Cost to Outfit for Dinghy Towing

Six thousand is outrageous. 2 thou would be high but is probably as good as you'll find. That's parts and labor.

The Texan wrote:

RJsfishin wrote:


The biggest ripoff, is the price of base plates,....$3-500
A lousy $139 for a frame mounted trailer hitch, requiring lots a steel, and very difficult to build.
And $3-500 for base plates requiring 1/2 as much steel, and not hard to build.
I don't know why.

Insurance, insurance, insurance ..... In today's litigious society, the manufacturer needs to carry 100's of millions of $$$$ in liability insurance to cover the one or two weld failures, or vehicle separations that may occur on any one type of base plate. Blame the RVers for the high price, no one else.

I would add it isn't just insurance. As a business guy; it's overhead. Demco, Blue Ox, etc. have Engineers, fabricators, machinists, accountants, advertising and yes, liability for the products they sell.

Big Katuna wrote:

The Texan wrote:

RJsfishin wrote:


The biggest ripoff, is the price of base plates,....$3-500
A lousy $139 for a frame mounted trailer hitch, requiring lots a steel, and very difficult to build.
And $3-500 for base plates requiring 1/2 as much steel, and not hard to build.
I don't know why.

Insurance, insurance, insurance ..... In today's litigious society, the manufacturer needs to carry 100's of millions of $$$$ in liability insurance to cover the one or two weld failures, or vehicle separations that may occur on any one type of base plate. Blame the RVers for the high price, no one else.

I would add it isn't just insurance. As a business guy; it's overhead. Demco, Blue Ox, etc. have Engineers, fabricators, machinists, accountants, advertising and yes, liability for the products they sell.

My family is from Pender originally so I know the Blue Ox people. They have just a few engineers and two fabricators. They have a total of 115 employees and 88 are in Pender and most things are automated. They probably only pay one accountant on the premises and he/she would act as the CPA and maybe an auditor as they are a private company. Insurance has to be the same for any liability type company. These are not uncommon costs to run a business.

Blue Ox is a true example of a small family owned company that is doing things right.

WW

I posted this answer elsewhere on another topic. We just set up our tow system for a CRV at a Blue Ox recommended dealer in Arizona. It cost us about $3800 for the system including parts, labor and taxes. This included the following costs:
1. Blue Ox base plate ($420)
2. Wire harness and cords ($160)
3. SMI Stay and Play Duo braking system ($1090). We had the installer mount the brake light inside of the coach.
4. Fuse Master fuse disconnect to disable the recommended CRV fuse while towing ($75)
5. Blue Ox Avail tow bar ($900)
6. Drop hitch ($64)
7. Labor ($880) and Tax ($230)
$6000 seems really high.