Martinjmpr
New member
Besides my Cup Holder Hack, I've had a busy weekend. Had to, because the wife and I are taking off on our first long trip this Thursday (going camping in the San Juans with our little teardrop trailer.)
First to go on was the receiver. After looking all over town I found one at a U-haul less than a mile from my house:
Installation was pretty straightforward except for 2 things: 1. removing the tow hook on the driver's side required a lot of WD-40 and a big 1/2" drive breaker bar. That thing was on TIGHT! 2. Putting the two small bolts (forward most) on the right side was a PITA because the exhaust pipe prevented us from using a socket wrench. So it was put on with a flat wrench that could only turn about 1/3 turn at a time. Not hard, but time consuming.
After that I attached an adapter to adapt the 6-pin round connector to a 4 pin flat (which is what both of my trailers have) and zip-tied it into place. Incidentally, the tow hitch blocks the factory plug so I had to unbolt it from the bracket and zip tie it into place too.
Next requirement was the Scangauge II. Nothing fancy here, it mounts perfectly with a strip of velcro onto the top of the steering column:
The SG is a towing aid because it includes a trans temp gauge (TFT on the display.) The SG lets you pick your own background color so I chose red to match the dash lights:
Final mod was to attach my Yakima Basket Case rack to the factory crossbars using a set of "mighty mounts." The Yakima basket carries the trailer's spare since we don't have a way (yet) to mount it on the trailer itself:
And with that, plus my cheap wal-mart seat covers (better ones are on order), I'm ready for my first long trip! :driving:
First to go on was the receiver. After looking all over town I found one at a U-haul less than a mile from my house:
Installation was pretty straightforward except for 2 things: 1. removing the tow hook on the driver's side required a lot of WD-40 and a big 1/2" drive breaker bar. That thing was on TIGHT! 2. Putting the two small bolts (forward most) on the right side was a PITA because the exhaust pipe prevented us from using a socket wrench. So it was put on with a flat wrench that could only turn about 1/3 turn at a time. Not hard, but time consuming.
After that I attached an adapter to adapt the 6-pin round connector to a 4 pin flat (which is what both of my trailers have) and zip-tied it into place. Incidentally, the tow hitch blocks the factory plug so I had to unbolt it from the bracket and zip tie it into place too.
Next requirement was the Scangauge II. Nothing fancy here, it mounts perfectly with a strip of velcro onto the top of the steering column:
The SG is a towing aid because it includes a trans temp gauge (TFT on the display.) The SG lets you pick your own background color so I chose red to match the dash lights:
Final mod was to attach my Yakima Basket Case rack to the factory crossbars using a set of "mighty mounts." The Yakima basket carries the trailer's spare since we don't have a way (yet) to mount it on the trailer itself:
And with that, plus my cheap wal-mart seat covers (better ones are on order), I'm ready for my first long trip! :driving:
