I needed to get a tow plate installed on the ’03 Saturn I purchased in Jan. of ’21 if I planned on towing it, and I did. And because my Blue Ox tow bar is still in good condition, I purchased a new tow plate from Blue Ox for this car. My ’01 Saturn had been sold with the tow plate on it, and if I’d removed it, it wouldn’t have been usable with this model anyway. If I’d gone with the Roadmaster brand tow plate, I’d have needed to go with their tow bar too as they are different from the Blue Ox line. Note that since each model of car is different, the plates are semi-custom so I went to the Blue Ox web site and used their selection guide to find the one I needed. I did try a search for a used tow plate without luck. Anyway, the tow plate and accessories all came to $469 including tax of $33.
BX 3323 Blue Ox Base Plate: $368.52
BX8869 Blue Ox Tail light Wiring Kit: $49.02
RM910030-7 Roadmaster 6-Wire Trailer Connector: $17.76 – best quality.
Once I had those items in hand, the search was on for someone to install the tow plate. I was in Pahrump, Nevada and I learned from web searching and the RV’ing forums I’m a member of that a good mechanic can do a tow plate install easily enough with just a couple ramps, a drill, and some tools…that is if they are competent enough to follow Blue Ox’s instructions. I didn’t want to do it myself as where I’m staying is all gravel, I don’t have any ramps, and with bad knees, it wouldn’t be fun…so I set out to find someone in town to do it for me.
After a couple weeks of searching the local FB ‘I need help’ page, calling three RV shops over in Las Vegas (there were all in the $600 range), visiting local body shops and RV shops, I settled on A-1 Auto Body Connection as they had a $400 quote within seconds of looking at the car, the tech was competent, and I could get in quickly. My experience and knowledge of this type work told me that $400 was the value of the work by a shop these days in this area of the country.
I needed to get in quickly because I was planning a trip south in a couple weeks. And they scheduled me for the following Monday…it was Friday when I went in and asked for a quote. I liked the vibe I got from everyone there so when Monday rolled around, after I gave them my keys, wandered around where I was allowed for 30 minutes, and then the tech drove me home so I didn’t have to wander around.
A couple things I did before work…I printed a copy of the instruction manual and went in Friday afternoon and gave it to the tech that was scheduled to work on my car, so he’d have a leg up on the installation. Then, when Monday rolled around, asked him if he’d read it (he had) and reminded him that the experts…Blue Ox…the ones that make the Tow Plate and have all the expertise in the world about it, says it shouldn’t take more than 3 hours to install on a ’03 Saturn L200.
The tech seemed to take that as a challenge and three hours and 45 minutes later, he picked me up as the car was ready to go.
Inspected it a bit, found that he’d forgotten to install the safety cables (took another 15 minutes for that), and paid $400. So I paid around $133/hour which is just slightly higher then the going shop rate around here ($125/hour). But initially, he’d thought that he’d have to remove the radiator but ended up having the boss hold it up for him while he worked. So saved 2 hours with that move.
So after that, I was ready to tow the car down to Yuma, that is if I get the electrical installed. Note that many shops would include doing the wiring with installation of the tow plate for an extra $200 but it’s so easy, I did it myself. But I also considered that since the roads were rather remote, with few cops, that I could make it all the way down there (a 3 hour trip) without being noticed even if I didn’t have brake or turn signals for the car, that is if I didn’t get the electrical done in time for the trip. My RV’s turn and brake lights would be noticeable enough. But as it turned out, I went ahead and installed the electrical before the journey. See this article: Tow Wiring…
And here’s how it looks. Those grill parts that seem to interfere with the insertion of the removable tow pins was supposed to be cut or removed somehow. Removed is what the instructions said. The tech said it didn’t need it so they are still there. BUT, I’ve inserted and removed the bracket pins several times and it can be difficult getting it past some of those interfering plastic pieces so someday, I’ll likely cut away a part of the plastic bumper but so far they go in and out easily enough. I do have to deform a small part of the bumper on either side that interferes. Here’s a link to the Blue Ox Base Plate Kit…where you can see what it looks like before install. The big tow pins are silver where everything else is black.
And here that large visible metal black hole is where the tow pin is inserted, then it’s rotated 90 degrees to lock it into place. You can just make out where the plastic bumper is slightly deformed to make room for those parts of the assembly. The coupling link hole just to the right is where the safety cable is inserted. On the other side of the car’s grill is another set just like this one pictured.
The base plate has a couple threaded rods poking out to attach the 6-pin electrical connector (as shown in the picture directly above) so that’s handy. I spent hours installing that connector in my ’01 Saturn as that base plate didn’t come with these rods (or I just didn’t know what they were for) so this is much easier.
The Blue Ox instructions told the mechanic to cut out portions of the plastic louvers but he didn’t feel that was necessary as shown in the above picture. But after installing and removing the giant tow pins, I decided that I did want to cut some plastic away to make it easier. I was interested in being able to install or remove them during inclement weather or the dark in a hurry, and this did the trick. With those new slots cut into the plastic bumper, I can now easily insert and remove the pins. The locking mechanism was the hangup.
Blue Ox Base Plate after install is sort of hard to see in this next picture of the undercarriage. And I see the tech may have forgotten to reinstall those two bolts or snap pins for the bumper, or they weren’t there originally. I’ll have to check on or do that someday. So far, doesn’t seem to bother anything that they’re not there. Now that I think about it, I seem to have a road noise flutter over 70 MPH, I wonder if it’s because of these missing parts?
So here’s how it looks when the tow pins (they really should be called ‘pegs’ because they’re a bit big to call ‘pins’) are inserted and the Blue Ox Tow Bar is attached.
So this all cost me ~$870 for the new base plate, the wiring and the tail light kit, the 6-pin connector, and the installation of the base plate. IF I’d had to buy the electrical cord to the RV, the safety cables, the tow bar, and had to pay for the electrical 7-Blade connector installation on the RV itself, it would have come to ~$1500. People who are not DIY’ers like myself can and do pay up to $4500 at a dealer for the entire job that includes buying the tow bar and setting up or installing the 7-blade connector on the RV. The average is ~$3000 though. Since I could do some of the work myself, or I was in possession of assemblies purchased years ago, it wasn’t too expensive.
So if you’re looking to do the job yourself, you can save quite a bit. In my case, I did what I could, and let the professionals do the other parts of the job. Still saved a bunch of money.
After this work was all done, I installed the wiring from the 6-pin connector from the front of the car back to the tail lights and then made my trip to Yuma without issue.