I bought my 2001 4runner used recently and it has a Uhaul brand trailer hitch rated for 5k lbs. I'm not sure how old the hitch is but it's probably original. It looks like it has a good amount of surface rust on it, but I'm hoping the rust doesn't start rotting it out from the inside.

I'm curious if anyone has ever heard of a trailer hitch failing due to rust?

 

would help if we could see the damage

 

never heard of it.

 

you will be fine

 

Just wack the rust a couple times with a hammer and see how much comes off. If it leaves you with REALLY deep craters then you MIGHT have a problem.

But if the rust isn't too bad, pull off the hitch, slap a nice thick coat of navel jelly on to get all the rust off and then repaint it.

FOG

 

I was washing my 4runner with the factory hitch ('98) a few years ago, sprayed it with a pressure washer (nothing crazy) and the metal just flaked right off! It looked fine from the outside, but was totally corroded on the inside and disintegrated when sprayed with water. I never towed with it, just put a bike rack there in the summer, pretty glad I didn't decide to tow a boat or trailer with it and find out the hard way.

 

The 3 piece Toyota hitch has a design flaw that lets water to stagnate in the main cross bar and rot it from the inside.

If the Uhaul comes apart, better have a look at what's going on inside the tube.