Pilot Tube Stainless Steel Trailer Hitch Receiver Step Review
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Review of the Pilot Tube Stainless Steel Trailer Hitch Receiver Step
Hey everybody, Ryan here at etrailer. Today, we're gonna be checking out the Pilot Automotive trailer hitch step. If you're looking for a trailer hitch step, you know, there's a ton of different options available, and I feel like with the majority of 'em you know, leaving them on the vehicle just isn't my taste. But you know, that's just my opinion. For this one, isn't too bad. You know, it's not super gaudy, it's relatively compact, but still big enough to be able to use comfortably, and it doesn't look too bad.
So, if you're planning on leaving it on your vehicle, you know, it's probably be in pretty good shape. And that just goes, you know, depends on what type of vehicle you got too. But with that said, one of the things that really helps separate this one from some of the others, is the fact that it's gonna be able to work with not only 2" hitches like we have here today, but also the smaller 1 1/4" by 1 1/4" hitches. And that's not something you see, there's not a ton of steps available for these smaller type hitches, and that's because they give you this sleeve here. So if you pull that off, that'll allow you to plug it into the smaller 1 1/4" hitch.
When you go to put that sleeve back on, you know, that'll fill up the gap and allow you to use it with the 2" hitch. Now I do wanna say it does not come included with a hitch pin, which is pretty typical for a lot of types of accessories like this. If you don't have one, not a big deal, you can grab it here at etrailer. And what I would probably do too, would be to grab a locking one. That way, you know, you can secure this down, especially if you plan on leaving it up back here.
You could secure it down, lock it to your hitch, that way, you know no one's gonna run off with it. Something that I do like, is how there's gonna be several different pin holes that you can use, but what that's gonna allow you to do, is kinda adjust this and allow it to work with just about any type of vehicle out there, to be honest with you. So let's say for example, I'm gonna push this all the way into this hole here. Once it's lined up, you know, will that work for some vehicle, sure. For this particular one, I really wouldn't be too crazy, 'cause you don't have a whole lot of space there to get your foot.
If you move it to the middle one, I feel like that's a pretty good happy medium. But, let's say your hitch sits kinda far, you know, back up towards the front of your vehicle more, you can use that final one that'll bump it out and give you that space that you need to be able to stand on this comfortably. Whole point of an edge step, is to give you a good place to stand, right And so, on an SUV that might be a good thing to have whenever you're dealing with roof rack accessories. You know, it lets you stand up here, make a little easier to reach over to your, the top of your roof and get whatever you're trying to get down or even put up. Just makes it a little more manageable. This is gonna be good for 350 pounds. With that said though never want to exceed your hitches maximum gross tongue weight rating. And this is gonna work good for pickup trucks too, you know if you want to just be able to kind of jump up on this reach over into the bed to get something out without having to drop the tailgate this is gonna help you do that. The tube portion here is gonna be made from stainless steel. It is polished so you know rust and things like that shouldn't happen. Sounds like some people have had these for quite some time and eventually you do start to get a little petting which is pretty typical, which is about anything like this. The step pad here is plastic and it has some texture in it. Not super crazy about it to be honest with you but it is flat and it gives you a good spot to put your foot. As far as the overall construction quality to be honest with you, I'm not gonna say it's the greatest in the world, but it's definitely not the worst. You know, it kind of falls somewhere in the middle compared to some of the other ones. But this one's definitely a little more economical and you get quite a bit of bang for your buck. With the 2" by 2" hitch, you know, even though all of 'em are gonna be the same size in all these vehicles they all do fit a little bit differently. So some are a little bit looser. So a vehicle here today, it's, that's kind of the case. So there's some slop, a little bit of play in there. This stuff does come with two of these, I feel like pretty good quality plastic wedges and I'm not actually gonna physically install these but to give you an idea if it is loose like that you can, you know, attach it to the shank there and then when you go to install this it takes out the majority of that play. So it's going to give you a little bit more of a sure footing when you go to stand on this and you won't hear kind of clunking around whenever you're going down the road and bumps and things of that nature. There are gonna be different variations of this step. There's this exact one that has an LED strip in the middle of it that'll hook up to a four-way flat trailer wiring on your vehicle. And essentially that's just gonna act as an additional taillight and an additional brake light. So little extra safety there. As far as that's concerned. The step is also available in black with or without the LED strip. Other than that, at the end of the day, you know not a whole lot to it, seems like a, you know a step that's built decent and should get the job done for you. And that'll finish up our look at of the Pilot Automotive trailer hitch step.
Info for this part was:
Video by:
Joshua S
Video Edited:
Dustin K
Installed by:
Ryan G
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