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Designed for use with motor-home-mounted tow bars, the direct-connect brackets are virtually invisible, easy to mount and remove, and they eliminate the need for a quick-disconnect crossbar on your tow bar. Installs on your Toyota Tacoma's frame.
Features:
Note: Roadmaster direct-connect base plates will only work with Roadmaster tow bars that slide into a trailer hitch, such as the Sterling, Blackhawk, Blackhawk 2, Falcon, or Falcon 2. These base plates will not work with tow bars that require a hitch ball.
The drawbars, or front arms, on this base plate kit are supremely easy to mount and remove. Just insert them into the brackets and twist to lock them in place. To remove each arm, simply tug the built-in pull pin to disengage the lock, twist the arm back and pull it out of the bracket. Once the drawbars have been removed, the remaining brackets are virtually invisible. On most automobiles, the brackets are mounted within the grille, where they remain not only unseen, but protected from scrapes and scuffs as well.
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Speaker 1: Today on our 2018 Toyota Tacoma, we're going be installing Roadmaster's EZ5 Base Plate kit, part number RM-521196-5.This base plate is gonna allow you to tow your vehicle behind your RV, motor home, or whatever else you want to pull it with. It's going to be tucked up nicely behind the bumper, so you're almost not even going to notice it's there. Even when the arms are installed that connect to your tow bars, they're only going be slightly in front of your bumper there, so they don't stick out too far, so you don't have to worry as much about walking around it while they're in and banging up your leg on it.When you're ready to hook up your tow bars, simply slide in the arms on each end, then twist it to lock it in place. You'll do that with the other arm as well, and now you can make your connection. On the front of your base plate, you're going have locations to mount your safety chains, your breakaway switch, and your 6 volt connector for your wiring. It has all the necessary brackets and everything to make it easy to install all the other components you'll need for a flat tow set up.
It comes with the black powder coat finish to help prevent rust and corrosion and it's easy to install. We'll show you how to do that now.We'll begin our installation underneath the vehicle by removing all the 10 millimeter head bolts located across the front. There's a total of 7 bolts that run across the front here. We're using a 10 millimeter socket to remove these bolts. We're now on the other side of our paneling, just in front of the tire.
On the back side of the paneling you'll find 2 bolts on each side, in front of the tire. After you remove those bolts, you can drop your paneling down and set it aside. On each side you'll find a bolt located at the bottom, on the cross beam that runs underneath the bumper. We're going to remove this bolt with a 17 millimeter socket. We can then slide out our end cap.
Then we'll remove the other side as well.We'll now need to remove 2 of the bumper beam bolts. You'll want to pull down the fender liner, this will expose access to the nuts that attach the bumper beam, located up there. We'll remove those with a 14 millimeter socket. They'll be 2 bolts stacked on top of each other. This is towards the outside of the vehicle.
There's one bolt located on the inside of the bumper beam. We're not going to be removing that bolt. After you remove both nuts, you can repeat this on the other side.We'll now take the side bracket, we're going to slide it up into place, lining up the studs where we just removed those nuts with the holes in the bracket. You'll use the same nuts that you just removed from those studs, and you'll thread those back on. We'll now take one of the 1 1/2 bolts, slide on a large, flat washer. We're going to slide it through the bottom of our bracket, up into the frame, then from the backside we're going to take another flat washer and a lock washer, we're going to slide that over the bolt and follow it up with a nut. You'll leave everything finger tight and you'll repeat this on the other side.Now we're going to remove the plastic plug that's located here, just on the inside of our frame. You'll get your flat screwdriver, and you're going to pop it below the piece, and just pop it out. You'll do the same thing on the other side.To make things a little bit easier to work, we're going to take off the 10 millimeter head bolt here, and here on each side. This will give us a little bit more access for the hardware we're going to be installing. If you reach up on top of the orange cap, you'll find some tabs. If you press in on those tabs and squeeze them together that will release the fender liner from the bracket. Then just push your panel back, this will give us a lot more room.Now we can get to the cap on the other side of the frame. We're going to need to remove this one as well with our flat bladed screwdriver. You want get your screwdriver behind the cover and pop it out. We'll take our bolt, put a lock washer on it. We'll place our spacer between the two brackets and slide our bolt through it. Then on the other side of the frame, where the rectangle hole is, we're going to slide our handle nut through with the flag located at the bottom, so it will be sitting like this when it's in there. Then you'll thread the bolt that we just inserted on the other side into that nut. You'll repeat this same process on the other side.We can now put our lower splash shield back into place, so we can line it up with the edge of our brackets here. We're going to need to cut out a section to allow our base plate cross bar to go in, so you'll want to use the edge of your bracket as a template, so I'm just going to line up my ruler on there as a straight edge and mark it down, following a straight line towards the bottom. We're then going to need to give ourselves a little room to install the bracket, so we're going to come over a little bit, and we're going to draw another straight line all the way down. We'll be trimming it all the way to the bottom edge here, where the corner begins. We'll mark that out on both sides. We'll now use our cutting wheel to cut along the markings that we made. You can then take the file to clean up the edges.We're now going to take our cross bar bracket, we're going to slide it in the holes we just made, line it up with the holes in the side of your bracket and slide a bolt through that, and through the side bracket. Do the same on the upper holes. Once you get your bolts slid through on each side of the bracket, it will hold itself into place, making it easier to install your hardware. On each bolt we're going to slide on a lock washer, followed by a nut. We're just going to get those started, as we're going to need to put Red Lock Tite on all of our hardware.Now we're going to go back and we're going to put some Lock Tite on all of the hardware we just installed. If it's necessary, you may need to loosen the bolts and remove them to get the Lock Tite on, and then re-insert them. Now we'll go back through and tighten down all of our hardware. The large bolts that go through the side of frame, you'll tighten down with a 15/16 socket. The bolts on the bottom and side, you'll tighten with a 3/4 inch wrench and socket. Then go back and torque all of your hardware to the specifications in your instructions.Now we've got our fender liners re-installed, and we're all set. In order to complete our flat tow set up with our 2018 Toyota Tacoma, we use Roadmaster's EZ 5 Base Plate, part number RM-521196-5. Roadmaster's Falcon All Terrain Non-binding Tow Bars, part number RM-522, Roadmaster's Universal Diode Wiring Kit, part number RM-152-98146-7, SMI's Stay N Play Duo Supplemental Braking System, part number SM99251, and Roadmaster's Battery Charge Line Kit, for the motor home, that's part number RM156-75, and for the vehicle it was part number RM-156-25. Lastly, we used Roadmaster's Safety Cables, part number RM-645.That completes our installation of Roadmaster's EZ 5 Base Plate Kit on our 2018 Toyota Tacoma.
Average Customer Rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars (1670 Customer Reviews)
Designed for use with motor-home-mounted tow bars, the direct-connect brackets are virtually invisible, easy to mount and remove, and they eliminate the need for a quick-disconnect crossbar on your tow bar. Installs on your vehicle's frame.This took a fair amount of time to install. One of the flange nuts was not welded straight so it tooks sim time to figure out why the bolt was wanting to cross thread. I did it not get photos but I had to grind the flange a bit to get it to align.
Your video is a good supplement to Roadmaster's printed instructions but more coverage needs to be paid to dealing with the inner fender liner. You did highlight how to unclip one of the nearly hidden fasteners (thank you!) but that liner needs considerable trimming and knowing that early on would be very helpful.
This is the forth Roadmaster bracket I have put on in the last 20 years. The custom fit makes it easy to install. I would not call myself a mechanic and was able to install these brackets in about two hours. I was not in a hurry. Camping World charges $500 just to put these brackets on !! Great instructions. Roadmaster makes a great product. Ordering from etrailer was easy and the brackets arrived within a week.
Amazing!!!!! Was super easy to install, everything fit just right - kinda like a plug an play !!
Review from a similar EZ5 Base Plate in Base Plates
The base plate arrived on time, with excellent instructions. I went slowly because my truck is only days old and still had it done in an evening.
Kerry - 05/04/2023Review from a similar EZ5 Base Plate in Base Plates
Super solid and love the quick connect pin designs. Has the integrated tow chain attachment point.
Review from a similar EZ5 Base Plate in Base Plates
This particular base plate requires drilling 2 holes in the bumper and expanding 2 holes already there. Expanding the holes was not that much of a problem but the 2 new holes was a major pain. Had to go through 6 different drill bits. I would get the other base plate that only requires expanding 2 holes. But once I got those holes drilled out it went better. Plus one of the shims was a little long and had to grind it down to fit.
Review from a similar EZ5 Base Plate in Base Plates
Perfect fitment and easy installation. Worked out great with our aftermarket bumper. Had to make small modifications but couldn’t be happier. Did a 4500 mile trip right after and paired up great with the falcon 2! I couldn’t believe how fast the shipping was! Thank you etrailer!
Review from a similar EZ5 Base Plate in Base Plates
etrailer.com site was easy to use and place my order, plus it arrived on time.
The base plate fits perfectly on my 2021 Nissan Versa. I had the Road Master Falcon 2 set up on my motor home towing a 1999 Toyota Solara and it was time to get a new Toad. After a lot of searching we settled on the Versa and I will say that the base plate fits perfectly and looks great with and W/O the "ready to tow" set-up installed. I would recommend Road Master to anyone looking for a cost effective 4 wheel down set-up.
Dave - 08/19/2022Review from a similar EZ5 Base Plate in Base Plates
Installers beware! I had a very difficult time with this base plate kit because of a mid-2022 redesign by Roadmaster that makes it very challenging to install.
Roadmaster added a tang on top of each base plate to supply additional bracing of the unit against the bumper core. It requires installing two additional bolts and spacers on the upper mount in an area where there isn't easy access due to bracing. This has not been reflected in the picture of the part on etrailer nor is it included in any of the installation videos. The Roadmaster instruction text says to remove the existing bolts from the bumper horn and then reinstall them but with the needed spacers and the set-back of the upper mounts on the redesigned base plate the bolts aren't long enough. I guess to compensate RM supplied two new bolts as seen in the drawing. The problem is, the supplied bolts aren't the correct thread pitch. The RM supplied bolts are metric 1.5 but the welded nut on the Cherokee is 1.25 thread pitch thus requiring a trip to the hardware store to get the proper bolts. Then, when trying to install them you don't have clear access due to bracing. You're trying to hold a spacer in place, using an extension with a universal joint and the socket to get the bolt started. To make matters worse, the upper mount bolt holes on one of the base plates didn't align with the jeep because the tang wasn't at the right height. I had to use a crow bar and a lot of effort to slightly bend up the heavy steel tang to get it to mate up. To top it all off one of the arms was locked in the receiver and wouldn't budge. I had to resort to using a breaker bar inserted in the arm end and a mallet to slowly get the arm to even rotate in the receiver. After much effort I eventually got it to rotate as it should in the receiver and then managed to extract it. When I got it out it was badly scored from the rough welding detritus way down in the receiving tube (see photo attached). I used a file to clear the tube and now it works properly but you have to ask where was the quality control when this arm was inserted in the receiver tube? It had to be obvious that it wasn't going in properly.
All in all I was extremely disappointed with the amount of effort and time I had to put into what should have been a straightforward installation. The redesign makes the job take at least twice as long as it should have.
Review from a similar EZ5 Base Plate in Base Plates
I bought and self installed this on my 2021 GMC Sierra Duramax 1 year ago. Install took about 5 hours and wasn't difficult...I could problty install it in 2-3 hours after leaening the tricks. Weve towed the truck all over the USA since then (over 10,0000 miles) and it works great! I've used other brands and highly recommend Roadmaster tow systems over the competition.
Review from a similar EZ5 Base Plate in Base Plates
Just received my base plate and installed. Really satisfied about the look on my 2020 Ford F150.
Review from a similar EZ5 Base Plate in Base Plates
This kit worked out great for my 2022 Chevy Equinox. I like how it has separate side plates, which make it easier to attach the main bar. The points where it attaches to the frame seem plenty secure. It is important to watch the videos provided by etrailer as Ryan is very thorough and has good tips for installing. I would also recommend installing additional wiring while having the front end off. Overall, I was able to complete in my driveway. The hardest part was sorting out the wiring for whatever braking and tail lights you decide on. William S helped me pick all the necessary components needed for flat towing behind my Jayco RV. I am looking forward to a summer of camping and having more freedom to explore the area, now having a car.
Review from a similar EZ5 Base Plate in Base Plates
It was great that there was a video for my specific application, and I watched it several times. The kit also came with detailed step by step instructions that followed the video and those were helpful during the installation. The instructions and video covered each step, so the installation was straightforward by simply following them. Removing and then reattaching the nose piece would be easier with 2 people. I had to do this alone so for me the reattaching of the nose piece was the most difficult part. The photos I included are the finished product and I think it looks very clean and blends right in with the front grill, without the arms of course. I travelled over 2000 miles and it worked great.
Review from a similar EZ5 Base Plate in Base Plates
I uses this base plate set up with the Roadmaster nighhawk tow bar. It was easy to install and easy to connect to the tow bar. No issues or complaints after the first year of use.
Frank - 04/09/2023Review from a similar EZ5 Base Plate in Base Plates
Received the Base plate kit on the day that etrailer said that it would arrive. Opened up the box and everything was packaged perfectly no scratches.installed the base plate as per the instructions on my 2017 Ram Bighorn. I had it installed in about 1.5 hours by myself. Have not hooked up to the Motorhome yet with the Falcon 2 Hitch no doubt it will work well for us thanks etrailer for a Great product
Review from a similar EZ5 Base Plate in Base Plates
This thing made me nervous.. I was reluctant to remove the facia off a brand new car. The instructions were usable and made removal a breeze, I was actually surprised hiw easy it was. Of note: when you remove the upper screw in the wheel well and the screw inside that holds the fascia to the fender, the plastic piece withbthe screw holes will fall out, I initially thought I broke something but thats not the case.
Installation of the tow bar was really easy even by your self. The exploded view of the instructions were more helpful than the written instructions. Took about 2 hours total. Installing the facia was really easy. I did find it was easier to cut the facia with a jig saw once it was installed. You can hang Tha facia on the 2 screws and let it hang. Cut the holes and push it in the last 2 inches.
James - 03/03/2023Review from a similar EZ5 Base Plate in Base Plates
Product is good. But the packaging was awful. Looks like the brackets and hardware were removed from the manuf box and thrown into an etrailer box! Scratches and chips on the brackets and the hardware bag was broke open and loose hardware. Fortunately all hardware is accounted for despite hope in box from brackets pushing though box. Not the kind of shipping I’ve come to expect from etrailer.
Jenny N - 03/31/2023Review from a similar EZ5 Base Plate in Base Plates
A little harder to install it without a lift, but the video was great and every step was covered. Tip if you are doing it by yourself: Use the box for the kit to rest the bumper on so you can pull the connector.
Scott - 03/20/2023Review from a similar EZ5 Base Plate in Base Plates
They look great. Very easy to install great directions and the DIY video made it simple to install. With a twist the tow arms can be added or removed for storage when not in use.
Very satisfied
Review from a similar EZ5 Base Plate in Base Plates
The item was to be delivered the 24th. The first set of tow bars didn't arrive with my original order. Your people told me that set would fit my Jeep Cherokee. I called, and they sent out another set. After my guy dismantled my Jeep, we discovered it would not fit. It seems your employee sent one for a Cherokee, not a Grand Cherokee. I called again, got a return for that set, and I ordered one to fit. This one was supposed to arrive the 24th, delaying my trip. I called the morning of the 24th. On the 20th, it was in stock and I was told would be there the 24th. The email I got said it would arrive May 1st. I called, and your representative said he'd contact shipping, and I asked for a return call, TO NO AVAIL. Rather than lose several thousand dollars in reservations, I left on my trip the 25th (with my Jeep dismantled at home), and my 80 year old mother was following me in my RV. Two days, and it has not gone well with not keeping up and getting lost because she can't do Google maps. I'm now looking for a flatbed uHaul trailer to tow her car. AND...I guess I'd better call someone to get the NOW DELIVERED PACKAGE off my doorstep before someone steals it. Had I gotten a call back, I could have canceled the order or sent it to a friend's address. No, I am not pleased with your service. AND... receiving the return invoice, you were charging me the $xx shipping. I had to call about that, as well.
Review from a similar EZ5 Base Plate in Base Plates
Just got done installing them by myself. They are super easy to install. The only thing hard about it was taking off and putting back on the stuff on my car. ?? haven't towed with it yet!
Review from a similar EZ5 Base Plate in Base Plates
My first order didn’t arrive with the other items ordered. I specifically asked the supplier which tow package fit my 2020 Grand Cherokee. My car was dismantled for installation, and the guy said it wouldn’t fit. I called and found out they sent the 2020 Cherokee kit. I ordered, what I hope, is the correct one to install, delaying my trip. I got online to print the return label to find out they would subtract the $xx shipping fee. I called and was told they’d make a note to not charge me for the return shipping. I was also told I’d receive an email for the one arriving with tracking. I cannot locate it. Hoping it arrives tomorrow, as expected.
Review from a similar EZ5 Base Plate in Base Plates
Everything was pretty good, except the instruction paperwork stopped after disassemble. Even though assembly was fairly straight forward it would be nice to have something to check installations steps.
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