Becky and I decided to install a trailer hitch on our amazing Town and Country so Never Say When could be comfortable when we traveled on tour this summer. We ordered the hitch and it arrived on Wednesday of last week. If you know how much I know about cars and stuff, you would probably laugh if I said that Becky and I wanted to install it ourselves to save some money. I read the instructions and figured out what tools we needed. That evening I drove to Farm King and picked up a 3/8" drive socket set and a set of wrenches in case I needed them. I also picked up the ball mount for the hitch. Then I went to AutoZone and rented a 3/8" drive torque wrench on their Loan-a-Tool program that a friend had told me about. This way I could use the new sockets I just got on the torque wrench. I got home and figured out that the 3/8" drive torque wrench gives inch-pounds of torque and I needed foot-pounds of torque from a 1/2" drive torque wrench for this project. So Becky and I headed back out in a wicked storm and returned the socket set and got a 1/2" drive set then returned the wrench and got one with a 1/2" drive. Then Barry, who told me about the Loan-a-Tool program, allowed me to use his jack stands.
GOD thing #1: I got all the tools I needed without having to spend a lot of money on stuff that I would rarely use.
Becky and I had an open day today. I was very anxious and excited to get the hitch on! I went out and got the van up onto the jack stands as high as they would go. The van wasn't super stable, but I thought it was stable enough. The first thing in the instructions had me taking off a bumper bolt that required an 18mm socket. Though the set I bought didn't have an 18mm, I assumed a 17 or 19 would work well enough.....WRONG. Becky decided she wanted to go with me to get the new socket which meant getting the van down so we could take the baby in the car seat. I put the jack under the van and started lifting. Apparently I didn't get the jack straight on because it shifted the van and caused it to drift sideways. It bent the platform on both of the jack stands as they, along with the jack, got stuck under the van which was now back on its wheels. OOPS! I was able to get the broken jack and stands out, but I wasn't the happiest camper.
GOD thing #2: Becky decided to go with me to the store so the van "fell" when I was getting it down and no one was under it!
GOD thing #3: The van is not messed up! The jack and stands did not puncture or break any important things when they got stuck under the van.
So our trip to Farm King turned from a $6 trip to a $76 dollar trip. We got the 18mm socket, sturdy new jack stands, a new jack and a much happier Nathan.
GOD thing #4: GOD provided us with some savings so Becky and I didn't have to freak when we had to spend some unexpected money.
We got back to the apartment and I got to work again. I wanted to move quickly because it looked like a rain storm was coming. I got the van back up and started to remove bolts. I followed the directions which had me remove the brackets for the rear stabalizer bar. When we held the hitch up in position, I found that I was following the wrong set of directions (it came with 2 sets for differing vehicles). I quickly found that I didn't need to take off the stabalizer bar brackets and it should be easier than planned! I continued working and figured I would put the bar back on when I was done. I found that one of the nuts that was built into the frame was giving me a problem because it somehow got stripped or something. This made it hard to get the bolt in, but thankfully the torque wrench gave enough leverage to smash it in tightly (even to the correct amount of torque according to the directions).
GOD thing #5: The messed up nut ended up taking the really difficult bolt!
The most finicky part of the project was next. I had to feed a spacer and a bolt up into the enclosed frame through a hole so the bolt would come down through the spacer and through the hole so I could put a nut on the bolt outside the frame. I managed to get the spacer in but the bolt would not fit through the hole it was supposed to go through. I didn't know what to do since it was one of only three bolts on each side of the hitch. I had to have it and it didn't fit though the hole. On a whim I tried to put the bolt through another hole and it fit! And guess what? This hole would have been half-covered by the stabalizer bracket that I took off by mistake! If I wasn't following the wrong directions I probably would have given up because this bolt just didn't fit!
GOD thing #6: I followed the wrong directions and accidentally uncovered the hole that allowed me to get the bolt into the frame.
I put the stabalizer bar back on and double checked the torque on all the hitch bolts to make sure they were tight enough according to the directions. I was done as it was just beginning to sprinkle.
GOD thing #7: GOD held off the rain.
GOD thing #8: The hitch is on and ready!
GOD is good,
Nathan
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