Blue Ox Base Plate Kit - Removable Arms

Video Transcript for Blue Ox Base Plate Kit Installation - 2011 Chevrolet Avalanche

Today on our 2011 Chevrolet Avalanche, we're going to be installing the Blue Ox Base Plate Kit with Removable Arms - Part number BX1676. To begin with, we're going to need to raise the hood of the vehicle. With our hood raised, we're going to need to remove three screws. To remove the screws, we're just using a 10mm socket. With these three screws removed, we'll go ahead and repeat the same process over on the driver's side. Next, we're going to need to go up underneath the vehicle. Again, we're going to start over here on the passenger side. We're going to need to remove these three screws next.

To remove these three screws, we'll be using a 7mm socket. We'll then go ahead and repeat the same process over on the driver's side. Next, we're going to need to move into the fender well. Again, we'll start here on the passenger side. We're going to need to remove a total of five fasteners: two screws and three push fasteners. We'll then move over to the driver's side and we'll repeat the same process. Next, we're going to need to remove the front fascia.

We'll come here to each of the fender wells. We'll need to gently pull outward, releasing the clips here, the fender and the front fascia. Now as you're removing the front fascia, you want to make sure that you undo any electrical connections. As you can see here, here's one of the fog lights we're going to need to disconnect. This is the passenger side.

To do that, you simply squeeze in on the locking tab and pull outward. You'll need to do this over on the driver's side as well. You can then set the front fascia aside for now. Next, we're going to need to remove the tow hooks. The tow hooks right here. We'll need to remove the bolt and the nut and this bolt right here.

We'll be using an 18mm socket and wrench to do that. We're going to start over here on the passenger side. We'll then go ahead and repeat the same process over on the driver's side. Now the tow hooks and the hardware that we just removed will not be reinstalled. Next, we're going to start over here on the passenger side. We're going to need to remove the bolt that holds the bumper in place and add four flat washers that come with the kit underneath the head of the bolt. This will shim the bolt up high enough that we have clearance underneath for our base plate kit to be installed. To remove the bolt, we'll be using a 21mm socket. With our bolt loose, we'll go ahead and pull it out, slide four of our washers over it like that, then we'll reinstall the bolt and tighten it back down. Now, as you can see, we've taken out the extra section of bolt that was hanging down, giving us clearance to install our base plate. Go ahead and repeat this same process over on the driver's side. Next, we're going to go ahead and start over here on the passenger side with installing our base plate. This right here is the section that will go into the vehicle's frame. You'll notice how there's two holes that lines up with our holes here in the frame. Go ahead and install it here. We're then going to take one of the bolts that come with the kit. We're going to install it in the front hole. It goes all the way through. We'll then put a half-inch nut on the other side to hold the base plate secure while we drill through the rear mounting location all the way through. Next, we're going to temporarily tighten down the forward mounting location here, to hold our base plate in position while we drill out the rear hole. Now that we have the base plate secured with the front mounting bolt, go ahead and take our drill bit per the instructions and we'll drill out the rear mounting location the rest of the way. Now that we have the rear mounting location drilled out, we can go ahead and remove the nut from the front bolt that we installed. We'll go ahead and take the second half-inch bolt, line it up with the rear mounting location. We'll install it like that. With the bolts pushed through, go ahead and take the plate that ties in with our safety cables - one for here; the other hole will be up here. We have two holes that go over the bolts. It will be installed so that it looks like that. The remaining hardware that will go on each of these is a half-inch slip washer or a lock washer. And again, we'll be re-installing the half-inch nylon lock nut. When installing the hardware, you want to make sure that you use red loctite on all of the hardware before tightening it down. The loctite that we'll be using today is Loctite Threadlocker 262, part number LT37420. Once we have our loctite installed, we can go ahead and install the half-inch lock nut, get everything lined up and we'll go ahead and tighten it down. Then torque it to the manufacturer's specification. Next, we're going to go ahead and take the removable arm. We're going to do a quick test fit into the base plate. We'll line up the grooves here, twist it into place. If some reason this ear here or the tab would hit on the bottom portion of the frame and not allow it to twist in properly, we may need to take a hammer and bend the lower piece of the frame up a little bit to give a little bit of clearance. On our particular vehicle here today, you can see we will not need to do that, because everything seems to clear just fine. With our passenger side complete, we'll go ahead and move over and repeat the same process over on the driver's side. Next, we're going to need to install the safety cable using the quick link to this location right here. We'll take our safety cable, go around the frame, take our quick link and we'll go through the bracket and through both ends of the safety cable. Then go ahead and tighten down the quick link. With that done, we'll go ahead and repeat the same process over on the driver's side. Next, we're going to need to do some trimming on our fascia. Right here is where the old tow hook used to be. We're going to need to trim out this whole section here to allow room for our base plate. So I'm just going to briefly mark out the areas that you'll need to trim. Once you have that area marked out, we'll go ahead and just use a razor knife to trim out our excess plastic and open up the pocket here to allow our base plate to slide through. We will be repeating the same process on both the driver and the passenger side. Before you re-install the front fascia, it's a good idea if you're planning on doing any break-away switches or wiring or anything, to go ahead and plan this out now, because it may be easier to install them before the front fascia goes back on. Now in our case today, we're not going to be installing any of those items. We're ready to go ahead and put the front fascia back on. It's a good idea to get an extra set of hands to help you re-install the front fascia. Now even after all of our trimming here on this piece that used to go around the tow hook, we still found when we put the front fascia back on that it was really putting it into a bind. We went ahead and removed the remaining piece of trim from the tow hook hole and the front fascia fits much better now. Depending on your vehicle, you may or may not need to completely remove this. We found that everything lines up much better once we removed the piece. We did this for both the driver and the passenger side. Once you have your fascia pushed back up into position, don't forget to plug in any fog lights or any other accessories that you may have had to unplug to remove the fascia. Now that we have the fascia back in place, we'll go ahead and re-install the hardware in the reverse order that we removed it. Now that we have the fascia re-installed, let's go over how the removable arms are installed in each of the base plates. You'll notice how there's a tab that's sort of cut to fit. It lines up with the groove in the base plate itself. There's a spring-loaded locking mechanism. We'll line it up. Twist so that it locks into one of the tabs right there. When not using the removable arms or your tow bar, it does come with these little rubber plugs or plastic plugs that can be inserted into the base plate to help keep dirt and debris from getting in there, making it difficult to re-install the arms later. In addition to the base plate itself, you do get a couple of additional brackets. This bracket here can be used to install a breakaway switch. Depending on your exact model of vehicle, you'll have to choose the location to mount that. It does come with some hardware as well, some nuts and bolts, to install that. And you'll also get this bracket here to help you install your lighting or your wiring going back from the towed vehicle. It also does come with a little bit of hardware to help you mount it. And you will need to choose your location depending on your exact model and the type of wiring that you're using. And that will do it for our installation of the Blue Ox Base Plate Kit with Removable Arms - Part number BX1676 on our 2011 Chevrolet Avalanche. .