Trailer Hitch Installation - 2007 Nissan Quest

Installation of a Trailer Hitch on a 2007 Nissan Quest

Today on this 2007 Nissan Quest mini van we will be installing Valley hitch part number V82760. We are underneath the vehicle now and we are actually taking a look at the driver side frame rail. We have got four existing weld nuts visible on the frame rail. Using the three rear most ones as our attaching points for the trailer hitch. To attach our hitch to those weld nuts we will be using the 12 millimeter bolts along with the conical tooth washers that are provided with our hitch installation kit. That is going to be the same on both the driver and passenger sides. However, if you look over at the passenger side you will notice that our exhaust is in the way. So we are going to need to lower that first before we put the hitch up in position. It looks like we are going to remove it off of its two rear most hangers. The rear most hanger is located right in the middle of the muffler itself on the outboard side and then if you follow the exhaust pipe forward to the first cross member you will see we have got our second hanger that we are going to be removing the exhaust off of. 00:57

It is going to be a good idea before we remove these two hangers to support this exhaust tube with a bungee cord or a ratchet strap because when you do remove it off these two hangers the exhaust will want to come down and do damage if you do not have any support to it. To remove this forward most exhaust hanger I am just going to unbolt it off its two mounting studs. To help with the removal of the rear most exhaust hangers I am going to spray down this stud with some spray lubricant like a WD-40. That is going to help make the removal of the rubber hanger from the exhaust stud much easier. You can just take a basic pry bar or a set of pliers and remove the two pieces from each other. It is also going to be necessary to remove the ground strap from the exhaust unit. That allows us to pull the muffler further down to gain more clearance to the passenger side frame rail. You will also notice that the heat shield is in the way of the frame rail on the passenger side. We will be removing it as well however it will not be reinstalled once the hitch is in place. 01:57

It may be necessary before we put the hitch up to clean out the weld nuts on both the driver and passenger side. Any vehicle that has seen more than one winter has going to have some corrosion or possible rust built up in these weld nuts which could make it difficult to get the bolts into place. To do that we just want to take a spray lubricant like a WD-40 and let that thoroughly soak in for a second. Then we are going to come back through with a wire brush or some sort of a bristled item to run that in there, loosen up the debris and road grime so we can get our bolts in much easier. We just want to repeat that procedure for all of the weld nuts and then we will put our hitch up in position. With the hitch up into position we want to start tightening the bolts down. I am going to start over on the passenger side first because what we want to make sure of is that we are clearing the part of the ground strap that is actually attached to the frame. It may take a little manipulating to the side of the hitch to make sure you clear that. With our bolts tightened down into place we can go back through and torque them down to their specified torque rating and you will find that torque rating listed in your direction sheet. With all of our bolts torqued down we just want to make sure we put our exhaust back up on its two hangers and out ground strap back on the exhaust and our installation will be complete. I am going to give you a couple of final installed dimensions. From the ground to the top of the receiver tube opening is going to be 10-3/ 4 inches and from the center of the pin hole to the back edge of the bumper it is going to be approximately seven inches. This will conclude the installation of Valley hitch part number V82760 on a 2007 Nissan Quest mini van.