trailer hitch ideas?

[fluuid]

y'all got any? It's time for me to get one. I'm a little stingy with a dollar, but, must have quality. Class IV from my dealer is $276.71, and that is without tax and labor.

[SATundra]

Heres one I just found on e-bay for $115 out the door, including shipping and ball mount: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=33653

Heres another one for $80: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=33653

There is allways U-Haul as well, there hitches are pretty good, I think they are actually made by a good name brand manufacturer.

BTW mines are factory installed one, sorry.

[KLS]

As far as I've seen, the main difference in the hitch receivers is in the quality of the paint and other non-critical things. As long as the weight rating on the label is equal or greater than the truck's rated tow capacity (7200# weight distributing & 5000# weight carrying for our Tundras), and the receiver's sticker says that it meets Federal V-5 spec, it should be OK.

I've seen Quality-S hitches before. They seem perfectly average to me. The price on ebay might be OK, but the satisfaction guaranteed label is kind'a spurious...$25 shipping each way.

I think that U-Haul hitches are made by Draw-Tite, owned by TriMas Corp, which also has the Reese, Hidden Hitch, SurePull, Tekonsha, Fulton, & Wesbar brands.


Ken

[fluuid]

$141 installed

thanks guys for the input, I became frightened and confused when I heard from my dealer that the hitch would be $276 and then would be 3 hours of labor.

lol

The Texas Camper Corral said it would take no longer than 45 minutes.

That Champion Toyota in Austin, they must have been pulling my leg.

[aaronjpeterson]

Put it on yourself. I just did mine. It was easy.

There are two weldnuts on each side of the frame courtesy of Toyota.
I held the left side of the hitch up to the frame and started the bolts on the left side.
Then I swung the hitch up and started the bolts on the right side.

Snugged everything down with a wrench.
My hitch came with an extra nut/bolt set for each side that dropped down through an existing hole in the frame (and had a backing plate). The frame rail is C shaped, so they dropped right in.
Snugged that pair down with the wrench.

Hit all six bolts with a tourque wrench, and I was done.
Total elapsed time 30 minutes.

If I had a helper or an air wrench, it could have been 10 minutes.
Mine was a Hidden Hitch (but I'm sure most of them are the same).

Didn't even have to drop the spare tire (which I feared might be the case).

The wiring wasn't much harder either...

On the shade tree mechanic scale of 1-10. I give it a 1 for difficulty. (If you can change a flat tire, you can do this).
I give the wiring a 2 (If you can change a flat tire AND can put together a childs Christmas present without too many leftover parts....).

[Brian M]

Thank God my Seq. came with the wiring harness.....my seven year old is still playing with toys that were improperly put together.