2015 Nissan NV 3500 HD Room To Move
By Thom Cannell
Senior Editor
Michigan Bureau
The Auto
Channel
Author's Note: No attempt at completeness, simply comments on
a brief driving experience—balanced against decades of experience and
hundreds of comparisons.
Only a few years ago craftsmen, tradesmen, and people haulers had
few choices for vehicles. Today we have abundant box-on-wheel vehicles from
Ford, the Transit and Transit Connect; another twosome from Dodge, the Ram
ProMaster and ProMaster City; Mercedes’ Sprinter in various
configurations; and from Nissan Commercial Vehicles the NV 1500, NV2500 HD
and NV 3500 HD. To help a friend move and satisfy years-long curiosity we
borrowed the largest NV, an NV3500 HD with 323 cubic feet of cargo space.
To say it is large is misleading, it is huge.
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Pickup trucks are a staple of American life. They roam job sites,
construction sites, urban driveways, and herd cattle on the open range. For
some applications, both real and emotional, nothing will replace them. The
vans, B-vans in automotive speak, are built off their chassis.
Nissan’s first pickup, the F-Alpha Titan provided the underpinnings
for the NV, however that chassis was almost completely revised and
re-engineered for the robustness needed for hauling. The other vans are
purpose built and designed in Europe where pickups are either
Frontier-sized or unavailable, though 350-type HD pickups are sometimes
used by long distance race crews, like the Paris-to-Dakar.
The day the blazing red NV3500 arrived my neighbors though it only
lacked a tail to be mistaken for a whale and we agreed it could be a
refugee from Sponge Bob reruns. Embracing long nascent truck driving skills
we tackled the weekend-long move in anticipation of our own far bulkier
change of residence.
Immediately we understood the NV-series link to the older Titan
pickups, its 5.6-liter 317 horsepower engine with 385 pound-feet of torque.
Also, it had a pickup’s long steps up into the cab and seemingly
spartan interior. As this is being written on the way to the new
Titan’s launch we’ll speculate that the cab will undergo some
significant upgrade, not that changes should, or need to be, substantial,
mostly a larger navigation/display screen and improving the driver
information available between tachometer and speedometer.
As a trades vehicle—this one fitted with stout wooden side
panels, floor, 6’3” extend roof, and six in-floor D-ring
tie-downs — it needs to be functional more than furnished in leather
and lace.
The exterior is equally
functional with extendable tow-style mirrors massive and ($160 optional
windowed) bi-fold rear doors secured with magnets. One of the first things
we noticed while driving was little to no head toss, surprising with
NV’s very tall seating position. Other users of the truck were, to a
person, enthusiastic about having the doors secured open by the large
magnets which latch to the bumper. The sheer volume is compelling for any
trade or occupation, as is ease of loading. Lift-over height is just above
the knee and below what a pickup truck would require. Another nicety, the
backup camera lights up in under a second providing a view that’s
necessary once the van is filled and only outside mirrors available.
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As a former truck driver I was concerned it would feel to heavy,
particularly when empty. Nope, if anything it felt bottom heavy, even when
filled with my pal’s possessions. I think this was because of the
heavily improved former pickup chassis, A-arm front and solid rear axle
suspension. Little to no head toss was felt though it felt better to drive
when loaded, but not at all bad when empty. And there was surprisingly
little noise from the cavern in the back.
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What else does it need? That larger display screen and the addition of
Nissan’s Around View which gives a single driver a 360° look around
the truck. Likely it will add the new Titan XD’s rear backup system
and patented trailer light verification system. Another feature we’d
like is for night time driving in close quarters neighborhood driving and
in urban traffic—side turn illumination. With its high seating
position and huge A-pillars, you can’t see obstacles and debris when
navigating corners in the dark. Steerable cornering lights would be even
nicer, but are perhaps beyond the utility of the truck.
As I’m moving soon there should be another few chapters in
this novelette.
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