Will my truck pull it?
The answer is almost never the big number in the brochure. Here is how to find the number that actually decides it, in about two minutes, standing next to your own truck.
Read this first. Nothing on this page is a rating for your vehicle. Tow and payload capacity change with trim, axle ratio, engine, and factory options, so two trucks that look identical can be thousands of pounds apart. Confirm your numbers with your vehicle manufacturer and the sticker in your door jamb. The decision to hitch up and drive is yours.
Start here
Skip to the guide ↓One sticker settles most of it
Open the driver's door on your truck and look at the jamb. There is a yellow-and-white sticker with a sentence on it that most people never read. That sentence is the real limit.
Payload is everything you add to the truck: you, your passengers, the cooler, the tools, the hitch itself, and the weight the trailer presses down on the ball or on the bed. It is a smaller number than most people expect, and on a half-ton with a crew cab and a sunroof it can be under 1,500 lbs.
Here is why it decides the deal. A travel trailer puts roughly 10 to 15 percent of its loaded weight on the hitch. A fifth wheel puts 20 to 25 percent in the bed. Run those percentages against your sticker before you fall in love with a floorplan.
Most people who get in trouble were never over the tow rating. They ran out of payload.
| TIRE | ORIGINAL SIZE | COLD TIRE PRESSURE |
|---|---|---|
| FRONT | LT275/65R18 | 450 kPa / 65 PSI |
| REAR | LT275/65R18 | 550 kPa / 80 PSI |
| SPARE | LT275/65R18 | 550 kPa / 80 PSI |
Every truck built for the US market carries one of these on the driver's door jamb. The layout shifts a little between manufacturers, but that sentence about combined weight is federally required, so yours says the same thing. Only the numbers change.
The three weights people mix up
Dry weight is the number that gets people in trouble
Every RV listing shows a weight. It is usually the lightest of the three, and it describes a trailer nobody has ever towed.
Dry weight
The trailer as it left the factory. No water, no propane, no batteries, no awning upgrade, no dishes, no kids' bikes. You will never tow this trailer.
GVWR
The most the trailer is legally allowed to weigh once you have loaded it. Plan against this number, not dry weight, and you will not get surprised at a scale.
Cargo capacity
GVWR minus dry weight. It is how much stuff the trailer can hold. Fill a fresh tank and you have already spent 250 to 400 lbs of it.
Plain English
The words on the spec sheet
Nobody explains these at the dealership, so here they are.
- GVWR
- Gross Vehicle Weight Rating. The maximum the RV is allowed to weigh loaded. The one to plan against.
- Dry weight
- Empty as shipped. No liquids, no gear, no dealer-installed options.
- Cargo carrying capacity
- What is left over for your belongings. Water counts. Propane counts. So does the generator.
- Tongue weight
- What a bumper-pull trailer presses down on your hitch ball. Roughly 10 to 15 percent of loaded weight. Comes out of payload.
- Pin weight
- The fifth wheel version, carried in your truck bed. Roughly 20 to 25 percent, so it eats payload fast.
- Payload
- What your truck can carry, from the door jamb sticker. People, gear, hitch, and tongue or pin weight all share it.
- Max tow rating
- The headline number in the truck brochure, measured on a stripped base model with a driver and nothing else.
- GCWR
- Gross Combined Weight Rating. Truck and trailer together, fully loaded. The ceiling over the whole rig.
How it goes wrong
A truck that “can tow 11,000 lbs” and a trailer that weighs 7,900
On paper this is an easy yes. Here is the same pairing worked through the payload sticker instead of the brochure.
Half-ton crew cab and a 38 ft bunkhouse travel trailer
Illustration only| What is riding on the truck | Weight |
|---|---|
| Payload from the door jamb sticker | 1,486 lbs |
| Two adults and two kids | -460 lbs |
| Weight distribution hitch | -95 lbs |
| Gear, cooler, tools, firewood in the bed | -220 lbs |
| Tongue weight, trailer loaded to its GVWR | -1,150 lbs |
| Left over | -439 lbs |
Never came close to the tow rating. Still overloaded, because payload ran out first. Same trailer behind a three-quarter-ton is a comfortable yes. This is the entire reason we would rather talk it through with you than hand you a calculator.
Want the full year-by-year chart?
RV LIFE publishes a free towing guide covering tow ratings and payload for current and past model years. It opens in a new tab.
Easiest option
Tell us what you drive and we will work it out with you
Send us the year, make, and trim of your tow vehicle. We will look at your payload, the floorplans you are considering, and tell you straight whether the pairing works.
Can I tow this?
Put the year, make, model, and trim of your tow vehicle in the message box, along with any floorplan you have your eye on.
We will come back with what we find, not a yes-or-no verdict. Final confirmation always comes from your vehicle manufacturer and the sticker on your truck.
Know your numbers? See what we have on the lot.
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