Number of Labor Hours for a Towed vehicle install?

[Soon2BDP]

What’s a reasonable number of a professional (Transwest RV) install labor hours for a towed vehicle install including everything (Blue Ox Tow Bar, Electrical, Blue Ox Face Plate install (‘18 GMC Canyon Pick -Up), Air Force One brake system, lights etc.). One estimate that I received so far is 14.5 hours. Reasonable or not? More/less, how many?

[lfeather]

Soon2BDP wrote:
What’s a reasonable number of a professional (Transwest RV) install labor hours for a towed vehicle install including everything (Blue Ox Tow Bar, Electrical, Blue Ox Face Plate install (‘18 GMC Canyon Pick -Up), Air Force One brake system, lights etc.). One estimate that I received so far is 14.5 hours. Reasonable or not? More/less, how many?

I've done 4 of them over the years and 14 hours sounds about right. But maybe I'm slow. Larry

[tropical36]

Soon2BDP wrote:
What’s a reasonable number of a professional (Transwest RV) install labor hours for a towed vehicle install including everything (Blue Ox Tow Bar, Electrical, Blue Ox Face Plate install (‘18 GMC Canyon Pick -Up), Air Force One brake system, lights etc.). One estimate that I received so far is 14.5 hours. Reasonable or not? More/less, how many?

They're planning on about 6 with an hour + for error, but with using two men and hence the 14.5hrs.

[ILVMYGT]

The Air Force 1 requires tapping in to the coaches brake. I would want a shop that had a pit to do that work. If they don't have a pit how are they going to to the work?

My baseplate listed 3 hours install time. I had never done one before and it took me about 5 hours.

For the lights I bought a harness that was plug and play and it took about an hour to install and run the wiring to the front of the car. The plug and play harness requires no cutting of the vehicle harness.

The AF1 install was about 3 hours, but that was for a second car install. The coach already had the equipment installed.

[Soon2BDP]

I just learned to get another opinion. I got to compare a mostly Pull Behind RV Shop at $100/hr versus a mostly Motorhome dealer at $135. I favored the latter since they did a lot more tow installations and even though they were more expensive/hour the total hours would be less. I was really pleased with the bottom line plus I had more cofidence in the quality of their work. Thanks to all for helping a guy out.

[et2]

General RV bills for 6 hours of work, no matter if shorter. That's of course if they don't drill thru the transmission line on your new car while installing. Then it's a flatbed to the car dealer and a couple days to get it back.

[willald]

Depending on the vehicle, a base plate installation can take anywhere from 2 hours to 8 hours. Most times, you can expect about 4 to 6 hours of labor, if its a typical installation where they have to remove front fascia plate, drill holes, mount the plate, then put it all back together. It is not difficult work, but it is time consuming, having to take all that stuff apart, mount the plate, and put it all back together. That's why labor is what it is.

Definitely shop around, though, as some places want to charge for the exact, actual time their tech will work on your car. Others will just give you a flat # of hours and charge that regardless how many hours it really takes. I've had base plates installed that took the technician all day, and only got charged for 5 hours of labor. The other extreme can happen, too.

One time I had a base plate installed by the Ford dealer. Had just bought the car brand new there a few days before, figured they'd know the front end of it really well and would do a good job since they knew me well and I had bought the car there. They did, too, and only charged me for 3.5 hours of labor.

I just had one done (base plate) on the Ford Taurus about a month ago. Talked to 3 different RV places, ended up going with the Camping Word in Valdosta, GA. Very glad I did. Great bunch there, they did a great job, did exactly what I asked for (including some specific, custom wiring I needed for tail lights and an indicator light). They were very reasonable with the rate, hours, too, for all they did. Highly, highly recommend those guys if you're ever in Valdosta, GA, and need any RV related work done.

[LaTriker]

In March of 2016, I had a Roadmaster baseplate, wiring harness, battery discount and compression brake cable installed on my 2015 Silverado for $726. I uses an auto repair shop that has installed several baseplates.

[DRTDEVL]

Having seen numerous intalls at a friend's trailer sales, service, and repair facility (they also do hitches and rv repair), 14.5 hours isn't out of line. These newer vehicles require a near full disassembly of the front end in order to install the base plates, and every vehicle is different. The techs will have to read the instructions thoroughly several times during the process... then they get to add anything else to he job, like wiring to the toad for lighting, installing the chosen braking system, ensuring all the accessories for the tow bar are up to snuff and properly fit to your coach connection, etc. IN the end, it usually ends up taking about 2 full days for one tech to complete the job.

[Soon2BDP]

A nightmare.

[cvbdsl]

Just had base plate and break-away installed at an RV shop that has a "specialist" who only installs base plates etc. Then they spent hours trying to install the Blue Ox wiring kit. This included time on the phone with Blue Ox all to no avail, it seems you cannot install a wiring it on a 2018 Edge SEL, only the Sport and Titanium.

Original quote was 8-12 hours at $125 an hour - final price was over $1800 and no wiring (and they said they didn't charge me for all the time spent on it). Also supposedly the instructions for the Blue Ox base plate were not that good and caused extra work (?????).
Now they still have to fix the ambient air sensor and adjust the hood they screwed up.

Lesson learned - I installed the base plates on my previous two toad myself but DW convinced me I was getting too old to do it.

So shop around and I'm now convinced that a body shop would do a better job.

Chris

[jplante4]

I had the Equinox done this spring. Blue Ox base plate and wiring on the toad was about 6 hours. Another 2 hours on the coach changing the 4 round to a 7 flat and running a charge line to the plug.

[doc_brown]

I installed the Blue Ox base plate on my Wrangler, took 3 hrs. Had to remove the bumper. I installed the Air Force 1 unit in the Wrangler, took me 6 hrs between work and watching the You Tube presentation. My mechanic installed the air reservoir on the coach for AF1, took 1.5 hrs.

[Bill_Satellite]

If you can't do it yourself you are completely at the mercy of someone who can. You need to get multiple estimates from folks you trust (that's important). Then, shell out the bucks and get on with your adventures!

[msmith1199]

I’ve checked prices at RV places before and never used them. I’ve done I think four tow set ups since my first RV. I took one of my Jeeps to the body shop at the Chrysler dealer. They had never done one before so I gave them the instructions and all the parts and they installed it about half price what the RV dealer wanted. And even though it was his first one, it was an auto body guy that did it so I trusted he knew better what he was doing than a guy at the RV dealer. My current Jeep Wrangler I went to a small shop that does 4x4 mods. They do lift kits, and roll bars, and bumpers and winches and all that stuff. They also did the install for about half what an RV dealer wanted.