000km on major highways to Melbourne in convoy at posted speed limits, they’ve found that ahead of similar-weight caravans a Landcruiser 200 Series with its 4.5 litre V8 diesel engine on average drinks 22 litres/100km, a Titan with its 5.0-litre Cummins V8 consumes 19l/100km and a Dodge RAM 2500 with an even-larger 6.7 litre straight-six diesel does even better at around 17-18l/100km.

So, size matters, but not how you might think.

Lazy engine

A lot of it depends on how the power is delivered. For example, while the Landcruiser’s V8 develops its maximum torque of 650Nm at 1600rpm, the Titan and RAM 2500 develop 750Nm and 1084Nm respectively at similar revs, so they will hang onto their top (sixth) gear longer and don’t have to work as hard on long hills.

The Titan’s burly ladder-frame chassis from Nissan’s Commercial Vehicle division also works for it as a tow tug. However, while its leaf spring rear end does a predictably good job of supporting the high ball loading of a heavy off-road caravan without sagging, the Titan’s double wishbone independent front end and Bilstein telescopic shock absorbers all round provides an unexpected degree of steering response and resistance to bump-steer on corrugations for a vehicle of its working origins.

That’s good news if you want to travel off road, where few American pick-ups can match the 200-Series Landcruiser.

On the road this gives the Titan a more connected steering feels than most of its ilk and will make it a more familiar ‘drive’ to those moving up from a big Landcruiser or Patrol.

The steering response also owes some of its precision to the fact that virtually nothing under the bonnet of the Titan is changed by Brisbane-based SCD American Vehicles in its left-to-right-hand-drive conversion, so what you get in the US is not lost in translation.

Great car-like features

The other great car-like driving features of the Titan is its standard Aisin six-speed automatic transmission – a premium commercial vehicle transmission that’s an extra-cost option on some of its US rivals. This might seem like overkill for what for Americans is a light-duty pick-up, but it delivers a smooth car-like delivery of power that really adds to the Titan’s driving pleasure.

Unlike the Dodge RAM, which employs an exhaust brake to restrain the vehicle on long descents when towing, the Titan with its transmission’s Downhill Speed Control that’s activated by a tap on the brakes, makes it an equally-effective and quieter alternative.

Even without DSC, the Titan is well-endowed in the braking department, with huge 14-inch diameter ventilated disc brakes all round, nestled inside its 18-inch alloy wheels.

Similar ‘fit for towing’ features of the Titan include its built-in gooseneck hitch, that’s integrated into its frame and accessed via three tapped mounting points in the load bed, its standard dash-mounted brake controller, an electronic locking rear differential, its heavy duty transfer case with a low-range gear set, standard Trailer Sway Control, a trailer light check feature and extendable towing mirrors with blind-spot monitoring.

Not specifically for towing, but thoughtful features on the test Titan not found on all US trucks, are the push-down retractable rear step and a gas strut-assisted tailgate, which together make access to the working end easy, while lockable side storage boxes are also standard on the Platinum Extreme.

Good 'ol American comfort 

However, despite its blue-collar truck origins, it’s a ‘white bread’ world inside for the Titan’s crew.

Although designed in California, engineered in Michigan, tested in Arizona and assembled in Mississippi, its fit and finish is at the high standard we’ve come to expect from Japanese manufacturers.

The Nissan Titan’s décor, however. is apple-pie American, from its quilted black/brown leather seats to the many driver comfort aids fitted as standard to the top-spec Titan XD Platinum Reserve.

These include a 7.0-inch touch-screen monitor linked to a rear-view camera, dual-zone automatic temperature control, a heated, leather-wrapped steering wheel, an eight-way adjustable driver’s seat with ‘zero-gravity’ springing all round to reduce travel fatigue and interior 240v and 12v power sockets.

Price makes sense

The other good thing about the Titan is it price, which is comparable to top-end Landcruisers, albeit with a lot more ‘fruit’ in its basket, and is around $6000-$7000 cheaper than its main RAM 2500 rival, if similarly equipped. It’s also less than you’ll probably pay for a top-spec Landcrusier with a GVM upgrade.

Of course, there are some downsides to employing a jumped-up truck for towing instead of a more versatile vehicle based on an SUV.

Manoeuvrability is one of them and you certainly won’t spin a Titan with a large caravan in tow around in an average street, nor slip easily into a supermarket parking slot. And with its overall length of more than six metres and width of more than two metres, it may not even fit into your driveway.

On the positive side, SCD American Vehicles offers a three-year, 100,000km warranty on the Titan, while servicing intervals are 16,000km, or 12 months apart – enough to allow you to complete that lap of Australia in comfort, safety and ease. . .

2018 Nissan Titan XD Platinum Reserve

Vehicle type: Crew Cab American pick-up (Ute) SUV                                                        Engine: 5.0-litre, 32-valve DOHC twin sequential turbo Cummins V8 diesel
Transmission: 6-speed Aisin automatic with low range transfer case
Power/torque: 235kW/750Nm at 1600rpm
Titan XD prices start at $104,990 for the Single Cab S model.
Crew Cab Platinum Reserve as reviewed $135,990
Supplied by: SCD American Vehicles, Virginia, Queensland