Towing capacity by vehicle, and can yours pull that trailer?

Five limits, and the one that stops you first

A tow is within the rules only when five numbers hold together. The trailer weight rating is the row of the maker's table that matches your vehicle. The tongue weight must sit between 10 and 15% of the loaded trailer for a bumper-pull hitch, the range Chevrolet prints in its trailering guide; too little and the trailer sways, too much and the rear axle sags. The payload is what the truck may carry on top of its own weight, and the tongue counts as cargo. The GVWR caps the loaded truck alone, the GCWR caps truck and trailer together. Owners usually check the first and forget the last three, and that is where most overloads hide.

The trailer rating itself already spends part of the other limits. Ford and Chevrolet compute it for a vehicle with only a driver and a front passenger of 150 lb each and no cargo (Ford guide, p. 7; Chevrolet guide, p. 7). Ram follows the SAE J2807 procedure and counts 300 lb of passengers, 100 lb of options and 75 lb of hitch hardware (Ram chart notes). Load a family of four, a cooler and bikes in the bed, and the trailer you may legally pull drops pound for pound.

Why the configuration matters more than the model

The headline number of a half-ton pickup belongs to one row. On the 2026 F-150 the 3.5L GTDI V6 reaches 13,500 lb, while the 3.5L GTDI V6 H.O. (Raptor only) tops out at 8,200 lb. On the Ram 1500, the same engine gains thousands of pounds when the axle ratio goes from 3.21 to 3.92, because the shorter gearing lets it pull a heavier combination up a grade. Two trucks with the same badge on the same dealer lot can differ by more than the weight of a small camper.

The fix is simple: find your exact row. The window sticker or the build sheet gives the engine, the axle ratio and the packages; the door pillar gives the GVWR, the axle ratings and, on many trucks, the payload. The checker lists every row of the maker's table for your model year, heaviest first, with the page it comes from, so you can match it line by line.

Heavy duty pickups and fifth wheels

Three-quarter-ton trucks change the scale. The 2026 F-250 is rated up to 22,000 lb on a conventional hitch and 23,000 lb with a gooseneck, and the Ram 2500 up to 20,000 lb. At those weights the hitch type matters: Ram's chart notes require a fifth-wheel hitch above 23,000 lb and a gooseneck above 30,000 lb, and the pin weight of a fifth wheel runs 15 to 25% of the trailer, far more than a bumper-pull tongue. The fifth wheel and gooseneck page works through it.

What the checker cannot see

It does not know the options on your truck, so it cannot know its real curb weight; a scale ticket does. It does not know the receiver installed on your truck, whose own label can be lower than the vehicle rating; Ford, for example, limits a weight-carrying hitch on the F-150 to 5,000 lb in its notes. It does not know your state's trailer brake law. When a maker's table leaves a cell blank, the checker leaves the test open and asks you for the figure from your door label. The method page lists each document and how its rows were read.