base plate question

jsmart wrote:
We bought a 2014 Ford C=Max to tow. Bought the blue ox tow bar and base plate from Amazon, had a local auto shop put the base plate on and wire the toad for $75.00 hr. We've towed over 3000 miles since. Works for us.

How many hours did they charge you for?

We bought a 2014 Ford C=Max to tow. Bought the blue ox tow bar and base plate from Amazon, had a local auto shop put the base plate on and wire the toad for $75.00 hr. We've towed over 3000 miles since. Works for us.

We bought a 2014 Ford C=Max to tow. Bought the blue ox tow bar and base plate from Amazon, had a local auto shop put the base plate on and wire the toad for $75.00 hr. We've towed over 3000 miles since. Works for us.

We bought a 2013 Hyudai elantra fro our towd. I got the roadmaster baseplates through camp world and they installed them (at time had $39 fee). They pulled the front bumper mount off and had to trim the grill opening for the install. The deal was to buy from CW for the lower price install. I could have gotten it for about $150 less off net but then had to pay for install ($75hr was cheapest I found locally) or do myself so the $150 was nothing. Plus they installed the wire harness for the lights for another $39. All together for baseplate and all wiring it came to about $700. Has lifetime guaranty on install work if anything goes wrong

On etrailer.com, they say for the Roadmaster ez25 baseplate that "Trimming of spoiler, air dam, grill or plastic fascia may be required on some models of this vehicle."

In that case, I would probably want auto dealer/shop to do it...

On some of the installations the grill, front bumper and some times the light modules have to be removed in order to properly attach all of the components to the strongest part of the vehicle, when shortcuts or omissions are done there may be unwanted stress on the vehicle's sheet metal that will cause a detachment of the base plate.

Check that the vehicle is tow able 4 down and that the base plate is for the model and year and follow all of the instructions and make sure that all components are used as instructed.

I installed the base plates on my tow vehicles, one one the frame was accessible and on the Suzuki I had to dismantle the bumper, grill and lights, also had to drill a 2 inch hole for some bolts on the frame.

navegator

On our 07 Malibu the entire front clip needs to removed as well as some air damns under the bumper. I installed the BlueOx base plate myself. All that needs to be removed so you can get to some structural part of the vehicle to attach the base plate.

Bumpyroad wrote:
I assume that you have determined that it is towable 4 down?
bumpy

Good question. We kept the 07 Malibu to tow when we bought a 13 Malibu. The new ones have the 6 speed trans that can't be flat towed. Maybe someone makes a lube pump for them so they can be.

Check with a Camping World store.
They install Roadmaster
One for a 14 Malibu is for a 2.0 or 2.5 engine only.
2 models a EZ4 or EZ5

I assume that you have determined that it is towable 4 down?
bumpy

Logically, you'd want a Roadmaster base plate, but as a practical matter you don't. Other brands are adaptable. So what you can do is go to the manufacturers' websites and pull up the exact instructions for the plate for your exact Malibu. In some cases, the height where the towbar attaches is different. So you might be able to use that to your advantage. Pick the one that's least invasive and take the instructions to your regular body shop or mechanic. A dealer service department can do it. U-Haul installs hitches, I don't know if they'd do a baseplate. There's a lot of bumper/fascia work on baseplates.
I trust myself. So what if it takes more time than a professional shop might take? I'll get it to fit and I'll make sure every fastener is in place, tight, and secured with Lock Tite.