My Curt Hitch & Tow Ready 65855 Carrier :)

This started in another thread where I added what I was doing.
Now that I have used carrier a couple of times and done some mods, I thought I would share my setup in own thread to make easier to search.

Wife takes girls on Scouting trips etc and usually has a pile of light stuff like sleeping bags and cloths. Sometimes tossed firewood in back of Odyssey. Kids have their skates and bits for trips to Grandmas. Nothing heavy, just taking up room. We needed a way round it if we were to downsize to 'V'.

Installed Curt Hitch in 40 minutes. It's light, I rested it on my chest as I moved it up and bolted it on. Only issue getting the exhaust baffle plate not to touch and maybe squeak.

Added 'Tow Ready 65855 36" x 20" ATV Cargo Carrier' with 1-1/4" shank.

When we were looking at 'V' I asked salesman if putting hitch on would affect warranty. 'No, but I will check'. Manager came over and agreed and we wrote that on contract I was signing. Any problems will be with dealership if Toyota ever complain.







Rack fits in back of V even with the shank attached.



With carrier only a few inches from bumper the hatch will hit. With this carrier you can choose which of the several bolt holes you want to use and adjust distance from bumper.

I was going to extend the 1 1/4 inch square bar through the hitch so we could slide the whole carrier back to open hatch and get in the back for unloading. Looking at the carrier I decided I could modify it to tilt away from back of vehicle and allow hatch to open without removal of carrier. I am using a lockable hitch pin as vehicle will be sitting out at night and wife doesn't want to have to remove carrier.

See following images where I used saw to cut about 3/4 inch of 'U' section at back of the deck holder. I put back bolt in to hold deck on and gave it a shove down to bend the piece I cut. Push as little or as much as you want to have deck tilt back and allow hatch to clear and open. Enough room for me to get between car and carrier to unload, so wife or kids will have room to unload. Drilled out the other bolt hole to take a hitch pin.

 

Wanted to update you on my hitch.

I was not happy how low it sat. I could see bottom of spare wheel well between the bottom of bumper and top of hitch, it hung that low. The vehicle is mine and I can do as I want, but I was not going to cut the two sections out to fit the completely hidden hitch.

[I feel there's not a lot of metal back there to begin with. Over time when you cut something like that, a crack can start to grow unless you do it right. They should tell you to drill a hole first. Then cut to the hole, lessening the rick of a stress fracure runnging out from the end of your cut.]

We cut the hitch, clamped it while on the car to get levels etc. Took it off and welded. This welded hitch is solid for the small loads we will be taking. Before it looked 'dorkey'. Now it looks like it was made for the V.

I don't mind a little black of the tow bar pipe that runs across showing, because for the V it covers the ugly bottom of the spare wheel well. For this reason I personally don't think the whole bar needs to go up behind bumper.

After completing this mod my neighbor who did welds, thought it was one of best 'looks' for a hitch he had seen. So many now have squares running past exhaust, one side seem to be longer etc.









I hope they one of the hitch builders will build a true bolt on, no cut hitch that sits up nice and snug to the brackets that hold the bottom of the bumper to spare wheel well. (In my second image you can see the bit I am talking about. This is the spot where on one of the other hitches you cut each side out )

Did I tell you I think it drives better now