Video Transcript for Draw-Tite Max-Frame Trailer Hitch Installation How-to Guide - 2024 Toyota Grand Highlander

Hey, everyone, Bruce here at etrailer. Today we're gonna take a look at and install the Draw-Tite Max-Frame Trailer Hitch Receiver on our 2024 Toyota Grand Highlander. Now, our Draw-Tite trailer hitch receiver does have a 5,000-pound gross trailer weight rating with a 500-pound tongue weight rating, which is perfect if you're wanting to haul a small utility trailer or you're wanting to put a cargo rack or do a bike carrier on it, it would be perfect. Now, just keep in mind you don't want to go over the max capability of your vehicle, so check your owner's manual and you always want to go with the lower rated component in the setup. Now, you will need a 5/8 pin and clip to secure your cargo carriers, or if you're doing a ball mount or bicycle rack, you will need a pin and clip. Now if we take a look at our safety chain loops here, we do have a big opening.

It will accept the old style S hooks and it will also work with the bigger hooks as well. Now, it does have a two inch by two inch opening here and it's got a nice black powder coat finish. It is a glossy finish, but it really does look nice on this vehicle. Let's go ahead and take some measurements from the bumper here just so we can see. Actually we're gonna go from our center of our pinhole to the edge of the bumper, and we're looking at about four inches.

And the reason we're talking about that is depending on what you're doing with your hitch, you may need an extension to come out further from your bumper, especially if you've got any bike racks that fold up, so just keep that in mind. Now let's go ahead and take a measurement from the bottom of our receiver tube here to the ground and just see where we're at. And it looks like we're about 12 inches, so you've got plenty of room there. If you need a drop shank, you've got plenty of room, but keep in mind if you're going over any big bumps or anything like that or steep grade going into a driveway or something like that, it's just something to keep in mind. So taking a little closer look, this hitch is pretty well hidden on this vehicle.

Now, it's sitting pretty even with the bumper here, so it's really actually gonna look nice and it's not gonna look all gaudy hanging way out here or anything like that. As far as the installation goes, it's actually a really simple install. It's four bolts, no cutting, you don't have to lower the exhaust or anything. But if you don't want to try that, check out our dealer locator on etrailer.com. But if you do want to give it a shot, stick around, I'll show you how.

The first thing we need to do in the installation process is go ahead and grab a flathead screwdriver and there are two caps covering up where we need to run our bolts. There's one here and one here. We're just gonna take our screwdriver and get those popped off. And we are working on the passenger side right now. You'll need to do the same thing to the driver's side. So you just take the screwdriver, put it up underneath, and go ahead and pry those out. And you can save these, put 'em in your glove box or whatever you want to do, but unless you're taking a hitch off, you're really not gonna need 'em. Now we need to go ahead and grab some blue threadlocker. They recommend that we do use this, so we're going to use it. And we're just gonna put some on our threads. Don't need a whole lot. And we're gonna do that to each one of our bolts. Now that you've got Loctite on all your bolts and your conical washers, just remember these do have teeth on 'em, the teeth need to face the frame. And then with an extra set of hands we can go ahead and throw the hitch in place. I got my buddy Ian here with me and we are just gonna throw this up in here. (metal clanging) Once you do have it up in place, you do have to kind of work it up around this muffler isolator here, so on both sides. So that's a little tricky, but doable. Now to get the hitch lined up with our holes in our frame, we did have to put a jack up under here and kind of lift up on it a little bit with a little bit of pressure, not much. So I do recommend if you're doing this on the ground, that you put a floor jack right here and just kind of hold that hitch up and you can actually line it up a lot easier that way than trying to use your force with your muscles. With that being said, it's time to go ahead and torque our bolts down to the manufacturer's specifications. Now if you don't have a torque wrench, we do carry them here at etrailer or you can rent one from your local auto parts store. Now just remember we are on the passenger side, you're gonna do the same thing to the driver's side. Once you have the bolts all torqued down, that does complete the installation of our Draw-Tite Max-Frame Trailer Hitch Receiver on our 2024 Toyota Grand Highlander. I'm Bruce, thanks for watching.