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Originally Posted by Davii
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I have a very similar setup, and I finished doing it myself about a week ago. I was a jet mechanic in the Air Force, so I'm not afraid to grab tools and schematics and do simple stuff, even though I haven't touched an airplane in 30 years..
I needed my 33 year old son to give me a hand with the 200 ft-lb of torque on the faceplate bolts, younger guys won't have that problem.
I can't speak to the Jeep RV wiring harness you are talking about - but that is a really easy job with any universal kit. I setup a 2017 Ram 1500 Longhorn to tow behind my Palazzo 35.1, and it is probably quite a bit more difficult than the Jeep Sport, so I'll relay my experience, the Jeep would be easier - simply because there are far fewer systems to work around and it is much smaller:
1.) In my case, the Blue Ox faceplate for the Ram was infinitely easier to install than the Roadmaster one. *This choice will be vehicle-specific! I am guessing the Blue Ox one has a patent on re-using the same frame extensions and holes through it that the Ram recovery hooks were in, so all I did was remove the recovery hooks and install the Blue Ox faceplate (2 pieces, not a single "bar"). The ports are just behind the opening in the Ram bumper where the recovery hooks were, and the Blue Ox interfaces are twist-lock removable, so when we are not towing, it looks very "stock." To avoid patent infringements, the other brands have funky (stupid) implementations. This may vary by the vehicle.
I had started by looking at the Roadmaster, but it required removing the grill, bumper, and proximity sensors (that are in my bumper), and then a lot of verbiage about cutting holes in the bumper to "fit" properly - and just looked like too much work and damage to my high-trim Ram. The Blue Ox was a 30-minute job and re-used everything that was there. The only thing I had to do was use a progressive-step drill bit to ream the frame holes out a tiny bit to get the larger bolts to slip through them. Maybe 60 minutes if someone has to jack the pickup, but the Longhorn I have is equipped with 4-wheel air leveling, so I just lifted the chassis about 3 inches and slid underneath.
Tow bars & such are all about the same—I wouldn't favor one over the other. Look at the installation instructions for each faceplate choice (eTrailer has the manuals online) since that could easily be the bulk of the work—pick the easiest one here.
If you are not doing it yourself, every hour will cost about $150 / hr in the shop, so if it's 30-minute job instead of 4 hours of work removing, reinstalling, and reconnecting sensors, you just saved $450 on the install cost. Some will be easier than others for each vehicle; I'm sure it is a patent thing.
2.) Since I used the Blue Ox, I went with the eTrailer XHD Non-Binding Tow Bar with a 10,5000 lb rating. The Ram weighs about 6k, the tow bar is 10.5k, and the Palazzo hitch is 10k. I have a lot of spare room in the DP's GVWR and GCWR (only clarifying before the Ford chassis people attack me). Yes, the "dealer specs" say a Palazzo has 5k of towing capacity WHEN THE GVWR IS FULLY LOADED. It's only my wife and I on 1-2 week trips, we are always about 8,000 lbs under GVWR. We are nowhere near limits on any of the ratings.
The eTrailer tow bars are made by Demco, and I would highly recommend considering one (from eTrailer) because with their dozens of installation videos online for each component, they even had step-by-step videos for the Gen 4 and Gen 5 Rams and most certainly would have your specific Jeep as well. It also has integrated safety chains routed through it, so I don't have to screw with that or have them dangling separately. Some mounted rods on the side catch the AFO and trailer wiring coils.
*One important thing - most people will use a locking hitch pin to prevent anyone from stealing that $1000 tow bar. MOST OF THESE ARE VERY LIGHTLY-RATED! I found a nice 10,000 lb one on Amazon from Master Lock for about $40.
Here is the one I used. but you can go smaller, I'm sure, with the Wrangler:
https://www.etrailer.com/Tow-Bar/etrailer/e94ZR.html
3.) I already had the AFO on the motorhome side, so I only needed the 2nd vehicle kit for the Ram. The motorhome side of Air Force One looked more difficult to do, and I could barely see the thing (lacking a 40,000 lb vehicle lift in my driveway) - and I would never have been able to shimmy under there and do it myself - so I'm sure this is something most people will need to have a service center do for them.
However, since I had the motorhome side, the DEMCO second vehicle kit was about a 2 or 3 on a scale of 1-5 (for decent DIY'er skillsets - if you can't identify a vacuum line under your hood, DO NOT do this at home). There isn't any configuration or adjustment with Air Force One, you just mount it, make sure the cable attachment has about a ½" gap in it, pump the motorhome brakes 3 times and you are good to go forever with it.
eTrailer sells a 2nd vehicle kit from DEMCO, but I didn't find it anywhere else (when I was price-shopping it). If you already have the air nozzle on the back of your Palazzo, this may be all you need; it's about $500 less than the full kit.
https://www.etrailer.com/Accessories...o/SM99209.html
Again, eTrailer has lots of install videos online, and their phone support is second to none.
4.) Wiring. This was quite a bit more difficult than the other parts for me because I had the HEMI V8 in the engine bay 16 spark plugs and cables on the HEMI, and airlift suspension at all four corners with 4-wheel drive and independent suspension, so "finding" a routing path that avoided any moving parts under the Ram to mount cable anchors to was easier imagined than done. This took me about 3 hours in my case after some trial and error, running short of wire length on the crew cab with the Rambox, etc. Ultimately, it ended up with some splicing in my case, but this would be a piece of cake on the Wrangler.
In short:
Route the 6-wire ribbon cable from the front bumper of the Wrangler to the back bumper. Two of them go to the left turn/brake light, two to the left tail light, two to the right turn & brake light, and two to the right tail (the ground is reused on all of them).
I was also determined to mount the ports in the existing recovery hook inlets, because the Longhorn & Limited are very smooth on the front without any other actual openings - but I ultimately gave up after an hour or so of experimentation and put them underneath the license plate. Wasn't my first choice, but nothing else was going to work. Some of the other Ram trim levels have bigger gaps & openings that could be used. I made a trip to the hardware store, bought a couple of flat construction angle brackets for about $2.00 each, and installed them behind the bottom air dam to firm up the attachment points for those ports.. they are not going anywhere, and I'm unlikely to take the Longhorn offroading anyway, so it's fine in my case, just not the seamless look that I was going for. The only spot to mount the AFO under the hood of a Ram with the HEMI is on top of the fuse box. Not ideal, but that was in the eTrailer video. I spent a half hour looking for a better option, but their suggestion was definitely the best. It's just on there with zipties so if I ever (unlikely) had to do a lot of work in the fuse box behind just cracking it open to swap one out, I can just cut the 4 zip ties and set it aside completely.
The plug on the front has seven pins, the tail/brake/turn takes 6 of them, and the 7th is a 7 amp power supply from the Palazzo, so I added my own power line going up to an echo charger to keep the battery fresh. Not really needed on the Ram since it doesn't need the ignition turned on, but it was there and easy and $20 for the echo charger.
Here is the kit I used, Roadmaster makes a good one. I'm sure there are probably "fitted" ones for your Jeep (which is more common than a half-ton pickup as a toad), but this was about a 1 on the 1-5 scale to do; if not for the routing challenges I had underneath:
https://www.etrailer.com/Tow-Bar-Wir.../RM-15267.html
Hookup & disconnect for the Ram is about 2 minutes, maybe less if I'm in a hurry. I store the air & trailer cables in the Rambox "toolbox" on the driver side, and the safety chains are integrated in the tow bar. 2 hooks, 2 hitch pins, air line, and trailer cable. Configuring the Ram for towing is also pretty easy - I use a checklist so I don't miss anything, but it is basically just the transfer case in neutral, row it from Reverse to Drive, then back to park, turn it off, and no steering lock on it so it just cruises along just fine back there.
I WILL BE MAKING ONE CHANGE! You may also need to consider - I can't really see the brake light LED in the Palazzo rear view camera - the DEMCO AFO lights a (rather bright) LED on the back of the rear view mirror when the brakes are activated, but between the polarization on the windshield and the shading in the windscreen, it's not really visible through the camera in daylight. I would have to stare at it to notice it. DEMCO makes a wireless indicator for the dashboard in the motorhome, I'll probably add that soon. It's not as urgent for AFO as for example one of the robotic things, because the AFO is such a simple setup, but it is definitely on the list to do soon.
https://www.etrailer.com/Accessories...o/SM99945.html
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