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Custom designed to fit your Mini Cooper so it can be safely towed behind your RV, this base plate has easily removable arms that offer a seamless look when you're not flat towing. Base plate bolts directly to your chassis, so no welding is required.
Features:
Specs:
This base plate's hidden design creates a clean and seamless look. The bracket arms are easily removable, creating a slick appearance when you're not flat towing. Because the arms can be removed, you also won't have to worry about banging your leg into any protruding arms when you walk by.
Attaching and removing the bracket arms is a breeze. To attach the arms to the base plate, simply insert them into the receivers and rotate them until they lock into place. Once you're finished towing and want to remove the arms, pull the pin to disengage the lock, rotate the arms, and remove them from the receivers. Finally, plug up the now empty receivers with the included receiver covers to help keep dirt and debris out of the base plate and provide a finished look.
Flat towing your vehicle is much more convenient than using a trailer or a tow dolly. These other options take up much more storage space, leaving you less room both at home and at the campsite. In addition, securing your vehicle to a trailer or tow dolly can be a hassle and more time consuming than hooking up with a tow bar.
There are 5 basic components needed when flat towing a vehicle: a tow bar, a base plate kit, a safety cable set, tow bar wiring, and a supplemental braking system.
The tow bar links your towed car to your motorhome. It attaches to the custom-fit base plates that install on the frame of your towed car. Safety cables ensure that your towed car does not separate from your motorhome in the event that your tow bar becomes detached. Tow bar wiring allows your towed vehicle's signal lights to sync up with your motorhome's tail lights, which is required by law in most states. Finally, the supplemental braking system - also required in most states - brakes your towed car when the brakes in your motorhome are activated, preventing wear on the motorhome and decreasing braking distance for your entire setup.
Average Customer Rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars (3041 Customer Reviews)
Custom designed to fit your vehicle so it can be safely towed behind your RV, this base plate has easily removable arms that offer a seamless look when you're not flat towing. Base plate bolts directly to your chassis, so no welding is required.Received this in two days and planning to install over the weekend. Thanks Etrailer.
After 1year using my Blue Ox baseplate I am still completely satisfied with my purchase. I installed the baseplate myself, it was a little challenging , but the instructions/video made it doable. The removable pins work very well, when they are removed you barely notice anything. You can’t even tell it’s a dinghy when it’s not being towed. I would recommend this baseplate to anyone wanting to tow their Mini-Cooper. I imagine that all Blue Ox baseplate are equally well built and reliable.
Very difficult to mount first two alignment bolts. Little clearance. Had to trim facia quite a bit for clearance. Overall I like the base plate and think it will work well.
Perfect how far fit on the front of my Mini Cooper. It is hidden well and required absolutely no modifications on the car at all. Love it!
Great tow bar! Simple to use and easy to store.
Recieved the item quickly and in in good condition iside a factory sealed container.
All of the parts and instructions were included. The tow bar had a good coat of paint. The price was the lowest I had found and purchasing was touble free. Bought this to mate with my Blue Ox Aladin tow bar.
Charles
8/3/2021
System works very well. Rather difficult install until I followed the directions more closely. Had reservations about cutting plastic. The base plate instaslled as intended,. Had some difficulty getting the safety cables to fit. Great videos and instructions.
Works great and was fairly easy to inst all.
Had some shipping damage issues with the order, but the staff at etrailer was on point. They took care of the return and sent a replacement within days. They did a fantastic job. I would like to thank Amy J. , Sue B. and Carol C. for all their help ! I haven't installed the part yet, when I do I'll try to send pictures of the install.
I installed this myself. The whole process took about 2 hours. The instructions were great and very detailed. Simple tools were all that were required. You do have to cut a couple of holes in the bottom grill in the Mini to allow the pins to be installed for towing and use the safety hooks. Thanks for a great product
Kurt D.
6/11/2017
It is doing just fine. traveled about 15,000 miles and still going strong. I appreciate all the help that I received from etrailer when I purchased my base plate.
I want to let you all know that I’m not a happy camper.
After much pushing, cutting, pushing & swearing, I finally got all the screws and pushpins back in place. I expected a better fit considering how much this baseplate cost. In reassembling, the front clip was distorted enough that parts of it popped apart and I had to drill into the bumper & add some screws to get it to look normal. Then the lower drivers side black grill popped in and there is no way to get the clips to hold it in place. If this were properly designed it would have fit better. I have no idea how long before some of those fasteners will last on our nasty highways but I guess stitching it back together forever will keep me occupied.
I’m not just a weekend mechanic. I’ve worked for an auto dealership, rebuilt engine & transmissions, etc. This project took me & a helper almost 8 hours to complete with no helpful feedback from BlueOx despite several phone conversations
Will it work to to my Mini? Yes, but be aware that cosmetically your Mini will never be the same.
This is a well built unit and I was able to install with minimal challenges. The challenges were created by body shop repair to the damage received from prior front end collision. Unit fix into place exactly and modification to grill for arms was done easily. I installed on a 2010 Mini Cooper convertible, our tow car behind our Minnie Winnie RV. We just completed a 1500 mile trek from Florida through Western NC and northeastern GA and the car towed perfectly. I wish I had installed 3 years ago instead of trailering.
This is a very solid bar and fit just as expected. The instructions were very clear, and after trimming a few plastic parts and drilling out a couple holes it bolted right in. Take your time cutting out the grill holes, start smaller than you think, and you will have a great fit. Pulled my Mini to Florida this spring.
I have done a number of these base plates, and this one was the worst fitting and lowest quality unfortunately. Not sure if there is just a lot of variation on the 2010 Mini Cooper S Convertible it went on, but the bolt holes didn't line up well at all. Additionally, it seems one of the post mounts is angled a bit down compared to the other. Not enough to be an issue and certainly not enough to take the whole thing back out, but I was disappointed. Just keep an eye for fit, maybe I should have noticed and returned for another one, but we were able to make it work.
well, the carton ends had been taped back together but not fully closed. the "parts bag" of bolts, washers, etc had burst, spilling its contents inside the larger carton. some of them arrived. but upon inventory, it seems the vast majority were lost. some of "nut plates with wire" arrived intact, more were bent, some were missing. all in all, the package went thru hell & lost many of the smaller parts.
when I called etrailer customer service, Marc C was ALL OVER THIS. he patiently went down the parts list 1 line at a time, noting how many were usable & how many I needed. this was Fri approaching 5pm. when we finished, he said that, barring complications, my replacement parts would ship out Tuesday. in light of the outstanding customer service, I am very likely to continue doing business with etrailer.
Product looks fantastic, having it installed thus week .
Hopefully I can send some pictures latter.
Like the way the tow bar will attach to the base
plate. Would like some thing to install in the
Base plate when it towing.
This base plate was a perfect fit for my Mini Cooper. Installation was fairly easy because to instructions were great. Highly recommended.
Works Great on my MINI Toad.
Some friends and I installed it in about 3 Hours
Curt
9/27/2021
Perfect! Dont even feel the MINI behind me.
Just finished install and just ordered the correct height drop hitch from you folks. Installed went pretty well and had to make a couple of adjustments but, worked well and will try out when hitch arrives...Thanks
Just what we needed to tow our Mini Cooper behind our Dutch Star! Easy to install. Great video and instructions.
Easy install because it fit. , great customer service.
The service was excellent. They thought the products would be a little late and contacted me to see if I still wanted them. The products arrived on time. Excellent service! Thanks!
One year on and still works perfectly.
Service was excellent and product arrived as promised. Haven’t completed install yet, so no comments on install.
Everything is good. On time.
fast delivery, excellent customer service. what else you need!
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Timothy T.
3/24/2023
I dont know about the fit for other flat tow vehicles, but for a Mini Cooper the fit is perfect and hidden well on the front end. No modifications were required for the install.