Slightly bent tow hitch

Was there a rubber Toyota receiver plug installed in the hitch when you purchased your new 4Runner? The plug is not an accessory that Toyota includes on delivery.

 

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that was a defective hitch and nobody backed that vehicle into something. the paint at the deformed part is intact. If someone backed the vehicle into something hard enough for that to deform like that, the paint at the deformity would be damaged and there would probably be damage to the rear crossmember.

 

We don't yet know if this was considered new, a loaner, demo, or what. Details are missing. Besides that, any dealership could add a rubber plug pre delivery.

Another detail missing is whether a 2" hitch bar will go into this receiver, or is it deformed too much to allow that?

 

Thank you all for the replies to this situation. For anyone wanting the full story here it is:

I purchased the vehicle in Tennessee (live in Oklahoma) with 159 miles or so. CARFAX came back clean and says it was a rental vehicle. I asked the salesman to elaborate and he said that this trim (SR5 Premium) was never intended to be a rental so the rental company sold it and that's how it came into the dealers hands.
I did my best for a thorough inspection when I got there and got as many pictures of the engine bay and undercarriage before I got there but I never thought to look at the tow hitch. I bought the vehicle and drove it home (about 750 miles) with no issues. I work at a shop that has an alignment rack so I put it up high and snapped some pictures of it and didn't see any signs of damage. A technician mentioned that maybe someone might have put a tow hitch that was the wrong size and maybe it got bent with a nasty bump or braking. I'm taking it to the dealership tomorrow for an inspection and an oil change. Almost at 1000 miles.
Here are some pics for reference. Hoping this isn't as big of a deal as some are saying.

 

Hmmm… A rental vehicle that left the fleet early is a red flag, regardless of the BS that the salesman feeds you.

 

Hopefully this will just end up needing a replacement hitch. From the limited view available, everything else still looks new. I hope you got a great price on this...

 

Have the frame measured and spec'd. Get the results in writing.

 

Folks on this board think a tow hitch is some precision manufactured assembly

Typical steel square tube stock can have significant waviness in the sides, because it's made by bending a sheet into shape and welding the seam. You may have heard the term hot rolled electron welded (HREW):



In addition there will be some warpage from welding the tube into the hitch.

Paint has poor adhesion to welds and the tow hitch has a lot of welding concentrated in a small area. I've seen tow hitch rusting on Toyotas sitting on the lot. Expect the paint on welds on your frame to chip the same way after a year or so.

 

Toyota hitches suck anyway, my 2013 was so shallow my bike rack wouldn't seat deep enough for the locking cross bolt. Had no issue in my previous Yukon, but was short by almost 2". I ended up having a local welder add on the extension using the proper steel. Hopefully just an easy swap for you to get this corrected.

 

I don't see any damage behind the tow hitch but then again I'm not sure what I'm looking for.

 

No there wasn't anything like that installed

 

Two pics: one has never been towed with and has about 7,000 miles on it up here south of buffalo NY so it’s seen some crappy weather. Other one has been towed with at times. This “towing” 4R has about 28K miles and sees more dirt roads, mud, snow and salt. Looks like someone probably backed in to something, but as others have said, the paint on these chips really easily and once that happens they start to rust right away. I’d replace the one on yours with a new one just because the damage and rust would bother me. It’s a quick 15 minute job, but you’ll probably need an impact gun to get the bolts loose.

 

I don't think there's anything to worry about as long as the draw bar slides in okay. The welds look good from the picture and you're going to be using safety chains when trailering anyway.