Beginner’s Guide to Installing the etrailer Trailer Hitch Receiver on a 2016 Toyota Highlander

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Ryan: Hey everybody. Ryan here at etrailer.com. Today on our 2016 Toyota Highlander we're going to be taking a look at and showing you how to install the etrailer.com class three two inch trailer hitch receiver. Many of our Highlander owners plan on using their SUV's to do a little bit of everything. So whether it's freeing up space on the inside of your car with a cargo carrier, carrying a few bikes with a rack, or even pulling a trailer, this hitch is going to work great for all those things. Since the hitch does have that two inch by two inch opening, our options for hitch mounted accessories are going to be virtually endless.
And since the end of our receiver tube is going to sit pretty much flush with the edge of our bumper, it's going to work really well for those folding accessories.Now compared to some other hitches out there, this one is going to be a little bit more visible. However, personally I kind of like it. To me it looks like it just flows with the car nicely and seems to be a part of it. Out of all the hitches that I've seen, this one probably has the most durable finish. It's going to be a matte black carbide finish, which is going to hold up really well against the elements, look good, and it's going to be very scratch-resistant.
The hitch is going to have a reinforced collar for extra strength, and it's also going to have these standard size five eighths pin hole. Now keep in mind it does not come included with the pin and clip, but if you need one you can find it her at etrailer.com. Also going to have very large safety chain openings, but you shouldn't have any problem using any size hooks that you might have. And since this is a class three hitch, it's going to be great for towing and it has some pretty impressive weight capacities.Our hitch's maximum gross tongue weight rating is going to be 900 pounds. That's going to be the amount of weight pushing down on our hitch.
So that's going to work perfect for just about any accessory, whether it be a large cargo carrier or those one to four bike racks. When it comes to maximum gross trailer weight rating, that's going to be 6,000 pounds. The amount of weight pulling on our hitch. That's the weight of your trailer plus anything you might have on it. Now the hitch can be used with the weight distribution system, which is a separate component.
However, if you are using that, our maximum gross trailer weight rating does increase to 8,000 pounds. The maximum tongue weight rating does remain the same at 900. Now it is always a good idea to check with your Highlander's owner's manual to make sure your SUV can pull that much weight.And if you do plan on doing a little bit of towing, I'd recommend picking up some trailer wiring. That way it'll be safe and legal as you pull your trailer down the road. Now I'm going to give you a couple of measurements. From the ground to the top inside edge of the receiver tube opening, it's about 15 and a half inches, and you're going to use that to figure out if you need to get a ball mount with either a drop or rise. From the center of the hitch pin hole to the edge of our rear bumper, that's going to be about two inches and you're going to use that to help figure out if any folding accessories you might have can be stored in the upright position without contacting our back bumper.Many of our customers said they didn't really have any issues at all getting the hitch installed, but we'll go ahead and still walk you through how to do it now. To begin our installation over here on the passenger's side, right here above our tailpipe, we're going to have a little plastic air deflector that we need to trim up to make some room for our hitch. As I said, this is a thin plastic and there is a diagram in the instructions and it'll tell you where to mark it. I went ahead and already marked ours. That way I can cut it. Now you can use a knife, a pair of tin snips. However, I'm going to be using a dremel tool to get that trimmed off.Now we're going to come over to the driver's side and we need to remove this plastic under body panel. We're going to first start by doing that, by removing the two plastic push pin fasteners, one here and one here. Once you do that, we'll take a flat head screwdriver, kind of work underneath the head of the fastener, and we can grab it and work it down. Now we're going to take out the three 10 millimeter bolts, one here, here, and here.Now if we moved to the inside here next to our spare tire, we're going to have two plastic 12 millimeter nuts. You can typically do these by hand. Loosen them up, and then what you usually have to do is kind of grab