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The crossbar-style hidden brackets attach to your vehicle's frame to provide attachment points for your tow bar. The visible portions of the brackets can be removed when you are not towing.
Features:
The square drawbars, or front arms, on the crossbar-style base plate kit are simple to mount and remove, easily securing with hitch pins. 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 (973 Customer Reviews)
The crossbar-style hidden brackets attach to your vehicle's frame to provide attachment points for your tow bar. The visible portions of the brackets can be removed when you are not towing.5 star product, great fit, easy to attach tow bar, a bit of a job to install on vehicle but well worth the outcome. I'd suggest taking it to an auto body shop because the bumper needs to be removed.
E-Trailer is prompt, helpful, and professional. Their instructions were detailed and I got the job done, but it took me about twice as long as I had anticipated (6 hours). The removal and re-attachment of various auto body parts complicated the installation, but was do-able alone.
Once we got the right base plate for our car it was great! My wife and I installed the base plate on our 05 PT Cruiser and it tows great coupled to our Falcon 2 tow bar.
Haven’t installed hitch yet so this review is all about customer services.
Great help answering my stupid questions about what I needed. Completed the order and had it shipped to the garage who will install. Also sent 8-Papago color instructions for proper install.
Would recommend to anyone looking for towing connections.
Has been installed and functioning as it should for over 1 year now. Good kit.
DIFFICULT TO INSTALLThis is an efficient and well hidden bracket unit. But, having an automotive mechanical background I found it difficult to install. It required a "C" clamp and hydraulic jack to position it so the bolt holes would line up. No mention of these procedures in the instructions. "Just lift in place and bolt it up". Not Quite.
the product came as advertised and with installation instructions that made it easy to install
The Products, as usual, are as advertised. Customer service is, also......The problem is that I asked for and received assurance that the products would be delivered on a particular date and NOT before, because I would not be home to open the gate...(I live in the country on a remote road).......The product was delivered to my GATE (I was NOT home) and sat in the rain for several days...... poor results on that.......Maybe you will do better next time?
Excellent product easy to mount no fuss .
Perfect fit, easy to put on, minimum skills needed. Took 3 1/2 hours
product is well constructed and finished
fit with no modifications
thanks, saved me a lot of trouble trying to fabricate myself
delivered as promised thank you
etrailer service is and has always been stellar. My order was correct and was delivered very quickly. The only reason I made this a four instead of a five was that the rear bolt position of both base plate brackets where welded on crooked. Each small plate was at a different angle from each other. In my opinion whoever welded them wasn’t paying attention to quality control. Because I was on a time crunch for my departure on a trip and could not wait for replacements (and I needed the vehicle for local driving) I made the brackets work. Other than that the installation went smoothly and I was able to test tow my 2004 CRV a couple of times without incident.
Very impressed that they're the exact fabbed fit, and easy to install! These tow base plates are super sturdy!
Item arrived earlier than predicted after viewing a very complete tracking system. The information was very clear and precise. Good job! I am 75 years of age and installed the baseplate myself. Only a couple of minor issues. One pin would not insert. Welding blob in the way. Filed it smooth and problem solved. The video was excellent but was a bit different in that it showed a different method o rear bolt installation, however the instructions on paper showed the correct way. Reinstalling the front clip had presented some difficulty. I suggest really watching the inner fender position relative to the front clip before removal. All said all went well. The finished look is great, (see pictures). Great product!
Just completed a 6600 mile rod trip, towing the Subaru behind a motor home.
Worked great.
I've towed with it many times and Zero problems. I did find that moving the car slightly forward after stopping helps relax tension amd.make.disconnect much easier. Overall... I'd say SUPER..!!
It was easy to install, fit well and came with good instructions.
Base plate 1910 install on 1999 Landrover disco 2
the base plate arrived fast (as does everything I have ordered from etrailer). It was a bit bent on arrival but Becky sorted me out and offered to replace it but it was easy to bend back (with a 3lb hammer).
The included instructions were great for removing the bumper but nor much else. Possibly because my Landy is a 1999 disco 2 and the pictures were of a 2002.
I have included some pictures of stuff I wish I had known. Firstly I had to loose the recovery loop on the driver side as the base plate would not fit over it. The chassis frame has steel tubes inside the bolt holes so the amount of drilling is minimal (I ordered a drill bit that they suggested but in all honesty could have opened up the holes with a file easily).
You need to oval out the aluminum crush cans before you replce them or the new bolts will not go through. The center mount bolt just needs the plastic mount for the center screw on the scoop cut out and there is a bog square hole on the top of the member (thats why you need to big square piece of steel on the top of the center bolt)
Mine was obscured by the torsion bar so I ended up dropping it to drill out the hole and get the bolt in straight.
It was easy to bolt up to the frame once everything was prepped and do yourself a favour and buy loctite red for the bolts - you don't want to be going in there again.
The bumper template was a good start but I had to reshape mine a lot particularly as the hole on the baseplate ended up halfway through the bumper and I had to do a lot of enlargement at the bottom to attach the safety wires.
The photos should make more sense of some of my description
Everything looks good for us, but we have one more part that we are waiting on before we can install on the truck plus it's raining out here in Washington State. when it's time to put it all together we will take a picture and send it.
The baseplate and crossbar arrived one day earlier than expected. Directions were included which made the installation pretty easy.
I am happy with etrailers products and will buy from them again.
Very easy to install and works great
This base plate was installed on a 2008 Kia Spectra. The bracket is strong and not really hard to work with HOWEVER,,,,,,,,,, I am used to the BlueOx base plate which is much easier to "hook up". Unfortunately, BlueOx did not make a base plate to fit my vehicle. That is not a big problem as I'm usually not in any hurry and it only takes maybe 5 minutes longer to "hook up".
The biggest problem with the RoadMaster base plate is that due to the way it is bolted to the frame, it only allows for a 6-inch ground clearance on the front of the vehicle. I have to be very careful with any "dips" in the road, especially on cross streets. Six inches may not sound like much but since the tires are several feet behind the base plate, it reduces that ground clearance greatly. It also will not clear the concrete "stop blocks" in front of many parking spaces.
If you are not very careful and keep this in mind, you may likely bend the frame of your car when you come to one of these sudden impacts. I haven't bent anything yet but it has certainly been shocking when it hits. Most of the time, the impact will cause the base plate to scrape and lift the car to the height to clear the obstacle.
I've attached a picture with a ruler in the view.
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