FJ60 Tow setup. Receiver and Plug and Play wiring (1 Viewer)

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I spent some time looking for how to setup my 60 so I could tow a small trailer and maybe the occasional car dolly. My google searches of course turned up Mud forum posts and after a while I was able to figure out a good combination of parts that are both available and pretty close to ready to go.


One fellow inmate recently installed a hitch and they indicated they used the "Draw Tite 75725 Max Frame Receiver". Its not listed as a direct fit to a 60 but it lines up very well with the frame rails and the two bolts that mount mid bumper line up perfectly with the existing toyota bolts.

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To mount this we pulled the tow hook off the passenger side frame rail and reused those two bolts on the mid bumper mount on the hitch. The hitch comes with two carriage bolts, matching nuts, and retainer plates. We used these two carrage bolts on the rearward most frame rail mount holes....these line up with both the holes in the hitch and the frame. We then center punched the frame for the remaining 4 holes (2 per rail) and drilled them out to 1/2" diameter. We used new 1/2" hardware to bolt the hitch to the frame. Note that we also used (2) 1/2" fender washers stacked on each of the forward most and rearward most bolts. The bolts in the middle dont get washers because thats where the rivets are in the way. These washers give you the clearance needed for the factory rivets in the frame.

Lastly once the hitch is bolted to the rails there will be a gap between the hitch and the bottom of the stock bumper. We happened to have a bar stock of auminum that was the proper width to be a spacer. Milled a couple holes through the spacer and bolted it up.

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Part 2 - Wiring.

To wire the 60 up need a harness that converts a 5 wire to the 4 for the trailer plug....this is because the turn signal is a separate circuit from the brake lights. I first bought a generic 5 to 4 harness at the uhaul store but I wasn't excite about cutting into my 35 year old factory wiring harness. Then I found this Mud thread: 4 wire trailer plug and play kit which detailed a harness equipped with matching connectors to jumper the stock harness and that only needed the wires to be switched around to work.

This is the harness:

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I read through the various iterations of posts talking about the steps need to make this work and in the end I found it was easiest just to take the drivers side tail lamp assembly out and then removed all the wires from the Hopkins connectors. Then using this info from the referred thread's first post:

Hopkins wire///Toyota Wire///Function
Green///Green-Yellow///Right turn signal
Red///Green-White///Brakes
Yellow///Green-Black///Left Turn signal
Brown///Green///Tail lights
White///Brown///Ground

I just matched up my wires to the toyota connector and reconfigured the connector. The drivers side needs most of the wires swapped and the passenger side just needs one swapped. To get the wires out out of the connector I found that a medium sized safety pin was the right size and stiffness to fit in and apply pressure to the lock tab. Once you master the process of bending this tab back (like a plastic spring) the connector will slide right out.

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The drivers side wires reconfigured before putting the rest of the jumper wires in. Also my uber fancy wire tool

Another angle

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. Edited...want to keep this info only.
 
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I spent some time looking for how to setup my 60 so I could tow a small trailer and maybe the occasional car dolly. My google searches of course turned up Mud forum posts and after a while I was able to figure out a good combination of parts that are both available and pretty close to ready to go.


One fellow inmate recently installed a hitch and they indicated they used the "Draw Tite 75725 Max Frame Receiver". Its not listed as a direct fit to a 60 but it lines up very well with the frame rails and the two bolts that mount mid bumper line up perfectly with the existing toyota bolts.

View attachment 2125180

View attachment 2125181

To mount this we pulled the tow hook off the passenger side frame rail and reused those two bolts on the mid bumper mount on the hitch. The hitch comes with two carriage bolts, matching nuts, and retainer plates. We used these two carrage bolts on the rearward most frame rail mount holes....these line up with both the holes in the hitch and the frame. We then center punched the frame for the remaining 4 holes (2 per rail) and drilled them out to 1/2" diameter. We used new 1/2" hardware to bolt the hitch to the frame. Note that we also used (2) 1/2" fender washers stacked on each of the forward most and rearward most bolts. The bolts in the middle dont get washers because thats where the rivets are in the way. These washers give you the clearance needed for the factory rivets in the frame.

Lastly once the hitch is bolted to the rails there will be a gap between the hitch and the bottom of the stock bumper. We happened to have a bar stock of auminum that was the proper width to be a spacer. Milled a couple holes through the spacer and bolted it up.

View attachment 2125184

View attachment 2125185

View attachment 2125186
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Hi Seth. Thanks for the link to this thread. I also saw the one by @Robert Franzke too. What year is your 60? Or are the frames the same for any 60 series so what works for an 84 works for an 86? How did you decide between the Draw Tite 75725 and the Curt 13402? I need a class 2 receiver for my ‘86 60 to pull a double trailer with wave runners on it. I read @Robert Franzke post about spending hours thru steel to install the curt 13402 on his 84. Did you experience the same with the draw Tite 75725? I found the 2” receiver made by BTB that may be less work to install, but again I’ve no experience.
Based on your experience which one would be easiest for a mechanic to install?
Here are pics of mine.
 
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Hi Seth. Thanks for the link to this thread. I also saw the one by @Robert Franzke too. What year is your 60? Or are the frames the same for any 60 series so what works for an 84 works for an 86? How did you decide between the Draw Tite 75725 and the Curt 13402? I need a class 2 receiver for my ‘86 60 to pull a double trailer with wave runners on it. I read @Robert Franzke post about spending hours thru steel to install the curt 13402 on his 84. Did you experience the same with the draw Tite 75725? I found the 2” receiver made by BTB that may be less work to install, but again I’ve no experience.
Based on your experience which one would be easiest for a mechanic to install?
Here are pics of mine.

Sorry....I never saw this post apparently but better late than never?

I think the frames on 60's are all the same so I don't think you will have issues between an 84 frame and an 86 frame,

As far as Curt VS Drawtite...I think I just read another forum post about the Drawtite and it looked good so I went with it. The Curt looks like it would work just fine as well.

I looked at the BTB unit but I didn't want to spend the asking price and knew that the Drawtite was at least half the price and would work just as well. I was planning to make my own but after getting a Drawtite for $120? it just wasn't worth my time and effort to make one.

The most difficult thing about installing the Drawtite and I assume the Curt is that you have to drill 4 holes into the frame rail and you are drilling overhead. I bolted the hitch in place at the two holes the do work and at the two holes in the center of the bumper. Then I used some center punch tools to get the drill locations proper. Dropped the hitch down and then drilled. I used a step drill but its still a good amount of effort. All told I'd wager a shop would charge 1-2 hours for the labor. The BTB should be designed around the stock holes so in the end it might come out in the wash as you could more easily install it yourself without need to pay a shops labor.
 
Seth thanks for the writeup! I have a 75725 that I'm in the process of installing. I noted that the bolts that came with the hitch do not fit the weld nuts on the rear bumper, do you recall what size those bolts should be?

Are you talking about the two that go here?
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I think I just reused the ones that were in there to begin with. I don't remember what size those bolts are.....but reasonably large diameter. 12's maybe.... do you have a tap set on hand? you might be able to figure them out that way....or I feel like @OSS might have that knowledge on hand ;)
 
Are you talking about the two that go here?
View attachment 2657691

I think I just reused the ones that were in there to begin with. I don't remember what size those bolts are.....but reasonably large diameter. 12's maybe.... do you have a tap set on hand? you might be able to figure them out that way....or I feel like @OSS might have that knowledge on hand ;)

Yep those two. I found a bolt that fit in the shed, hoofed it to Home Depot, and answered my own question. They’re M12x1.25 as close as I can tell. 👍
 
Oh. Just reread my first post. I used the bolts from the tow hook on the passenger side frame rail.
Yep those two. I found a bolt that fit in the shed, hoofed it to Home Depot, and answered my own question. They’re M12x1.25 as close as I can tell. 👍
 
Seth S
Thank you for this write up. I ordered the trailer wiring harness and switched the pins as per your instructions and it works great.
Thanks again.
 

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