I just got my "new" Chevy HHR. It is replacing my old Saturn SL1 - sold it a couple of days ago - had it priced to low, a zillion calls - the first guy got out of the car and pulled out his checkbook on the way up the driveway.
Anyway - I've got all my old equipment from the Saturn laying in the garage. I'm order a new hidden baseplate tomorrow (Blue Ox), along with the bypass switch (since the fuze to pull is a pain to get to).
Just looking under the hood, don't see a convenient place to put my "Brakeaway" system (the blue canister). Where is everyone else locating it? I never accessed it on the saturn, since no real maintennace. Kinda thinking about putting it under the rear seat, since there is no access there.
Any other ideas?
Also, did folks run the power/diodes for the rear lights through the cabin, or under the chassis? Going to pull seats and carpet to "dynamat" the floor for some extra quiet and road noise moderation.
If you are going to remove the carpets anyway, just run wireing cable inside along driver side. Then under side molding for diodes, and split to passenger side lights. No, I should have a braking system, but do not. Saying that, I have had a couple of instances that I was wishing for one. If we tow anything heaver, I will probably have one installed.
As far as the fuse switch, I also think that is a good idea, but am making do very easy. On our 2007, the fuse is easy to get to. There is a fuse puller clipped into the cover, so I just leave the puller on the correct fuse(#8), and it is very easy for the driver to reach over an pull it, or reinstall it with the puller attached. I am consitering changing the taillights to LED bulbs to be brighter. It usually takes the two of us less than a minute to hook up or unhook the toad. (30 seconds to hook up one time when we were showing off)
One thing we have found that works for us. I usually do the pins on one side, and the power cable, while wife does pins on the other side and safety cables. Then she get in and does the parking brake, fuse, transmission, and steering check. Then she checks me, and I check hers. By having a pattern, we feel less prone to make mistakes. Also, we do not talk to anyone else while we are hooking up, nor do we talk to anyone else when they are hooking up. Distractions can be disasters!!!
We just replaced a 2003 Saturn L200 with a 2011 HHR toad. We love the HHR and its space for our dogs. Do most of you use one of those fuse switches instead of pulling the fuse each time? We've only towed ours one time so far and it wasn't much of a problem but it would be much easier with a switch in place. The HHR takes just a tad bit longer to set up than the Saturn but that is mostly because of the cover we use.
* This post was
edited 04/21/12 03:06pm by 4roes *
I'm just getting ready to add all of the stuff to my HHR. Still waiting on a couple of items - so I'll be (probably) doing all the installation next weekend. Probably going to pull up carpet and seats, and do dynomat extreme to decrease road noise while I'm at it.
I DID purchase the fuse switch. The guy at hitchworld didn't know anything about it. When he looked it up for me, was "wow- need to add this to my rig". I think it will be great - easier for the wife to work - she does the inside, I do the outside, then I check it all.
Swapped my Saturn out for a new HHR. Lots more room and easy to get in and out because of seat height. I ran my wires underneith because I installed new lights for towing and wired them like a trailer. I read that there is not much room in the tail lights for the diodes. I also bought a switch and mounted it to the fuse panel. Not my picture but the same as mine.
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