How much to budget?

It cost us $3700 to have new equipment installed by a Blue Ox recommended dealer. That included baseplate, Avail tow bar, safety cables, SMI braking system, fuse disconnect switch, all wiring on both the coach and our CRV and a brake notification light inside our RV cab.

Depends a little on weather you can do the base plate install and the trailer wiring yourself. The base plate will be around $400 and another $100 for wiring supplies. I am not handy so I have paid twice now to have cars set up to tow. Labor on top of the material prices brought my tab pretty close to $1000. Then add any tow bar of your choice.

Watch CW for their specials. We bought a new Hyundai, was going to buy the baseplates off net, but CW had a special install ($39) if I bought thru them. Anyhow rv came with the towbar just need the base plates. A set were about $150 less than CW, but to have them installed the min was $75/hr. So it was a no brainer to have CW install. Had them also install the light wiring for another $39 all together it was around $700. I installed the SMI brake system myself.

Look around for salvage yars or craigslist for used equipment. Buy a $1000 system for $150-200 (tow bar, or brake or whatever). There was a yard in yuma with a lot of listings for used baseplates etc on craigslist at one time. Never found anything I could use but there was a lot of stuff

New baseplate and ordinary coach-mounted tow bar around 14-1500. Half or less used. Then a braking system. 200 or more used to who-knows new. Ready Brute Tow Bar combines a nice aluminum bar WITH a braking system. Definitely an option to look at. Then Plus Labor... Or Not, if you can install. Install instructions by specific models is available for most of this stuff.

Dup Post...

Demco was cheaper by $100 or so than the others. My CRV baseplate was about $350.

Ready Brute tow bar with built in surge braking was about $750.

Magnetic lights from Harbor Freight was $10 on sale.

I bought extra wire and ran permanent wires so all I had to do was plug in.

Installed it all myself.

Right! Cheapest was it DIY, if you have a place, tools needed and the skills and/or ability required. Unfortunely, some of us can't anymore, but I can see that is is done right.

You might also consider shopping for a dingy that is already outfitted with the necessary equipment.

Johno02 wrote:
$1500-$2000

That's correct if you're just going to turn it over to someone to do. Probably half of that is labor cost. Go to a website like Road Master to find out which base plates you need and they'll also have the installation instructions on the web site for them. Read them, see if you can do it. Save a lot of money. Same for the wiring. My base plates took me about 3 hours and I hadn't mounted a set before.

Bill

$1500-$2000