Rusted receiver hitch

Depending on where you are and what your budget is you might want to check out Utility Truck and Trailer.

The one in Boise does outstanding work.

Our last truck was an old city work truck that I got at auction. It had a flatbed with a liftgate. I went to Utility b/c they did the original conversion. From what the guys there told me more modern liftgates are designed to be able to pull a trailer. With quite a bit of welding labor and fabrication work it only cost me $1000 to have the liftgate modified to pull a trailer and some other work too; which was more than $250 cheaper than only other three fab shops in town quoted me.

Still looking...

I first went to Toyota to price up a new receiver, of course expecting a higher price I was still shocked to see what Toyota was asking. (I'm not going to tell, it was that expensive) Seems my 650LB tongue weight class 3 hitch is made specifically for the Tacoma's with the tow pkgs. If I go with a generic class 3 the best I can find is 550LB and then I have to deal with adapting my bumper to fit the receiver. Plus I like the 650LB rating, gives me a higher safety factor between the hitch rating and the actual weight of my trailer tongue.

So the past couple of weeks been searching E-bay, craiglist, local salvage yards, various parts search engines

still looking...

mike

You can probably get a new Reese or Rigid hitch installed for less than $200. Check for local listings.

Hard to tell from the photos. If it's just surface rust clean and repaint is okay. I'd probably buy a new one.

Uhh yeah, get a new hitch, and if the truck frame looks like that, get a newer truck.
Sooo glad I don't live in the salt belt anymore!

Steve B. wrote:
My question is, why can't they make a hitch that won't rust like that?

I believe some of the rust issues was coming from my truck bumper. Standing water would drain into the forward cross bar and with no place for the water to drain out is why I got all my "inside" rust.(not seen in the piks) Now as for the the rest of the hitch....

Mike

BarneyS wrote:
It kind of looks to me like there are two parts to that hitch - or one part hitch and one part of truck. The badly rusted part looks like it is part of the truck and not the hitch. Either way, I would replace and not tow anything with it.
2007 Tacoma receiver hitches.
Barney

It's all one welded piece. The truck bumper is also mated to the hitch, so I had to remove that also. Because of this I'm guessing I might have to go to Toyota direct, but I'll research this this coming week.

For me at least Toyota has been good about standing behind their product. My truck frame is still in great shape even though I have had 2 recalls where they replaced my leaf springs and sprayed the frame.

Thanks for posting the link

Mike

My question is, why can't they make a hitch that won't rust like that? I painted mine this year and the rust is coming right back. I will try the rust converter next, if I don't trade my Santa Fe in before that. Can't they do something for those of us northeasterners that can't avoid road salt? Come to think of it, my car was in Florida for the last two winters, so it didn't get all of the salt that it normally would have. Car looks like new, then you look at the hitch, and what the ...?

It kind of looks to me like there are two parts to that hitch - or one part hitch and one part of truck. The badly rusted part looks like it is part of the truck and not the hitch. Either way, I would replace and not tow anything with it.
2007 Tacoma receiver hitches.
Barney

Yeah one thing I noticed was the cross bar closest to the receiver hitch had no weep holes, (a factory over site) so the water just filled and stayed inside the bar. The "inside" of the bar was filled with rust. One more reason for me to replace. Don't want the risk of a mishap with my truck & TT.

Mike