To see if this custom-fit item will work for you please tell us what vehicle you'll use it with.
When you’re not towing, this setup keeps your vehicle looking clean. The direct-connect brackets sit even farther back than standard brackets, so once the removable drawbars are out, the remaining hardware is barely noticeable. Mounted within the grille, the brackets stay protected from scrapes and scuffs while keeping a smooth, factory-style appearance.
The drawbars are built for quick connect and release. Just insert them into the brackets and twist to lock in place—no tools or guesswork involved. When you’re ready to unhook, pull the built-in pin, twist back, and slide the arms out. This simple mechanism makes it easy to line up your tow bar and get going without fussing with extra parts or alignment tricks.
This kit bolts directly to your vehicle’s frame with no welding required. The all-steel construction is computer-cut for precise fit and exceptional strength, giving you confidence that your setup can handle long miles on the road. The black powder coat finish resists corrosion so it stays looking sharp and performs reliably through tough conditions.
Each base plate is custom-fit and made specifically for use with Roadmaster motor-home-mounted tow bars that slide into a trailer hitch—such as the Nighthawk, Sterling, Blackhawk, Blackhawk 2, Falcon, or Falcon 2 series. Installation hardware and instructions are included for a straightforward bolt-on job that delivers a secure, long-lasting connection between your vehicle and tow bar.
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Hey, guys, this is Jake here with etrailer. Today, we're gonna be taking a look at, and I'm gonna show you how to install, the Roadmaster Direct-Connect Base Plate on our 2022 Jeep Wagoneer. This base plate is gonna have a nice, clean look on the front of your vehicle in order for you to safely tow your vehicle behind your motor home. When the arms are removed, as you can see, it's a very, very factory look. The furthest thing that's gonna stick out is going to be your safety chain loops. The whole construction is going to be a sturdy steel construction with a nice, black powder coat finish to resist rust and corrosion.
When you're ready to tow, all you have to do is stick your removable arms in, twist, and they lock into place. With that being said, the removable arms are replaceable. The opening here is for your standard Roadmaster tow bars. If you don't have a Roadmaster Tow Bar, if you already have an adapter, it should work great in here, but there are going to be adapters available. This base plate does feature safety chain loops that are going to allow you to attach your safety cables to your motor home, and then connect it directly to your base plate.
The base plate will also have two prongs in order to attach your six-pole wiring. And as you see on the other side, you see that same safety cable loop to attach the safety cable. As far as the breakaway switch, we ended up using a short bracket, which you can find on our website, in order to attach it to your base plate so you have a nice, clean look, like we have here. Another important note to make is that when flat towing a vehicle, you want your tow bar to be within three inches of level from your towed vehicle to your motor home. So you can take a measurement, once you get your base plate and all that installed, from the center of your pin, which will be here, to the ground.
And then, from the ground to the top inside edge of your motor home's hitch, you want that to be within three inches. If it's more than that, you're gonna need a high-low adapter in order to get that tow bar leveled out. Before we get into the installation, let's take the vehicle inside and go over all the other components that you're gonna need in order to flat to your Wagoneer. The five main components of a flat-tow system is going to be your base plate, which is gonna mount to the front of your vehicle and allow you to tow the vehicle behind your motor home. The tow bar, which is going to be the link to attach the vehicle to the motor home to safely pull it down the road.
You'll need a braking system to help the vehicle stop behind the RV so that the RV doesn't have to stop itself and the vehicle, they will stop proportionally together. That's gonna save the brakes on the RV, and help to have a more controlled stop. You also need safety cables, which is in case of an unlikely disconnect. The safety cables are gonna keep your vehicle safely behind the motor home until you can get pulled over and get it taken care of. And then, finally, you're gonna have wiring. This is going to allow the vehicle's signals to match that of the motor home, much like on a trailer, so that people on the highway can see what your intentions are with your motor home. To begin our installation, we need to start by removing our fascia. And to do that, there's gonna be four screws that are in our wheel well holding our liner to the fascia. This will be an eight-millimeter socket to get these removed. (drill whirring) With those four bolts removed, we can take, we'll just wanna take this trim piece and peel it back. Now there is gonna be a plug behind this signal here, so we will have to hopefully get it far enough, we'll have to remove that, so we can pull it out a little bit further, you can see it there. We'll push this back in, because we're eventually gonna need to pull the fascia off anyway. We'll just keep working this up until we get it high enough to be able to remove our 10-millimeter bolt, that's gonna be behind, holding these two pieces together. Now a little tech tip, I like to take a little piece of paper towel and fold it up a couple times, push it back here in this joint. in order to keep this away from the side of our vehicle while we work. I'll take a 10-millimeter wrench or socket and remove this bolt. (socket clicking) This will be a really good time to say anything we do on one side of the vehicle, we're gonna be doing on the other. Now we can take a 10-millimeter socket and remove the three bolts holding our fascia to the frame. (drill whirring) And we're gonna take some blue painter's tape before we pull this fascia off, and tape up our seam. We're gonna put a piece of tape on both sides. This is just so that any of these clips that you see come out of the back won't scratch either side of this. And we'll run a piece down here too. To remove your fascia, we just need to pull outward. And you can get your hands behind in the wheel well, pull straight out at you, and you should be able to pop those clips loose. And with an extra set of hands, we can pull the rest of our fascia off. And you wanna watch for some wiring to be back here, 'cause we know we have lights, we know we have our parking sensors, and there may be one more sensor here in the middle. So we've got a clip over here. Once we get this white tab pulled back, we'll push down on it, and pull our wiring apart. We'll have that same connector on the driver's side of the vehicle. Next thing is we need to remove the three nuts on each side of the vehicle on the back side of our bumper core. This is what our base plate is gonna be replacing. So this will not be reinstalled. And once they're removed, we'll just pull this off. Now if you have this lower air dam, we are gonna temporarily remove it so that we can get our other base plate components in place, and then we'll put it back on. But we'll start by removing this plug. Pull that out. And then, there's gonna be two 13-millimeter nuts, two on each side, right back here. (drill whirring) We'll leave this nut loosely on so we can get the other ones removed. We'll take this off and set it aside. On each side, our air dam is gonna need to be trimmed. And in your instructions, it'll show the exact picture, but we can show you here too. We're gonna mark it down here, go across, come straight down and over. So, essentially, you wanna start at the top of this dam, go up, over, follow that line, and go straight up. We found that trying to cut it with a pair of tin snips, this plastic on the inner part is a lot harder than the edge. So we are gonna use a rotary tool to cut it out. (rotary tool buzzing) We'll just take either of your fingers or we can take a knife or a file to smooth out these pieces of plastic. We can take our 1/2-inch bolts and our base plate, put one of the smaller flat washers on, lift our base plate up into place. It's definitely helpful to have a friend help you out with this. Then we'll take a large flat washer, slide it on. A lock washer, and thread on a nut. And we'll do the same process for the remaining hardware on the base plate. Now be sure any hardware that you use to attach the base plate to the vehicle is getting a little bit of Red Loctite. Now we need to torque all of these bolts to the specifications in the back of your instructions. (torque wrench beeps) (torque wrench beeps) Now you'll notice here on the base plate, we'll have two additional holes that'll match up with our side brackets. We'll put this bracket on the rear, then we'll take a 3/8-inch diameter bolt, thread it through, we'll put a little bit of Loctite on the end of it. Then we'll take a flat washer, a lock washer, and a nut, and we'll do this for the top and bottom bolts. Now with our hardware still hand tight, we wanna make sure that this bracket is flat up against the frame, and we're gonna walk up through drill bits to be able to eventually step up to a 17/32 drill bit to drill a hole through our frame. (drill whirring) Now you'll wanna take some clear coat, once you get your hole drilled out, and clear coat that bare metal so that it doesn't have the chance of rusting. Now with that hole drilled out, we're gonna take our shorter 1/2-inch bolts and our nut plates, and run 'em back into our frame, and then thread our 1/2-inch bolts into those nut plates. When torquing down this hardware, you wanna start with the 1/2-inch hardware first, then move to the 3/8 hardware. (torque wrench beeps) (torque wrench beeps) Now you could just take your extra wire from your weld plate and shove it up inside the frame. At this point in the installation, this is when we would trim our fascia, and then reinstall it. But, for us, we're gonna be installing the rest of our flat tow components. So we'll get those installed, and then we'll come back and show you how to trim the fascia. Now turning back to our fascia getting it ready to go back on the vehicle, we have five of these star washers that we need to remove, because we're gonna be removing this vibration panel and it will not be put back on the vehicle. You'll have one here, here, one at the end, one in the middle, and one on the other end. You kinda just bend those tabs up with a screwdriver to get it pulled off. Now with an extra set of hands, we're gonna gonna loosely put our fascia back up in place, and we're gonna take a chalk marker so that we can wipe it off if we decide that we made a mark we don't want. But we're gonna see where all of these components are on our lower fascia so that we can get 'em cut out. So we'll mark here, we'll take that one out. We've got, right here. Just gonna outline where our tow bar ends are gonna have to go in. With our fascia still mocked up, we're going to take a pair of tin snips, start trimming everything that's hitting the fascia first, and that way we can get a little bit better idea, get it a little closer to the base plate to make our final cuts. And then, we'll take it off, sand everything down, and make it look nice. Now that we've got our fascia all trimmed up and ready to reinstall, we need to take off this support off our bumper core. We'll use a 10-millimeter socket, remove two screws, and then we'll take a 1/2 inch, or excuse me, a 1/4-inch drill bit and drill out these aluminum rivets. (drill whirring) Now when putting the fascia stiffener back on, you'll wanna reuse the factory hardware that you removed, which is gonna be the three bolts on the bottom of the fascia. To get your lower air dam back in place, we're going to slide it up and slide the studs through the holes that they came out of. Your instructions are not gonna specifically say when to reinstall this, but they just wanted it out of the way so that you could get all the rest of our hardware installed. So we're gonna reinstall it now before we get some brackets in place, then we can put our fascia back on. Don't forget to reinstall your plug for your lower air dam. And with an extra set of hands, we can get our fascia reinstalled. Just make sure you get all your components to slide through your holes that you've cut out in your grill. And just reattach those fasteners as you took them out before. The last thing we have to install to complete our base plate install is the stiffening brackets. They are going to install to a weld nut on the end of your frame rail, which you can see here, with a bolt that comes in your kit with a flat washer and a split lock washer. And the other end of it is going to match up to the plastic stiffener that's on the bottom of our fascia. This is essentially going to help stiffen the bottom of this fascia, whereas the bumper beam did it before. The more aggressive angle is going to attach to the weld nut, and the other side is going to attach to the plastic stiffener. We'll just thread that in place. Now we can take a bolt with a flat washer, and another flat washer, and a lock nut, and install this side on the front. It's gonna be easier if you put the bolt through the back side, or I guess the front side, of the fascia support. And then, put on your flat washer and your lock nut. We'll do that same for the passenger side of the vehicle. (drill whirring) And we'll snug those down. And to finish up our install, we need to check to make sure that our tow bar ends fit in properly. With everything buttoned up and all our components working properly, that's gonna do it for our installation of the Roadmaster Base Plate on our 2022 Jeep Wagoneer.
Ratings & Reviews
2017 f150
Customer service was very helpful. Easy to install. No bumper or grill cutting however, you do loose your front hooks. Nice low profile.
I watched YouTube videos on how to install. I have used this a year now. It is well made and not some cheap junk. Heavy steel and I am pleased with it. As with all etrailer products I have purchased, I highly recommend. Their customer service is outstanding.
Bolted right up to my 2021 Ford Expedition Max Platinum. No issues and is a snap to hook up and unhook the tow bars. The units poke right out the factory openings and are hardly noticeable when the draw bars are removed. About the only complaint I have is that the draw bars fit sloppy in the base plate adapters. They wobble a LOT but are made of very thick steel. After about 3000 miles towing so far, the draw bars are pretty heavily worn where they contact the base plate adapters.
Quality product for my new 2024 Ford Escape Hybrid AWD ST Line. Came with decent instructions that got me through installation without issue. Installation required drilling only two holes through the plastic lower grille opening for the insertion of the tow arms. Everything else was completely "bolt-on". The breakaway switch, safety cable tabs, and the wiring receptacle all fit through existing openings in the lower grille providing a "clean" finished look.
I originally purchased a Blue Ox baseplate to install since I already had a tow bar. Upon removing the front grill, I was surprised to find the used Element I had purchased already had the front bumper caps removed and 2 braces installed. Thanks to the photos on etrailer reviews and product info, I was able to determine that the vehicle had previously had a roadmaster baseplate installed! I purchased this unit and it fit perfectly onto the already installed braces. Seems very solid and high-quality so far.
Install video on etrailer's website definitely helped! I love the removable twist lock arms. Makes the kit almost hidden!
A clean look on my 2025 Ford Maverick Hybrid after following e-trailer's detailed installation instructions.
Put this on a 2014 Honda CR-V. This is a very well made base plate setup! The overall design, welds and powder coating are outstanding! Shipping was super fast too! The install video by etrailer was close to perfect and really helped to take the "scary" out of doing the job. The only change I would like to see in the video is during the grill removal. He says to just yank it forward to get the clips to release. Unfortunately, most of the specialized clips broke doing it this way. Had I known, I would have slipped a thin tool just below the grill to get the clips to unlock/release. Also, on the wrap around, bumper cover, some of the tabs on the bumper cover ripped out and I had to do some creative plastic welding or fiberglass resin/cloth to repair. These clips have a release tab also. I suggest finding specific videos on youtube to remove the plastic body parts and grill. I got it all done and it works perfectly! I really love the almost invisible tow receivers on the car (when the arms are removed). Our last toad was a 1997 Nissan Hardbody pickup that has permanent knee busting/shin smashing protrusions. I am super happy with everything we have bought from etrailer over the past 18 years!
Installation was fairly straightforward, kudos to e-trailer for the videos, looks great, everyone says it looks factory installed, love the low profile base plate without the bar, also love that the hook ups are detachable and can be removed when not towing, gives it an overall cleaner look. Installed it right at the campground without issues, took about 3 hours to install, with our rubicon only had to widen the top holes as the second set of holes were already the size of the bolts needed. This is the 3rd base blare we have installed and they get easier each time.
This is my 4th set of Roadmaster baseplates that I’ve installed through the years. The fit, quality and finish appearance is always excellent. 2024 Chevy Silverado 1500.
The folks at etrailer are fantastic. I didn't know everything I needed to tow my car behind our RV... but they did! Everything I needed was in the boxes and the videos made it all come together. Thank you to everyone at etrailer!
Good product. If you are reasonably handy and have some tools, you can install this yourself in a few hours. I'm a mechanic, it took me a little over 2 hours to install on my own toad. The fit is good, there are 4 holes you have to drill, otherwise it is plug and play. When you insert and twist lock the tow bar mounts into their sockets they feel a little sloppy but they are secure, and i never noticed any rattle when towing. Overall i give it a 4 out of 5 for easy install and clean look after install. Pic included of installed base plate.
Excellent base plate, just as my wife requested, she didn’t want too much metal visible in front of the bumper. Installation instructions were a bit confusing for me, but I’ll clarify, for me.
This was a bit of a challenge to install on a 2026 Chevrolet Colorado Z71. One item to be aware of, as you take off the front Facia of the truck for the install, there are two Facia "brakets" that attach to the front fenders that seem like they are use once plastic snaps. Three of the 4 snaps broke off on both sides when I removed the facia. These are about $35 a piece from Chevy and prevent you from making this a 1 day job. Additionally, there are 2 7mm screws/bolts that connect one of the coolers to the back of the bumper support and these are a real problem to get back in - over an hour of time and every 1/4" tool in my arsenal was needed to find a way to get these started. Finally, one of the Connecting Plates (Passenger side) needed to holes to be elongated to enable all the bolts to be started. Finally - you need to put the Brakaway bracket on the driver side, to have enough cable to reach you brake system. Probably have 4 hours in the disassembly and installation of the Direct-Connect Plate. Now waiting a couple days for the plastic brackets from Chevy to complete the install. Good Luck!!
It mounted up just as the instructions said it would. From previous research I was not surprised when some of the mounting did not align perfectly. Had to use a dremel tool to make it work. The product looks very sturdy from its design. I’m happy with it and look forward to RV traveling.
2002 Honda CR-V. Easy to install. Two and a half hours, and stopped to eat a sandwich. To install the spacers inside the roll frame on the car I used an extension magnet to reach in there and position them. As you can see NO cutting was needed on the bumper cover!
Now I have to figure out the easiest way to run the wiring for the lights.
Thanks Lauren A for your help!
I installed this base plate on a 2018 Miata RF. I think I recall something about it taking 3.5 hours and my initial estimate was 3.5 days. It actually took a bit longer than that, but I was not pushing myself and did not have the luxury of having the vehicle on a lift but had it up on two ramps for the front wheels.
The order came pretty quickly, probably about 4 or 5 days between the time I placed it and UPS delivered it. The parts were well packaged and it came with a printed set of instructions. I had watched the video install on another Miata and if it weren't for that I'm not sure I would have tried it. I'm not a pro mechanic by any means but have worked on my own vehicles now for over 40 years. And I'm not a spring chicken either, so all the up and down working on the car can tire me fairly quickly. But if you are not in a rush and go carefully it can be done.
It took a day to do most of the disassembly. I removed both headlights and the intake tube on the passenger side. That tube came out much easier then it went back in.
The next day I got the baseplate mounted which helped to start visualizing how it all would work. All of the holes for the 6mm bolts did not quite line up with the holes in the frame. I had to file one sides worth for a bit of extra clearance. From my experience on this install you really want to leave all the bolt on the loose side till you get everything situated.
A couple of days off for rain and the then I got to work on the bracing. Initially I though I didnt need to cut the top lip of the frame but I decided to go ahead and do it anyway since that part didnt seem to sit flat when bolted from the back end. I'm still not sure its really necessary as the hump clears the metal lip without cutting it.
I also ordered a 14" long 1/2" drill bit to cut the holes in the frame. It was a Bosch bit, wasnt very expensive and it went through the metal like the proverbial hot knife. I managed to get all the big bolts installed in a day with a great sense of satisfaction.
The next day I torqued down all the bolts and the mount felt very solid. They stress that you need to install all the bolts, but honestly I can't see the 6mm bolts doing much compared to the half inch bolts that do most or all of the work. But I put them in and tightened them all the same.
A couple of days spent to install the tail light wiring and then I got back on to putting the front clip back on. My car must have had an aftermarket grill since it did not match the pictures or the video. I tried to position it carefully to see where the parts that were going to stick out would be so I didnt cut out more than I needed to. So there was a good amount of back and forth, cut and fit. In the end I had to make some extra cuts for clearance for the safety cable tabs as well as the mount for the 6 wire connector. Until I made the extra cuts the lower part of the front clip would not seat correctly. Getting the clip in the right position so it fits under the lights also takes some finagling.
Figuring out where all the bolts go back in can be interesting. Take pictures where you can. Dont be too aggressive when working with plastic parts. Overall I'm satisfied with the install, but I have yet to try and hook it up to tow.
Awesome instructions! Install was fairly easy. Product is very high quality and solid construction. Thank you E Trailer!
Easy to install needed to replace some fasteners as they broke removing front grill was able to get them from Amazon cheap
The Roadmaster Direct-Connect Base Plate Kit has performed flawlessly over the past year. With almost 10k miles logged during our 3 month trip across the US, the components have remained as installed and operated as expected.
I have lots of issues with this tow bar. Initial installation was difficult due to a tight fit. Had to have my mechanic cut holes in frame to get bolts attached. After a few times of use the bolts failed causing the bar to fall fwd that then damaged my hitch arms. To fix I drilled new hole through bar and frame securing it with a #8 bolt. To reinforce it I used turnbuckles attached to my bumper. last tow finally went well.
I bought and installed this tow plate one year ago on my 2013 Jeep Wrangler. I bought this particular plate due to the jeep having a Barricade off-road bumper. This plate attaches a bit lower than other plates and prevented having to modify the bumper. Installation was easy involving only hand tools. The plate comes with all needed bolts and attachments. I have towed this Jeep several thousand miles behind my RV with absolutely no issues. As an aside, I use a Roadmaster Night Hawk tow bar which is also an excellent product. Both are expensive, but I believe cheaping-out on safety is no a good idea. I highly recommend this product.
This works perfect with my Roadmaster tow bar. It was a little difficult to install since I had to remove the front end of the Trailblazer, but with the good directions that came with it and some you tube videos made the installation easier.
Had these installed at Lester’s Automotive in Boerne,Texas…First class service all the way. Paul and his crew worked through lunch for over 4 hours to install these on our 2026 Ford Ranger. Also ran the wire and hooked up my auxiliary tow lights. The price for this was very reasonable and would highly recommend them for all r.v. needs even if not real close to the Boerne area. R.V park within reasonable distance if needed.
Etrailer comes through again! This was a great savings as a used kit, but it was even better than the description online. I have installed (4) baseplates on and etrailer.com has given me great videos to watch and good instructions to follow. Couldn't be more pleased with the quality, service and delivery times.
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