Towsmart Trailer Hitch Receiver - Custom Fit - Class III - 2"

Video Transcript for Installing the Towsmart Trailer Hitch Receiver on a 2024 Toyota Highlander

Hi, this is Scott with etrailer and today we're gonna be taking a look at our Towsmart hitch for our 2024 Toyota Highlander. With our hitch all installed, this is pretty much what it's gonna look like. It's gonna be pretty much a hidden cross tube. You're not gonna see that at all, which is really nice. You will see the side plates and the hitch itself out here. It's got a pretty nice coating on it.

It's gonna hold up to some of, you know, your corrosion and stuff like that, it's really nice. It's got a good powder coat finish on it. I kinda like the way it looks with this one. It's gonna be a two inch by two inch receiver opening and it is gonna have reinforced collar here. It is gonna accept any of your accessories, like your bike racks or your cargo carriers or anything like that, that do have the two inch shank for that.

It is gonna have the 5/8 pin opening here and that's gonna accept your standard pins or your optional locking style. This hitch does not come with a pin, so you can pick them up here at etrailer or if you get any of the common accessories, sometimes you'll get a pin and clip with that. On our side plates here, we do have the really strong chain loops here that will accept your standard S-hook style or your clevis style hook here and it's really solid, all welded to the tube here itself. As far as our measurements go, from the top of the tube here to the ground, we're looking at 16 inches. And with that measurement, that's gonna be the measurement you'll need to decide if you need any rise in the shank for like your bike carriers or cargo carriers or anything like that.

So that's a good one to know. And from the center of the pin out, we're looking at about an inch and a half. And with that number, that one will help you decide if, say, you have a folding bike rack or anything like that, you can go by that number to see if you're gonna have enough clearance to bring your bike rack up and not make contact with the back of your vehicle. As far as your weight capacities go with this hitch, you're looking at 500 pounds tongue weight and that's the weight pushing down on this portion of your hitch, the lower portion here, and that's the number to go by to decide for, like if you have a bike rack with some heavy bikes on it, maybe e-bike, something like that, that'll be the number that is the maximum pushing down on this portion of your hitch. As far as tow capacity of this one, the gross trailer weight rating for this one is 5,000 pounds and that number is the trailer with anything that you have on it.

But with that you do wanna check your owner's manual and make sure your vehicle is compatible with towing that amount of weight. As far as installation goes, it's pretty straightforward. You will have a little bit of trimming to do, it's not too complicated, and you can kind of get out of that if you decide to not put that plastic part on that you have to trim. It's kind of an optional thing and as far as it goes, putting it on, if you don't have time to do it and maybe you just don't wanna do it, you can take a look at our dealer locator and maybe find somebody local that can get it installed for you. But if you're interested in installing it yourself, stick around and watch our video and we'll help you get it done. To start our installation for our hitch, we did end up taking our spare tire down, which you shouldn't have to do on yours, but we just did it so that way, you'll be able to see a little easier and we can get some better camera angles. But to begin our installation, what we're gonna do is, we're gonna have to remove this panel right here. So what we're gonna start with is having some 10 millimeter sockets and we'll go around the side here and we'll start getting those removed. (wrench chattering) Next we'll get these plastic rivets out here. If you get a screwdriver in the edge of it there, you'll see there's a slot. You can just wiggle 'em out. Could be a little debris up in there, so if you give 'em a wiggle, it'll come out a little easier for you. Now here on the side up towards the bottom of the body here, you're gonna have these 12 millimeter plastic nuts. You just want to apply a little downward pressure to your panel here and those should back off for you and just want to go easy. (wrench chattering) And with those broke free, it'll come right off for us. Now along the back here, you're gonna have these little plastic bumper support pieces here. We're gonna do the same thing with our screwdriver and just pop those out. Got two of those there. And with these out, that's gonna allow us to swing our hitch up in there. What we'll do is we'll just bend these down for now, out of the way. Now along each one of your frame rails here where our hitch is gonna mount up, we're gonna have these rubber plugs. We're just gonna take a screwdriver and get up under those and pop those out and we will not be needing those for our reinstallation so we can just get those out of the way and we will do that on both sides. On the passenger side you're gonna have this little bracket here that's kind of back by the exhaust. We're just gonna take that out of the way. We will not be reinstalling that. It's just gonna make room for our hitch to go up there. One of them is gonna be a 10 millimeter and the other is going to be a 17 millimeter. (wrench chattering) As far as our hardware goes, we will have a conical washer here and there will be little teeth on it and you can see it's kind of got a dip in it. So we want to have those teeth facing up and facing the hitch when we put this on. Now we'll get our hitch lifted into place and get it all set up here. Now once you get one in on one side, it makes it a little easier to get the other side done. It can be a little tricky to get 'em lined up, so you may need to move your hitch from one side to the other 'cause your holes are slotted, but once you get one in on each side, it really makes things a lot easier for you. Now once you get your hitch up there, you're gonna wanna make sure you have it centered. And one way to do that is you can go right here and there's a little notch and a little notch on either side. Just kind of get it where you're even on both sides and that's gonna help you get it centered up. Then we'll just run our bolts down tight and then come back through and torque 'em down. (wrench chattering) With all of our bolts snugged down, we'll come back through and we'll torque 'em down to the specifications listed in our instruction manual. (torque wrench beeps) (torque wrench beeps) For our next step, we're gonna need to get this little plastic piece that goes in the driver's side trimmed out. So what I like to do is kind of put it in place and get a general idea of what needs to come off of it. You can also follow the instructions. You're gonna have a diagram in there, but I like to kind of put it in place to get an idea of what needs to come out. Now we've got our panel all marked out where we need to cut it and basically we're gonna cut right along here and we're gonna cut up around here and this whole piece right here will come off and that'll make room for the long part of our hitch. And then on this side, we're gonna remove all of this on the inside of the blue tape and that will make room for it, too. So we're gonna get this cut out and then we'll get it put back up there and we'll let you know how it looks. (trimmer humming) Now we'll just get our panel put back in place here and let's kind of wiggle it around to get it where it needs to go. And over here by your mud flap, you're gonna have this little clip deal here and you're just gonna wanna pop it back in its slot that it goes in there and it's kinda gonna click back in place, and that's gonna provide your threads for your mud flap there. Now we'll line up our plastic cuts, pop them in place, and we'll start putting in all of our push pins and our 10 millimeter nuts. Now we'll just get our little bumper tabs put in place here as well. With everything torqued down and put back in place, all we'll do now is get our spare tire put back up and that'll do it for our installation. And that was a look and install for our Towsmart hitch for our 2024 Toyota Highlander.