Is it worth the bother to remove tow plates?

[summerhouse]

We are trading in our 2010 Jeep Wrangler Sport on a 2014 Jeep Cherokee Trail Hawk in a week. The tow plates will not work on the new Trail Hawk.
Is it worth it to have some one remove the base plate off the Wrangler and attempt to sell? Or should I just leave it on and not even bother? Will I be able to sell it very easily? And if so for appox how much?
DH thinks it would just end up in our garage, but I think someone would be able to use it?

[Bigdog]

On the other side,I was looking for a car to buy for a toad and found a great low mileage '06 absolutely loaded Liberty. It was 6 years old and only had 40K on it.It was a bit overpriced,but absolutely awesome.As I was looking at it,I saw it had the tow plates on it and a light harness. I asked the salesman, a guy I had known for years, how many towing miles it had on it and he was surprised that I knew what a toad was. He said he didn't know as someone else had done the trade-in on it.I asked if he could find out and also why the whole front end had been repainted,you could see the overspray.I went back the next day and he told me that it had over 70k towing miles and that the previous owner had taken it to Alaska and hit a bunch of loose gravel and severly dinged the front end. the car was up for $14K,which was seriously over book and I offered him $9500 and he grinned and took it to the boss,who laughed at me. Naw,I didn't take the counter and left. The guy told me later that they had removed all signs of it having been towed and got the $14K for it as it was a gorgeous low mileage Liberty.

[mlh]

tahiti16 wrote:
I would think one guiding parameter is what will it cost to have someone remove it? If you were doing the work then you decide what your time is worth.

Ditto. I just traded my escape in today for a wrangler unlimited. I left the baseplate on. I installed it myself, but decided it wasn't worth my time to remove it for the low probability of a sale. This is especially true with the problems that are very well known with the escapes and towing.

[tahiti16]

I would think one guiding parameter is what will it cost to have someone remove it? If you were doing the work then you decide what your time is worth.

[the_trippers]

Loc-Tite is used on the bolts so have a really powerful impact wrench to remove. Not worth the struggle to remove.

[Heisenberg]

ditto^ it is a catch 22, however on a jeep it has less negative effect than other vehicles IMHO.

[teetah]

traded mine thinking it would be a plus on the trade in... didn't get me anything. Guy at work told me he'd have paid what I got for the rig, plus more, if I'd sold it to him... you just are gambling. Like real estate improvements, it just depends on whether the buyer thinks it's a plus.

[wny_pat1]

Bumpyroad wrote:

gbopp wrote:

Bumpyroad wrote:

gbopp wrote:
One option is to sell the plates on Hitch Trader.

interesting, didn't find out the cost however.
bumpy

Don't shoot the messenger. 🙂
I'm just providing a link to the website, I have never bought or sold anything on Hitch Trader, so I don't know how items are priced.

no "shooting" involved. just wondering if anybody knew the costs.
bumpy

Their site says: "Post your ad free of charge."

[tropical36]

bob_nestor wrote:
Jeep Wranglers really hold their value and they are in pretty high demand by RVers because they can be flat towed. It would take a little more time, but it may be well worth it to try and sell it to a private party who wants a Jeep they can tow with their RV. A private party sale will get more money than a trade-in and it sold to someone looking for this setup it would bring in even more, especially given the fact this is a 2010 model - it's just broke in!

Yeah, that's one way for looking at it, but a lot of these toad searchers expect to pay less for this convenience of pre-setup, cuz they're thinking that there might be an extra 30K or so on the running gear, going back and forth to Alaska.
This might even make for a good opinionated discussion in another thread.

[bob_nestor]

Jeep Wranglers really hold their value and they are in pretty high demand by RVers because they can be flat towed. It would take a little more time, but it may be well worth it to try and sell it to a private party who wants a Jeep they can tow with their RV. A private party sale will get more money than a trade-in and it sold to someone looking for this setup it would bring in even more, especially given the fact this is a 2010 model - it's just broke in!

[tropical36]

summerhouse wrote:
We are trading in our 2010 Jeep Wrangler Sport on a 2014 Jeep Cherokee Trail Hawk in a week. The tow plates will not work on the new Trail Hawk.
Is it worth it to have some one remove the base plate off the Wrangler and attempt to sell? Or should I just leave it on and not even bother? Will I be able to sell it very easily? And if so for appox how much?
DH thinks it would just end up in our garage, but I think someone would be able to use it?

I put ours on and will probably take it off if we ever get rid of it, including the wiring harness and aux. braking as well. It's gotta be worth something, but the bigger picture for consideration is what the difference in value might be. I mean we already have 10K miles more on it with towing than what the odometer says and people must be aware of this. On the other hand if it gets old enough, it shouldn't make a difference and might even help with the sale for someone looking for a toad, already set up and ready to go. I think with a 2010 and especially if one would trade it in, leaving it intact, would be a deterrent. Wranglers not so much as other vehicles, probably, but still not so good IMO.

[willald]

I've thought about this, too, but haven't yet sold or traded any vehicles I have a base plate on.

My thought is this: You're not going to get much if anything for the base plate selling it on hitch trader, since they are specific to the one vehicle that will probably be pretty outdated if you're trading it. I doubt you'd even get enough to cover the cost of having a mechanic remove the base plate, if you don't do it yourself.

Also, as far as value of the vehicle goes: Even if you remove the base plate, in many cases base plates require cutting out some parts of the front air dam/grill. Soo, even after removing the base plate, the front end is still going to look odd with 'holes' showing where those pieces wer cut out, causing potential buyers to ask questions and be a bit nervous about it.

Sooo, even without the base plate there, the 'holes' showing at the front end will still make it a vehicle that a dealer will see as having diminished value and one that potential buyers will be nervous about (unless like already said, you are able to sell it to someone who owns a MH and is looking for one with base plates already installed). Guess you could replace the front nose piece that you cut holes out of, but that'd cost waaaaaay more than it'd be worth, especially if it has to be painted to match.

That being the case, my vote is leave the base plate on and don't worry about it.

Usually by the time I trade or sell a vehicle, its so old and worn out that most of the value is gone, anyway. In that case, the base plate being on there or not really won't make a lot of difference in any $$ I get for it on tradein or selling.

[bocanut50]

I just sold something on Hitch Trader. It had been on there about 2 months.

As far as removing baseplate, let someone else do it. I doubt you would get back the money you paid for it, plus the original cost to put it on, plus the cost to take it off.

I have one for a PT Cruiser in my garage to prove it!!! I learned the hard way.

[The_Texan]

This is a 2 way street for the dealer. Some specialize in offering vehicles set up, ready to tow and charge extra for them. I know several like that. Some will deduct from the trade allowance for them, as they say they have to remove them to sell the vehicle. In my case, I have always removed them and sold them on either Hitch Trader, as I did with my last setup off the 2005 GMC, or ebay. I never had any luck with craigslist for them. The ones off the 2005 GMC sold last year for $200, shipping included, so I made a decent profit. The UPS store charged me $38 to pack & ship.

[Bumpyroad]

j-d wrote:
An RVer looking for a toad would pay more for one with a baseplate, but they're in the minority. Everybody else would probably pay less, thinking it showed the vehicle was abused somehow.
It seems true that at least the new car dealers would remove anything that wasn't "factory."
Also seems a higher-than-average share of Wrangler shoppers would be looking for a toad...

when I traded in my chevy station wagon years back, they took off the trailer hitch to avoid scaring people.
bumpy