Mini Cooper Coupe Tow Bar Recommendations

brican · 09-17-2018, 07:50 PM

We have a 2013 Mini Cooper coupe that we have been towing on an ACME EZE-Tow Dolly. This has been a disaster for the front of the Mini. This dolly has a curb that sticks up too high for the Mini. I even discussed this issue with ACME and they recommended a 14" drop hitch so it would not be an issue but that didn't work. This enabled the dolly to completely remove the air dam trim and caused the hitch to drag on almost every driveway or ramp that we entered.

Anyway - the dolly must go and I'm asking the forum for recommendations for tow bars.

Does anyone have a recommended tow bar for a Mini Cooper?

Thanks for your help.

Cheers,
brican

**ThomB** · 09-17-2018, 09:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brican

We have a 2013 Mini Cooper coupe that we have been towing on an ACME EZE-Tow Dolly. This has been a disaster for the front of the Mini. This dolly has a curb that sticks up too high for the Mini. I even discussed this issue with ACME and they recommended a 14" drop hitch so it would not be an issue but that didn't work. This enabled the dolly to completely remove the air dam trim and caused the hitch to drag on almost every driveway or ramp that we entered.

Anyway - the dolly must go and I'm asking the forum for recommendations for tow bars.

Does anyone have a recommended tow bar for a Mini Cooper?

Thanks for your help.

Cheers,
brican

I've got a 2013 Roadster S. We're using a Blue Ox tow bar. BX-1307 is the baseplate you need. Assume you're dealing with a 5 or 6-speed trans? Not sure you can flat-tow the automatics.

If you go this route PM me and I will give you some advice that you may want to pass on to the installer of the bar. I installed the first one and the second will be installed in a few days (hopefully) after a mishap with the bumper support.

**creativepart** · 09-18-2018, 08:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThomB

Assume you're dealing with a 5 or 6-speed trans? Not sure you can flat-tow the automatics.

No, you can’t flat tow an automatic Mini. If it’s not a manual transmission you’re stuck with the dolly.

Also, even though many do tow a manual mini 4-down without any problem, Mini prohibits it being towed this way. That’s only a problem when under warranty, but I still wanted to mention it.

We looked at buying a new manual Mini to use as our toad and the dealer wanted us to sign a waiver stating that the transmission would not be covered by warranty if we towed it 4-down.

brican · 09-21-2018, 09:29 PM

Thanks for the reply. Our Mini Cooper S Coupe has a 6 speed transmission so towing 4 down should not be an issue.

My concern has to do with installing the baseplate. There are two what appear to be air 'scoops' or inlets (I have not verified if they are functional.). See attached picture with the scoops circled in yellow.

ThomB - Did you remove these items to install the baseplate? Or does the baseplate get mounted in the upper grille?

**ThomB** · 09-22-2018, 06:22 AM

The brake-duct air scoops remain intact (well, you have to cut/modify them to fit the baseplate). **Yes, they are functional. All of the tow mounting holes and hooks will come through the grill between them once everything is buttoned up. You have to cut a couple mounting tabs off which make them not stay tight to the bumper like from the factory. Mine loosened and dropped after about 15K miles so I removed the bumper and use some eternabond like tape to hold them to the grill/bumper and reinstall. That worked out well! If you undertake this yourself I suggest doing the same as it will keep the looks of the car nicer. Actually after install of the base plate it's not extremely noticeable.

Take a look at this pdf. These are the installation instructions for our cars.
For reference the link takes you here: http://www.blueox.com/wp-content/upl.../11/BX1307.pdf

I guess I should add that we didn't do any hard-wiring through the car but rather opted for a wireless magnetic light similar to what tow trucks sometimes use. It's from Tow Mate (Amazon link here) They are really good to deal with as our battery died in the unit and we were able to find a replacement while on the road. (Salt Lake City). This saved us from further modifying of the car to add tail lights. Since you're already towing you may have done that but if not this is a good option.

brican · 09-22-2018, 09:45 AM

Thanks ThomB for this valuable information.

I'm not looking forward to tearing into the car but understand how much better it will be than having the dolly continue to tear up the front end of the car. I'm going to need to replace the air dam and maybe the bumper. As it worked out we didn't have much choice because we got the dolly a couple of days before we left on our 11 week road trip. We didn't know just how bad the dolly would damage the car, if we had known we probably would have delayed leaving and picked a different towing option.

**ThomB** · 09-22-2018, 08:12 PM

Sorry to hear about the damage. We’ve been on the road since June 2017 and right now stuck in Knoxville while the car is in the shop getting the front end replaced due to an accident. The front bumper in primer is about $900.

We looked at dolly’s and decided to go 4-down strictly for the fact that I can hook up and go with about 5 minutes work and with a dolly there are just too many scenerios where that caused too much time lost. We even had to search out a new Roadster (previous one was an automatic).

Kvw613 · 09-26-2018, 04:51 PM

We towed our 2007 Mini Cooper S Convertible with a Roadmaster kit. It did require some fascia trimming. I installed it in a parking lot with normal tools. When the tow bar baseplates were removed, it looked like machine guns on the front, just like 007.

canucc00 · 09-27-2018, 10:41 AM

When I did my baseplate on my Mini Cooper I went with the Blue Ox set up. The RV dealer by me gave me a quote of $1500.00 just to install the plate, lights and battery charger, for the RVI brake. This would be their first Mini Cooper installation, this made me worried. After viewing all the video’s on line on the install I decided to do it myself rather that let my Mini be the dealers guinea pig. It took me over a day to install everything. But the end results is that it looks good and I know it was done right. I know you have a S and I have just a Cooper but the install is the same and the cuts to the lower grill would not be that difficult. I used a Dremmel with a cutting wheel and cutting bit. I purchased everything from e-Trailer as a package, cheaper than going the Amazon route.

**ThomB** · 09-27-2018, 02:36 PM

I did my the first install on our car. We're currently delivering the car back to the body shop after having an RV dealer install this one. I probably could have done it again but it's an insurance claim so I'd rather not touch it this time since I don't have all my tools with me.

I didn't buy any special tools to cut the grill. I did mark where to cut and just used a pair of snips to cut the plastic at the nearest intersection of the hexagon sections as above. As for etrailer.com, they're awesome to work with!!

brican · 10-17-2018, 09:59 PM

Wow, so much great information. Thanks to all of you.

I've sold the EZE-Tow for $1475 ($600 loss) and happy it is gone.

Now I'll take the information hear and review the information at other sites including irv2.com then order the baseplate, tow bar and brake.

I saw several tow bars on craigslist. Would that be a good source for tow bars? Some look fairly new.

**ThomB** · 10-19-2018, 06:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brican

I saw several tow bars on craigslist. Would that be a good source for tow bars? Some look fairly new.

That’s what we did. I found a stellar deal! It wasn’t new and showed its age but I bought the re-build kit and it still works perfect.

hpdrver · 10-27-2018, 08:46 AM

Based on this thread, I installed a blue ox baseplate on my 08 mini. It took me about 4 hours. I now need to buy a drop hitch for my Via. What size hitch are you guys using with your Mini. Thanks

canucc00 · 10-27-2018, 10:07 AM

When I ordered the drop hitch for my Vista 29VE I took the measurement from the hitch receiver on the Vista to the ground and from the spot on the base plate that the tow bar attaches to the ground. The difference is the size of the drop hitch you would need to have the tow bar level. For mine it was a nine inch drop. They don’t make them that size so I went with a eight inch drop. Blue Ox’s web site said the would be ok.

hpdrver · 10-27-2018, 11:01 AM

I did measure my Via and got 10 inches but didn’t want to use this much drop. I am hoping that current users may be using lesser drops with success. Thanks for your info.

**ThomB** · 10-27-2018, 09:41 PM

I put one of the splitters on mine that lets the bikes sit in the top receiver and the tow bar in the bottom one. I think it only dropped about 2 or 3 inches. No problems over the 22K_ miles we’ve done.