Trailer Hitch Installation - 2008 Nissan Altima
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This Product Fits The Following Vehicles
2009 - 2009 Nissan Maxima All Models
2007 - 2009 Nissan Altima Sedan
Products Featured in this Video
Manufacturer InstructionsInstallation of a Trailer Hitch on a 2008 Nissan Altima
Today we are going to be installing hitch part number 60873 from Hidden Hitch on a 2008 Nissan Altima. OK, the first thing we want to do is to open up the trunk and remove the carpeting from the trunk floor as well as any fiberboard bins that may be located in here, as well. The first thing we want to do is to remove the ground wire off of the exhaust here. Then, after that, we are going to come over and unbolt the exhaust from the flange here, and remove both bolts, which is going to allow us to take the exhaust off of the rubber isolator hanger, which is up in here. And then we want to repeat that for the other side, as well.
As you can see, I have removed the exhaust here. We are actually looking at the drivers side, and you can see how much room we have got now. The next step is we want to go ahead and gently bend the heat shield out of the way toward the frame rail, making sure not to break it. The hitch arms are actually going to up in between the spare tire well and the frame, up in this crease up in here. So we want to bend it back enough to ensure that the hitch can go up in there fairly easily. And next we are going to go ahead and put the hitch up into position, and we are going to mark the holes so that we know where to drill them. OK, now that we have got our holes marked, we can go ahead and drill out our holes. I am going to start by using a 1/4-inch pilot hole, drill those out, check my alignment with the hitch and make sure that everything is still aligned OK. Once we have checked alignment, we are going to go ahead and then enlarge this hole to 7/16. OK, the 1/4-inch hole is drilled out. I am going to put the hitch back up here and check to make sure that our holes align. OK, now I can go ahead and take the hitch back down and drill it out to 7/16.
OK, now that we have got the holes drilled, we want to go back into the trunk area now. We want to make sure that we go ahead and deburr the holes that we just drilled and make sure there is no extra metal around the holes. After that, we want to go ahead and put the plates into position and the bolts through. OK, now that we have got the hitch up into position and the hardware in place, we are going to go ahead and torque it down now. The torque rating for these bolts, as listed in the instructions, is 50 foot-pounds.
All right, now that we have got the hitch up into position and torqued down, we just want to go ahead and put the exhaust back on. We want to make sure we fold our heat shield back into place. And with the exhaust back up into place, we want to go ahead and go back inside the trunk well now. And we want to go ahead and use some form of silicone sealant all the way around the plate that we installed here in the trunk to make sure that none of the exhaust fumes can come up and through the trunk. And, with the silicone around the plates, we can go ahead and put our components back into the trunk. And this concludes the installation of hitch part number 60873 on a 2008 Nissan Altima.
