Thank you all for the help in selecting a hitch. I went with the Class IV from Lexus. Very nice looking unit. However, I elected to install it myself. Very bad idea. Bolts on the tie down took forever to get off. Many of the bolts supplied with the hitch did not want to fit in the holes. I had to grind down the tips in order to get the thread to catch. Also, the spacers on the side pieces were so big that I could not get the hitch to fit correctly. Removed the spacers and it fit like a glove. Center spacers posed no problems.

Finally, my exhaust was pretty tight and I could not get the retainer clip off. That made it almost impossible to get the passenger's side bolted down. I almost gave up but after several hours stumbled upon a techniqe/tool that did the trick.

Lesson - Pay to have someone else install the hitch.

Thanks again.

 

Glad to hear it worked out. It's the best looking hitch for the GX IMO.

Yea I agree it's not as easy to install as it sounds or some would like you to believe. After surveying what was involved it wasn't worth the aggrevation, so I paid Lexus to do it.

 

Thumbert, where did you buy the hitch from? I'm in the market and it would be great if you could pass on some potential sources, as well as the different prices you saw and what you settled on. Thanks!

 

U-Haul carries the Curt Hitches and only charges $50 to install them.

Best way to go in my opinion.

~ Cap

 

Here is a place to buy the Lexus hitch at a discount: http://www.lexuspartsmall.com/product.php?id=329

 

I have installed 3 Lexus tow hitches on 3 different GX470's by myself. The spacer plates on the sides are needed to correctly level the hitch with the 2 thick spacers used on top of the center mount. Otherwise the hitch will not be aligned as Lexus designed it to be. It will work, but you will probably put increased wear on the draw bar of the towed vehicle and on the hitch itself. Also sounds like the mounting bolts with your hitch were not manufactured correctly. The ones in the kits I installed threaded in like they had some oil on them. But like you said, next time pay the ransom and let someone else do it.