2018 NISSAN PATHFINDER PLATINUM Owners Manual

Pre-towing tips
∙ Be certain your vehicle maintains a levelposition when a loaded and/or un-
loaded trailer is hitched. Do not drive the
vehicle if it has an abnormal nose-up or
nose-down condition; check for im-
proper tongue load, overload, worn sus-
pension or other possible causes of ei-
ther condition.
∙ Always secure items in the trailer to pre- vent load shif t while driving.
∙ Keep the cargo load as low as possible in the trailer to keep the trailer center of
gravity low.
∙ Load the trailer so approximately 60% of the trailer load is in the front half and
40% is in the back half. Also make sure
the load is balanced side to side.
∙ Check your hitch, trailer tire pressure, vehicle tire pressure, trailer light opera-
tion, and trailer wheel lug nuts every
time you attach a trailer to the vehicle.
∙ Be certain your rearview mirrors con- form to all federal, state or local regula-
tions. If not, install any mirrors required
for towing before driving the vehicle. ∙ Determine the overall height of the ve-
hicle and trailer so the required clear-
ance is known.
Trailer towing tips
In order to gain skill and an understanding
of the vehicle’s behavior, you should prac-
tice turning, stopping and backing up in an
area which is free from traffic. Steering sta-
bility and braking performance will be
somewhat different than under normal
driving conditions.
∙ Always secure items in the trailer to pre- vent load shif t while driving.
∙ Lock the trailer hitch coupler with a pin or lock to prevent the coupler from in-
advertently becoming unlatched.
∙ Avoid abrupt starts, acceleration or stops.
∙ Avoid sharp turns or lane changes.
∙ Always drive your vehicle at a moderate speed. ∙ When backing up, hold the bottom of
the steering wheel with one hand. Move
your hand in the direction in which you
want the trailer to go. Make small cor-
rections and back up slowly. If possible,
have someone guide you when you are
backing up.
Always block the wheels on both vehicle
and trailer when parking. Parking on a
slope is not recommended; however, if you
must do so:

CAUTION
∙ Failure to follow these guidelines canresult in severe transmission damage.
∙ Never flat tow your 4-wheel drive (4WD) vehicle.
∙ DO NOT tow your 4-wheel drive (4WD) vehicle with any wheels on the
ground. Doing so may cause serious
and expensive damage to the
powertrain.
∙ For emergency towing procedures re- fer to “Towing recommended by
NISSAN” in the “In case of emergency ”
section of this manual.
FLAT TOWING FOR FRONT WHEEL
DRIVE VEHICLE (if so equipped)
Towing your vehicle with all four wheels on
the ground is sometimes called flat towing.
This method is sometimes used when
towing a vehicle behind a recreational ve-
hicle, such as a motor home.

DOT (Department of Transportation) Qual-
ity Grades: All passenger car tires must
conform to federal safety requirements in
addition to these grades.
Quality grades can be found where appli-
cable on the tire sidewall between tread
shoulder and maximum section width. For
example:
Treadwear 200 Traction AA Temperature
A
Treadwear
The treadwear grade is a comparative rat-
ing based on the wear rate of the tire when
tested under controlled conditions on a
specified government test course. For ex-
ample, a tire graded 150 would wear one
and one-half (1 1/2) times as well on the
government course as a tire graded 100.
The relative performance of tires depends
upon the actual conditions of their use,
however, and may depart significantly from
the norm due to variations in driving habits,
service practices and differences in road
characteristics and climate.
Traction AA, A, B and C
The traction grades, from highest to low-
est, are AA, A, B, and C. Those grades repre-
sent the tire’s ability to stop on wet pave-ment as measured under controlled
conditions on specified government test
surfaces of asphalt and concrete. A tire
marked C may have poor traction perfor-
mance.

You may notif y NISSAN by contact-
ing our Consumer Affairs Depart-
ment, toll-free, at 1-800-NISSAN-1.
For Canada
If you believe that your vehicle has a
defect which could cause a crash or
could cause injury or death, you
should immediately inform Trans-
port Canada in addition to notif ying
NISSAN.
If Transport Canada receives com-
plaints, it may open an investigation,
and if it finds that a safety defect
exists in a group of vehicles, it may
request that NISSAN conduct a recall
campaign. However, Transport
Canada cannot become involved in
individual problems between you,
your dealer, or NISSAN.
You may contact Transport Canada’s
Defect Investigations and Recalls Divi-
sion toll free at 1-800-333-0510. You
may also report safety defects online
at: https://wwwapps.tc.gc.ca/Saf-
Sec-Sur/7/PCDB-BDPP/fc-cp.aspx?lang=eng (English speakers)
or https://wwwapps.tc.gc.ca/Saf-
Sec-Sur/7/PCDB-BDPP/fc-
cp.aspx?lang=fra (French speakers)
Additional information concerning
motor vehicle safety may be obtained
from Transport Canada’s Road Safety
Information Centre at 1-800-333-0371
or online at www.tc.gc.ca/roadsafety
(English speakers) or
www.tc.gc.ca/securiteroutiere
(French speakers).
To notif y NISSAN of any safety con-
cerns please contact our Consumer
Information Centre toll free at 1-800-
387-0122.