Last December I bought a 2010 Frontier to tow my FB RX-7 to and from the track. This season has gotten off to a slow start, but yesterday I finally got to really test things out when I towed the car to Pitt Race for a skid pad drift event. In the past, I had always just driven the car to Pitt Race as it's only about 1.5 hrs away, and I told myself I'd save the truck and trailer for longer trips, but this time I wanted to use it for experience purposes. Now that I've done it, and realized how much less fatigued I was on the ride home, I think I'll use the trailer extensively.
The car and trailer together are less than 3800 lbs, but I still had to do some trial and error to get the tongue weight where I wanted it. Once I found that spot, the truck and trailer combo were really stable, though I don't usually tow anything at more than 70 mph or so. I replaced the front brakes on the truck recently, and I didn't run into any situations were I felt under-braked. I did forget to check tire pressure on the truck, and I need to look up whether I need to run more pressure while towing. The FB is a blast to drive on the street, but on long highway runs it is loud, hot, and rides like pallet jack. Towing the car home was almost a revelation. I could hear the stereo, the a/c in the truck works great, and on some of the flatter sections of highway I was able to run the cruise control and avoid that weird cramp behind your knee from long hours on the gas pedal.
Earlier this year, I was worried that I might've wasted a fair bit of money in buying the trailer if I didn't get a ton of use out of it, but yesterday it all felt worth the investment. While at the track, I ran the car harder and wasn't afraid to use up the tires, since I didn't need them to get me home. Also, although the FB RX-7 is almost 4th dimensional in terms of how much cargo will fit in the hatch, there's nothing like a truck bed. I was able to bring an EZ up tent, a couple chairs and a cooler, and I didn't have to listen to my bag of tools clanging behind my head. All of this might seem obvious to those of you who have used a trailer for a while, but it took me years to justify the big purchase. It also seems that my friends are more willing to tag along when they don't have to spend hours in the FB without creature comforts. I think the biggest factor in not feeling so tired was the difference in noise - between exhaust drone and having to ride with the windows down, the RX-7 is probably 3 or 4x louder than riding in the truck.
I haven't calculated it myself yet, but the information on the dash display says the truck did 14.5 mpg, which is 3 mpg better than when I used to borrow my dad's Silverado. Certainly there is a big power difference between the two trucks, but with RX-7 being fairly light, the Nissan never really felt too strained. Before the next trip, I'd like to check the transmission fluid, and look into whether an auxiliary cooler is necessary. I didn't use overdrive for 90% of the trip, but on some longer flat sections or slight downhills I allowed it, just to try and gain some efficiency.
I think one of my big takeaways is that comfort and luxury are all relative. Compared to my neighbor's new Laramie Ram, with cooled seats and radar cruise, the Nissan is pretty austere. But when you spend all day blasting around track in the heat, a little truck with good air conditioning and relatively little road noise feels like an oasis. Maybe I'm getting wiser, but probably just getting old.
