Towing Limits

How to use Towing Limits

How to find your vehicle's towing limits and check a trailer against them. Last updated October 26, 2026.

Quick start

  1. On the home page, type the model in Find your vehicle and press Find, or tap one of the Recently added vehicles (the newest pages, with the date each was added), or tap a make: each make shows how many models we have and its highest rating (on a computer its models are listed under it; on a phone, tap the make to see them). Then pick the model and the model year. All vehicles (Vehicles in the menu) lists every model on one page, with a box to type the model name.
  2. In the table, find the row that matches your engine, axle ratio and configuration (cab, bed, drive). That row is your maximum trailer weight.
  3. Tap Can I tow it? with … limits on the vehicle page. Add your payload from the door-jamb label, what you carry in the vehicle and your loaded trailer weight.
  4. In the tools (Can I tow it?, payload, tongue weight), the result updates as you type. On a phone, while you change the numbers and the result is below the screen, a bar at the bottom shows the main result; tap it to jump to the full result.
  5. Confirm the figures in your owner's manual and on your vehicle's labels before you tow. They always take priority.

Finding your vehicle

Vehicles on the site now: Ram (3 models), Toyota (7 models), Nissan (5 models), Subaru (3 models), Ford (13 models), GMC (4 models), Kia (2 models), Chevrolet (7 models), Dodge (1 models), Jeep (4 models), Hyundai (2 models), Honda (3 models). More makes are added one at a time, each from the maker's own towing guide or spec sheet.

  • Make page — every model, with the latest year's maximum.
  • Model page — every model year we have, with its maximum trailer weight and engines. Pick a year.
  • Year page — every rating for that model year, explained below.

Reading a year page

  • Maximum loaded trailer weight at the top is the highest rating for that model year, with the engine and configuration that reach it. Most vehicles tow less; find your own row.
  • Towing capacity by configuration lists each engine, axle ratio and configuration with its GCWR (the most the loaded vehicle and loaded trailer may weigh together) and its Max trailer weight in pounds, with kilograms underneath. On a phone each row is shown as a small card.
  • Some models have several tables, as the maker prints them, one per guide page and towing type (for example conventional and fifth wheel or gooseneck), or one per body style when the maker prints them separately (for example the Transit passenger van, cargo van, cutaway and chassis cab). Chevrolet's guide prints no axle ratio for the Silverado 1500, so its tables show the configuration (cab, bed, drive, Max Trailering Package and wheel size) and the engine instead. Cards at the top jump to each table, and each table has the footnotes of its own page.
  • Small raised numbers are the maker's footnotes, listed under the table or at the bottom of the page. Where a cell shows two weights, a footnote says which one applies.
  • Some makers publish a spec sheet instead of a towing guide (for example Toyota's Product Information for the Tacoma). Those pages have no GCWR or axle column, because the maker does not print them there. A weight shown as a range (for example 5,950–6,000 lbs) is printed that way by the maker: the figure for your vehicle depends on its grade and equipment. Two weights separated by a slash with no footnote (for example on the Sequoia Platinum, 1794 and Capstone rows) are printed that way by the maker without saying which applies; the note under the table says to use the lower one until your owner's manual or door-jamb label says otherwise. A row marked (SR grade) is the lower rating the maker prints for that grade. On the Tundra page, each configuration names the drive, cab and bed length, and the grade in brackets exactly as Toyota prints it (for example (LTD) for Limited, (Cap.) for Capstone); find your grade on your window sticker or registration.
  • Some makers print the towing figures in a brochure's specifications page (for example Nissan for the Frontier). Their tables give one rating per trim and cab or drive, named exactly as printed (for example SV Crew Cab 4x4, or SL Optional where the maker prints a Standard and an Optional rating without saying more). When the page with the towing table names no engine, the Engine column shows a dash, as on the 2024 TITAN.
  • Hitch and bumper limits are the most the hitch may carry. The hitch rating can be higher than what the vehicle may tow: use the lower of the two.
  • Tongue weight limits (on spec-sheet pages) are the maker's maximum tongue weight for each engine and cab. Your hitch receiver label can be lower; then the lower figure applies. Under the limits (or under the maker's notes when the tongue weight is printed there) a link opens the tongue weight calculator to check your own trailer.
  • What you need to tow the maximum (or Notes from the maker) lists the equipment and conditions the maker requires, such as a tow package, a weight-distributing hitch or trailer brakes.
  • Source links to the exact page of the maker's guide or spec sheet and says when we checked it against the original.
  • Other years link to the same model in other model years.

Every figure is copied from the maker's document and checked line by line; data sources explains how.

Can I tow it?

Checks a trailer against four limits at once, because passing one does not mean you pass the others.

  1. Choose Units: pounds or kilograms.
  2. Enter your vehicle's limits: Maximum trailer weight (owner's manual or towing guide), Payload (door-jamb tire and loading label), Hitch tongue limit (label on the hitch receiver), and optionally GCWR and Curb weight.
  3. Enter People + cargo in vehicle and the Loaded trailer weight.
  4. Choose the Trailer type: conventional (ball hitch) or fifth wheel / gooseneck. Leave Tongue weight % blank to use 12% for a conventional trailer or 20% for a fifth wheel, or enter your measured share.

The result says how many limits you are within, with a bar for each check:

  • Trailer weight against the maximum trailer weight.
  • Tongue weight against the hitch limit (conventional trailers only).
  • People, cargo and tongue weight against the payload.
  • Curb weight, people, cargo and trailer against the GCWR (when both GCWR and curb weight are entered).

A check is skipped when you leave its limit empty. A note warns when the tongue weight share is outside the usual range. Opened from a vehicle page, the tool comes with that vehicle's maximum trailer weight and hitch tongue limit filled in (in pounds); add your payload yourself. Your entries are remembered in this browser and are not sent to us.

Tongue weight calculator

Enter the loaded trailer weight, choose lbs or kg and the trailer type. You get the target tongue weight range (10–15% of the trailer for a conventional trailer, 15–25% for a fifth wheel or gooseneck) and its middle value, with the math shown. Then check the top of the range against your hitch's tongue limit and your remaining payload, or run the full Can I tow it? check.

Payload calculator

Shows how much payload is left after people, cargo, accessories and a trailer's tongue weight.

  1. Choose Units: pounds or kilograms. Switching converts the weights you have already entered (rounded to two decimals).
  2. Choose Start from. Door-jamb placard: enter the “combined weight of occupants and cargo should never exceed …” figure from the tire and loading placard. GVWR − vehicle weight: enter the GVWR from the certification label and the vehicle's weight (a scale weight with a full tank and nothing aboard is best).
  3. Enter the Number of people (driver included) and the Weight per person, then Cargo and luggage and any Accessories added that the starting figure does not include (for example a bed cover or toolbox fitted after the vehicle was built, or options when you use a brochure curb weight).
  4. Enter the Loaded trailer weight (0 if you are not towing), the Trailer type and, if you know it, the Tongue weight %. Left blank, it uses 12% for a conventional trailer or 20% for a fifth wheel.

The result shows the payload left (or how far over you are), a bar of total load against payload, each part of the load, and the math step by step. A note says how heavy a trailer the remaining payload would allow at your tongue weight share; your towing capacity, hitch and GCWR must allow it too, which Can I tow it? checks. It opens with the federal owner's-manual example (1,400 lbs, five 150-lb people) plus a 5,000-lb trailer. Nothing you enter is sent to us.

Towing capacity by VIN

Finds the right towing chart from your vehicle identification number.

  1. Type or paste the 17-character VIN (from the windshield at the driver's side, the door-edge label, or your registration) and tap Decode VIN. Spaces and dashes are removed and letters are capitalised. The tool tells you straight away if the VIN has the wrong length or the letters I, O or Q, which VINs never use.
  2. Your browser asks NHTSA's free vPIC service to decode it. The result lists the make, model, model year, trim or series, body, cab, drive, engine and the GVWR (and GCWR, when NHTSA has it) class, a weight range rather than your exact rating.
  3. The verdict says whether we have that vehicle: Covered links to its year page, where you pick the row for your engine, drive, cab, bed and axle ratio; Year not covered links to the model years we have; Model not matched lists our models of that make so you can pick yours; Not covered yet means we have no data for that make. A note shows any warning NHTSA returns, such as a check digit that does not match (usually a mistyped character).

The VIN does not contain the towing capacity, so the tool never shows a towing figure on its own. The page address keeps the VIN (?vin=…), so a link or reload decodes it again. If your browser can't reach NHTSA directly, the tool asks again through this site, which passes the VIN on without storing it. If NHTSA still does not answer, the tool says so and links to NHTSA's own decoder.

Guides

Before you tow

  • Your owner's manual, the door-jamb label and the hitch label are the final word. Ratings change with engine, axle ratio, cab, drive and tow package.
  • If you are close to any limit, weigh the loaded rig at a truck scale.
  • Found a difference between our page and the maker's guide? Tell us and we will check it against the original.

What's new

  • October 26, 2026: new vehicle: 2026 Chevrolet Traverse (1,500 lbs, 5,000 lbs with the Trailering Package, FWD and AWD), from Chevrolet's 2026 trailering guide.
  • October 26, 2026: new vehicle: 2026 Kia Carnival (3,500 lbs with trailer brakes, 1,000 lbs without), from Kia's own spec page.
  • October 26, 2026: first Kia: 2026 Kia Sorento (2,000 lbs braked for both 2.5L engines; 3,500 lbs for the 2.5L turbo with the Towing Package; 1,650 lbs without trailer brakes), from Kia's own spec page.
  • October 25, 2026: new vehicles: 2026 GMC Sierra 2500 HD (97 ratings) and 2026 Sierra 3500 HD (71 ratings), conventional and 5th-wheel/gooseneck, from GMC's 2026 trailering charts; the pages work like the other vehicle pages.
  • October 25, 2026: the home page shows the Recently added vehicle pages (eight on a computer, six on a phone) with the date each was added.
  • October 25, 2026: the home page groups vehicles by make (one card per make with its models, two columns of makes on phones) instead of one card per model, and has a Find your vehicle search box that opens the All vehicles list filtered to your model.
  • October 25, 2026: new vehicles: 2026 Dodge Durango (6,200 to 8,700 lb; first Dodge on the site) and 2026 Jeep Grand Wagoneer (5,770 to 10,000 lb by wheelbase, drive and axle ratio), from the Stellantis media spec sheets.
  • October 24, 2026: first Hyundai vehicles: 2026 Hyundai Palisade (5,000 lb gas, 4,000 lb hybrid) and 2026 Santa Fe (3,500 lb 2.5T, 4,500 lb XRT, 2,000 lb hybrid), with trailer brakes, from Hyundai's own specification sheets on its U.S. media site.
  • October 24, 2026: first Subaru vehicles: 2026 Subaru Crosstrek (1,500 lb; Wilderness 3,500 lb), 2026 Crosstrek Hybrid (1,500 lb) and 2026 Ascent (up to 5,000 lb), from Subaru's own specification and at-a-glance sheets on its U.S. media site.
  • October 24, 2026: new vehicles: 2026 Chevrolet Tahoe and 2026 Suburban (12 ratings each: 5.3L and 6.2L V8 and the 3.0L Duramax diesel, with and without the Max Trailering Package, 2WD and 4WD, with GCWR), from Chevrolet's 2026 trailering guide.
  • October 24, 2026: new vehicles: 2026 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 HD (152 ratings) and 2026 Silverado 3500 HD (70 ratings), conventional and gooseneck/5th-wheel, each row naming the cab, bed, drive, wheel size and GVWR it applies to, with GCWR, from Chevrolet's 2026 trailering guide (pages 31–40). Where Chevrolet prints two figures in one cell (for example 35,500/32,000 on a 3500 HD dually), both are shown.
  • October 23, 2026: first Nissan models, from Nissan's own brochures on nissanusa.com: 2026 Frontier (11 ratings by trim and cab/drive, up to 7,150 lbs), 2026 Pathfinder (3,500 or 6,000 lbs by trim), 2026 Armada (8,500 lbs, tongue weight 850 lbs), 2024 TITAN and 2024 TITAN XD (TITAN's last model year). An engine the maker's page does not name is shown as a dash.
  • October 23, 2026: new vehicles: 2026 Chevrolet Colorado (from Chevrolet's 2026 trailering guide, page 41) and 2026 GMC Canyon (from GMC's 2026 Canyon trailering chart), with GCWR and GM's footnotes.
  • October 23, 2026: new vehicles: 2026 Jeep Wrangler (12 ratings by trim, transmission, engine and axle ratio, with GCWR) and 2026 Jeep Grand Cherokee (6,200 lbs for both engines). Vehicle pages that list a maker's tongue weight now link to the tongue weight calculator right under that figure.
  • October 23, 2026: first Jeep model: 2026 Jeep Gladiator (5 ratings by trim and axle ratio, with GCWR, from Jeep's 2026 specifications on Stellantis Media).
  • October 23, 2026: first Honda models: 2026 Ridgeline, 2026 Pilot (2WD and AWD rated separately) and 2026 Passport, from Honda's own spec pages on hondanews.com. Honda publishes these as web pages, not PDFs: the source link opens the page, and the source line names the towing capacity row of its specifications table instead of a page number.
  • October 22, 2026: new vehicle: 2026 Toyota Sequoia (SR5 and Limited by 2WD/4WD, the other grades as Toyota prints them). Where a maker prints two weights in one cell without a footnote, the note under the table now says so and suggests the lower one; a GCWR printed once for the whole model (Sequoia: 15,600 lbs) is listed with the maker's notes under the table.
  • October 22, 2026: new vehicles: 2026 Toyota Grand Highlander (one row per powertrain: Hybrid 3,500 lbs, Gas and Hybrid MAX 5,000 lbs, with Toyota's tongue weights under the table) and 2026 Toyota Highlander Hybrid (3,500 lbs, grade names as Toyota prints them).
  • October 22, 2026: new vehicle: 2026 Toyota RAV4 Plug-in Hybrid (3,500 lbs for the SE, XSE and Woodland grades; Toyota's note that towing is not recommended for the GR SPORT and its maximum tongue weight are under the table).
  • October 22, 2026: new vehicle: 2026 Toyota 4Runner (one rating, 6,000 lbs, for all 12 grades; grade names are shown in Toyota's own abbreviations, e.g. OFR, TH, PLT).
  • October 22, 2026: new vehicles: 2026 Ram 2500 and 2026 Ram 3500 from Ram's heavy-duty payload and towing chart. Each row names the cab, bed, drive, single or dual rear wheels (SRW/DRW) and the GVWR it applies to; Ram's notes on tongue weight and when a 5th-wheel or gooseneck hitch is required are under the table.
  • October 21, 2026: Towing Limits is applying for Google AdSense: once approved, Google ads may appear on pages. Ads never change the figures; how advertising cookies work and how to opt out is on the privacy page.
  • October 21, 2026: first Ram model: 2026 Ram 1500 (27 ratings by engine, axle ratio, GCWR, cab, bed and 4x2/4x4 from Ram's 2026 payload and towing chart). Every year page now links to the VIN tool and the payload calculator right above the towing table.
  • October 21, 2026: first GMC model: 2026 GMC Sierra 1500 (111 ratings from GMC's 2026 trailering charts, conventional and gooseneck/5th-wheel). Many cells carry a footnote naming the equipment needed (MT tires, 10-speed transmission, Max Trailering Package and wheel size, AT4/AT4X): read it before you rely on that row.
  • October 21, 2026: easier on phones: the menu fits on one line (swipe it sideways) and marks the page you are on; a result bar at the bottom of the tools while the result is off screen; new All vehicles page with a search box.
  • October 21, 2026: first Chevrolet model: 2026 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 (101 ratings from Chevrolet's 2026 Trailering Guide, conventional and gooseneck/5th-wheel, by cab, bed, drive, package and engine).
  • October 20, 2026: new vehicle: 2026 Toyota Tundra (34 ratings by bed, cab, drive and grade, and tongue weight limits per cab and drive), from Toyota's Product Information spec sheet.
  • October 20, 2026: first Toyota model: 2026 Toyota Tacoma, from Toyota's Product Information spec sheet. Year pages now show printed ranges (low–high), tongue weight limits, and hide the GCWR column when the maker's document has none.
  • October 20, 2026: new tool: Towing capacity by VIN (decode a VIN with NHTSA vPIC and go to the maker's towing chart for it)
  • October 20, 2026: new tool: Payload calculator (from the door-jamb placard or GVWR minus vehicle weight, with tongue weight)
  • October 19, 2026: new guide: Curb weight explained
  • October 19, 2026: new guide: What is GVWR?
  • October 19, 2026: Ford Transit 2025 and 2026 added (passenger van, cargo van, cutaway and chassis cab); year pages now show a separate table for each body style the maker prints.
  • October 19, 2026: this guide added, with a “How to use” link on the tools and vehicle pages.
  • October 18, 2026: site launched with Ford towing data, the Can I tow it? check and the tongue weight calculator.