Well, when comparing prices be sure that you are comparing apples-to-apples.
If you want somebody to provide and install the entire package, yes, it will be expensive.
So a total install will consist of:
1. supplying the towbar
2. supplying and installing the brackets (baseplates)
3. acquiring and setting up your supplemental braking system
4. wiring the toad for lights (remember, you'll want to be able to have the lights on the toad mimic the motorhome, i.e., when you turn on the headlights/parking that the toad's tail lights will be on, when the brake lights on the motorhome activate, so will the toad's, and when you activate turn signals/4-ways in the motorhome, the toad will match the same flashing.
There is a "cheap" way to avoid spending a lot for toad wiring and that's using removable magnetic tow lights. If you're interested in "saving money" that way, there are a lot of threads here on the forum about it.
What I think I'd recommend is to determine all these things ahead of time and
thenget estimates. So choose a tow bar, choose what baseplate you want to use (Blue Ox, Roadmaster, Demco), especially important is to choose what supplemental braking system you want, and finally, choose how you want to "light" the toad --as in #4 above.
Then you can go and get estimates and compare them in almost an apples-to-apples comparison. After that, you can then determine how much you can save by doing a lot of the work yourself ...shop for and order the towbar, ordering the baseplates and installing yourself, ordering and setting up the supplemental brake system, and figuring out how you want to wire the toad for lights or how much you'll save by using magnetic lights.
Yes, you'll save a lot by doing all that yourself. So if you have the time, the help, and the tools to do it all, that's the "cheapest" way to go about it since that's what you said you wanted in your opening post.
Good luck! Let us know how it goes or if you need help as there are a lot of people here on the forum that have installed and set-up their toads themselves without using a professional installation that could cost more than $5,000 to do as you've found out. No, $5,000 isn't unreasonable for a shop to do it all but you can get by with less costs by doing all or some of it yourself.
If you do decide to have it done professionally, yeah, the big RV sales dealerships are usually the most expensive places to have it done. Alternatively, call some of the hitch shops and smaller independent RV service facilities and see how their prices compare.
Here are a few hitch shops and independent RV service places in the OKC area that you might at least contact to see what they say --they are all Roadmaster authorized dealers:
J and I Hitch
Offroad Addiction (this place does a lot of fabricating so "should" be a simple and quick job for them)
Broken Arrow Hitch
Kjelshus RV Service Center (this is a top-notch independent RV repair shop)
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