Need Advice With Towing Equip
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Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 386
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From: ONTARIO
Originally Posted by CVsGX470
sayadil...damn i wish i would have taken a picture, but my hitch (which was on the car when I got if from the dealer looks like as Silverlady explained. There is no notch cut out of the bumper but instead it looks like the picture on the right. It is from Lexus so maybe that is how they are doing now???
CV
CV
Thread Starter
Pole Position
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 386
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From: ONTARIO
Originally Posted by malhokc
Attached is another view of the aftermarket hitch.
thats a good price.. also i noticed your hitch has a lexus symbol on it.. where did you get that from..? pls advice. thnx in advance.
Racer
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 1,274
Likes: 2
From: California
Originally Posted by sayadil
mulhock.. can u please resend me the link to your hitch.. also does that price ( i believe was $168) include everything (except instalation offcourse) wiring and all.
thats a good price.. also i noticed your hitch has a lexus symbol on it.. where did you get that from..? pls advice. thnx in advance.
thats a good price.. also i noticed your hitch has a lexus symbol on it.. where did you get that from..? pls advice. thnx in advance.
Lexus Test Driver
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 1,287
Likes: 1
From: Ohio
Originally Posted by sayadil
mulhock.. can u please resend me the link to your hitch.. also does that price ( i believe was $168) include everything (except instalation offcourse) wiring and all.
thats a good price.. also i noticed your hitch has a lexus symbol on it.. where did you get that from..? pls advice. thnx in advance.
thats a good price.. also i noticed your hitch has a lexus symbol on it.. where did you get that from..? pls advice. thnx in advance.
CV
Pole Position
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 208
Likes: 0
From: il
Originally Posted by sayadil
mulhock.. can u please resend me the link to your hitch.. also does that price ( i believe was $168) include everything (except instalation offcourse) wiring and all.
thats a good price.. also i noticed your hitch has a lexus symbol on it.. where did you get that from..? pls advice. thnx in advance.
thats a good price.. also i noticed your hitch has a lexus symbol on it.. where did you get that from..? pls advice. thnx in advance.
Shipping was 99cents with total price of approx 168. I had Uhaul put it on for $40 for approx 20 min of labor. Other places were more expensive ($80). If you can unscrew the bolts from the frame youself, it's a piece of cake on install it. You may need someone to hold the hitch, however (approx 35 lbs). The lexus cap is from the dealer but you can get for approx $10-15 from ebay and other sources.
Hope that helps,
Thread Starter
Pole Position
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 386
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From: ONTARIO
Originally Posted by malhokc
This is the link http://www.etrailer.com/Merchant2/m...Category_Code=H
Shipping was 99cents with total price of approx 168. I had Uhaul put it on for $40 for approx 20 min of labor. Other places were more expensive ($80). If you can unscrew the bolts from the frame youself, it's a piece of cake on install it. You may need someone to hold the hitch, however (approx 35 lbs). The lexus cap is from the dealer but you can get for approx $10-15 from ebay and other sources.
Hope that helps,
Shipping was 99cents with total price of approx 168. I had Uhaul put it on for $40 for approx 20 min of labor. Other places were more expensive ($80). If you can unscrew the bolts from the frame youself, it's a piece of cake on install it. You may need someone to hold the hitch, however (approx 35 lbs). The lexus cap is from the dealer but you can get for approx $10-15 from ebay and other sources.
Hope that helps,
Driver
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 198
Likes: 0
From: VA
Sooo... Last night I installed my "Hidden Hitch" trailer hitch, purchased from JC Whitney for $179.99, with free shipping. To their credit, it arrived three days after I ordered it.
Initial impressions: Should work fine for the light duty towing (landscaping trailer with 2K max load capacity) that I plan to do with it... As others have noted, it does not have the four bolts in the center, just a total of 8 bolts around the sides... 6 large bolts and two smallers ones... Looks OK, similar to factory, but not identical. You lose the use of the factory tow hook with this unit (factory unit has it built in) but I may be able to retrofit it somehow, ran out of time (see note about darkness below)...
Installation: PITA! Had to remove a number of chunks at first (tow hook, two fascia chunks that the rear fascia attaches to, the electrical connector had to be unbolted and moved to the side for installation purposes). Instructions were not the best, but I eventually made heads and tails of it... (Most of the actual installation of the bar itself was straightforward (see "Nut on a stick below), it was the ancillary stuff that was confusing...) Of course, it didn't help that I was doing this in my driveway, and since it took longer than expected, it was dark by the time I finished... daylight and a lift would have made it much easier... Installation on the driver side was easy (air tools) but passenger side, the exhaust was in the way, so it was hard to work around it... Unit came with "nuts on a stick" that you had to feed through a slot in the bumper, and align with a metal chunk that you were supposed to tape to the nut on a stick, but then it wouldn't fit through the slot... ended up dropping the metal chunk through the slot by itself, positioning it with a tool, and then being very careful not to lose it as I held the nut on a stick in position, and tried to screw the bolt into it... My guess is this was all done to avoid removing the rear fascia... but it was really annoying... Speaking of the rear fascia, since one had to remove the metal chunks that it bolted to, after all was said and done, you had to re-attach the fascia in someway so the wind wouldn't catch it... they provided some zip ties and you were supposed to make some sort of elaborate lasso system... I just used some longer zip ties I had lying around and zip tied the fascia to the tube... looks like it should work fine...
Overall impression: A reasonable deal if you are handy with tools and don't expect to tow excessive loads... I will probably only use my vehicle to tow a trailer maybe 6 times a year... If you routinely tow heavy loads, I think I'd go with the factory unit...
Initial impressions: Should work fine for the light duty towing (landscaping trailer with 2K max load capacity) that I plan to do with it... As others have noted, it does not have the four bolts in the center, just a total of 8 bolts around the sides... 6 large bolts and two smallers ones... Looks OK, similar to factory, but not identical. You lose the use of the factory tow hook with this unit (factory unit has it built in) but I may be able to retrofit it somehow, ran out of time (see note about darkness below)...
Installation: PITA! Had to remove a number of chunks at first (tow hook, two fascia chunks that the rear fascia attaches to, the electrical connector had to be unbolted and moved to the side for installation purposes). Instructions were not the best, but I eventually made heads and tails of it... (Most of the actual installation of the bar itself was straightforward (see "Nut on a stick below), it was the ancillary stuff that was confusing...) Of course, it didn't help that I was doing this in my driveway, and since it took longer than expected, it was dark by the time I finished... daylight and a lift would have made it much easier... Installation on the driver side was easy (air tools) but passenger side, the exhaust was in the way, so it was hard to work around it... Unit came with "nuts on a stick" that you had to feed through a slot in the bumper, and align with a metal chunk that you were supposed to tape to the nut on a stick, but then it wouldn't fit through the slot... ended up dropping the metal chunk through the slot by itself, positioning it with a tool, and then being very careful not to lose it as I held the nut on a stick in position, and tried to screw the bolt into it... My guess is this was all done to avoid removing the rear fascia... but it was really annoying... Speaking of the rear fascia, since one had to remove the metal chunks that it bolted to, after all was said and done, you had to re-attach the fascia in someway so the wind wouldn't catch it... they provided some zip ties and you were supposed to make some sort of elaborate lasso system... I just used some longer zip ties I had lying around and zip tied the fascia to the tube... looks like it should work fine...
Overall impression: A reasonable deal if you are handy with tools and don't expect to tow excessive loads... I will probably only use my vehicle to tow a trailer maybe 6 times a year... If you routinely tow heavy loads, I think I'd go with the factory unit...
Driver School Candidate
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 21
Likes: 0
From: Virginia
Be careful with ordering hitch from Lexus dealer. I ordered one from my Lexus dealer when buying and assumed they would put on Lexus brand hitch. Surprised when my vehicle arrived with a 3rd party hitch!
Racer
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 1,274
Likes: 2
From: California
Originally Posted by Salvator
Sooo... Last night I installed my "Hidden Hitch" trailer hitch, purchased from JC Whitney for $179.99, with free shipping. To their credit, it arrived three days after I ordered it.
Initial impressions: Should work fine for the light duty towing (landscaping trailer with 2K max load capacity) that I plan to do with it... As others have noted, it does not have the four bolts in the center, just a total of 8 bolts around the sides... 6 large bolts and two smallers ones... Looks OK, similar to factory, but not identical. You lose the use of the factory tow hook with this unit (factory unit has it built in) but I may be able to retrofit it somehow, ran out of time (see note about darkness below)...
Installation: PITA! Had to remove a number of chunks at first (tow hook, two fascia chunks that the rear fascia attaches to, the electrical connector had to be unbolted and moved to the side for installation purposes). Instructions were not the best, but I eventually made heads and tails of it... (Most of the actual installation of the bar itself was straightforward (see "Nut on a stick below), it was the ancillary stuff that was confusing...) Of course, it didn't help that I was doing this in my driveway, and since it took longer than expected, it was dark by the time I finished... daylight and a lift would have made it much easier... Installation on the driver side was easy (air tools) but passenger side, the exhaust was in the way, so it was hard to work around it... Unit came with "nuts on a stick" that you had to feed through a slot in the bumper, and align with a metal chunk that you were supposed to tape to the nut on a stick, but then it wouldn't fit through the slot... ended up dropping the metal chunk through the slot by itself, positioning it with a tool, and then being very careful not to lose it as I held the nut on a stick in position, and tried to screw the bolt into it... My guess is this was all done to avoid removing the rear fascia... but it was really annoying... Speaking of the rear fascia, since one had to remove the metal chunks that it bolted to, after all was said and done, you had to re-attach the fascia in someway so the wind wouldn't catch it... they provided some zip ties and you were supposed to make some sort of elaborate lasso system... I just used some longer zip ties I had lying around and zip tied the fascia to the tube... looks like it should work fine...
Overall impression: A reasonable deal if you are handy with tools and don't expect to tow excessive loads... I will probably only use my vehicle to tow a trailer maybe 6 times a year... If you routinely tow heavy loads, I think I'd go with the factory unit...
Initial impressions: Should work fine for the light duty towing (landscaping trailer with 2K max load capacity) that I plan to do with it... As others have noted, it does not have the four bolts in the center, just a total of 8 bolts around the sides... 6 large bolts and two smallers ones... Looks OK, similar to factory, but not identical. You lose the use of the factory tow hook with this unit (factory unit has it built in) but I may be able to retrofit it somehow, ran out of time (see note about darkness below)...
Installation: PITA! Had to remove a number of chunks at first (tow hook, two fascia chunks that the rear fascia attaches to, the electrical connector had to be unbolted and moved to the side for installation purposes). Instructions were not the best, but I eventually made heads and tails of it... (Most of the actual installation of the bar itself was straightforward (see "Nut on a stick below), it was the ancillary stuff that was confusing...) Of course, it didn't help that I was doing this in my driveway, and since it took longer than expected, it was dark by the time I finished... daylight and a lift would have made it much easier... Installation on the driver side was easy (air tools) but passenger side, the exhaust was in the way, so it was hard to work around it... Unit came with "nuts on a stick" that you had to feed through a slot in the bumper, and align with a metal chunk that you were supposed to tape to the nut on a stick, but then it wouldn't fit through the slot... ended up dropping the metal chunk through the slot by itself, positioning it with a tool, and then being very careful not to lose it as I held the nut on a stick in position, and tried to screw the bolt into it... My guess is this was all done to avoid removing the rear fascia... but it was really annoying... Speaking of the rear fascia, since one had to remove the metal chunks that it bolted to, after all was said and done, you had to re-attach the fascia in someway so the wind wouldn't catch it... they provided some zip ties and you were supposed to make some sort of elaborate lasso system... I just used some longer zip ties I had lying around and zip tied the fascia to the tube... looks like it should work fine...
Overall impression: A reasonable deal if you are handy with tools and don't expect to tow excessive loads... I will probably only use my vehicle to tow a trailer maybe 6 times a year... If you routinely tow heavy loads, I think I'd go with the factory unit...
Driver
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 198
Likes: 0
From: VA
Originally Posted by BobsGX
Wow, sounds like you had a field day installing the aftermarket hitch. With the official Lexus hitch, nothing involved even touching the rear fascia and certainly no zip ties were involved in the process. And the factory installed tow pin gets installed in the same place as it came from the factory. I did mine while laying on my back in the garage. Easy installation, but I guess it should be.
I had purchased a Hidden Hitch unit previously for my old Chevy S10 pickup, and it was a breeze to install... no muss, no fuss... This installation, although not technically difficult, was frustrating from the standpoint that you had to remove a number of items (and now I have to decide whether to chuck them or stash them some where in the rare possibility that I might remove the trailer hitch) AND THEN you could start bolting up the unit... And, I have to admit, the zip tie thing is somewhat cheesy... One would think they could come up with something a little more elegant (on the Land Cruiser install, they tell you to cut the tabs off! 
) Well, on the positive side, I saved a couple of hundred bucks going with the aftermarket unit... although, had I to do it again, I think I might step up and pay the extra money... 
Racer
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 1,669
Likes: 4
From: Palos Verdes, California
Instead of the four bolts in the Center, I had a plate welded in the Center between the frame and the hitch.
~ Cap
Driver
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 198
Likes: 0
From: VA
Thanks! I remember reading a previous post where you mentioned that... I'm not too concerned about it, as I don't plan on pulling anything close to the 6500 LB capacity of the vehicle... My old S-10 pickup truck hitch was mounted the same way and never had an issue (towing the same type of things I'm towing now); however, I'll keep your suggestion in mind if I win the lottery and end up buying a huge boat or something!
Rookie
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 58
Likes: 0
From: CA
After reading this entire Thread, I think the guy who did the Hidden Hitch had the best strategy. I'm gonna take the $$$ I save by using the Hidden Hitch and spend it on something else for my GX. To each their own, but for me it's the Hidden Hitch for sure. I love this Forum.
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