Roadmaster, base plate, to Blue OX fittings

Thanks to all, for the info.
It will help me get the toad, ready.

Chuck

My car has a "no bumper" bumper. My brackets and cross bar are now my bumper (in my dreams) :W

chucl66 wrote:
Thunder Mountain,
I looked, but, I could not find the blue Ox, fitting.
Thanks,
chuck

It is item BX88178 about three down on the page. It is a crossbar that mounts onto the Roadmaster towing brackets to complete the baseplate, and has BlueOx double tabs for the three prong towbars.

Crossbar is necessary because most Roadmaster bracket configurations do not provide a complete baseplate. A crossbar is needed to tie the two brackets together for lateral strength. Reese, Demco, BlueOx baseplates all include this bar in the hidden part of the baseplate, as do a few recent Roadmaster pieces, particularly those that install in place of OEM bumper face bars.

I agree with others, you don't want to eliminate that front cross bars. That is integral to the strength of the platform bolted to your car. I am pretty sure though that Roadmaster has adapters to convert the towbar mounting to Blue Ox because I considered doing the opposite (mating a Blue Ox platform to my Roadmaster towbar). You might try them.

Also, are you sure you can tow your Miata?? Are you going to use a drive shaft disconnect? All that I read implies that neither the manual or automatic transmissions are towable four wheels down.

Ed Headington

thanks, Jim1632.

Chuck

I just checked Blue Ox base plates. Basically, Blue Ox puts the base plate and bar behind the bumper of the towed vehicle. Roadmaster uses a bar that is in front of the bumper to create the triangle so that both base plates are handling the towing pressure. Without some cross bar, one side or the other of the base plate would be taking all the stress on turns.

You need to purchase a bar from Roadmaster for about $75. I just used the bar, part RM033, to attach a Blue Ox to RM bases on my Miata.

See ETrailerfor the bar that you will need.

Just adapted a Blue Ox bar to my RM baseplate in preparing to tow my Miata.

No - you can't eliminate the cross bar. And you wouldn't want to anyway as that would put tremendous pressure on the the base plates.

I purchased part RM033 from etrailer.com. I think this is the standard bar to adapt to the Blue Ox.

Thanks,
I will check on that.
Chuck

The cross bar strengthens the front of the toad so it does not bend the "frame" I would not remove it until I spoke with both Roadmaster and Blue ox.

Thunder Mountain,
I looked, but, I could not find the blue Ox, fitting.
Thanks,
chuck