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If you like a clean, factory-style look when not towing, this base plate keeps things tidy. The hidden design means the brackets won’t stick out past the front, and the removable arms twist out easily when you’re done towing. Receiver covers plug into the open mounts to keep dirt and debris out while giving a finished appearance.
When it’s time to connect, each arm slides into place and locks with a simple twist. Just pull the pin to disengage when you’re finished. It’s quick, secure, and repeatable—no fumbling or tools needed. The setup has a 16" distance between brackets and a bracket height of 12-1/2", giving you clear measurements to match up your towing gear.
The Blue Ox kit bolts directly to the chassis with no welding required. Its sturdy steel build is designed to spread towing forces evenly so stress stays off your suspension during long hauls. The durable powder coat finish resists rust and corrosion for reliable performance over time.
This base plate pairs directly with Blue Ox tow bars for a secure and precise connection. If you already run a Roadmaster or Demco tow bar, adapters are available—RM-031 or RM-031-5 for Roadmaster and DM9523041 for Demco (sold separately). Integrated mounting points make it easy to add an electrical connector bracket so your wiring stays neat and within reach.
Everything bolts on with included mounting hardware—no welding needed. The straightforward design aligns with factory points for an easy fit, making it approachable for experienced DIYers. Once installed, you get a solid, hidden setup that’s ready for thousands of miles of confident flat towing.
Ratings & Reviews
Installation was fairly straightforward. Only thing I would add the video doesn’t mention. The hole that needs to be drilled on passenger side. I put a piece of 1x4 wood between the radiator hose and the frame when I was drilling as the hose is pretty close to the frame and could be damaged if you drill too deep. I also put the bolt heads inside engine bay with the threads sticking to roadside as I felt again to close to radiator hose. I removed washer bottle completely to give easier access.
I wasn’t real happy about how much bumper I had to trim . The activ model has a different bumper c er than the RS. The studs for mounting wiring connector wound up really gut under the tag bracket so that was a win.
The bracket seems heavy duty and well made . Follow directions in the etrailer video. Very simple install. Drilling the hole was the hardest part.
Well designed and solidly built base plate. Very good product support from Etrailer and Blue Ox.
The four 1/2 inch by 1 3/4 inch bolts are category 5 bolts. I had a bag full of identically sized bolts which were category 8. But I did not have any whizz nuts that were category 8 nuts so I stayed with the standard Blue Ox Hardware. We used POR 15 rust preventing paint at every location where we cut the steel or drilled holes. The distance from the center of the attachment tab assembly holes to the ground is 20 inches on our 2025 Wrangler Rubicon JLU with "Xtreme" 35 inch tire package. Easy five stars for Blue Ox and etrailer.
The 2025 Trax license plate frame sits lower than shown in the instructions provided with this kit, to the point where it obstructs access to the 7-way electrical connector. An alternate scheme for mounting the plate will be required if your state requires the front plate to be displayed.
Base bar bend dimension tolerance is OK. Hole true position tolerances are pretty poor relative to the frame holes. The steel is powder coated black, but they didn't bother to clean the weld spatter off before painting, and lots of sharp little bumps cut your hands as you try to fit the bar.
The instructions are mediocre and the photographs are terrible. This is the worst instruction set photographs I have ever come across. They give you little bad bat black and white one and 1/2 x 2 inch photographs on the little booklet pages. Paragraphs are poorly written for referencing hard to see photographs. Correct and professional instruction sets should have exploded diagrams not photographs the step-by-step instructions are overly detailed for some things and totally leave out critical instructions. For example, what do you do when your clearance to the back face of the hole is much smaller than the bolt length than therefore you have to pry the hell out of the radiator support. I ended up cracking the radiator support doing this. The booklet should be twice as big, contain good diagrams, and be an 8 1/2 x 11 page in color. So you can actually figure out what it is. I stared at some of these pictures for five minutes each.
I tell you, were it not for having a lot invested in my motorhome, this job alone would make me consider selling it to not have to tow the car. For the price you pay on this bar I would've expected better.
The job took me most of a day because I had to do it over and over again. Because of the bad instructions.
Product: B+
Final fitment: A
Process instructions: D
Buying experience: A-
(Photo taken before I installed the safety cables)
The Blue Ox base plate kit was installed without a hitch on our 2024 Maverick Hybrid. It was a perfect fit! It was installed by Fantasy Truck, a referred installer of etrailer, in Odessa, MO. Brett was very easy to work with and did an excellent job! I highly recommend the Blue Ox baseplate and Brett @ Fantasy Truck!
Fast delivery, easy installation, good video instructions online from retailer.
Fits my 2013 mini cooper non turbo. Does take a few hours to install this Fit was good. The hardest part is removing the front bumper and reinstalling it. You do have to cut the lower bumper grill in three places take your time locating the exact spots for cuts. I have pulled Mini Cooper about seven thousand miles now with this Blue Ox and has worked great
I was given a Blue Ox Tow Bar and needed Base Plates for my Ford F150. In my online search, E-Trailer had the best price, so I ordered them. Delivery was a few days earlier than expected. I read the installation instructions and it sounded fairly simple to install, so I decided to tackle it myself. I began it about six pm and had the job completed and cleaned up in just over two hours. The job required removal of the bumper and tow hooks and drilling of two holes. Also William at E-trailer was of great help in the correct parts and keeping me informed of the delivery.
After installing over 500 baseplates on various vehicles, this one was probably the toughest one . It had the off road package on it . But it fit great after I had to remove a lot that had been bolted up for 27yrs.
This was instilled on a 2024 Chevrolet Colorado Z71 truck. I watched your video online with this exact model truck and the words I remember most was “and we did not have to do any trimming”. Well my truck was certainly different than what was on video. Guess it’s because it’s a late build 2024 (end of September 2024) and the grill system was maybe what would appear on the 2025 models? There was lots of trimming involved. I also will tell you the mounting holes both for the frame and the bumper back plate did not line up and required some modifications to fit. I would like to say this job is not for the faint of heart. I luckily have a mechanical/machinist background so was able to get the job done. Have not tested it yet but will be soon. Good luck to those of you who are planning on installing it yourself. Just remember it can be done. Just take your time.
Perfect fit! The only issue I encountered was drilling the upper anchor hole on the driver's side. It's not in the instructions, but I decided to remove the windshield washer fluid reservoir and headlight to drill without damaging it.
This was very easy to do, and I am very pleased with your product!! I would definitely recommend Blue Ox to anyone looking to tow behind your motorhome!
So here is an honest review of the Blue Ox base plate. I ordered this base plate because I already have a Blue Ox tow bar. After watching the video of the Ford Fiesta install it didn't look too bad. In the video of the guy suggest ordering a different brand and after the install I understand why. Taking apart the front end of the car is easy the problem lies in the way Blue Ox decided to use welded nuts on bendable rods it is very difficult to get these aligned after drilling the holes. My advice for anyone who's going to do this is be prepared and have patience. After removing the headlights in front fascia cut out the edges of the plastic as noted in the video and then Mount the bar measure the half inch gap on one side and put a clamp on it. Here's where it gets annoying instead of just putting holes in it using a drill bit that would be in any 10 to 15 piece drill index they decided to use a 13/32 bit which you will only find in large quantity indexes. Here's what I found makes this job easier after drilling the first two holes in the base plate install the top bolt only and then tighten it down if you do both you're going to have two wires hindering your movement when you go to do the rear plates. Same thing when drilling the hole in the rear plate put the top bolt in first and this leaves you more room to work with. Prepare to be frustrated the system they use was not thought out very well there was plenty of room to drill all the way through to the other side of the frame and use a through bolt to simplify this whole process. It probably would have cost him a few more dollars to get larger bolts whatever the reason was this system of nuts welded the wires is nothing but a headache. Once you get past this point and it's time to install the safety cables in the video it shows him just wrapping around the rear side of the backing frame the cables in this kit are far too long to be of any use if the front bumper disconnects the way the cables are routed they can slip around the Mainframe there's enough slack that you can actually wrap it around the inside of the base plate mounting attachments to take up the slack. Other than the method of installing this the bar itself is well built. Getting the bumper put back on and cut out for the attachment points is tricky to say the least I ended up cutting out a little bit too much of the grill but I may just order another Grill now that I know exactly where it ends up when it's fully mounted. I would imagine it cost quite a bit to have one of these installed as what could be a straightforward install takes several extra hours of fighting alignment of the nuts on a wire system. Want thank e-trailer as they have the best price and it was shipped in a timely manner.
Items arrived in 2 days, free shipping. All appeared in new undamaged condition.
The Blue Ox base plate for my 2015 Kia Soul is well manufactured and, with a little bit of mechanical skill, easy to install. It fit perfectly without issues. Brad from etrailer provides a step-by-step installation video that is outstanding and nicely guides through the process from beginning to end. I highly recommend this Blue Ox base plate from etrailer.
Super high quality baseplate for towing by Blue Ox. Instructions, videos, shipping (one day!) and overall experience was awesome. A bit pricey but their quality and the additional support by E Trailer cannot be beat! BTW (E Trailer) the baseplate fits three different Jeep configurations but did not call out the Recon package. After looking at other brands which showed there's to fit the 3 variations AND the Recon, I figured it would fit and it DID. You should definitely upgrade to include the Recon Edition.
lways great to shop at etrailer, especially the tech experts. Royce did an awesome job with our order. Everything fit perfectly and the help video provided the guidance I needed.
We installed the baseplate on our 2023 Encore GX AWD as well as the light harness and breakaway switch. A couple of items were incorrect but Royce corrected the issues with no problems.
Thanks again etrailer!
2019 Ford Ranger baseplate worked and fitted fine for me. 73 yrs old took me a couple hours but took many breaks. Younger could do it less than hour I'm sure.
Also works fine with my Blue Ox tow bar.
this was just what I needed, and I had it installed, works wonderful
This is a good solid product. Did a 7900 mile road trip pulling a 2019 Ford Fusion. I installed the base plate myself by watching the installation video. However, I do have all the tools to build or repair just about anything.
The install was fairly straightforward and took maybe 5 hours. If you are used to auto work and removing body panels you can probably cut that time in half. Also, make sure you have good drill bits to get through the frame! No problems at all with the base plate after installation.
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