Installing Blue Ox tow plates

Went to a U-Haul location in OKC who did the job plus wiring for 345.00 total out the door. Took them a little bit longer, but their labor rate was half of what the others were charging.

Dutch_12078 wrote:

Hank MI wrote:
I used the BlueOx diode block to wire my lights. A wiring harness already ran under the sill plate, the plastic piece between the carpeting and exterior, under the door. I ran the new wires with the existing harness then tapped into the taillight wiring in the trunk.

When I wired the diodes and lights for my RAV4, I tied everything in at a junction block behind the driver's side kick panel instead of routing the wires all the way to the back. I used a multi-meter to find the right connection points.

I would have preferred to do it that way but the bundle of wires going to the trunk is about 1" around. Trying to separate the wires and find the correct ones would have been a nightmare. Our car has another fuse/relay panel in the trunk fed by that big bundle of wires. Locating the correct wires in the trunk was a lot easier. Out of the fuse panel in the trunk the conventional color codes are used, not so going into the fuse panel.

I just looked at the installation instructions for both Blue Ox and Roadmaster. That car is just easy to do. In either kit there is a fair amount for drilling and trimming. Roadmaster says 3 hours, and their kits are usually easier to install.

Hank MI wrote:
I used the BlueOx diode block to wire my lights. A wiring harness already ran under the sill plate, the plastic piece between the carpeting and exterior, under the door. I ran the new wires with the existing harness then tapped into the taillight wiring in the trunk.

When I wired the diodes and lights for my RAV4, I tied everything in at a junction block behind the driver's side kick panel instead of routing the wires all the way to the back. I used a multi-meter to find the right connection points.

willald wrote:

Wrong Lane wrote:
Willald:

The wireless lights cost $100.00 on sale. You can find them on e-bay and at many automotive shops. Cheap - no but only about the same cost as the Blue Ox bulb kit.

Each light takes 4 AA size rechargables. A charge is good for a couple of days. I got a recharger (Energizer) and 8 batteries on sale at Walmart for $19.99. So -- no big deal. I plan to buy 8 more rechargable batteries when I see them on sale next and then I will always have a set charged and ready to go.

Thanks for the clarification. Yes, I've seen those. Definitely something to be said for the simplicity of it, and not having to route any wires to them.

As I alluded to in my previous post, if they'd make a set of these that you could just connect directly to 12V power on your toad and forget completely about batteries, I could have been tempted. I do not want anything else that uses batteries, though. Already got waaaay too many things to deal with that require batteries. :)

Hmmm, those things take 4 AA batteries...Wonder if it needs 12 volts and gets that by connecting those 4 1.5V AA batteries all in series? If that was the case, you might could just hard-wire them up to 12V power from the toad like I said, and forget about batteries?

Of course, if you're wiring up to 12V on the toad, you might as well just run the 4 wires from the front and use the cheaper wired magnetic lights, haha.

Will

Four 1.5v batteries would only give you 6v. Running the lights off the toad battery could drain the battery. I used the BlueOx diode block to wire my lights. A wiring harness already ran under the sill plate, the plastic piece between the carpeting and exterior, under the door. I ran the new wires with the existing harness then tapped into the taillight wiring in the trunk.

Have experienced only one problem with magnetic lights. They scratch the toads paint! Every time I've used something like that I get scratches. Even get scratches from the coax cable for my magnetic mount cell antenna. So no magnetic lights, and no long run of coax cable to the antenna for me.

I kinda like the idea of the wireless lights. This is the first that I've heard of them.

Wrong Lane wrote:
Willald:

The wireless lights cost $100.00 on sale. You can find them on e-bay and at many automotive shops. Cheap - no but only about the same cost as the Blue Ox bulb kit.

Each light takes 4 AA size rechargables. A charge is good for a couple of days. I got a recharger (Energizer) and 8 batteries on sale at Walmart for $19.99. So -- no big deal. I plan to buy 8 more rechargable batteries when I see them on sale next and then I will always have a set charged and ready to go.

Thanks for the clarification. Yes, I've seen those. Definitely something to be said for the simplicity of it, and not having to route any wires to them.

As I alluded to in my previous post, if they'd make a set of these that you could just connect directly to 12V power on your toad and forget completely about batteries, I could have been tempted. I do not want anything else that uses batteries, though. Already got waaaay too many things to deal with that require batteries. :)

Hmmm, those things take 4 AA batteries...Wonder if it needs 12 volts and gets that by connecting those 4 1.5V AA batteries all in series? If that was the case, you might could just hard-wire them up to 12V power from the toad like I said, and forget about batteries?

Of course, if you're wiring up to 12V on the toad, you might as well just run the 4 wires from the front and use the cheaper wired magnetic lights, haha.

Will

Willald:

The wireless lights cost $100.00 on sale. You can find them on e-bay and at many automotive shops. Cheap - no but only about the same cost as the Blue Ox bulb kit.

Each light takes 4 AA size rechargables. A charge is good for a couple of days. I got a recharger (Energizer) and 8 batteries on sale at Walmart for $19.99. So -- no big deal. I plan to buy 8 more rechargable batteries when I see them on sale next and then I will always have a set charged and ready to go.

I would have preferred to use the bulb socket insert by Blue Ox but it was not to be. My car has LED light strips in the rear tailights. The tail light housings are not hollow and there is no place to drill a hole in them and insert an additional bulb. The tail lights on the 2013 Taurus come as a sealed unit, amd when replacement required you need to do the whole tail light assembly, noy individual bulbs.

I thought about diodes but my dealer recommeded that we not change the OEM wiring, even with plug and go components. Potential warranty issues, this might be BS but why take the chance?

So that is the path that ended up with wireless tow lights for the toad.

So far so good.

Here is a link to a video showing the model lights I use. The price quoted in the video is crazy, they are available for less!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFqFhQOpVk0

Safe Travels

I had installed Blue Ox Baseplates on my (previous) Dodge Dakota. They were a PITA to install. Complete disassembly of the front end was required as was a lot of trimming and fitting of the front bumper cowling. It was an all day project for me (Then again, I don't do it everyday for a living either.) The installation proceedures vary for different vehicle types. Perhaps your vehicle is one of the more difficult installs and therefore the reason for the higher intallation charge?