Tow Vehicle Capacities

[Fundamental]

Looking at autumn ridge 20fbs, tandem axle. Our tow vehicle is a 2019 Honda passport with 5000 towing capacity. We are concerned. Love the floor plan but our single axle r pod is much lighter and a single axle. Any advice

Just by a rule, I never go above 75% of Max, so of your tow vehicle is Max 5000 lbs the never tow above 3750 lbs it's to hard on your transmission, you could end up cooking your tranny!

[doginthewoods]

Looking at autumn ridge 20fbs, tandem axle. Our tow vehicle is a 2019 Honda passport with 5000 towing capacity. We are concerned. Love the floor plan but our single axle r pod is much lighter and a single axle. Any advice

[uct]

Yes you will be right at max

[FrancesAnd2dogs]

Hi all,
I've got a tow package on my 2014 Nissan Pathfinder for 5000 lbs.
I am looking at buying a 2018 Starcraft Satellite 16KS, GVWR 3790, dry hitch weight 350, 31 gal water tank....mainly just myself and my 2 dogs in the suv....do you think I'm cutting it too close on safe driving?
Much !
thanks
Frances

[rickBLE]

One of the best explanations for this topic I have seen.

Thanks
Rick

[pawpaw]

Great info - thanks for sharing!

[jcarlilesiu]

Excellent post.

I recently updated my TV because I knew I was very close to the various limits.

Now I am towing a 16RB with a GVWR of 3,500 pounds on a Yukon Denali XL with a max tow capacity of 8,000 pounds and 1,000 pound hitch weight.

I am no where near the limits, and the towing experience is so much better.

Our plans are to take 2 weeks out west, and I wanted a capable vehicle.

[scottenj]

One thing I see a lot is people towing trailers with tow vehicles that are overloaded. I think there is a lot of confusion about vehicle capacities for safe towing. The car companies promote the towing capacities of their vehicles as a simple number when in fact it is more complicated than that and the one number they quote is often not the number that limits what you can safely tow.

When you buy a trailer it will have a dry weight marked on it and a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR). The capacity of cargo and any liquids in your trailer is the GVWR minus the dry weight. Often the capacity isn’t very high. It is surprisingly easy to add a 1,000 pounds or more of gear to a trailer. When in doubt take your trailer to a public scale and weight it and never exceed the GVWR

Depending on whether you have a travel trailer or a fifth wheel there are four or three towing capacities and you can’t exceed any of them. The capacities are:

1) Towing capacity (both trailer types) – the GVWR of your trailer should be less than the towing capacity of your vehicle.
2) Combined weight rating (both trailer types) – this is the weight limit of the tow vehicle and the trailer combined. Typically this is the weight of the tow vehicle and the towing capacity so if you are under the towing capacity you should be OK for this too.
3) Max payload (both trailer types) – this is the number I see people exceeding all the time. The max payload is the weight of people, cargo and the trailer that is pushing down on the truck. For a single axle conventional trailer you need 10% to 15% of the trailer weight on the tongue for stable towing, for dual axles it is 9% to 14%, for travel trailers 11% to 12% and for a fifth wheel 15% to 25%. That weight plus people and cargo can’t exceed the max payload of the tow vehicle.
4) Hitch capacity (conventional towing only, does not apply to a fifth wheel) – the maximum weight the truck hitch connection can support. Typically this number is lower for a standard hitch and higher for a weight distributing hitch.

I had a friend who had a massive fifth wheel toy hauler with triple axles and a weight of something like 15,000 pounds. He was telling me one day he bought a GMC HD2500 instead of a 3500 because the towing capacity wasn’t any different. The problem is a 2500 is only rated for roughly 2,500 pounds of max payload and he had him and his wife in the truck, fire wood, a generator and then roughly 2,250 to 3,750 pounds from the fifth wheel. If you leave 500 pounds for people and cargo an HD2500 can only safely tow an 8,000 to 13,000 pound fifth wheel depending on how it is balanced. The GMC HD3500 with dual wheels in the back is rated for a max payload of 5,000 pounds and that is the kind of vehicle you need to tow large fifth wheel trailers.

Another issue is what is the actual tongue weight of your trailer. I have a 329BHU and the brochure says the tongue weight is 800 pounds. I have a Sherline Trailer Tongue Weight scale and I measured 1,150 pounds right from the factory before loading the trailer. Personally I wouldn’t tow a 329BHU with anything less than an HD2500 because I also have 4 of us in truck plus some cargo. I highly recommend the Sherline scale as you can actually measure the tongue weight to inside your trailer is properly balance and you aren’t overloading you truck. The Sherline web site also has an excellent free towing guide available here: http://www.sherline.com/lmbook.htm