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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.
YOU SHOULD NOT BE SELLING THIS BASE PLATE ! ! !
THe vehicle it is made for SHOULD NOT be towed ! Even the the manufacturer Ford "says" that it can be towed in the owners' manual - THEY LIE ! And etrailer by offering this product are perpetuating that lie and misguiding your customers. Check the forums -for verification of WHAT I AM TELLING YOU
Received the base plate kit and installed it with no problems, works great and I want to thank you for a great product.
Tom
2/13/2014
We are still traveling and enjoying your product.
Plug and Play!
No major hassles installing this bar; it fit the frame perfectly. It arrived well packaged. All necessary hardware was included; no missing pieces. The instructions were fairly clear and pictures were in color, a great help. There are enough etrailer videos online to review on how to install to boost your confidence.
Minor gripe - you have to drill one ½" hole through a support on both sides, although it's made easier by being able to use the bar as a template and you don't have to be under the vehicle to do it. Just be sure you have a drill motor/bit combination that will allow you to drill a hole this size.
Bottom line - if you're handy with tools you shouldn't have any major problems installing this yourself. I set aside a full day to do this, but finished in about 4 hours.
When I called etrailer with my order, we discovered that the Roadmaster Combo Kit with straight cables and wiring was out of stock. Katie called Roadmaster to find out when it would be shipped, but it was longer than I wanted to wait. She suggested coiled cables which could be shipped with my Base Plate Kit so I ordered that.
I got exactly what I needed/ordered and it arrived in less than 48 hours! Everything arrived in good shape in 2 boxes right on my front porch. Great prices, great service and great delivery!
Although it has taken me several weeks to install on my Ford Escape XLT, it actually arrived very quickly.. If you have minimal skills like I do, you can still install this yourself. It took me about 6 hours. The only glitches I found in the directions was the location of the ambient temperature sensor and the need to cut down part of the air foil. Due to the location of the sensor, I did not need to do anything with it and it was not necessary to make any cuts. Neither caused me any distress. The biggest challenge was having to enlarge a couple of holes and " fish" bolts through them due to the lack of welded nuts as indicated in the directions. If you lack the tools and/or know how to do these jobs, it might be better to have someone install it for you.
Everything was shipped promptly and the base plate fit and was easy to install. I was able to pull my car behind my motor home with out any problems.
The installation had a couple of small problems. The tabs on the back of the grill contact the main cross bar of the base plate and prevent the grill from droping fully into place. Removing 1/4" from the tabls solved that problem. There were no weld nuts for the bottom 2 bolts on each side so I enlarged the bottom hole and fish wired the bolts into place. Tim
Fit perfectly. Instructions clear and easy to follow. Excellent quality.
Order was delivered in a very prompt amount of time and the quality appears to be top notch. I will be needing additional parts and will continue to shop e-trailer.
E-trailers Customer service is tops. I ordered on Sunday morning and was notified that afternoon that my product was reasy to ship. Excellent communication through the whole process. I received my product with free shipping in 4 business days! I will be shopping again with Etrailer. Great product great company and service, ....... thanks!
Great service! Fast Shipping! Went together without any problem!
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.
The hardest part of the installation is getting the grill off and back on. Of the six preexisting holes all but one lined up the sixth hole was off about a half inch but the car had hit a deer a few years ago.
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Sierra K.
11/23/2021
I looked up the vehicle manual for a 2010 Ford Escape and it does allow for flat towing with all 4 wheels on the ground. It must be taken to an authorized dealer to check for the proper transmission fluid level.