etrailer.com Trailer Hitch Installation - 2019 Toyota Highlander

Products Featured in this Video

etrailer Trailer Hitch Receiver - Custom Fit - Matte Black Finish - Class III - 2"

1159 reviews

Code: e98844

Retail: $472.18

Price:  $202.94

• Trailer Hitch
• Custom Fit Hitch
• Class III
• 900 lbs TW
• 6000 lbs GTW

• 8000 lbs WD GTW
• 2 Inch Hitch
• 900 lbs WD TW
• Visible Cross Tube
• etrailer

This fully welded trailer hitch receiver bolts onto your vehicle's frame with no welding required. Matte black, powder coated steel is durable and corrosion resistant and creates a rugged look.

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How to Install the etrailer.com Trailer Hitch on a 2019 Toyota Highlander

Today on our 2019 Toyota Highlander, you're gonna be taking a look at, I'm gonna show you how to install the etrailer.com class three trailer hitch receiver. This is what our hitch looks like when it's installed. You can see the cross tube is visible, but it's nice and tucked up close to the bottom of the fascia. And has a round tube design so it fits nicely with the contour of the vehicle.Now this hitch is gonna have a triple carbide black powder coat finish, which is really gonna resist chipping, rust, and corrosion. It's gonna be a class three hitch so it's gonna work great for your class three accessories. We're gonna have a two inch by two inch receiver tube opening, reinforced collar will give us a little extra stability there.

Hitch pin holes are gonna be five eighths inch in diameter. Gonna take a standard five eighths hitch pin.Now the hitch pin and clip does not come with this hitch. However, it can be found here at etrailer.com. We're gonna have plate style safety chain loops. It's gonna have a plate that's welded to the bottom of our receiver tube and cross tube.

And you see we have large openings. It's gonna accept different size hooks. Now as far as weight capacities go, we're gonna have a 900 pound max tongue weight, which is down pressure on the inside of the receiver tube. 6,000 pound gross trailer weight, which is a trailer plus the load included.You can use weight distribution with this hitch. Tongue weights gonna stay the same at 900 pounds.

Trailer weights gonna go up to 8,000 pounds. I do recommend checking the owners manual of your Toyota to make sure that vehicle can withstand that amount of weight. You're gonna pick the lowest number between the vehicle and the hitch. Now let's give you a few measurements to help you when deciding on an ehitch mount accessories you may need.From the center of the hitch pin hole back to the outer most part of the bumper is gonna be about a half inch. From the ground to the top inner most part of the receiver tube, it's gonna be about 16 and a half inches.

Now let's show you how to get this installed. Now before you start your installation, it's a good idea to go ahead and lower your spare tire. Then we're gonna remove our two appearance panels on the bottom driver side and passenger side. We're gonna have a couple of push pin fasteners that look like this. And then we're gonna have a couple bolts like this. We'll use a 10 millimeter socket to remove those.You can take a flathead screwdriver or trim panel tool if you have one like this. Pop out the center. And make sure you bring the base with it. Then we'll have two fasteners on the inside. We'll use a 12 millimeter socket to remove those.It's easier if you just put some downward pressure on it too, 'cause these are plastic. Pop our panel out like that. On our passenger side, we're gonna remove this tab here. We're gonna use an 11 16ths socket to remove the large bolt and a 10 millimeter socket to remove this one. And on both frame rails, we're gonna remove the plastic plugs and the two rubber plugs. You use a flathead screwdriver or trim panel tool like I'm using here. We're gonna be using the three weld nuts on both frame rails. Because they we're covered, shouldn't have anything in the threads, but what I suggest doing is taking your hardware and hand threading it into the hole, just to make sure there's nothing stuck in there.If it is, I suggest maybe spraying some lubricant or something up in there, taking a tube brush, and cleaning the threads really well. Our exhaust deflector, we need to cut it back. We're gonna measure two inches from the hinge right here back this way. And you can see how I have it marked there. I'm just gonna take a Dremel tool with a cutting blade on it. Should cut it pretty easy.And we'll take a utility knife and I'm gonna clean up the edges here. This is to knock off the burrs. Now with an extra set of hands, we'll lift our hitch into place, over our exhaust on our passenger side. For our hardware, we're gonna be using an X bolt, conical toot warchur 00:04:17. We wanna make sure that the teeth are facing up towards the hitch. We'll get one in on each side to hold our hitch in place. It's gonna be the same combination of hardware for all six holes, three holes on each frame rail.Next, with a three quarter inch socket, you're gonna tighten and then torque all of your hardware to the specification in the instructions. Next we need to trim our underbody panel for our driver side. What you wanna do is turn it upside down like this. This is actually the way it's gonna be installed. And we're gonna file these rib lines right here. We're gonna go on the inside of this rib line, we're gonna come on the inside of this one, over, and then up. Now your directions are gonna show you going straight up from here. In this hole we're showing it way over here.So what we're gonna do is we're gonna come up and we're gonna go beside that hole 'cause we don't wanna lose that attachment point. That's for the front, or for the most rear part of this panel. For the back part of the panel or front part of the panel, we're gonna go down three inches and then over four inches right in this corner.And again we'll clean off the burrs. Just kinda clean it up a little bit. Now we'll get our underbody panel put back in place. Test fit it and make sure there's not any further adjustments we need to make. Looks like it fits pretty well. Go ahead and reinstall your fasteners. You can reinstall your spare tire and you're ready to go. That'll do it for a look at an installation on the etrailer.com class three trailer hitch receiver on our 2019 Toyota Highlander.