Roadmaster Crossbar-Style Base Plate Kit - Removable Arms
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2016 Jeep Compass
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2016 Jeep Compass
To see if this custom-fit item will work for you please tell us what vehicle you'll use it with.
When you want your vehicle to keep a clean look while not towing, this setup blends right in. The hidden bracket design sits far back on the frame so the brackets are virtually invisible once the drawbars are removed. On most vehicles, the remaining brackets are tucked within the grille—protected from scrapes and scuffs while keeping a factory-style appearance.
Connecting and disconnecting doesn’t get easier than this. Each removable drawbar slides into the bracket and twists to lock in place, then unlocks with a quick pull on the built-in rings. No tools or pins to fumble with—just twist and go. The simple motion makes it fast to attach your tow bar when you’re heading out and just as quick to unhook when you arrive.
This base plate kit is made from computer-cut, all-steel components for exceptional strength. The precision welds and heavy-duty frame mounting spread towing forces evenly across your front end. With its black powder coat finish, it’s durable and corrosion resistant—ready to handle thousands of miles of towing without worry.
You won’t need welding for this install. The brackets bolt directly to your vehicle’s frame using the included mounting hardware and clear instructions. Integrated mounting points make it easy to add an electrical connector plug or bracket (sold separately) so your wiring stays neat and accessible. It’s a solid setup designed for dependable use every trip.
If you already run a Roadmaster tow bar, this base plate connects using the quick-disconnect crossbar (910021-00, sold separately). The crossbar-style design provides stable attachment points while still keeping the front end uncluttered when disconnected—a practical solution that pairs seamlessly with your existing towing gear.
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Hi, everyone. Jesse here with etrailer. Today, we'll be taking a look at, and I'll show you how to install the Roadmaster custom-fit baseplate for crossbar tow bars on our 2025 Ford F-150. There's gonna be five major components to look into when setting up your vehicle to be flat-towed. Starting with our base plate, that's gonna be the structural mounting point for which everything connects to. And then your tow bar, that's gonna be the physical link between both towed vehicle and motor home.
And we have our braking system which will keep you safe and legal in all 50 states. And what it does is allows you to not only rely on the brakes of the motor home to come to a stop, but also use the towed vehicle's brakes. Then we have our diode wiring, that's gonna keep you safe out there by sending a signal from the taillights on the motor home to the taillights on the towed vehicles to make those function properly. And last, we have our safety cables. These are here in case of a catastrophic disconnect.
If anything we inchesre to fail that we set up today, these will be here to hold everything together so you can come to a safe stop. Additionally, you may want to look into a high-low adapter, especially if you have a motor home of this size. The hitch does sit up quite high, as opposed to where our base plate sits on our towed vehicle, it was about a difference of six inches. So we got a six-inch high-low adapter because we want those to be as even as possible. As I said, this is a crossbar-style base plate, so this is really nice.
If you already have a crossbar style tow bar, and you're looking to put a base plate on a new car, you don't have to go and buy a whole new tow bar. You can just get this particular base plate and transfer everything over. Another thing I really like about Roadmaster base plates in general is this one, they really think about your wiring and your breakaway switch mounting. This came with a bracket that you just simply bolt into some factory bolts that are already there on our bumper, and it's really convenient to have a mounting point for both of those things just because it takes a lot of time, sometimes to get maybe a custom bracket made and get it all fit in there. Whereas with this right out of the box, you can bolt it in and you're ready to go.
If you're looking into this base plate, you probably already have an idea of how these crossbar tow bars function. So usually, you can just unbind it and lift this off after you take your pin and clips out. Ours is a little bound up, but that's fine. We can just take it out just like any other base plate by removing our pin and clip here on both sides and getting our arms out of the way. Here's how it looks once your tow bar is disconnected. As you can see, the base plate arms have a spot for you to bolt on your tow bar bracket. And if I pull this pin on the back side, give it a quarter turn, these are removable. That way, when you're just driving your truck around, you still have a nice, clean factory look. It doesn't look much different than the tow hooks that we removed. Then, of course, when you are ready to hook up and flat tow your vehicle away, it's just the opposite of what I just did. Get this slid in, you'll kind of feel it slot into place. Then quarter-turn it down and that's gonna lock it into place. Our neighbor today has these safety cables that are designed to go into this bracket for their tow bar. But this base plate does come with some loops in case you have some regular safety cables. Those are there, and you can hook right onto 'em. If you have any questions or concerns about this base plate or anything else we offer here at etrailer, please feel free to reach out to us. We'd be happy to get you pointed in the right direction. And when it comes to installation with this base plate, it is quite a handful. You have to remove the bumper, and also you're probably installing other flat tow components at the same time. So I'd understand if it's not something that you're looking to do yourself, check out our dealer locator. You can find someone local to you that would be happy to get this set up for you. If you are looking to see how this gets installed, then just follow along, and I'll walk you through the process. We'll begin our installation by removing this plastic panel that goes across the top of our grille here. So it's just some plastic pushpin fasteners, helps to have a tool like this to pop 'em off. But if you don't have one, you could just use a flathead screwdriver. But we'll just work our way through, get 'em all removed until we can pull this off. So I just work my way down while lifting up. That way I know I'm taking off the fasteners that I need to. We got that last fastener removed so we can pull this up, and get it set aside. There's actually one more on the corner here. That one removed. Now we can work it out of place and set it aside. With that out of the way, we can remove our four 10-millimeter bolts. (tool buzzes) (tool buzzes) (tool buzzes) (tool buzzes) We have two plugs here that will unplug. This one just has a push tab that you'll have to push down and pull out to separate it. It's kind of tricky to get your finger in there, but you just wanna push that down and you can pull it out. This one has a locking tab. Just lift it up, and then you can push the pin and separate it. And with this wire, it's also attached by pushpin fastener, so we'll just pop that off for now. Now, on both sides, inside of our wheel well here, we'll have two seven-millimeter bolts to remove. (tool buzzes) (tool buzzes) Now, with those screws removed on both sides, we can pull out on this little strip that goes across the front. It's just held in by some clips here. So just carefully work your way towards the center. And this inside clip seems to be the trickiest one. Just pull it out, and then we'll just work our way to the middle, and we can take this off and set it aside. So all these clips are pretty hard to get out. They do take quite a bit of force, but just be patient with it and work your way around. And try not to bend this too much because it is not a lot of plastic, but just working my way one clip at a time. (strip clicks) Now, once you get all those worked loose, we can set this piece aside. With that out of our way, we have to remove this 10-millimeter bolt that's tucked in here, that's gonna be holding our grille in place. So there's one on each side. (tool buzzes) So your grille may be different than ours. Ours wraps around our headlights here, so we have some more pushpin fasteners to remove. But on other models that I've seen, you can just pull up and out on the grille and it'll come out. As I said, ours is slightly different. So I'm gonna remove all these pushpin fasteners going across, and that should loosen it up for us. With all those pushpin fasteners removed, we should just be able to pull it out. I'm pretty sure it's just held in by clips now. If there is any more hardware or anything that I need to remove, I'll make sure to come back and show you, but just gonna work from one side to the other, and get this popped up. So the hardest clips to get removed are these corner ones. But I found that if you just grab it right here towards the inside of our headlight and give it a good tug, it'll pop loose. Just have to be wary because this is plastic. So if I start down here. Now, we have all the clips removed, we just have to work it around this rubber's kind of holding this up. And make sure you pull everything straight out so you don't thin the plastic at all. And we'll pull that off and set it somewhere safely aside. Now, we have some wiring harnesses to unplug. It looks like there's three of them that we'll need to get unplugged so we can get everything separated. This big one here, just push in on this tab, and then this gray lever will pop back, and that will separate our wires. And we have one tucked down in here. It's just your standard pushpin, and pull out. There's that pushpin. And we have one more here, has a locking tab, pull back on that. Push the tab in and separate it. And we'll also use our trim tool to pop this off so it's not connected to this plastic piece. Now, we have three 21-millimeter nuts that are holding our bumper in place. They're tucked on the backside here. Let's get those removed on both sides, and then we can take our bumper out. (tool creaks) And before you take the last one off, what I did was I just threaded on one on the other side, just a couple threads, just enough to hold everything in. But I'll go back over here, take that nut off. Now, we can take our bumper assembly. You may want an extra set of hands because this thing is kind of awkward and heavy. Pull it straight out. And we'll make sure there's nothing else that's connected. So this wiring harness is actually attached somewhere inside of our bumper here. So what I'll do is just pull off these fasteners that are holding this up. And now, we'll be able to get our bumper completely off and set aside. We need to remove our tow hooks on both sides. So there's two 15-millimeter bolts on the bottom. (tool buzzes) Get those both removed. (tool buzzes) And set those aside. (tool buzzes) (tool buzzes) Now, we're ready to get our base plate installed. So we'll take this plate here that has the two nuts welded on it. We're gonna line that up with the two holes that our tow hook mounted up to, and then we'll get this into place. You wanna make sure to have the one on the right side. This angled bracket is gonna go to the outside of our frame. So we'll slide this up. We'll start with the back bolt, which is the shorter of the two, it's two inches long. And I did put some blue threadlocker on there with a split washer. So we'll have to hold our base plate up in place. We'll get that first bolt threaded onto the plate. It does take some finesse to get everything to line up. Once we get that hand-tight, that should hold that there for us. And our front hole here, we'll get the four-inch long bolt, of course, with the threadlocker and split washer, I'll take a 19-millimeter socket and tighten those two bolts down. (tool buzzes) (tool buzzes) Once we have that bolted up, we will have to drill through our frame here. And it kind of works as a template here, so we can just kind of guide our drill bit. The instructions say to use a 17/32 inch drill bit. All I have is a half inch, so I think that'll be fine. I'll just kind of have to waller it out when I'm done. Make sure that you're putting something like a license plate or a piece of wood in between your frame here and your inner cooler because we are are going to go through both layers of the frame. (tool buzzes) And once you're through the first hole, you can just kind of get it as level as you can and start drilling the second hole on the inside of the frame. (tool buzzes) Once you have both the holes drilled out, I like to take the hardware, and just make sure it'll slide all the way through both holes. And then what we need to do is loosen up this bracket because this plate washer needs to go in between the bracket and the frame. So we'll just loosen those two 19-millimeter bolts up just a bit. (tool buzzes) Just enough so that we have space to get our washer in. (tool buzzes) So now, I can put that washer through, and I put some threadlocker on our long bolt. This be tricky to get lined up. Get that lined up, get our bolt pushed all the way through. Then on the other side, we'll put another plate washer, a split washer, and a nut. Now, with that all set up, we can re-tighten down our two bottom bolts, and also tighten down that long bolt. And this bolt is 19 millimeter like the rest, but you will need a wrench to hold the nut. (tool buzzes) (tool buzzes) (tool buzzes) With that tightened down, we'll just repeat that same process on the driver's side. Now, we'll take a torque wrench and torque everything down to the specifications in the instructions. So now we can install our bracket that's gonna hold our six-pole and our breakaway switch or anything else that you need to mount on the front of the vehicle. It's actually gonna go in here just like this, and it's gonna use these factory nuts. So we'll remove those. Those will be 10 millimeters. (tool buzzes) (tool buzzes) (tool buzzes) (tool buzzes) Get those taken out, and slide our bracket into place, and reinstall our nuts. And we can tighten those back down. (tool buzzes) (tool buzzes) (tool buzzes) (tool buzzes) Next, we'll be cutting out our air dam here. So I've kind of marked it out on the outside. We're gonna cut this section off, and then we're gonna cut all the way to here and out. So essentially, we're cutting this whole half of it off and leaving this half on. I'm just gonna use a reciprocating saw. You could probably cut this up with some tin snips, just whatever you have. (tool buzzes) Now, we're also going to cut this lower air dam on the bumper. So you just wanna come down about a half inch and try to follow that angle. And once again, I'm using the reciprocating saw. (tool buzzes) I got that cut out. I will come back over and clean up my edges with a razor blade, and then repeat that process on the other side. Now, once you've installed the rest of your flat tow components, that's gonna do it for our look at an installation of the Roadmaster custom-fit base plate for crossbars on our 2025 Ford F-150.
Customer Satisfaction Score:
83% were satisfied with this product
17% of customers were not satisfied
Ratings & Reviews
This base plate was installed on a 2008 Kia Spectra. The bracket is strong and not really hard to work with HOWEVER,,,,,,,,,, I am used to the BlueOx base plate which is much easier to "hook up". Unfortunately, BlueOx did not make a base plate to fit my vehicle. That is not a big problem as I'm usually not in any hurry and it only takes maybe 5 minutes longer to "hook up".
The biggest problem with the RoadMaster base plate is that due to the way it is bolted to the frame, it only allows for a 6-inch ground clearance on the front of the vehicle. I have to be very careful with any "dips" in the road, especially on cross streets. Six inches may not sound like much but since the tires are several feet behind the base plate, it reduces that ground clearance greatly. It also will not clear the concrete "stop blocks" in front of many parking spaces.
If you are not very careful and keep this in mind, you may likely bend the frame of your car when you come to one of these sudden impacts. I haven't bent anything yet but it has certainly been shocking when it hits. Most of the time, the impact will cause the base plate to scrape and lift the car to the height to clear the obstacle.
I've attached a picture with a ruler in the view.
Great product for my 2014 Wrangler. Good materials, solid attachment to vehicle, and looks good. The e trailer installation video was great for assisting installation. Made the install much quicker and easier. The most difficult procedure for me was disconnecting the wiring harness on the back of the bumper. An old tack puller (or tool of similar design) would have been great for leveraging the pins out of their holes. Cutting the air dam was a slow process to ensure I didn't cut too much. A paper template to mark where to cut the air dam would make this process much simpler. Again, I can't emphasize enough how great the installation video was for making the steps easier.
Thank you for the quick order entry and shipment. Hoping to receive it on Friday. This is going on my 2025 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland - cross bar style, jeep with tow hooks and no lower air louvers.
So far has performed very well. Was easy to install and hookup is pretty quick and easy. You install instructions were very thorough. Practically invisible when not in use. Tried to attach two pics, but would only take one.
After comparing Demco, RoadMaster, and Blue Ox base plate costs, mounting procedures, etc for my 2012 Fiat Sport, I decided to go with RoadMaster (Kit #522013-1A) for two main reasons: 1) I had the tow bar and mount adapters from another product that were the same specs as the RoadMaster tow bar and adapters to attach to the base plate, and 2) no drilling or other modifications required to mount the base plates. Blue Ox (Kit #BX2800) required I buy their tow bar and other unique configuration adapters PLUS drill two half-inch holes on either side where the base plate mounted AND hammering flat the tips on the corners of the bumper bracket the frame where the base plate mounted. Blue Ox did provide better details on the removal of the facia and bolt removal and torquing actions required for the Fiat. My biggest challenge was the removal of the facia without damaging the clips or other damage to it. Once it was off, the action of removing the bumper core from the end of the frame rails and bolting on the base plate was slick! I took a little over 4 hours to do this, but it was because I wanted to do it right, without damage, and have the confidence I could tow without issues. (Not sure how sequence will show, but labeled the pictures as "Before," "Removal," "Installation," "Finished," and "Ready to Tow.")
This was the second base plate kit from etrailer that I have installed, the first being on our ‘03 Outback and this one on our new to us 2015 Subaru CrossTrek. As usual the response, shipping and delivery from etrailer was prompt and curious. They are my go to place for anything towing related.
Installation of this kit went well with only a few issues, most of which were related to our vehicle not the kit. I knew the car had been hit lightly on the LF corner, but could find nothing of concern body or frame wise when I looked the car over before buying it. Turns out the front bumper reinforcement had been tweaked a tad which made lining the bolt holes up with the holes in the base plates a tad challenging. This made the small angle brackets that go inside the frame heads tough to line up, but in the end it all fit. I did find that it was unnecessary to pull the washer reservoir or the left headlight to access the nut and washer for the long 1/2” bolt. You can easily reach and see the place from underneath after pulling the plastic encapsulation panel. When drilling that 1/2” hole be sure to angle the drill bit UP a tad otherwise you may end up having to grind a flat on the side of the large, thick washer as you can see in my picture from underneath. I used shrink wrap over the nut and bolt since there’s a wiring harness right against it. The picture of the baseplate differs a bit from the pictures so I guess they made some changes. All in all a great kit!
Fit and finish is great, the illustration for what you trim on the bumper isn't great but otherwise pretty easy install (I ended up measuring between the mounts on the draw bar and just trimmed accordingly)
The Jeep project went very well everything fit great and worked well. I really love Roadmaster products and quality and your company is the best place to purchase them. I sold the Jeep and replaced it with a new 2019 Chevy Equinox 2.0 L AWD and just purchased and installed the following items from you and installed them, RM-156-25 & RM-156-75 Battery Charge Line Kit, RM-146-7 Flex Coil Kit, RM-523193-4 EZ4 Plate Kit, RM-88333 Custom Seat Adapter, RM-751489 Stop Light Switch Kit and a RM-98160 Second Vehicle Brake Kit w/brakeaway. All these parts were in stock and arrived quickly and normal with you people, I really enjoy the o-line vidios as I do all my own installs. Thank you so much for your great service.
I will attach pictures of my install, you will see how I was able to fab a bracket and attach it to the existing mount on the base plate to mount the brakeaway switch and the air connection for the brake system.
I also fabricated a tail light bar as I didn't want to use mag-lights or splice into the factory lights and bulbs installed into the lights would not work as the factory brake lights will come on when the brake system is applyed and the turn siginals would not be visable.
Thanks for all you do, I would and do recommend you people to everyone who needs your products. Rob
I’m very handy with tools so drilling the four holes required was a simple task. Everything fit as advertised and the quality was on point. Since I already owned a roadmaster tow bar this kit was a no brainer. My vehicle is 2017 Silverado so it was slightly different teardown of the front end. Thankfully i found a u tube video
The installation took me about 7 hours, the facia removal was tedious , between the installation videos and instructions, I performed the task. This bar has one con, the pull rings on the removal bars are flimsy , my first pull stretched one out. I’m sure trailer has a fix for this under warranty, I hope.
Etrailer was very easy to do business with and made it simple to ship my order directly to the RV shop that was going to install it. This was my first order from them, but I will definitely consider future purchases from them if I'm in need of something for my RV.
The representative (Sarah) was very helpful and knowledgeable, the prices are very reasonable and all my items arrived on time. When I called with a question, she was very polite, friendly and genuinely sounded like she enjoyed her job. When I discovered one of the items I ordered wasn’t needed, getting help to return was hassle free. I would recommend etrailer to anyone that needs anything RV or trailer related. I will definitely do business with them again. I am impressed.
We towed our 2004 Subaru Impreza WRX STI 3000 miles last year, this is an ideal setup, discreet when not in use, solid, and easy to get on/off. Very please with the support I received from Roadmaster as one of the bolt was missing, was sent super quickly.
Not an easy install on a Trax but it is very well made and gives a clean look. I did customize by cutting down the 6 pin bracket supports to get it flush with front of the car.
Awesome delivery speed, and a well made base plate for my 2007 Element. Installation was a breeze (thanks to my son’s heated shop) and I had to do no cutting to make this fit. I had a Stowmaster tow bar that came with my RV and etrailer was able to steer me to the correct missing parts to make this a really affordable installation. Now to get out of this snow!
Purchased for a 1997 Subaru Impreza. Delivery was amazingly fast! I didn't have it installed until a few months later, as my travel plans had stalled. It didn't quite bolt right on, but was close, and a friend had to modify it some to make it work. I still hear a grating noise when I turn too sharp on one side, but otherwise it's fine.
The front connection plates didn't line up with the holes, so had to have those modified, as well, in order to line up and attach to the tow bar. Once the new holes were drilled, I was able to hook up and go.
It's relatively easy to connect after finding a way to do it alone.
I've towed from CO to TX and all over TX with it with no problems.
After ordering the wrong crossbar, etrailer sent the correct one for our Mini Cooper quickly. However I did have to modify most of the holes as the cross bar didn’t quite fit (but close). I had to drill the three main bolt holes to 11/16 so that the bar would go over the Mini’s 3 main bumper bolts on both sides. The two lower bolt holes (each side), needed to be drilled out 3 sizes larger to accommodate the 4 bolts that come with the kit. I had to drill out the Minis lower holes to better align with the crossbars lower holes. I would also like to note it being a pain in the knuckles to reach one of the three (each side) bolts to put the stock nuts on the bolt and then try and get them tight. (The main bolt pattern for the upper bumper is diamond shape, one up tow bolts lower. (The lower “inside” bolt on each side is the one that is hard to get to and tighten.) Sorry I didn’t get picks, I was in a rush to get the car back together. There’s an angle piece on the cross bar that blocks the hard to reach bolt, it would be helpful if that could be made more accessible to reach.
I’ve been purchasing products from ETrailer since 2005 and all the products I’ve purchased have been a great value. The products mentioned above installed perfectly and with the direct assistance from ETrailer everything fit as suggested. I will always interact with ETrailer as needs present themselves.
Replaced same part that was damaged in a crash. I had used my original one for close to ten years without issue. Fast shipping from etrailer.
The Base plate kit is well made and came with all the necessary hardware.Installation is relatively straight forward. I did have to enlarge two of the holes that didn't quite line up. But overall I'd recommend it.
Bolted right up. Installation should be done with bumper on, as you can't fit the ends through the louvers without some convincing. Works great so far. Was able to use a Stowmaster 5000 with it.
Installation was a bit trying. Ended up looking very clean and almost invisible.
Using the tow bar worked super easy and our motorhome hardly noticed the Mini Cooper back there.
Came quickly and is very high quality. Great directions/video from road master makes the installation step by step easy to follow.
Skill level is probably at the intermediate level depending on experience.
The #118-3 is a perfect fit on my 1995 Geo Tracker. When you pull off the removable arms you would never know they are there. The Quality is very good easy to put on all you have to do is drill 4 holes the tube on the base plate fits into the tube on the frame of the tracker and with the 2 bolts it is a solid fit. I was worried about the plate nut getting it inside of the frame but it went in easy when you put it over the frame tube and use a thin piece of metal to slide it in place. I’m very happy with it. I probably could of got it on without taking my bumper off but with only 4 bolts holding my bumper on it made it easier
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