Installing a Hitch on a Nissan NV200 Recon Camper Van
Here’s an overview of my experience installing a Curt Hitch on a Nissan NV200 Recon Camper van (Item Item #C13165 from eTrailer.com). The eTrailer website has a great video that walks you through the process and gave me the confidence to tackle this on my own. I’m sharing my experience and photos of key steps and a few tips for the handful of folks who may be attempting a hitch install on this particular van and as inspiration for others who may be attempting it on another vehicle. The bottom line is I can understand why you pay people to do this but I had fun and learned a few things about hitch installation in the process.
Overall it was fairly straightforward but took a little longer than the instructions indicated; the instructions say 30 minutes for pro install time and 60 minutes for novice install time. It took me two approximately 3 hour sessions over a weekend. Having gone through the experience once, I’m sure I could do it much faster the next time (see my notes on bolt fishing below and avoid my mistake of trying option 1 and not immediately taking everyone’s advice to ignore that and go with option 2). I was with a group of friends who were cutting, splitting, and stacking firewood for the winter. It helped to have a few mechanically-oriented friends around who offered advice and encouragement — some of it helpful but mostly I endured good-natured heckling. It definitely kept it fun and I had a sense of accomplishment when I was done.
First I drove the van up onto a block of wood to give myself just a bit more space to work underneath.
Removing the spare tire was the first step. The spare tire fits just fine with the hitch installed but removing it is essential to be able to work under the van and get the hitch installed.
A clip holds the tire in place and the bolt required to loosen it requires an inordinate number of quarter turns allowed by the tire wrench. I just went and pulled a ratchet out of the toolbox; I subsequently ordered a 21mm ratchet wrench that I now keep in the tire toolkit for the next time I want to lower the spare tire.
I tried to unclip the muffler but could not get it off the rubber isolator that holds it in place. It would have helped a little to be able to lower the exhaust but there was enough play in the system that I was able to work the hitch up and over the exhaust system without too much trouble (less trouble than trying to unclip it).
I had to pop the plastic tabs that hold the trim in place to expose the left rear mounting hole.
This allowed me to pull the trim down.
I had to cut away some of it to expose the mounting hole but was able to leave a tab in place that I reattached after I was done (the guy in the eTrailer video just cut the whole thing off).
On the right side there was a bracket holding wiring in place that I had to remove. At this point I had the hitch loosely in place (the black metal piece to the bottom right in this photo) which allowed me to see what I had to remove to get it to fit.
There was a piece of a bolt extending out from the frame that I was able to trim with a grinder so I could get the hitch to fit flush against the frame. Note the black bracket to the left in the photo. That black bracket extends across the width of the van and interfered with placement of the hitch necessitating a notch cut in the hitch to fit around it.
By placing the hitch in place and then removing it, I was able to identify where I needed to cut the small notch so it would fit around the black bracket on both sides. I put a piece of tape on the hitch so I could easily mark the cutout I had to make.
My next task was using a grinder to cut the notch out. With the right tool this was an easy step and the only one that was not included in the instructions from eTrailer as the black bracket I had to work around was an add on by Recon to anchor the rear seat. If anyone tells you they can’t install the hitch because of modifications to the van made by Recon, it’s likely this cut out that the installer needs to make for the hitch to fit.
The notch cut completed. You can likely make a cleaner cut. I was kind of free handing it and cut it a little bigger than I needed to as I didn’t want to have to wrestle the hitch under the van and realize I had to take it back out again to make another cut.
The next task was fishing the six bolts to hold the hitch in place. The kit came with bolts, square spacers, and short 20" fish wire that is coiled in a manner that you can screw it onto the bolt (very clever). A friend gave me a tip to fold the other end of the wire over on itself so you don’t have a fine piece of wire under the van where it can poke you in the eye.
Here’s the important thing you need to know for this step. The instructions from eTrailer describe two options for fishing the bolts through the frame. Option 1 is impossible — well the guy on the eTrailer video did it and made it look easy but I tried and 3 hours of frustration and a trip to the hardware store ensued. With this method the idea is you fish the bolt through the large hole in the frame towards the back and then up and over the suspension shackle. Maybe someone who has done this dozens of times has the touch and I am usually pretty good with these kinds of tasks but I could not get the bolt and stopper past the shackle. The stopper just kept catching on the shackle no matter how many times I tried — I attempted lots of gentle jiggles, a couple hard pulls, and some abrupt pulls. I eventually gave up and worked to back it out which was extremely tricky once it was past the point of “no return” up against the shackle. I thought I was going to need to abandon it in place and buy another bolt but while I was at the hardware store looking at my options, a friend was able to back it out. Had I read the product reviews on eTrailer, I would have realized I was not the first person to conclude option 1 was not feasible.
Option 2 is to enlarge the secondary frame access hole which is immediately in front of the forward most anchor point for the hitch (make sure you don’t enlarge the hole you will be using to bolt the hitch). I used a titanium unibit designed for cutting metal to enlarge the access hole. A right angle drill would have been handy for this task. I did not have one and the spaces are very tight for a regular drill.
I was not able to cut a clean hole but was able to get it enlarged just enough to fit the bolt and spacer in the frame and fish it through. Inserting the bolt and spacer through the enlarged access hole and setting it up to fish into position.
Having fished the bolt through, it is now in position. Just five more to go.
The hitch in position on the right side with nuts threaded onto the bolts and prepared for tightening (two on each side and two in the rear on each side for a total of six attachment points).
The hitch bolted in on the left side. This view shows the notch I had to cut out of the hitch to allow it to fit around the bracket that extends across the width of the van.
This vehicle is not recommended for towing but I wanted the option to be able to install a hitch-mount rack or or other hitch-mount accessories and pull a small utility trailer now and then. Next up is wiring but I have yet to tackle that project. I will add to this article when I get to it.
