Today we are going to be installing Valley hitch part number V81811 on a 2007 Chrysler 300. We are underneath the vehicle now. The first thing we are going to need to do is to go ahead and lower the exhaust down. This particular model has an aftermarket exhaust, so it is a little bit different than a standard model would be. The first thing you want to do before you remove the exhaust down is to go ahead and support the catalytic converter. You can see we have got two hangers here: one at the rear, and one at the forward side. You are going to need to go ahead and take the bolts out of the frame there to lower that down. All right, with the bolt removed, I am going to kind of pull the exhaust down just a little bit. And you can see there is a weld nut here. That is going to provide the rearmost attaching point for the trailer hitch. You can also see in the forward side we have got two existing holes. We are going to use those as the forwardmost attaching point. You will also note that on the exhaust hanger here there is a little tab that held the hanger in place here in that indentation in the frame. That is also going to need to be ground off before we actually put the hitch up back into position. Again, we are going to be using the existing weld nut here at the rear of the frame. There is also a weld nut here at the forward side, and then just a hole at the third mounting location.
OK, before putting my hitch up into position, I am going to go ahead and make sure that all of my weld nuts are cleaned out thoroughly so that there is no interference when I want to put the bolts up in there. You can do this by using a spray lubricant like a WD-40 and just a wire brush and get in there and just clean the threads out. It looks like my threads here are in pretty good shape I am not having any resistance when I attempt to thread the bolt in. But at the forward side, it is a little bit tight, so I am going to go ahead and clean that one out. I also want to set up all of my handle nuts so that they are ready to go once we get the hitch up into position. And again, these can be easily bent and manipulated so that they align perfectly over the top of the hole. Yeah, that is a lot easier now. OK, now that I have got my handle nuts lined up and my weld nuts cleaned out, I am just going to go ahead and grind that tab off that muffler hanger, and then we can go ahead and put our hitch up into position. OK, you also may note that your particular model may have an air dam located right in this area, attached to the bottom of the spare tire well. If you model does, that does need to be removed as well. And that will not go back up the hitch will actually replace it.
We are ready to go ahead and put our hitch up into position. We are just going to go ahead and attach it first by the weld nuts, and then we will go back and attach the handle nuts last. And again, you want to leave them just loose enough in case you have to slide the hitch rearward or forward to align the holes where you are going to put your handle nuts. You also want to check to make sure that the hole for the exhaust hanger is aligned with the hole in the hitch as well. We will be using the new hardware that is provided in the installation kit, and that is going to go into that hole right there. And it looks like we are good there, so we can go ahead and tighten up our bolts now. I am going to start by hand tightening everything, and then we are going to go back and torque them down to their specified torque ratings. I am going to go ahead and flatten out the handle nuts so they do not interfere with the exhaust. And then lastly, we want to go ahead and reattach our exhaust hanger. And then we want to reattach the forward hanger, and our installation will be complete. And this will conclude the installation of hitch part number V81811 on a 2007 Chrysler 300.
With the carriage bolts in position, the next thing we want to do is go ahead and clean out the weld nuts in the frame. Any vehicle that has seen at least one winter is going to have some corrosion and possible road grime built up in there which is going to make it difficult to get our bolts in. To do this I am going to take a spray lubricant, like a WD40 and spray down the weld nuts. We will next take a wire brush and run that inside the weld nuts. This is going to help loosen up that rusted debris that is built up in there. Once that is done you can take the bolt and test fit it to see how much resistance you are going to have. There is some resistance still so I am going to clean it out a couple more times. You want to do this for the two weld nuts on the driver side and the one weld nut on the passenger side as well. Once that is done we can put our hitch up into position. Into each weld nut we are going to be using 12 millimeter bolts along with the conical tooth washer. Now that we have the hitch up into position and all the hardware into place we want to torque our bolts down. You want to check with the directions to verify the appropriate torque rating for each individual bolt. With our hitch torqued down, we want to make sure we put our exhaust hanger back onto the frame. 3:53
Now that we have our hitch installed we are going to give you a couple final installed dimensions to help make choosing your hitch accessories a little bit easier. From the top of the receiver tube opening to the ground is going to measure 10-1/2 inches. From the center of the pin hole to clear the rear edge of the bumper is approximately 8 inches. That will conclude the installation of Curt hitch part number 13465 on this 2007 Chrysler 300.
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