towing the Titan
I was just revieing the owners manual and was looking under the towing section. The manual stated a 4x4 Titan should never be towed with any wheels on the ground. Doing so may cause serious damage to the transfer case and tranny. My Titan was recently in an accident and I saw the tow truck drive away with the front of my Titan up and the back wheels on the ground. It was only towed about 10 miles, but still this has me worried. Any tow experts out there with some knowledge on this matter?
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Actually it's best to tow any vehicle on a flatbed. Even a two wheel drive you should not tow with the drive wheels on the ground. Maybe a front wheel drive car with the front in the air is the only way but always use a flatbed. In your case 10 miles should not be a problems IMO.
BAD THINGS..... I would make sure that the towing company documents the fact that they towed it improperly. The problem with towing it with the wheels on the ground, the transmission cannot sufficently lubricate itself.
Cars that are designed to do this like Saturns for example have a different type of transmission that is lubricated any time the car is in motion. Our vehicles need to be in gear, so if you like to coast in N, bad idea, you are getting no fluid through the transmission.
How do I know this? I used to have a little white nissan pickup that blew a waterpump and so they towed it back to the dealer, now in doing so they remoived the front plastic valence piece, so I know that it was towed with the rear wheels on the ground. Well after installing the waterpump, about 2 days later I was having transmission trouble. So i pulled it out, and in the clutch pack was all these metal shavings, and asked bout them and they said that was from excessive heat from towing it with the wheels on the ground....
FLATBED ONLY!!!
Cars that are designed to do this like Saturns for example have a different type of transmission that is lubricated any time the car is in motion. Our vehicles need to be in gear, so if you like to coast in N, bad idea, you are getting no fluid through the transmission.
How do I know this? I used to have a little white nissan pickup that blew a waterpump and so they towed it back to the dealer, now in doing so they remoived the front plastic valence piece, so I know that it was towed with the rear wheels on the ground. Well after installing the waterpump, about 2 days later I was having transmission trouble. So i pulled it out, and in the clutch pack was all these metal shavings, and asked bout them and they said that was from excessive heat from towing it with the wheels on the ground....
FLATBED ONLY!!!
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9,565 Posts
I'm no expert but a buddy of mine bought a new Frontier 4X4 BECAUSE is was the only one that can apparently be towed with all 4 tires on the ground behind his motorhome. He's been doing this without any problems for over a year now. I thought most of what the Fronty uses came from the Titan. Not sure who you'd ask but I don't see any way towing a Titan with the front wheels off the ground would hurt anything regardless of what the manual says.
I used to run a tow rig for 4 months. Front wheel drive cars can be picked up and pulled but AWD's or RWD's should be up on flatbeds. If he only went 10 miles, it should be ok but I'd ask the tow company about it. If something binds up later on, then its the tow campany's fault due to their negligence.
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