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Designed for use with motor-home-mounted tow bars, the direct-connect brackets are virtually invisible, easy to mount and remove, and they eliminate the need for a quick-disconnect crossbar on your tow bar. Installs on your vehicle's frame.
Features:
Note: Roadmaster direct-connect base plates will only work with Roadmaster tow bars that slide into a trailer hitch, such as the Nighthawk, Sterling, Blackhawk, Blackhawk 2, Falcon, or Falcon 2. These base plates will not work with tow bars that require a hitch ball.
The drawbars, or front arms, on this base plate kit are supremely easy to mount and remove. Just insert them into the brackets and twist to lock them in place. To remove each arm, simply tug the built-in pull pin to disengage the lock, twist the arm back and pull it out of the bracket. Once the drawbars have been removed, the remaining brackets are virtually invisible. On most automobiles, the brackets are mounted within the grille, where they remain not only unseen, but protected from scrapes and scuffs as well.
Average Customer Rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars (2029 Customer Reviews)
Designed for use with motor-home-mounted tow bars, the direct-connect brackets are virtually invisible, easy to mount and remove, and they eliminate the need for a quick-disconnect crossbar on your tow bar. Installs on your vehicle's frame.Great Company Product arrived on time and the tracking information was above and beyond what I expected Product is exactly as described and of excellent quality
Would highly recommend etrailer and Roadmaster
The install was easy and the base plate does a great job. The only issue that I had was the mount for the wiring harness had one of the mounting points welded on backwards. I did not notice this until the mounting plate was completely installed. etrailer gave me a small amount of money back for this, but that amount of money definitely was not worth the inconvenience this small error in manufacturing has caused. If it were not for this defect I would be 100% happy with this product and recommend it to anyone. Since this defect creates an inconvenience every time I hook up and unhook it is pretty frustrating and I know it will eventually lead to the plug mount breaking since there is no way to properly attach it. A note to the manufacturer and to etrailer... the small things matter. It did not seem to matter to you, but it matters a lot to the guy who paid you for it.
Product arrived very quick. It is well made and came complete with all hardware and instructions. The only problem was that it has extra mounting plates for each side that doesn't show up on any of the videos. The instructions say if there isn't a hole on the outside of the frame on each side just to drill through from the inside to make the hole on the outside. There is barely enough room to get your hand in there let alone a drill. I lined up the lower holes on the mounting plate with the holes on the frame and marked the upper hole, drilled a pilot hole and checked the inside and adjusted accordingly then drilled the final hole. I like the fact that I can remove the tow arms so they are not shin busters.
Has held up very well over the last year on our JK Wrangler. I like that it's very unobtrusive when the tow arms are removed. Very quick hook up with no worries.
Received base plate with absolutely no damage. Had a few problems with the nut plates but Shawn B. did an excellent job in getting it corrected.
Very pleased with the looks of this base plate on my Jeep. (2018 JK 2 door)
Looking forward to getting hooked up to my motorhome and start traveling.
J J.
4/8/2020
No problems whatsoever. Completed a 6,000 mile trip over the course of 6 weeks.
The instruction videos were a huge help. Installation was pretty straight forward. Unfortuanely my jeep didn't have a couple of holes pre-drilled for mounting the base plate to the frame. But that situation was covered in the video.
The baseplate was exactly what I needed since I already have a similar set up on my Honda CRV. This allows me to tow either vehicle behind my motorhome. I also used diode wiring kit RM-15267 and RM-156-25, the battery charge kit. The videos were extremely helpful. I watched the diode video kit numerous times and took notes, before doing that project. It would have been nice to have a shop and lift, but I had to do with a cold garage and driveway with some blankets to lay on. The battery charge kit wire was really not long enough, so I bought some 14 gauge wire and made a longer wire. My jeep battery is in the rear of the engine compartment on passenger side. Kit may be ok for front battery. I've tested everything except the charging wire and actually towed my Jeep for a few miles to make sure everything works as it should. I was a little disappointed when I saw what the markup on the base plate kit was, but I couldn't have done the installation without the videos, so I ended up saving the money to have it all done. I was pleased that the baseplate fit under my aftermarket EAG winch bumper, which was very reasonable. You can see that the installation is a clean one. Sorry the pics aren't in perfect order.
I installed this with a non-approved bumper. A rugged ridge XHD. Required a little bit of grinder magic, but took me maybe an hour max. Very easy install, good instructions, and It’s good to know that if something does fail that at least I pulled with an approved set up. Very heavy steel.
The product was exactly what I ordered and fit as easily as etrailer's very informative video tutorial showed that it would. The product was delivered before the expected date. And I was able to easily track the shipment. The best part of the etrailer experience was the extremely helpful staff member, Katie. My card had a problem going thru and Katie was as helpful in clearing that up as she was in assisting with the actual order. I will absolutely recommend etrailer to everyone.
From start to finish I probably had an hour thirty in this install. I tried multiple cutting tools for trimming the lower plastic panel. A good razor knife worked the best for me. After I loose fit the bar on my jeep, I took the plastic valance panel loose and let it hang on the tow bar. I was able to access the bottom bolts easier and use my screw driver to hold the inner flat nuts on the side ones easier as well. I had to clean the threads on the bottom flat plates which I wish I had seen before I started the assembly. All in all no biggie. My wiring bracket piping was bent in transit. I was able to bend them back in place and then up slightly to make it easier for me to plug in my motorhome harness. Great engineering. Simple process. I really like the way the tow bar sits under and slightly behind the front of the bumper. Clean set up.
I mistakenly ordered the wrong item. I called and spoke to Lori. She was very nice and helped me to order the correct item. She immediately sent me a return shipping label and I was able to return the wrong item the same day. The correct item arrived very quickly as did my refund. etrailer has quality products and excellent customer service.
It arrived in a timely manner was easy to install. My son and I did it in about 2 hours. Perfect fit the plug mounting studs were slightly bent during shipment but easily straightened. The wiring harness took much longer to install but I’m kind of pickie. I was able to feed inside the frame from front to back. Thanks for a great looking product.
Easy installation. Only problem I had was some coolant lines made it tight to get bolts in. No problems after a year of use
Great design. Very tight fit. Not a single person job. I had to get my son to help and together we were able to get it over the frame. Once in place it went together pretty easy. After having a hitch with a cross bar this one is much easier and quicker to set up for the motor home.
Our Roadmaster tow bar is amazing, is easy to set up and super safe.
Easy install and works perfect. Thank you John G for making sure I purchased the correct parts.
Great product. Easy to install. Exactly what I needed.
Excellent fit, easy install. My 2012 JKU did not require any drilling in the frame so it went together very quickly. Great fit.
Solid welded product, with perfect fit, and the video instructions made it a no-brainer.
Fits nicely
Solid construction sorta...down right dumb install on older JKs. The secondary plates are not particularly well engineered and a real bandaid on less than perfect design. They are however needed, as mounting to only the vertical frame tubes will likely impart too much torsion on the welds that hold those tubes to the main frame rails. Especially so as the need for aggressive braking, or even a panic stop inevitably arises. I really dislike the mount bracket tubes for an electrical tow plug receptacle. Since I had already had one mounted in the bumper from a previous tow system, I just cut those 1/4" tubes off so that I never get injured on them...along with what ever the flat plate welded on near those tubes was for. There are no holes in the outer frame rails, as all the videos and install instructions show. So? You'll need to try to GUESS where to align and where to drill the outer holes. Guessing that they will be relatively centered in the body frame mount bracket, will cause a fail. You'll need to drill a second hole. Oversizing those holes was about the only way to get reasonable alignment for the bolt to make both holes, the bushing and the add on bracket. OEM power steering hydraulic lines, will rub on the long bolts heads once everything is installed. You'll need to engineer some sort of vibration isolators or stand offs to prevent chaffing through those aluminum tubes. If you're not careful with your drilling you may even drill into the lower corner of your radiator. None of the instructions discuss any of these product design shortfalls.
Sierra K.
7/15/2022
In the instructions it mentions that sometimes the outer frame rail will have no holes. I would hold the baseplate up and mark the area needed for the hole to be drilled.
Well designed and comes with great instructions. Looking forward to using the two equipment while traveling.
Very pleased with the fit and finish of the EZ5 that I installed on my 2016 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. The directions need to be updated a bit as there were two brace plates not shown but easy enough to figure out. I connected my RoadMaster tow bar, a Falcon 5250, to the EZ5 base. The tow bar, I bought from Etrailer years ago, has been used on my last 5 Jeeps that I have towed behind my motorhomes. The base plate attachments seem to change from year to year to fit the Jeeps. There are several nice YouTube videos on the installation process.
Joe B.
7/5/2019
Still working great after a year.
The parts arrived way sooner than expected (seems to be a hibit for e-trailer). Don't get me wrong that's excellent.
As for the installation it went very smooth except for trying to lock the bolts in. place with the wire and red loctite took a bit of engineering and finding the right tool/screwdriver and a steel plate to keep the nut plate from spinning and got it to lock up tighten. Looks great and looks like part on the Jeep
The taillight package was flawless and went in better than I expected... just enough cable between lights and to the front of the Jeep...
Allan A.
10/1/2017
Have been towing behind the RV now for at least 15K miles without worries Great product and easy to hookup and dissconnect
Excellent, well built product. Very easy to install with directions and video from website. Only problem was templet for cutting rock guard was not entirely accurate.
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Michael
6/7/2019
Still working great. Glad I ordered from etrailer.