Disclaimer

Researched guidance, not professional advice

TowingCalc publishes towing calculators and buying guidance compiled from published standards, manufacturer towing guides and product specifications, and the consensus of verified owner reviews. We do not test towing hardware in person and we never claim to. Nothing on this site is engineering advice, legal advice, or a substitute for your vehicle and trailer documentation.

Towing can kill people

That is not a figure of speech. Towing over capacity, fitting a mismatched hitch or ball, or loading a trailer tail-heavy causes real crashes that involve other people on the road. Several specific points matter enough to repeat here:

• Your ratings come off your own vehicle. The payload sticker in your door jamb, the certification label on your trailer, and the owner manual for your exact configuration. Not from any chart on this site.
• A published tow rating is a manufacturer figure for one specific configuration of engine, axle ratio, cab, bed and drivetrain. It is not a property of a model name, and two vehicles with the same badge can differ by thousands of pounds.
• Tongue weight of 10 to 15 percent on a conventional trailer and 15 to 25 percent pin weight on a fifth wheel. Err heavy, never light. Too little tongue weight causes sway, and the sway grows rather than damping out.
• A weight distribution hitch does not raise any capacity. Neither do air bags or helper springs. They move load and restore ride height. Payload, GVWR, GCWR and axle ratings are untouched.
• The ball must match the size stamped on the coupler exactly. A 1-7/8 inch coupler will sit over a 2 inch ball and appear to latch, then come off on the road.
• Trailer brakes are required by state law above a weight threshold that varies by state, commonly somewhere between 1,500 and 5,000 lb. Check your own state, the states you drive through, and your trailer certification label.
• Trailer tires carry their rated load only at maximum cold inflation, and they age out in roughly five to six years regardless of tread depth.

Accuracy and limitations

Calculations on this site model idealised conditions. Real trailers load unevenly, real roads are crowned, real suspensions sag and real scales disagree with each other. Treat every figure as a starting point to check against your own weighed numbers, not as a result to rely on.

Where a manufacturer does not publish a figure, we leave it out rather than estimating it. Where a figure is towing convention rather than a published standard, we label it that way. Where we could not source something reliably, we say so instead of printing it.

Your responsibility

You are responsible for the safe and legal operation of your own vehicle and trailer, including weights, ratings, equipment, licensing and the law wherever you drive. If you are unsure, weigh the rig at a public scale and consult your vehicle manufacturer, your trailer manufacturer or a qualified professional. TowingCalc accepts no liability for decisions made on the basis of information published here.

See also the methodology, the affiliate disclosure and the terms of service.