Dinghy alterations

No cutting at all on the 12/13 CRV.

Beverley&Ken

On our 2011 Toyota RAV4 Sport, the only visible part that needed trimming for our Blue Ox base plate was two small cross bars in the black plastic grill. I suspect if the base plate was removed, it would not be very noticeable at all. Our 2002 RAV4 didn't need any visible cutting at all.

wbwood wrote:
Upon looking at base plates for numerous dinghy's, I've noticed that all that I came across that said that the bumper or fascia would need to be cut or trimmed.

Is there any vehicle out there that does not have any of these altering requirements or are all pretty much that way?

I did the install on my 09 Outback, don't remember any trimming and when the connectors are removed, it is hardly noticed.

wbwood wrote:
I won't be doing the cutting. It will be a professional. I'm looking at buying a new car and the thought of making permanent alterations to a brand new car like that, kind of bothers me a little.

Many base plates need to have much more than just the grille cutout in order to install a base plate. When you pick toad you want. Go to the base plate manufactures site that you choose. Look up model for toad and look at installation instruction that are on the site.

I won't be doing the cutting. It will be a professional. I'm looking at buying a new car and the thought of making permanent alterations to a brand new car like that, kind of bothers me a little.

My 2012 Jeep required some cutting. Just go slow and be careful and it will be OK. Not like these bumpers are made out of steel. Just 1/4" thick plastic. Pretty easy to cut. My biggest problem were the plastic factory clips that hold the bumper on. In a couple of places I used bolts. If you feel uncomfortable I would have an experienced RV dealer install the base plate.

My 2000 Jeep GC required zero cutting.

My new to me Jeep 1999 Jeep GC will require zero cutting.

I believe the comment about cutting fascia is made to cover all bases, It does not mean that everything will have to be cut. But then again, if it is done tastefully, so what?

Mine had to be altered a little bit. If you look at the assembly instructions, you will see a picture of the installed brackets. You might see that the car bumper has been trimmed about 1" or 2", to create a 2" square opening in the bumper, or expand a hole that is already there for the air to go into the radiator.

I found mine did not need much trimming, I can recall it needing to be cut about 1" or so out of a already exsisting opening. I tow a 2007 Edge.

I used to tow a 1999 Honda CRV, I can not recall trimming something on that car when I installed the brackets. In the installation instructions, or in the baseplate data, there is a code for how many hours it takes a experianced installer to install one. Mine I think said 4 hours (minimum of 2, maximum is normally less than 7 hours.

This does not include time to install a braking system, or the lights.

For my lights, I have a kit from Camping World, with two diodes, and I installed 4 wires to the car. I tied in one wire to the front running lights, and all came one. I tied in the other 2 wires (4th is a ground) to the left and right brake lights, with the diodes. So each light has one input from the diode, then each diode has 2 inputs, one from the RV turn signal, the other from the car turn signal/brake light.

Fred.