Since it isn't a Toyota, Ford, Chevy, or Ram - we shouldn't see 20 pages of slagging ;)

Lou: you mean other than the fact the picture they have givent to us, is of a van that is not even sold here? I knowthe van they sell here is usly, but the one they did post here is even dare I say even more than ugly! why acn't Japan and Co. style something that most of us agree is not ugly? I know, I know, looks are of personal taste, but come on! who can honestly say the nissan vans are good looking?

Wow. Don't park on any hills.

@Sandman4x4, I don't like the new Nissan vans either but I see tons of them around now. Keep in mind the looks of the upcoming Ford and Dodge vans. After seeing those I'm almost to the point I think I like like the Nissan better. I'm just glad I don't drive vans for work. I guess the Euro style vans are the future though. Maybe in another 5 years they will all seem normal?

Nissan always had serious issues,engines brand new were recalled because of burning oil,besides Toyota and Honda..Nissan are the most problematic vehicles around !

By the way most people dont know Nissan is a RENAULT !

French Company !!

@Jim: you can always use the parking brake, since people should use it on a hill anyway

True. By hill I mean any kind of incline in the road. You could use the brake but nobody uses parking brake on every incline nor should you need to. This is something I would want to have fixed right away.

MY DAD TAUGHT ME TO ALWAYS USE THE PARKING BRAKE EVERY TIME YOU PARK!!!

SAFETY FIRST!!!

Only in America...

The rest of the world with their manual transmissions rely on the parking brake to keep the vehicle from rolling away.

I also ways said, use your park brake.

Good habit to have.

@Lou
I think you're correct not many people slag Nissans. I have a soft spot for Datsun/Nissans as I've owned 6 of them as pickups.

The trayback ones were my favourites. They used to carry a lot safely.

Now, you will have some slagging going on:)

Al, Well then your dad is an idiot.

@ sandman4X4 - my point was that the usual bashing is between the 2 Detroit badges (Ford and GMC) and the 2 foreign owned badges (Toyota and Ram).

The van pictured is available in the USA. It is the new taxi picked for use by New York city, the Nissan NV200. You can get it as a cargo van.

It pains me to see stories that lead me to believe that nissan has let their quality slip to the subterrainian levels of ford, Obamamotors and fiat/chrapsler.

@Big Al: I would debate the advatages and disadvantages of your traybacks, but it wouldn't matter as you never see the other side of the story, and you are so headstrong with your head up your butt, that you wont look at the disadadvatages of a trayback. You don't seem to want to debate them, you just spin it another way, so I won't waste debating with you. Do what suits you in your limited world.

@Ray

go back to you clan meeting

@TRX-4 Tom
You can beat versitility and safety of a trayback.

You have tiedown points all the way down the side of the bed. This allows much better security of loads.

I have a tub on my ute as many do, but for work you can't beat a trayback. The alumininium ones weigh about 100kg or so and are much stronger than a pickup tub.

Also, if you stop taking what I say out of context like you do to most things, you will realise I stated for 'work'. Remember we don't have HDs and we do need to carry upto 1.5 tons around on the back of a midsizer and a trayback is ideal.

Imagine if the Big 3 offered cab chassis 1/2 ton pickups with the ability to drop a 8.5'x6.5' flat bed and increased the payload to 3-3 500lbs? With a V6 or diesel, they would sell and return much better fuel economy.

But will that kill some HD sales?

But with CAFE that would be hard.

Ever thought why larger trucks have flatbeds and not pickup backs?

Your argument of C of G issue doesn't seem to occur. Like I've stated look at our road safety.

Maybe you should leave the States and come down here, you will be very surprised how things work and how similar things are.

You will be able to see what the US vehicles will be similar too in a decade or so.

@Al: well you got the first line right! Even if you meant something else!

Tie downs are good.

If you made a 1/2 ton truck hold three to 3500 pounds would it be a half ton anymore? Ford makes a "half ton" that holds over 3,000, but it can only do that in regular cab, I think supercab might be 2600 pounds.

It's funny, you talk of these little short wheelbase trucks, and you would think you would know what weight and balance is. But since some engineer says it will hold it, you think that is golden.

How can you directly link your safety record and say that shows a higher center of gravity has no effect on a truck? Totally off. If the center of gravity is higher, plain and simple, it will not handle corners and quick manuevers to avoid accidents as well as a lower center of gravity. No ammount of BS covers it up, and you can't spin it some other way. Maybe if we put the same weight in both trucks beds and drove them hard we would know? Or atleast a percentage of their rated payloads? It would be interesting, see the midsize 4x4s damn near roll over.

But we just don't get reviews like that from down under. We get a simple based on what people like, with no real criteria.

How many licensed drivers do you even have there? How many miles might they regularly drive? The last time you posted something about safety it was dated 2008. Really up to date.

Yes, if you want to put a pallet in the back of a truck, that's great. Or two of them.

But like people in the states like to do, cover the bed (I don't guess you've ever seen a bed cover/tonnuae cover in use in your limited time in the staes?) It is a bit harder to do with a trayback. I mentioned the word secure your stuff, your mind jumped to tie downs, but here it also means LOCKED. Out of sight.

Some people actually like being able to stack stuff up against a bedside.

How about a person using ramps to load something with a dolley (hey, isn't that work??), or ramps for loading a lawn mower, or an ATV. You might want to look that acronym up. Anyway, now the angle is higher with a flat trayback. What do you suggest?

Bottom line, if you load stuff like pallets with a Forklift, or you leave your truck sitting loaded in some locked up idustrial yard, trayback works. If you drive on the street, and you want to go into a store/truckstop/restaurant and you don't want your stuff messed with, it's easy with a tonnaue cover.

All the things you gotta do with a midsizer to make it more useable, cause the factory bed/tub is tiny.

I see tons of pickups around my part of the world with what amounts to a "trayback". Most call them sled decks. A fullsized pickup can only fit one sled in a regular pickup box. Guys can fit 2 sleds on a deck. It mounts over the box. A few years ago our MOT (US equivalent of DOT) was stopping and ticketing many of these guys because they were mounting sled decks onto 5.5 box 1/2 tons. The decks can be 7-8 feet long so there is a lot of overhang and in a short box, real poor weight distribution. http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://toyupindustries.com/sitebuilder/images/Snowmobile_001-464x303.jpg&imgrefurl=http://toyupindustries.com/&h=303&w=464&sz=28&tbnid=quKvXeD3TfWpvM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=138&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dsled%2Bdecks%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=sled+decks&usg=__JBOYCEBPnBdVSfLBeT_ytQMEI_A=&docid=Ky93BKo-BqHxtM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=jdBSUdCPBsSiiQL2h4DQAQ&sqi=2&ved=0CD0Q9QEwAg&dur=427
Some of the more expensive decks have sides that slid in and out. When one isn't carrying anything, the sides can be pushed in so the width is the same as the box.

@Lou
I can't believe that's legal. Looks quite dangerous.

@Big Al from Oz - Up here we don't want to waste fuel or waste time. Our 3/4 tons can get the job done in half as many trips compared to 1/2 tons or the 1/4 tons you try to pass off as 1/2 tons.

Trays are fine for some awkward loads or situations, but for most others, you'll spend more time securing it compared to just slamming the tailgate. And you're tools, supplies or valuables aren't even visible if you park at a distance. No need to padlock an air compressor, generator or whatever if no one can see it.

I hate tonneau covers, but there's that option too. And camper shells must look funny on trays as would slide-in campers, no doubt. My dogs would hate riding on a tray anyways.

It used to legal for people to ride in pickup beds, but I understand they still can with a camper shell.

@Big Al from Oz - not really, as long as the truck can take the weight and width. A 1/2 ton crew with a 5.5 box has poor weight distribution hence the crackdown from MOT. Most manufacturers of these decks recommend them being bolted through the pickup bed since stake pockets on pickups do not have "tear out" ratings. I do believe that the newer pickups with tie points low on the box have weight ratings.
Legally, as long as it isn't wider that 8'6", you are okay for width. If your load sticks out more than 4 feet from the taillights you then need a 1 foot square flag or taillights on the projection.

@Big Al from Oz - I forgot to add, the decks do not sit on the box rails, they sit on "feet" or a frame that sits on the floor of the pickup box. It is more like a slide in camper type arrangement.
http://www.google.ca/imgres?q=sled+decks&start=97&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&qscrl=1&rlz=1T4GGHP_en-GBCA450CA450&biw=1344&bih=715&tbm=isch&tbnid=ACyCJv_wBCl40M:&imgrefurl=http://www.aeracing.com/trailer/new/Marlon/2013-Marlon-7%27%2Band%2B8%27%2BTruck%2BDeck-ada788250a0a00b50121671e20e8f5b2.htm&docid=FuLWh8n11Xvd6M&imgurl=http://pictures.dealer.com/a/aamperacingampmarinetc/0169/edd72d95c77e48489c6c29c6c9f0c79ex.jpg&w=1024&h=766&ei=8TRTUaeFMKfZigK8j4HwDA&zoom=1&ved=1t:3588,r:10,s:100,i:34&iact=rc&dur=381&page=6&tbnh=184&tbnw=242&ndsp=23&tx=78&ty=94.80001831054687

@Lou
Thanks,

The photo of the overloaded pickup was the one that amazed me.

I have seen a couple of instances in my life of silly people with no concept on safety load and tow vehicles.

I suppose they exist in all countries.

@TRX-4 Tom. Pickup beds are removed or not built for actual working Pickups in Australia/NZ.
If you are using them as Station Wagons or SUV's not a problems you retail the Pickup bed.

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQI4IWtbxRnEY25UaKp74ZK-3LRWc875cICqJ0_JXEEMG8fX5KyBQ

http://static3.justauto.com.au/just_images/45ee5e4d-8448-4d88-b3ad-97c8122f75e8/45ee5e4d-8448-4d88-b3ad-97c8122f75e8-atme.jpg

http://static1.justauto.com.au/just_images/b3d3ea69-bbb8-4d80-830f-cc06d3c5a4f4/b3d3ea69-bbb8-4d80-830f-cc06d3c5a4f4-atlg.jpg

http://static1.justauto.com.au/just_images/d911640d-f66e-49a1-ac52-a5c9309a9286/d911640d-f66e-49a1-ac52-a5c9309a9286-atlg.jpg

A US F250 with an Australian Ute bed. Must be catching on in the US.
http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/uploads/1294423251/gallery_2_113_85793.jpg

More Ute Beds
http://liveimages.carsales.com.au/carsales/car/private/cp5643543659725766284.jpg?height=290&aspect=centered&width=440

http://liveimages.carsales.com.au/carsales/car/private/cp5034774914894252566.jpg?height=290&aspect=centered&width=440

http://liveimages.carsales.com.au/carsales/car/private/cp4656402458493083689.jpg?height=290&aspect=centered&width=440

A 2011 F250 with Ute bed.
http://liveimages.carsales.com.au/carsales/car/private/cp5476242998722781425.jpg?height=700&aspect=FitWithinNoPad&width=1050