Video Transcript for Installing the Blue Ox Base Plate Kit on your 2007 Jeep Commander

Hey, everyone, Shane here with etrailer.com. Today I have a 2007 Jeep Commander, I'm gonna walk you how to install the Blue Ox Base Plate Kit with removable tabs. This is what our base plate is gonna look like when it's installed. This is gonna connect to, or be adaptable for Blue Ox tow bars, as well as Roadmaster tow bars with separate adapters. Those separate adapters for the Roadmaster Tow Bars you can find here at etrailer. To remove your tab, just simply pull the ring, twist the tab, slide it out, and put it in the storage department.

It is gonna come with caps to install on the front of your base plate when you're not towing the vehicle and that'll keep any dirt, grime or anything like that from getting inside the hole and causing an issue from you reinstalling your tabs. This is what it's gonna look like when you're not towing, you can see a nice clean look. It's not gonna require any fascia trimming, it's gonna come out in the factory hole that's already underneath the bottom of your bumper. We're gonna have our safety chain loops here. You can see very large openings for the large hooks for safety chain cables for flat towing vehicles.

It's gonna be a steel construction, black powder coat finish. As far as the installation, it's pretty straightforward, it is gonna require you to remove your front fascia, but it is not gonna require any trimming. It is gonna require a couple of holes to be drilled inside the frame rail. Other than that, it's gonna come with everything needed except for red loctite, red loctite you can find here at etrailer. Prior installation, we're gonna the six push pin fasteners that run across the top of our grill.

We're gonna pry up on the center and then pull out the base. You use a flathead screwdriver or trim panel tool like I have here. And we're gonna set our grill aside, they actually have a front camera mounted on here, so, I'm gonna just take the grill and set it up here like this to get it out of my way. Then, they're gonna tell you to remove four push pin fasteners that run across the top here, these are actually rivets, I don't know if they we're replaced at one time, or what, but if you have rivets, what you're gonna do is you're gonna take a small drill bit, you're gonna drill out the center, and then pull the rivet out. And we're gonna come to each wheel well to remove the three rivets that same way we did the ones on the front.

And you're gonna repeat that same thing on the other side. And we're gonna take a 10 millimeter socket, remove the two bolts here on the bottom. Next, we're gonna unplug our fog lights, and a couple of different ways you can do it. When you're doing the rivets over here, there's a small flap that you can try getting your hand in to get them. If you're on the ground, this whole backside is open, so you can reach up, back up in there and then unplug each one. Pull out. Then dismantle. We're gonna slowly start to remove our front fascia. We'll set it aside. Now, if you have tow hooks, they'd mount right in this area, you're gonna remove those. We don't have it, so we're gonna go to the next step, which is removing these two cups. 10 millimeter socket will remove this bolt. You're gonna repeat that on the other side. Now we're gonna take our hardware and we're gonna get it prepped so we can install it. You're gonna take red loctite and we're gonna put it on the threads of each one of our bolts that we're gonna be installing the base plate onto the frame of the vehicle. today, is where we get our base plate in place, you're gonna make sure that your safety chain loops are facing down like this, each side tab to adjoin on the inside of the frame rails. We're gonna take one of our bolts, we're gonna put a lock washer on it. We're gonna have a nut plate, we're gonna feed it inside the frame rail, to lock through the bottom of our base plate, and we'll thread one in to each one of the holes. With a 9/16 socket, we're gonna snug our hardware. Now your directions aren't gonna tell you this, we're gonna have to get a drill back in here 'cause we got to drill two holes into the frame rail. However, between here and here, I cannot fit a drill down in there and be able to work it. So what I'm gonna do, is I'm gonna take off this plastic piece. We'll just use a 10 millimeter socket to remove the bolts that are holding it in place. Right on the inside here, on each side of our frame rail, where the base plate comes up we're gonna use it as a template. We're gonna drill these out through a 13/32. I'm gonna start with my 13/32 so it'll center the hole and then I'm gonna go down to a pilot hole and then just kind of work my way up to that. And we're gonna do the same combination of hardware for the holes we just drilled out. Next, we're gonna come back and we're gonna torque all of our hardware to the specifications in the instructions. Once you get all your hardware torqued down, you can come back and you either bend these and stick them inside your frame rail, or you can cut them off, really, really up to you. Once you have all of your rods cut off, re-install your plastic cover here, re-install your fascia in reverse order from the way you took it off and you're ready to go. It's been therefore the look at and installation on the Blue Ox Base Plate Kit, on the 2017 Commander..