Community Forums

chasfm11 · 12-30-2008, 06:47 PM

Wow, Hooligan. That is a lot of disassembly. Those directions are very clear though. For things like having to take of the windshield fluid resevoir, I wouldn't worry at all. It is when the parts don't fit tightly together that I get nervous. I'm no engineer but I do understand that the way the Vue's baseplate goes on, it is a sheer load on all of the bolts. My feeble brain just doesn't want to deal with slop under those conditions.

I'm very impressed with your Blue Ox setup. If I had it do over again, I'd probably go that route myself. I must say, however, that I've been towing with the Falcon2 for 5 years and 30K miles and haven't had a whisper of a problem. I can only hope that this Vue setup works out as well. I'll probably be under the Vue with the torque wrench at every rest stop on our first long trip, checking the baseplate bolts LOL.

RV Wizard · 12-31-2008, 10:47 PM

Charlie, glad to hear you were finally able to "Get-r Done". I found out that the Blue Ox base plate that I had ordered was not intended for my optioned Vue. It was close enough, that all I had to do was slightly trim off some plastic the extensions twisted into. Spent three hours to install base plate and wiring the separate bulb sockets in the rear light fixtures. My truck only took 45 minutes to install the base plate. Some of the longest install I have seen are on the Honda. Good luck and keep us posted.

chasfm11 · 01-01-2009, 05:29 AM

Thanks, Mike. I will post my final success with the baseplate. I managed to cross thread a specialized nut while I was still working around with headlight still in place and had to order a new one from Roadmaster. When that arrives, it should take 10 minutes to install it and I'll be completely finished with mechanical part of the installation.

Today, I'm trimming the front facia to allow the upper part of the removable part of the base plate to slide into place. If I manage to get the outside Christmas decorations down in time, I'm also going to tackle the wiring. I'm being very creative with the lights. I bought a Hidden Hitch and a wiring package from them that plugs directly into the Vue's harness for the trailer lights. I've figured out a scheme to modify that wiring package to add the diodes that I need to hook up the MH connections so that I'm not touching any of the Vue's "native" wiring. I also have to modify the MH side because I'm going from the 4 wire flat connector to a 6 wire round connector. This will allow me to drive the Vue's turn and stop lights separately. In addition, I'm running the sense wire from the Vue's brake switch that drives the Brakemaster indicator light on the MH dash through the same connector. This makes hooking up the toad just once step more simple. I'll still have to move all of the other Brakemaster wiring and components for the breakaway from our old Saturn to the Vue but I don't want to do that until everything else is 100% ready on the Vue. I don't want to be "between toads" and not be able to camp in January.

skipwil · 01-09-2009, 01:51 PM

hi: i'm attempting to put a 3111-1 kit on an '03 vue. the first bolt to be removed was the sub-frame bolt-the nut broke loose inside the box frame.(welded or caged). any help (suggestions) will be helpful. i can manage bolts i can get to,via.
hammer/chisle/vise grips etc. but inside a closed space i don't know. all help appreciated...

chasfm11 · 01-09-2009, 02:52 PM

I'm not sure exactly what problem you have yet, Joe. When I removed the subframe bolts to allow me to install the baseplate per the instructions, the nut remained inside of a "caged" area and I was able to re-install the bolt without problems. I'm assuming that you are having a problem in that area, correct?

My I suggest some pictures of your situation to help us better understand your situation?

Charlie

skipwil · 01-09-2009, 03:48 PM

the nut came loose inside the box frame and the bolt will turn with my fingers.i can't feel any opening in the top or side of the nut area. i think a saws-all will cut the bolt head off;but that leaves the nut and bolt shaft in the frame. i found a small hole but that only was in the lower part of the sub frame. i think a metal hole saw might go straight down thru the top of the frame to allow removal and put a nut & lock washer back on a new bolt. roadmaster techs had already left for the day-c/s rep said they'd call monday morning. he may have a suggestion on a solution. thanks...

chasfm11 · 01-10-2009, 05:07 AM

Update:
My baseplate installation is finally finished. All 6 bolts are installed. For the last one, the middle bolt on the "U" on the driver's side, the hole in the flange on the baseplate itself wasn't large enough for the drill bit that they wanted me to use (1/2") I managed to ge through that slot and enlarge the lower hole in the frame as instructed. When I drilled upwards with a 9" bit (again as instructed), the offset between the baseplate hole and the hole in the frame caused the drill to be forward of perpendicular going through the upper part of the frame. When I put attempted to put the backing plate/nut combination on the bolt, it was cocking by hitting on one edge. The result was that it cross-threaded as I tightened it. I ordered new parts from Roadmaster. When they arrived, I removed the headlight and adjusted the hole slightly with a drill bit from the top. IMHO, it would have been much easier to have drilled the top part of the frame through the headlight and I've sent Roadmaster a revised set of their 3111-1 instructions with that as a suggestion.

I've also discovered that their instruction to trim tabs on the fascia piece that I removed as the first step in the instructions is not even close to working in my case. My fascia is significantly different than their pictures. This all but convinced me that their instructions were written for an earlier model year of the Vue. Upon examination, significant modifications would be needed to my fascia in order to install it again, over the baseplate. I'm worried that those modifications would make it unstable in high speed road conditions so, for now, I'm leaving it completely off. In addition, with the fascia in place, I think putting the hitch pins in after mounting the upper part of the baseplate (where the tow bar attaches) would be extremely difficult. It is hard enough without the fascia.

With my neighbor's help (welding), I fashioned a bracket to mount the new 6 pin electrical connector directly under the front license plate. I hope to put that on today and start the electrical wiring. I bought a wiring kit from Hidden Hitch which plugs directly into the Vue's taillights and I'm planning to modify that kit to tie in the wiring from the MH. In theory, my wiring plan looks OK. I'll post if I run into any unexpected problems with it.

Lastly, the person from Roadmaster responsible for the baseplate designs did a followup call with me about a week ago. When she learned that I had paid for the parts that I cross threaded during installation, she insisted on refunding my money though I told her the mistake was definitely mine. I've also learned that a friend of mine contacted Roadmaster with an question unrelated to anything that I'm doing, was relayed to one of the employees who initially blew off my questions and concerns and received excellent support. I sense that the overall Roadmaster organization is very customer oriented and that my initial experiences may have been the exception. The combination of the 3111-1 baseplate mismatch to my particular chassis and those initial responses is what triggered my original post in this thread. The responses from them since have been very supportive. I wish that we could have started this way but do understand things are never perfect.

Charlie

DAN L · 01-10-2009, 08:21 PM

charlie...
maybe you could have cleaned up the threads on the cross threaded bolts with a die, and the nut with a tap? or, clean up the bolt and buy a new nut from napa?

chasfm11 · 01-11-2009, 04:28 AM

Dan, I considered getting tools to do the thread clean up. It was more cost effective for me to re-order the parts than to buy the tap and dies since I didn't have that size. As you probably have seen, I'm borderline paranoid about how this baseplate is installed and want it to be 100%