Tips for installing hitch

Hey everyone,

I thought I'd post this here for people who will be putting their own hitch on in the future. I just put mine on and like many before, you get the sheet saying to torque all M12 bolts to 105 ft lbs. For the supplied bolts with the hitch this is fine, but for the pre existing bumper bolts it is not. After speaking with a local toyota tech, he said if your using the factory bolts to torque them to 80-85ft lbs.

Like people before though, I torque all bolts to 105, some held up, a few did not. A few snapped the heads off and the others when I took them out were clearly stretched and no good.

So instead of buying toyotas bolts again, You can buy some grade 8 bolts. Then theres no issues, and you know the hitch is going no where. I threw them in, as well as nuts ontop of the welded nuts already there for piece of mind, and all is good. The total cost for bolts and nuts is about 30$. With putting them at 105 ft lbs though make sure to use some thick washers as they can bend.

Hope this will one day help someone.

Toyota Bumper bolts= 80-85 ft lbs
Bolts supplied with hitch = 105 ft lbs
New grade 8 bolts = 105 ft lbs. Can take more if your feeling strong lol.
New bolts specs= M12x40x1.25