Trailer Hitch Installation - 2008 Toyota Tacoma

Installation of a Trailer Hitch on a 2008 Toyota Tacoma

Today we are working on a 2008 Toyota Tacoma. We will be installing a Curt hitch, part number 13323. Here are a couple of measurements that will assist you with ing accessories for your new hitch. From the center of the hitch pin hole to the outer most point of the bumper is 3-1/2 inches. From the top of the receiver tube to the ground is 18-3/4 inches. This will assist you with ing accessories, such as a draw bar, a bike rack or a cargo carrier. Now let us go ahead with the installation. 0:26

I will go ahead and point out our attachment points here real quickly. Our hitch is going to end up between the bumper brace and the frame. So, we will be removing these two bolts and loosening the third bolt. Then, after we get those loose, we are actually going to loosen the two bolts that go to the brace and the bumper and a block to take up the extra space for the hitch in between the brace and the frame. We will do this for both sides. OK, you can see my brace is loose from the frame now. I will go ahead and loosen the two bolts that go between the brace and the bumper. Now with all of the fasteners loose on the passenger side, I am going to go over and repeat the same process on the driver side. OK, now that we have all of our fasteners loose, we can go ahead and remove the two here on the brace where our hitch is going to be installed. Now go ahead and repeat the same process on the driver side. 1:47

Make sure you hang on to your hardware because we will be reusing these fasteners. Now is a good time to get an extra set of hands to help you put the hitch up into place. You just want to install our fasteners finger tight at this time until we get them all in place. OK, there are our side two fasteners on the driver side. We will go ahead and repeat the same process on the passenger side. OK, we are on the passenger side looking at the two mounting holes that go from under the vehicle into the bottom of the frame. We will be using our bolts that are supplied in our install kit and conical tooth washers where the teeth of the washer will face the bottom of the hitch. Let us go ahead and install the four fasteners now. That completes the two on the passenger side. Now go ahead and do the two on the driver side. 2:54

With all four of the fasteners that go into the bottom of our hitch installed, we can go ahead and tighten them down. With the passenger side tight, we can go ahead and repeat the same process on the driver side. Now we need to install our block between the bumper brace and the bumper. This will take up the offset of the hitch brace. Now with our bolt our, we will go ahead and slide our block in. There is our forward most fastener for the bumper. Now we will do the rear fastener. With our blocks installed on the passenger side, I will go ahead and repeat the same process on the driver side. Now with all four of our spacer blocks installed, we can go ahead and tighten down all of our fasteners. With all of our fasteners run down, we can go ahead and torque to specifications as per instructions. Alright, that completes torqueing all of the fasteners on the driver side. I will go ahead and repeat the same process on the passenger side. And that will complete our installation of our Curt hitch, part number C13323, on a 2008 Toyota Tacoma.