To see if this custom-fit item will work for you please tell us what vehicle you'll use it with.
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.
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Clayton: Hello everyone. Clayton here at etrailer.com. Today we'll be taking a look at, and I'll show you how to install the Roadmaster Direct-Connect Base Plate kit on our 2020 Honda Accord Sport. Our base plate is going to be that key connection point between our vehicle and our tow bar. Now, the base plate is one of our key components in our flat towing setup. And for this particular one, we have our base plate, our tow bar, our diode wiring, our safety cables.And you might want to consider adding a supplemental braking system as well.
Our base plate is actually mounted to the frame of our vehicle, so it's going to be a really strong connection point. And in this particular vehicle, it does replace that front factory bumper beam. I really do like how this base plate kit looks on the front of our vehicle. It's pretty concealed and it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb like a lot of other base plates do.Now we didn't have to do a whole lot of trimming, which is nice., because if we ever want to take it off, we don't have to worry about there being a bunch of open holes in the front of our vehicle. And our safety cable inaudible 00:00:55 tap comes out right here.
It's really easy to access to get all of our components off. Then we can take off our tow bar. Then to take your arm out, you simply pull out on this, twist down, and that arm will come right out.And that's what I was saying. It looks really nice on the front of our vehicle. Nothing protrudes other than our safety tab.
Now when we're ready to connect, we want to make sure our pin is facing down. We're just going to push our arm in like so, and then turn it and you'll hear a nice click where this pin locks in. There is a spring in here, that way we can pull it and undo it. When we hook up, it automatically springs down. Then we grab the arm from our tow bar, push it into our arm.
Add our pin.Then we can drop our tab through here, and lock it down. And we're ready to hit the road. Our base plate is going to be a steel construction. So it's going to be very strong and it's going to hold up well over time. It is going to have a nice black powder coat finish, just to help resist rust and corrosion as well. Not only does the black powder coat finish help the base plate, but it also blends in with the front of our vehicle. And as far as installation is concerned, it's really not that bad getting it on.We don't need any major tools, and we don't have to drill any holes which is really nice. There are a couple of bolts that are hard to access, but if you just take your time and really focus on getting the nuts and bolts on correctly, you'll have no problem getting this installed. So we've talked about the features and I've talked a little bit about installation, I'll go ahead and show you how we got ours installed.To start our installation there's going to be four bolts located right here on our air box. We're going to take these four push pins out. I'm going to use a flat blade screwdriver, or you could use a nylon pry tool if you like. I'm just going to twist up, then pull them out. Again there's going to be four of them. With those four pins removed, we can now pull up on our air intake and pull it off right here.This just snaps right over this tube here. With our air box removed, we're now going to be removing our headlight covers. There's going to be three push pins on each one for both sides. Take that same flat blade screwdriver, go underneath and pry up. Simply pull out. You might have to work your way around the push pins just to get it to pop out evenly. I can simply take this off, and we'll do the same thing on our driver's side.On each side, there's going to be this plastic fender guard. We're going to pop out these two push pins and repeat that same process on the other side. Be careful not to drop those as they can be hard to get. Again, this will just pull right off, and we'll repeat that same process on the other side. We are now ready to remove our radiator cover right here. It's going to be held down with two push pins. One located here, and one located here.We're going to grab that nylon pry tool, and just pull those out. With those push pins out, we can just lift up on our radiator cover. Our next step is going to be to remove our six push pin fasteners located on the front of our fascia. Again I'm just going to come in with that flat bladed screwdriver, pry underneath. We turned it up, then we can just pull those fasteners out. You do want to be careful not to scratch your paint.That's why I'm using the flat blade screwdriver. We are now going to be removing hardware inside of our wheel well liner. I do suggest turning your wheel hard to the right, and then heart to the left for the passenger side. Just to give us a little bit more room to access this hardware. We're going to have a pushpin fastener right here, right here. The Phillips head right here behind our air duct. One right above it, and then a push pin right up here.I'm going to grab a small flat blade screwdriver, to get these push pins, and then a ratcheting Phillips head to get those screws. Now we're going to move over to our passenger side, and get all that hardware removed. Now we have our wheel straightened back out and put our car up in the air to remove some more fasteners. If you're doing this at home, you probably don't have a lift. I would suggest pulling your car up on ramps, or jacking it up in the air, just to give you a little bit more room, because the front of this car, does sit very low.We are now going to be removing some pushpins to get this splash shield down. There's going to be a push pin located here, here, here, here and here. There's going to be five on each side. Now you grab that little flat blade screwdriver, and pry down, twist it. We'll just pull these push pins out. We did have one more hidden Phillips screw located right here, securing our fascia to the fender. We'll go ahead. We'll take that out. We're using the same Phillips head drive.And there will be one on both sides. Now we are going to have to remove one more push pin located right here. Let me grab that small flat blade screwdriver, and pry down. We're going to do that on each side. And before we actually pop our fascia out, I'm going to take some blue painter's tape, and just line all of our edges and around our headlight, wherever our fascia is going to possibly touch when we're taking it off. And again, this is just going to protect the paint.That way we don't have any scratches or anything, when we're done with our install. You don't have to be super precise with it. You just want to make sure to cover any paint that might get cut. And now with an extra set of hands, we can start to pull off our fascia on this corner. We're just going to pull straight out carefully, and then work our way towards the middle. Again, you don't want to pull too hard. We're just going to start releasing our fascia tabs.As we get towards the middle, you want to make sure to support the whole fascia, and unplug our wiring harness. Pulling out on our fascia, there are a few tabs in here that we're going to have to pop. We're going to reach in with a nylon pry tool, and just pull up on these tabs. That'll help release our tabs without breaking our plastic. There are going to be a couple moving our way down the headlight. Now we can go ahead and carefully lift off our fascia.We do have an electrical connector here for our fog lights. We'll push down on this tab and pull our plug out. Now with our extra set of hands, we can carefully set our fascia off to the side. If we follow along in our instructions, it is going to tell us to take out our splash guard on our wheel well liner. I don't really see a need to do that because we still have enough room to access everything behind our headlight. So we're going to skip that step, and later on if we need to take that out, we'll go ahead and do so.We're not going to remove this brace here. There's going to be four, 10 millimeter bolts on each side. We'll go ahead and get those removed. Since this contains our hood latch and everything, I'm just going to take it like so, and fold it back. And this will give us plenty of room to access everything up here, without having to unplug all of our lines. There are going to be a few fasteners to hold on our headlight. They're all going to be 10 millimeter. We'll start taking those off now.With all of our hardware out, our headlight will support itself, but we do want to hold onto it just to make sure we don't drop it. There's going to be little tabs here. We're going to pull up on these, and slowly slide our headlight out of place, making sure we don't disattach our wiring. Now with our headlight mostly out, we're going to unplug these connectors. We simply push down on this tab here, and pull out. And for this one, we push down, and pull up. Just like so.We're going to grab our nylon pry tool, then pull this plug out of our headlight. That way we can set our headlights off to the side. Just like that, our headlight is disconnected. We're going to repeat that exact same process over on our passenger side. We're now ready to remove our factory bumper beam. There's going to be five, 14 millimeter bolts located on each side. We'll go ahead and take those off. Then just a good tip is to leave one bolt in on each side when you get all the hardware taken out, that way the bumper beam doesn't just fall off.Now moving over to our passenger side, we can get all these bolts broken loose. We're going to have one, 10 millimeter bolt on each side that we need to get removed. So now we can go ahead and remove these last 14 millimeter bolts. It might be a good idea to have an extra set of hands, just to hold the bumper beam, so it doesn't fall. There are going to be little tabs on the inside of our bumper beam, we have to lift that up and push it in, to release that tab. And once we've done so, our bumper beam will come right off.Like so. And this will not be reinstalled. Our vehicle is equipped with adaptive cruise control, so we are going to have to trim that bracket. I marked out where we're going to be trimming. So we're going to be cutting this portion off. We're going to be using a Dremel tool with a cutoff wheel. And we're going to do this on both sides. And if you don't have a Dremel tool, this can be cut out with 10 snips. Just keep in mind it does require quite a bit of grip strength.Now that we have cut this out, I just suggest shaving it with a file, just to knock down that, just so we don't accidentally cut ourselves. We can now grab our brace. And a good way to tell which side goes on the left or right, is the left. The top is going to have three holes, and then we're going to make sure we run a line up that outside hole. So this is going to be our driver's side. We'll just hold it up in the right location, and then get our hardware started.We are going to use the same hardware that our stock bumper beam came with. We can just hold our bracket up, and get our hardware loosely installed. We'll repeat the same process on the passenger side. Our next step is going to be to get this bracket into our frame rails right here. It's going to slide in through our base plate like so, and then we'll align these two holes up here with the holes on our base plate.On that inside part, we're going to be putting the spacer in like this, and then sliding our bolt through with a flat washer on the outside like this, we'll be adding another flat washer, and our nut on the inside. Now I suggest taping this to our bracket here and making it a little bit easier, to get that all in together. It can be tight and it's hard to get this to stay in the horizontal position. I'll show you how we did it on the driver's side, just for some reference.Now it's hard to see down in there, but you can see the blue painter's tape where I taped that spacer to that bracket. And again, we're going to be adding that longer five inch bolt on the outside with a flat washer, pushing it through that spacer and our bracket, and then meeting it on the other side with a flat washer and our nut. If you look right down here, you can see our new hardware. We did have to take out this 10 millimeter bolt on our air box, and we want to make sure that we're using red Loctite on all of our hardware.We just want to slide our hardware through here, then we'll get a lock washer and nut on the backside. We'll go ahead and tighten it down. I'm using 18 millimeter wrench. We can now grab our brace, we'll slide this into here, and then insert hardware. That way it can hold itself up. Before I get this all tightened down, I'm going to go ahead and trim our air dam right here, where our wiring bracket is making contact. This is where we're going to be trimming out. We want to try to pull it as tight as possible, and I'm just going to take a pocket knife, make a mark following that.Actually our pocket knife will cut through it, because it is a softer rubber. Again we're just going to go all the way down like so. Then we do need to trim a little bit more off the back here. We're just going to cut down like so. Here's the little ridge that we'll cut to, just like that. We'll take our knife across, then we'll cut our rubber. Now we have all of our components installed for our base plate. We're going to come back and torque it down. All the torque specs for each piece of hardware will be listed in our instructions.I'm going to go ahead and re-install our air box, since we had to take it off to get some of that hardware off. Everything for our base plate has been installed, but if you are installing any other flat tow components on your vehicle, I suggest leaving that front fascia off, because it would be a whole lot easier to run all of our wiring and make our connections. Our kit does include a stencil, so we know right where to drill our hole. I'm going to grab a yellow paint marker, and just make a little mark right here in the center.Then we can drill right in the middle. Right there. We're going to make those same marks on the other side, I'm going to use a two and a quarter inch hole saw, because that's the diameter of our base plate. Now when you're using a hole saw, you want to start really slow, and let the blade do all the work. Just hold it in one spot really carefully. Then you can slowly add more speed. Just like that, and we'll repeat that same process on the other side. With these two holes drilled, now we're going to drill a hole right here for our diode wiring.I'm going to use a step drill bit, and then we'll just slowly drill it out and then we can grab a plug. And then inaudible 00:16:13 we need to drill. Before we can reinstall our front fascia, we do have to get our headlights put back in. We're going to put a few other things in, in reverse order how we took them apart. Now with an extra set of hands, we can slowly put our fascia back on, and make sure that our base plate is going to line up.Our holes we're a little off center, so I did have to enlarge them a little bit on the side, as you can see it's more of an oval shape now. I just use the Dremel tool. We followed it around to keep that same radius. With everything hooked up to our RV, we know we're ready to hit the road. That's going to do it for a look at and installation of the Roadmaster Direct-Connect Base Plate kit for our 2020 Honda Accord Sport.
Average Customer Rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars (2080 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.
I bought and self installed this on my 2021 GMC Sierra Duramax 1 year ago. Install took about 5 hours and wasn't difficult...I could problty install it in 2-3 hours after leaening the tricks. Weve towed the truck all over the USA since then (over 10,0000 miles) and it works great! I've used other brands and highly recommend Roadmaster tow systems over the competition.
I reported that one of the removable tow arms was missing to etrailer within hours of receiving the baseplate. This was due to the shipping box being damaged during transit and likely just fell out. After four business days with no communication from etrailer I contacted Roadmaster. A couple of emails and they shipped the part. Very disappointed having to do etrailer's legwork. For this I will give etrailer one star.
The baseplate RM 524473-5 for a 2023 Ford Escape fit as expected sorta. Had to apply a 3 pound hammer as the mounting brackets were tweaked a little likely from welding and pulling a little out of square. I felt the instructions had a lot of reading between the lines, a couple of times I just about picked up the phone and called them to see if my interpretation was correct. But I just consulted with my analytical 15 year old grandson and we figured it out. (His 18 year old brother served to knock me to the floor and pull me back up again, faster than calling a crane service.)
My big complaint was that they could have provided actual measurements where to drill the Tupperware where the arms go through, there is a couple of reverence points that could be used. There was a few minor things that didn't/did need to be done but likely could easily be because of running production changes. (And better packing of 45 pounds of steel by RM)
The tow bars hook up easily to my dinghy car, a 2020 Ford Escape Hybrid. I like that the arms dis-attach easily and can be stored elsewhere. The tow arms attach quickly and easily to the baseplate arms. I do like this system. The installers put it in, so I cannot comment on how easy that was. I know the installers contacted etrailer for their questions, so I was glad to hear that.
Everything went pretty good except for the reinstall of the PAD. Had to mount it on an angle because wire to short. Love it versus the crossbar I had on Santa Fe 5 speed. Also had to wire 12v outlet and emergency brake switch wiring into drivers side which was fairly easy. And 12v charging circuit for battery. My grandson Seth made it look easy.
Good product. If you are reasonably handy and have some tools, you can install this yourself in a few hours. I'm a mechanic, it took me a little over 2 hours to install on my own toad. The fit is good, there are 4 holes you have to drill, otherwise it is plug and play. When you insert and twist lock the tow bar mounts into their sockets they feel a little sloppy but they are secure, and i never noticed any rattle when towing. Overall i give it a 4 out of 5 for easy install and clean look after install. Pic included of installed base plate.
The Roadmaster direct connect base was a perfect fit for my 2013 focus S to flat tow. We had it installed in about 3 hrs following the complete direction and pictures. I highly recommend using etrailer.
The brackets are heavy and feel solid. The mounting is straightforward on my 2024 GMC Sierra Denali 1500. You will lose the front tow hooks but I feel the tow bracket inserts will be safe to use if needed for a rescue. They are barely noticeable to the casual person when the inserts are removed for daily driving.
Installed on my 2020 Jeep Cherokee for flat towing behind our motorhome . I wanted a tow bar connection that integrated with the front end of the Jeep and the removable arms did the trick . I had one issue with the driver side receiver bracket not lining up with the upper mount bolt hole on the Jeep, image 0547. Had to make a slight adjustment to the receiver bracket so the holes would line up, image 0551 and image 0559. The rest of the install went smoothly
I also installed the Demco braking Stay n Play Duo system , image 0565 which went in without any issues, image 6028. 7 thousand miles of towing later, couldn't be happier with the products
This is a rock solid baseplate. Installed on a 2023 Equinox LT (AWD). I followed etrailer's videos for installation and they are spot on. We connect with a Roadmaster Nighthawk tow bar, charge line kit, smart diode lighting kit, and a Demco Stay-in-Play supplimental braking system. It is fairly well hidden when not in-use. This setup is great!
It was a fantastic base plate. The Blue Ox base plates required the entire bumper, grill, etc be removed. These Roadmaster base plates were installed from underneath and only required the tow hooks be removed. My wife and I completed the installation in a couple hours. The stiff wires attached to the nuts that required installing inside the frame was genius. We bought Roadmaster to Blue Ox adapters and continue to use our Blue Ox towing equipment. The Roadmaster Nighthawk is just too heavy for me (I'm 78). Anyway, I love the Roadaster base plates. And, I'm thankful for the clear installation instructions provided etrailer.
Sturdy, simple to use design. The second set if Roadmaster base plate lits I have installed. (2015 Silverado and 2022 Colorado). Both work well. And oh yeah, do yourself a favor and buy from etrailer. If you have any hitches in the get along, those good folks will always help straighten things out.
I installed them on my new RAM 1500. Works great, very heavy duty. I also modified and attached a push bumper and used the Roadmaster base plates.
Exactly what I needed. Written jbstructuons were spot on and video was very helpful.
Installed on my 2020 jeep jl sport s with factory plastic bumper and plastic rock guard. Shane’s video was very helpful but I did not like how the metal plate behind the rock guard was cut away and how the rock guard had two big cut outs so I did some modifications. I cut two slots in the metal bracket and added angle brackets for extra support. As a result i did not use the supplied brackets for the rock guard. I created a template for the rock guard which resulted in two small cut outs. A lot of extra time but i am retired so time is relative. I think it looks great.
Installing on 2020 Jeep Trailhawk :
Pic #0557 : Roadmaster Base Plate Kit , Demco Supplemental Braking System , Diode Wiring Kit , Demco Battery Charge Wire Kit
Pic # 0548 ,0551 , 0559 Had to adjust the bracket plate to line up with the upper bolt holes
Pic #6028 finished install , mounted the operating unit to the top fuse box cover using automotive Velcro . Air cylinder , controller and LED light installed . Aside from the base plate bracket not lining up with the upper bolt holes I would give it 4 stars . My son in law is a master at solving mechanical issues .
Easy install. Looks great. Apparently they have made some changes so that the video is not accurate. Install instructions though were spot on. A template for cutting the grill would be an added plus.
The removable arms were an absolute pain to install. That might have been different if I had a better drill, but I had to drill holes in extremely thick metal to attach these arms and it took me awhile just to get the holes drilled. I went through bits and oil for hours to get the holes drilled, but I also didn't have the money to spend on buying specific additional tools for the project. The arms work great. Very nice to be able to remove the arms when you're not using them and then you can add them in about 5 seconds each if you need to use them. I installed them on a 2018 F-150 Roush.
I bought this base plate kit for my 2022 Jeep Rubicon Gladiator so I could flat tow behind my class a motor home with a Roadmaster Falcon all terrain non binding tow bar. The instructions were easy to follow and went smoothly except drilling the holes. That was my fault because I was using a dull drill bit. See attached photo
I was very pleased with the way you handled my order. I called and was greeted pleasantly and knowledgeable about what I needed and in just a few minutes my order was placed. It arrived just as they said it would in a timely matter.
I would recommend e-trailer to anyone!
The base plate arrived on time, with excellent instructions. I went slowly because my truck is only days old and still had it done in an evening.
This kit worked out great for my 2022 Chevy Equinox. I like how it has separate side plates, which make it easier to attach the main bar. The points where it attaches to the frame seem plenty secure. It is important to watch the videos provided by etrailer as Ryan is very thorough and has good tips for installing. I would also recommend installing additional wiring while having the front end off. Overall, I was able to complete in my driveway. The hardest part was sorting out the wiring for whatever braking and tail lights you decide on. William S helped me pick all the necessary components needed for flat towing behind my Jayco RV. I am looking forward to a summer of camping and having more freedom to explore the area, now having a car.
I like the design and ease of the hook up .
After 7,000 miles of towing a 1500 Ram there is obvious wear in the whole
tow kit .That is with keeping the components clean and using lots of Road Master spray lube. In my opinion that lube does not provide enough cushion .
The bracket kit fit my 2023 Subaru Crosstrek perfectly. The instructions are excellent and the video is really useful too. I’m really pleased with this RoadMaster bracket kit and the support from eTrailer.
Item works good. We pulled our ‘21 Canyon behind our RV on several trips and had no issues other than you need to put in a diode to the rear lights to keep them from back feeding.
Easiest I drive done. Works perfectly. I had some concerns if it would work on my Shelby F-150. etrailer put me in touch with Roadmaster directly who had never done one either. Said if it didn’t work I could return it. It fit with minor adjustments. Have towed a few thousand miles already. Couldn’t be happier
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