New Demco Baseplate for 2025 Lariat Hybrid installed

[Backdoctor]

I set aside a day, which proved insufficient for the installation of the newly designed baseplate from Demco. I had ordered the new model with a “bridge” over the newly located radar unit. unfortunately the factory mislabeled the old model and shipped to to me. When I opened it I realized it was identical to my old 2023 model and wouldn’t fit the 2025. I called Demco and the immediately shipped the proper model and it arrived the next day! Wow.

Taking the bumper and fascia off was identical to the previous 2023 Lariat I had. There was not a lot of cutting to fit (just a little at the outer margins of the rad support) and it sits balance over the radar unit so getting it in place was a doodle alone. The first issue was getting the bolts to seat in the lower rad support. They were very stubborn and I must have spent an hour taking it on and off and trying to figure out why they would not thread properly. I was terrified of cross threading them. But finally I got them in, then had to take them back out for loctite! Stupid not to put it on first. But I was in”fitting mode”. I also had to remove the upper 3 vanes from the rad housing as they hit the bar. The bottom two were fine.
The remainder of the installation of the base plate was good. Then refitting the bumper fascia! Oh my. Another hour long struggle to get it seated over the baseplate… The sockets for the towbar attachments are just a little high and require bending the plastic mid-bar on the fascia to get the lower clip screws to seat. Lots of foul language , sorry Lord.
Then the next day was wiring. I had attached the 6 pin connector to the mid-bar vane using 3M two sided tape and mounted the breakaway box right beside it. Getting the rest of the wiring done wasn’t complicated, just slow. In the end, I ran the wires to the rear of the truck but didn’t connect them to lights as I’m trying out the Hebdo wireless lights. They were on sale at Canadian Tire for $179! That’s $12 US. Grin.

I use the Brake buddy and a Lithium battery directly connected to the underseat battery in the Mav, so I’m not running a power line from the coach at this time (-as the Hebdo unit plugs directly into the 7 pin connector on the motorhome. It’s worked great in the past to stop the dead battery problem when doing long tow days.

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[FarEastWolf]

Good work. Looks great!

 

[Hot Runr Guy]

Do you think the wider spread from the previous version will be a problem? Obviously not as wide as the 1st-edition Blue Ox,,,,,,

HRG

 

[Backdoctor]

Do you think the wider spread from the previous version will be a problem?

The new model isn’t wider, but the upper margin of the sockets of the baseplate interfere with the “vane” in the fascia. It would grave been better to have another helper, but I was able to make it work.

 

[Hot Runr Guy]

Do you think the wider spread from the previous version will be a problem?

The new model isn’t wider, but the upper margin of the sockets of the baseplate interfere with the “vane” in the fascia. It would grave been better to have another helper, but I was able to make it work.

Thanks. I was looking at Demco's specs on the "spread" of the attachment points, looks like a 7" difference to me.

HRG

 

[mgraziano195]

I set aside a day, which proved insufficient for the installation of the newly designed baseplate from Demco. I had ordered the new model with a “bridge” over the newly located radar unit. unfortunately the factory mislabeled the old model and shipped to to me. When I opened it I realized it was identical to my old 2023 model and wouldn’t fit the 2025. I called Demco and the immediately shipped the proper model and it arrived the next day! Wow.

Taking the bumper and fascia off was identical to the previous 2023 Lariat I had. There was not a lot of cutting to fit (just a little at the outer margins of the rad support) and it sits balance over the radar unit so getting it in place was a doodle alone. The first issue was getting the bolts to seat in the lower rad support. They were very stubborn and I must have spent an hour taking it on and off and trying to figure out why they would not thread properly. I was terrified of cross threading them. But finally I got them in, then had to take them back out for loctite! Stupid not to put it on first. But I was in”fitting mode”. I also had to remove the upper 3 vanes from the rad housing as they hit the bar. The bottom two were fine.
The remainder of the installation of the base plate was good. Then refitting the bumper fascia! Oh my. Another hour long struggle to get it seated over the baseplate… The sockets for the towbar attachments are just a little high and require bending the plastic mid-bar on the fascia to get the lower clip screws to seat. Lots of foul language , sorry Lord.
Then the next day was wiring. I had attached the 6 pin connector to the mid-bar vane using 3M two sided tape and mounted the breakaway box right beside it. Getting the rest of the wiring done wasn’t complicated, just slow. In the end, I ran the wires to the rear of the truck but didn’t connect them to lights as I’m trying out the Hebdo wireless lights. They were on sale at Canadian Tire for $179! That’s $12 US. Grin.

I use the Brake buddy and a Lithium battery directly connected to the underseat battery in the Mav, so I’m not running a power line from the coach at this time (-as the Hebdo unit plugs directly into the 7 pin connector on the motorhome. It’s worked great in the past to stop the dead battery problem when doing long tow days.

Looks great! We are trying to put the new Demco baseplate (9519366) on our 2025 Maverick and the fit is extremely tight over our ACC module such that we cannot reach the screws on the right side when one screw is loosely used on the left side. See pics below. Did you have trouble fitting it over the ACC? If so, what did you do to resolve it? We called Demco and they suggested jacking up the Maverick bar on low side where the 2 screw are located. Did you need to do this?

 

[Backdoctor]

Yes. That’s exactly what I had to do…the second time. The first installation the bolt alignment was close, but I was able to get the bolts into the threads of the bottom bar. But then it took a real thrashing on the back roads of Maine, and the tow bar loosened from the mountings. I had to remove the fascia and the bar. Then reattach it. But the loose bar must have bent to bottom bar somewhat and the bolts wouldn’t fit into the threads. I finally jacked up the bar so I could visually see the thread through the hole in the bar and then inserted the bolts, and left them loose till I got the other side jacked up and inserted. Then tighten them all up.
Good luck.

 

[mgraziano195]

How many washers did you use on the baseplate and on the support arms? We are having trouble getting the fascia back on. We discovered that the clips on the plastics inserts for fog lights was interfering with the fit so we trimmed those and that helped but we still can't get the screw on the bottom of fascia to line up with the holes under the truck. Its still off almost an ich and we cant find what is preventing the fascia (on the bottom to go far enough back. Any ideas?

 

[Backdoctor]

I didn’t use any washers. My wife helped to pull the fascia down and I fit the screws into the cowling on an angle and pulled it into place. It was a BEAR! As I said earlier, bad words were spoken!

 

[mgraziano195]

We are getting closer but still have about 1/4 inch before the holes on the bottom of fascia line up with the holes on the bottom of the frame. It looks like the plastic inset behind the fog lights on the interior of fascia (see image below marked in red) is hitting the corner of the base plate. The front of the Maverick is up on ramps to make it easier to work on. I'm wondering if that is contributing to alignment/fit issues because i have to believe most people would run into the same issue and it does not appear to be the case. Do you see anything that looks different from your vehicle? Any suggestions?

 

[Backdoctor]

I don’t see anything different … I would say I was 1/4” or more away from getting the screws in. I just angled them and had my wife heave down and I got one of the 4 lodged. Then got it’s cousin in and it made the others a little easier.

 

[mgraziano195]

Thank you so much for all your help. We will be trying once more today to get the fascia back on. I will let you know how we make out. On to another question... Is your Maverick a Lariat by any chance? Our tail lights are not behaving as expected when in neutral tow and connected to the RV. Only the top bulb is flashing instead of top and bottom. After some research, we discovered that the Lariat tail lamp has 3 incandescent bulbs and one LED for running lights. Did you use regular or smart diodes for your wiring kit and do you have the Lariat or some other trim level? It sounds like only the Lariat and Tremor use this specific tail lamp (PZ6Z13405C)

 

[RDuckF16]

I just installed the base plate. Same experience as BackDoctor. Mine is the XLT and I followed directions to a T! After getting it all back together, I started my truck and could hear the vanes activating and observed them (1 & 5) attempt to move but the movement is blocked by the cross bar and after 3 cycles it stopped, I heard a whistling sound and I shut off the truck. When I started it again, I had a check engine light. I reached out to Demco and discussed with them. Am waiting to hear back from the design engineer. They suspect Ford updated the design and now this bar causes interference with the drive assembly for the vanes. The XLT doesn’t have the radar box for the adaptive cruise control. As far as reconnecting the bumper I determined it was the same issue inside the bumper near the fog lights. I used a dremmel and shaved the stubs down slightly and then pulled the bottom in with a lot of pressure to get the holes aligned. It was not an easy task and I’m really not looking forward to taking it apart again to resolve the issue. I did it myself because I didn’t trust any installer to do this correctly with such a new product and now I can only imagine what they would have done to deal with all these issues.

 

[Backdoctor]

I put them on in November. So impossible to tell since my mpg dropped with the weather anyway. Maybe 1 or 2 mpg but it's worth it for the performance imo

Thank you so much for all your help. We will be trying once more today to get the fascia back on. I will let you know how we make out. On to another question... Is your Maverick a Lariat by any chance? Our tail lights are not behaving as expected when in neutral tow and connected to the RV. Only the top bulb is flashing instead of top and bottom. After some research, we discovered that the Lariat tail lamp has 3 incandescent bulbs and one LED for running lights. Did you use regular or smart diodes for your wiring kit and do you have the Lariat or some other trim level? It sounds like only the Lariat and Tremor use this specific tail lamp (PZ6Z13405C)

Did you use regular or smart diodes for your wiring kit and do you have the Lariat or some other trim level? It sounds like only the Lariat and Tremor use this specific tail lamp (PZ6Z13405C)

I didn’t hard wire the lights yet. I ran the wires but wound up using wireless lights from Canadian Tire. They work great and I’m not worried about feedback or issues with cross wiring circuits. With the Lariat (or any of the Mav models) you have to interrupt the brake signal to the tailights or you won’t get the turns signal flashing properly. I may install a bulb in the tail lamp structure. In my previous 2023 Lariat, I installed a turn signal/brake light strip along the tailgate, but it wasn’t very bright.

 

[mgraziano195]

I just installed the base plate. Same experience as BackDoctor. Mine is the XLT and I followed directions to a T! After getting it all back together, I started my truck and could hear the vanes activating and observed them (1 & 5) attempt to move but the movement is blocked by the cross bar and after 3 cycles it stopped, I heard a whistling sound and I shut off the truck. When I started it again, I had a check engine light. I reached out to Demco and discussed with them. Am waiting to hear back from the design engineer. They suspect Ford updated the design and now this bar causes interference with the drive assembly for the vanes. The XLT doesn’t have the radar box for the adaptive cruise control. As far as reconnecting the bumper I determined it was the same issue inside the bumper near the fog lights. I used a dremmel and shaved the stubs down slightly and then pulled the bottom in with a lot of pressure to get the holes aligned. It was not an easy task and I’m really not looking forward to taking it apart again to resolve the issue. I did it myself because I didn’t trust any installer to do this correctly with such a new product and now I can only imagine what they would have done to deal with all these issues.

By any chance do you have the 4k tow package? It came with a large radiator. Wondering if that could be part of the issue or some change Ford made. We removed shutters 1, 2 and 3 instead of what they recommended because we thought the tow bar would interfere with them. We have only run the vehicle for a couple mins to move it in the driveway since the tow bar has been installed and did not notice if the shutters even moved yet. We talked to the Demco product mgr today and he is going to talk to the design engineer and get back to us on Monday. Also, how many washers did you use? The washers are supposed to give the shutters more room to operate. We used all washers at first but then removed the ones on the tow bar and one set from the front of the tow bar support bracket.

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