etrailer | Setting up the Roadmaster Direct-Connect Base Plate Kit on a 2023 Ford F-150

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Hey guys, it's Jake here with Etrailer. Today we have a 2023 Ford F-150 and we're gonna be taking a look at, and I'm gonna show you how to install the Roadmaster direct-connect base plate. The five main components that you're gonna need to flat tow a vehicle are going to be your base plate, which is going to connect to the vehicle allowing you to pull it down the road. Next will be your tow bar, which will connect your RV to your towed vehicle to safely get it down the road. Next is gonna be your braking system. That's gonna allow the towed vehicle to stop itself while the RV is stopping itself.
Next is gonna be our diode wiring. This is going to allow the RV to send the turn signals and braking signals to the taillights on the, on your truck to allow others to know what your intentions are when you're headed down the road. Lastly is gonna be your safety cables. These are important to have in an unlikely disconnect from your vehicle to your motor home, your safety tables will kick in and they will help to keep the vehicle behind you while you pull over and get to a safe stop. This base plate is gonna do what every other base plate on the market does.
It's gonna allow you to connect a tow bar to your base plate so that your vehicle can be pulled down the road. Now one thing that's gonna set this one apart from a lot of them is that the fit and finish of this base plate on the vehicle is gonna be unlike most of them. Most of them are not gonna have a very clean finish or to get a clean finish, you're going to have to cut out a lot of the tow hooks. This is where our tow hooks traditionally would come out but if we remove these when you're not using, or when you're not towing your car or your truck behind your motor home, this is all that's left on the truck is this insert here. And that's what I really like about it, they do come with integrated safety chain loops.
So you can see that we can connect these right here nice and easy. We did just do an install on another type of truck and the amount of trimming that we had to do around the opening is was less than desirable. So the fact that we didn't have to do any trimming in this safety chain loop is really nice because if you ever wanted to go back and reinstall your tow hooks, you can do that without having a big hole to have to fill. And when it comes to the other components, a lot of tow bars will have a feature if the, if the cross member is down here, they'll have a feature where you can connect your diode wiring to one, maybe a breakaway switch to another or the airline fitting. Well this base plate comes with a bracket that mounts to the backside of your bumper.
You do have to trim a little bit of plastic on the air dam behind here, but we didn't do anything custom here. It does come with a bracket for the breakaway switch, the airline, which we ended up mounting on this side, but and the diode wiring. So what I like about that is that it all comes out here and then when you're not using it, you unplug everything and this is all that's left on your truck. So that's, to me that's really nice. You know, you could figure out a way, I guess to tuck this in or flip it up, whichever. But the bracket that they designed over on this side for the airline fitting did not work out as planned because our, the owner of our vehicle did not wanna move their license plate. The original bracket that you have to mount the breakaway switch to is pretty much right behind the license plate cover here. So that's up to you. If you wanna move your license plate somewhere else, then this kit's gonna be awesome because you're gonna have a place to mount your wiring, your breakaway switch, and your airline. Now with all that being said about the bracketry that comes with this kit, if you are not installing something like the Air Force One that has an airline insert, this kit's gonna be perfect. I really like how it's tucked back into this hole again, if you're installing a portable system or maybe a Stay-in-Play Duo from Demco, this is gonna be an awesome fit because you're only gonna have the wiring to worry about and the breakaway switch. Now, as far as the fitment goes, it was a very clean fit. You do have to remove the grille, this decorative valance here and the bumper. It's not a huge deal. You can usually get all three of 'em removed in about an hour. So if you give yourself, I'd say at least a half a day maybe a whole day just to take your time, you could have this base plate installed. I would recommend installing all your other components while you're doing this, because you will have every