I’ve completed the installation of a Demco 9519368 (etrailer DM39YV) on my 2026 GC-L Summit. There was no metal drilling required, it fit around the lower air shutter just fine, and I’m happy with the outcome. There were a couple of issues with the parts (wrong size bolts) and install instructions (no mention of air dam removal), and I had to make a couple of undocumented mods to get the fascia to reinstall correctly, which took me a lot of time, but the fix was easy once I found it. Even so, this was still the easiest of the four baseplates I have installed over the years. I also added an additional simple mod so the umbilical, breakaway and air connections have a very secure attachment point and land cleanly behind the license plate bracket.

Below I’ll just highlight the primary installation details and describe the issues I did have. I’ll do a more complete installation post here when time permits.

I was generally pleased with the quality and robustness of the parts. No rough or jagged edges and finished nicely. The assembly comes in three main parts, so is easy to handle and a one person job. The three main parts are the DS and PS brackets, plus the main crossbar. There are also additional support rods that attach to the unused tow hook brackets on the chassis.

Removing the fascia is almost identical to the process on my 2021 shown here just follow along with the provided instructions. The electrical connections were slightly different on the 2026, including one that was a bit of a puzzle (let me know if you need more info on that). There are two electrical plugs on the DS, and two more on the PS that need to be disconnected. The PS also has a washer fluid hose that must clamped and disconnected.

The first significant issue I ran into were the bolts provided by Demco for the PS and DS brackets were not right for the job. These were intended to mount in place of the factory bumper fasteners into pre-threaded fittings in the chassis.

   

The Demco bolts provided are 1.5″ long 10mm bolts, item #6 in the parts callout below (left photo above). The unthreaded shoulder is way too long so the bolts bottom out and can’t be tightened. Also the washer (middle photo above) is far too small and jams into the slot on the bracket. These are 8.8 grade bolts. The factory bolts (right photo above) are 10.9 grade (even stronger), have adequate length, and a larger and more robust washer. I don’t see why they can’t be used, but would like to see approval from Demco about that, or have them provide the proper bolt and washer size.

I also found I needed to remove the air dam highlighted in the photo below so the crossbar would fit without interference. The Demco instructions don’t mention this. I didn’t cut it, I just removed the entire part intact, it is just held on with plastic push in christmas tree fasteners.

The highlighted item above, after removal, is shown below:

After that it was smooth sailing installing the crossbar and other parts. The crossbar is close, but definitely clears the lower air shutter.

For the mounting of the umbilical, breakaway and air line fittings, I added a simple aluminum bar between the provided holes on the crossbar safety cable tabs (second holes back). I spaced the hookups out so they will all be hidden behind the license plate bracket, you can see the layout I used in the photos below. Note the additional bar is mounted underneath the tabs. I used 1″ x 1/8″ thick hardware store aluminum angle because I had some on hand, but you could use a flat bar as well. I used the Demco provided bracket for the umbilical and bolted it to my bar. The arms on the back of the Demco umbilical bracket just touch the face of the cross bar and line up with the front of my aluminum bar, this puts it’s perfectly just slightly behind the fascia mounted grill. All mounting bolts are 1/4″.

The final and most time consuming issue I ran into was during reinstallation of the fascia, something was in the way and the bottom screw holes just would not line up without severely distorting the fascia. The fastener holes in the fascia were about 1-1/4″ forward of where they wanted to be. It took me a while to work out, but the primary culprit turned out to be the fog light brackets inside the fascia butting up to the outer top edge of each of the Demco brackets as shown below. The photo below was hard to get, but it shows where the problem is. It is the same on both sides. If the Demco brackets had about a 3/4″ deep x 3/4″ tall notch in the spot shown, everything would have cleared fine.

For resolution, I had two options, cut a notch in the heavy steel Demco brackets, or trim the plastic fog light brackets. I elected the latter and removed a small section of the fog light bracket which doesn’t significantly affect it structurally and lets it slip past the approx 3/8″ thickness of the Demco bracket edge. Once this was done the fascia slipped into place perfectly. The red circles in the photo below shows the long view of where the brackets to be trimmed are located on the inside of the fascia.

The red arrows in the photo above show the air deflectors I also removed because they were touching the bottom of the Demco brackets and slightly interfering with the removable pin sockets. Just remove four screws and they come right off.

The photo below shows the driver side fog light bracket marked with the approximate cutout needed. I went about 3/4″ deep on the top and side. Turns out about 1/2″ depth on the top would have been adequate. The passenger side bracket is a mirror image and will be cut the same, on the outer edge (the edge facing the fender, not towards the center).

I removed the brackets to make cutting easier. I used a oscillating tool with a fine blade, they were easy to cut. The bracket shown below is from the driver side.

The grill cutouts shown in the Demco instructions for the tow bar pins and safety cable tabs were spot on. Photo below shows the other hookups which are all behind the license plate bracket if you want to hide them. The cutout for these will vary depending on your specific parts and requirements. It worked out that the grill sits just in front of the installed hookups, so I did the final cutout after reinstalling the fascia. I used an oscillating multitool to make the grill cutouts wich went smoothly.

I’ll cut an opening in the plastic plate bracket and add a novelty plate with some kind of quick release to hide the hookups when we are not towing. The bracket has slots to hold the plate at the bottom, I’ll probably use magnets near the top glued to the plate that fit into the recesses on the bracket.

Those are the highlights, let me know any questions.