Video Transcript for Setting up the Blue Ox Base Plate Kit on a 2016 Chevrolet Traverse

Today on our 2016 Chevrolet Traverse, we're going to be taking a look at and installing the Blue Ox Base Plate Kit with Removable Arms, part number BX1706. Here's what this base plate kit is going to look like once it's installed on the vehicle. The most noticeable things you'll see are going to be these convenience links out in front for the safety chains. This base plate kit's going to do a really good job of making sure that it's easy to hook your towed vehicle up to your motor home, so that way when you're ready to go, you just hook it up and you're ready to roll. You don't need to spend a bunch of time tightening bolts and getting everything set and square, but rather you hook it up and you go. This kit has the removable arms. In order to install these, you push them in, twist until they lock in place.

That way, you can hook up your tow bar right here to the arm. Then, whenever you're done and ready to remove them for regular everyday driving, simply pull that pin, rotate the arm, and slide it back out and store it away until you're ready to use it again. Now, with this kit it does come with these little plugs to help keep dirt out of your mounting tabs. That way, it's always going to be easy to slide that arm in and out when you need to use it. Let's show you how to install this base plate. First thing we'll need to do to begin the installation of our base plate is we'll need to remove this top plastic cover underneath the hood.

There's going to be 10 push pin fasteners that we'll need to remove in order to do that. You can take a flat head screwdriver and get under the center of it and pop it up, then you can pull it right out of there. Now, before we take this plastic off we'll need to remove the small little push pin clip that's on our weather stripping here. You can just pry up on that in order to pop it out of there. It's the same on both sides of this. Then we can remove our plastic cover and set it off to the side.

Now we'll unscrew the top of our fascia. There's 7 of these T20 Torx screws along the top edge here. We'll remove those. Got 3 here on the passenger side, and then 4 over on the driver side. Then, on both sides near the headlight there will be a 7 millimeter screw that we'll need to remove.

Now we'll need to take out the 3 screws that are inside our wheel well here. We'll start with a 7 millimeter socket up at the top edge of the fascia where it meets the fender, and then the other 2 will be T20 just like the ones that we're underneath the hood. We'll do that same thing on the other side. Now, underneath on both sides we're going to have 2 T20 Torx screws and then a 10 millimeter bolt that we're going to have to take out. Now we can begin to take the fascia off. In order to do that, you want to grip up on the inside of the fender here and begin to pull outwards to begin to unclip it, and it should just begin to pop out as you work your way around towards the front. Then, with an extra set of hands, you can begin to work it off and get it unclipped from the front of the vehicle. Then, on both sides if you've got fog lights you'll have this connector that you'll need to remove. You push down on the tab, then you can pull that connector right out. Then you can take the fascia and gently set it aside. Next thing we'll need to do is remove our washer fluid tank here. In order to do that, we're going to need to disconnect the lines up higher so that it doesn't spill out everywhere as soon as we begin to take that out. Here are the 2 lines that come off of it, one for the front, one for the rear. I'm just going to take this little clip off here, then right there you can use a flat head screwdriver to get it in there. You can pop those apart so that way you can have a little bit more room to work with these lines separately. What I'm going to do is I'm just going to put a small zip tie on one of them so I can identify which one's going to be going to the rear of the vehicle. It's going to be this one right here. Then, at this little connection here on the 2 little ends where it comes out, squeeze on all the little tabs there and that should pop right apart. Then for the other one, got little clips there which if you pry those 2 little tabs out you'll be able to pull that one right apart as well. Now, down here at the reservoir we'll need to take off the connectors to each of our pumps, and then also the connector for our sensor. Get those disconnected. Just tuck them up out of the way. Then, using a 10 millimeter socket, there's going to be 3 nuts that are holding this on. With those off, we can carefully remove our washer tank. Wherever you set it when you put it aside, you want to be sure to keep it upright so that it doesn't spill out. Now we'll need to take our horn off. You need a 10 millimeter socket for that. To give myself plenty of room to work, I'm also going to take the connector off so I can set the horn aside. Make sure that connector's tucked up out of the way. Then I'll do the same thing for the horn on the other side. Now we'll need to remove our temp sensor that's mounted to the lower side of the front bumper. It's got a push pin fastener that holds that bracket up. We'll remove that. The temp sensor will come right out. Then we'll take that and move it up out of the way while we put our base plate in. Now, on the bracket here, I've gone ahead and marked out the area to be trimmed on each side. I'll be cutting out this section here, and what that's going to allow me to do is to get flush along the bottom edge of that inside frame rail there. Then that's going to allow me to get flush with the outside of the frame rail so that I can get the base plate to slide up into place. I'm going to use a reciprocating saw in order to begin cutting that out. If you don't have a reciprocating saw, you can also use a grinder with a cutting wheel or anything that might cut through this in order to help keep some clean lines. Now, with our access trimmed out in order to get up to the sides of the frame rail, we can take our base plate and begin to slide it up into place. It's not a bad idea to take some jack stands in order to help support it. That way, it'll make it easier to make adjustments and that'll hold it in place once you get it in the correct location. With the base plate put on and positioned where it needs to be according to the instructions, I'll begin drilling out the pilot holes for these 2 bottom ones. I'll step up drill bit sizes until I've reached the size indicated in the instructions to be able to fit the bolts through. From this point on, anything that we do to one side for the installation of the base plate, we'll be doing that same thing to the other side. With the 2 bottom holes drilled out, we'll be installing these 3/8 inch, 1 inch long bolts. They're a little bit shorter ones that come in the kit. When we install them, we'll be putting this red Loctite on them. We'll be doing that for all of the bolts that we'll be using to secure our base plate. If you need to get some of this red Loctite, you can get that on our site, part number LT37420. We can put our bolt through. Then, on the inside we'll put the split lock washer followed by a 3/8 nut. With the lower bolts installed on both sides, we can begin to tighten them up. It'll be a 9/16 wrench and socket in order to do that. Now we can drill out our other holes in order to begin installing the bolts. Now, we'll be putting these handle nuts up to the inside of the frame for our other bolt holes, and we'll be using that access hole right there in order to feed them up into place. You'll need to bend the handle on these in order to get them to line up properly with the holes that you drilled in the side of the frame. Then, when you get them lined up, the bolts that you'll be feeding into them will be the longer 1 1/2 inch 3/8 bolts. You'll want to be sure to put a lock washer on there along with that Loctite on the end of it. Once you've got the nut lined up on the inside of the frame, take your bolt and begin to thread it in. With it threaded in, take a 9/16 socket and just tighten it down. Then the excess for the handle down here, you can either cut off using a grinder or a cutting bit on a dremel tool, or you can just bend it up out of the way. Then we'll repeat that same process for the other bolt and handle nut on this side. Then we'll go to the other side and do those too the same way. With all of our hardware tightened down, we want to be sure to go back and double check the torque and make sure it's torqued to the specification listed in the instructions. Now we can take our temp sensor and reinstall it. You can either put it back into its factory location or you can relocate it somewhere in the plastic that's nearby, but I can squeeze it back in here so I'm just going to reinstall it in its factory location. Now we'll take our safety cables that come in the kit and we'll route them around the section in the frame. It shows you a good way to do that in the instructions. Then we'll bring them back to this connection point and connect them there using the quick link that they provide. At this point now, if you've got a breakaway switch that you'll need to mount up for a supplemental braking system, now is going to be a good time to do that. They do give you this bracket and a self-tapping screw in order to put it wherever you'd like here along the front of the bumper to make it easily accessible. I'm just going to put it right here using this self-tapping screw. I'm just going to center it right above where the wiring will come out. I took the bracket here that's mounted to the breakaway switch and I bent it so that it would match up to this so that it'll come straight out. Get my nylon lock nut started there. I'll use a 7/16 socket and wrench in order to tighten up my breakaway switch. Now on those 3 studs that attach our windshield washer fluid tank to the outside of our frame rail there, now in order to space it out properly we'll put 6 flat washers that come with the kit and slide them onto each stud. Now we can grab our reservoir tank and begin to put it up into place. Now we can reinstall the horns. Now we can test fit our fascia in order to see where we'll need to cut and trim. Now, after test fitting it on there, I've marked an area that I know I'm going to need to trim out, and then I can test fit it again and make any more adjustments or trim anything else needed in order to make it fit. Once we've got the fascia far enough on the vehicle that it'll stay, you can see where you'll need to trim out in order to get your tabs to come through. I marked it, and I'll begin to trim that section out. I'll do the same thing for the other side. Now we can reinstall our fascia. When you reinstall your fascia, don't forget to plug those electrical connections back in. We can reinstall our 3 screws into each fender. Underneath, we'll reinstall our 4 screws and 2 bolts in order to secure our paneling back in underneath here. Reinstall all the screws along the top of the fascia underneath the hood. That's going to complete our look at and installation of the Blue Ox Base Plate Kit with Removable Arms, part number BX1706, on our 2016 Chevrolet Traverse.