PSA: Check your toad baseplates

[Neemer]

My Sprinter-based Winnie toad has one of those two-piece Blue Ox baseplates. This baseplate was installed by my selling dealership, a highly rated and respected one.

Yesterday I discovered that the plate on the driver’s side had a bit of play in it. Not good.

After removing the grill and bumper cover, I was taken aback at what I found. That plate is attached to the frame with a total of eight bolts. Two of the bolts were completely missing, and the other six were in various stages of backing themselves out. Not even a hint of red thread locker on anything. I shudder to think what could have happened if I hadn’t found this.

I took everything apart and put it back together the right way. While the one on the passenger side seemed solid, I disassembled it and gave it the same threadlocker treatment.

While I’m thankful I was able to catch this, I’m super disappointed in the original install job. It wasn’t cheap but was sure cheaply done.

On the positive side, I now know how to remove the front fascia and I didn’t have any parts left over when I put it back together.

Going forward, I’m going to do all of my own baseplate installations. This is crazy.

 

[team bradfield]

Wow, good catch, I give mine a once over before every trip

 

[J&JD]

PSA: Check your toad baseplates​

And here I was thinking you were talking about your prostate.

 

[Neal]

Did McGeorge install yours? They did mine in 2017 and this happened to me:

Alert Thread 'PSA: Check your baseplates (and tow bars)'

Nov 12, 2023

Disaster averted!!! I left Newmar service and at my next stop after disconnecting the TOAD I noticed something caught my eye, movement that shouldn't be! Holy $h*! batman! Okay, probably just a loose baseplate, I have not had it checked since install in Feb 2017, nothing led me to believe anything was wrong.

As I'm not far from Elkhart where I know Dan's service center is located (or Dan's hitch as we all call it) I immediately called them to see if I could come in for a baseplate inspection, tightening, etc. He said sure, come on up between 8 and 10 AM in the morning, this was Wednesday...

• Neal
• Replies: 2
• Forum: Towed Vehicles (TOADS)

• 

 

[MemoriesByTheMile]

We just installed a base plate and found it interesting that the installation manual states that the base plate should be inspected every year for tightness.
We used red thread locker during our install, don’t want to have to remove the bumper cover every year.

 

[team bradfield]

PSA: Check your toad baseplates​

And here I was thinking you were talking about your prostate.

I give that a once over every year also

 

[Scooterfan]

The thought of bending down to inspect the baseplate on our FIAT 500 TOAD led me dismiss this option. I'll try and rally my 40 year old son to see if he can locate a loose bolt...otherwise I'll just double check my safety cables.
(Just kidding of course) Blessings