Hello Marc,
There's a few variation of the factory installed hitches from Lexus.
The hitch I bought from Lexus was the earlier type made for 03 models. It's made in Japan. This hitch is mounted a bit too high. Even with the OE drop down ball mount my trailer neck sits about 1.5 higher. I might have to get an after market ball mount which drops more to keep my trailer leveled.
The second type I see is the load distributing hitch which is the round tube style, it also increase its towing capacity. It drops down the hitch receiver about 1in compared to the load carrying type like mine. Plus the tube also covers the spare tire when viewed from the rear.
So I figure this change will make the trailer level. This weight distributing hitch was made when they notch the bumper for the earlier type hitch. So they have to come up with a little steel plate that fills the space of the notch and hitch.
The third or current hitch I see is still the tube type same as the one above. But now after using up all their notched panels they made the one that bulges out seen on most 05 models. I think this design is pretty neat since it's univeral, it looks fine with and with out the hitch installed. So there you have it the evolution of the GX hitch! Took them 2 years to perfect it.
Toyota makes minor changes to their vehicles to suite the country where it is sold. I won't be surprised that it's probably toyota usa who was in charge of the hitch design for the GX. Anyway here is the Austrialian Prado hitch.
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