Today on etrailer.com we are going to be working on this 2009 Toyota Highlander Limited Edition. We are going to be installing part number V81312 from Valley. To begin the installation process we are going to first remove these two plastic panels and tow hooks located on the passenger and driver side of the vehicle. What this will do will gain us frame access for our vehicle frame. We have two plastic pop rivets located here and here. To get those out you can use a flat head screw driver, and pry on the rivet itself. :33
For the remaining fasteners you can use a Phillips screwdriver. Okay, now with all the fasteners removed we can go ahead and pull it out of place. Next step you want to do is remove the two bolts here and get our tow hook out of the way. With our tow hook removed we can start working on the passenger side of the vehicle and repeat the same process. Before we can install our hitch we first need to remove the exhaust from the hanger itself on the rear-most part of the vehicle. That will help us gain access for the hitch itself. 1:40
Last step we will do before we hang our hitch is go ahead and remove these three plugs from the frame rail. We will only be using these two locations to hang the hitch itself, but it is a good idea to remove this one as well so you have a nice flush surface. For the attachment points on the passenger side of the vehicle we are going to be using these two bolt holes here on the frame rail, along with these two bottom bolts. Over here on the drivers side we are going to remove just this one plug here on the bottom side of the frame rail for this particular hitch. We are going to be using these three attachment points to hang our hitch. With all our prep work done we can go ahead and hang our hitch up. Just a note to mention, we are going to be using these 10 millimeter fasteners that are supplied with our installation kit along with the conical tooth washers. You may notice on the passenger side frame rail that it is a little hard to get these bolts here. A good note here, go ahead and run theses bolts in a little, this will help gain access to the bolt holes on the side of the frame rail. Now that we have our bolts in we will go ahead and snug this up. With our passenger side snugged down we will go ahead and start working on our drivers side. 3:05
Now with all our hitch fasteners snugged down we can begin our torquing process of all the bolts. We want to make sure we follow the instruction manual for that process. Now that we have the hitch installed we can go ahead and put the exhaust back up on its hanger. Now that we have our exhaust back on the hanger we can work on the passenger side cover. One thing you want to note, when you put it back into place is this clip here, you want to make sure you make it over that. We did not reinstall the driver side panel because of clearance issues. The measurement from the top of the draw bar receiver to the ground is 15 inches. From the center of the hitch pin hole to the bumper is a little bit under 2 inches. With everything back into place that will end our installation of part number V81312 on a 2009 Toyota Highlander Limited Edition.
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