If you’ve ever looked up your vehicle’s tow rating and thought, “I’m good — I’m under the limit,” you’re not alone.
Unfortunately, this is also how a huge number of real-world towing setups end up overloaded, unstable, or unsafe.
Tow rating is a marketing number based on a lightly loaded vehicle: one driver, minimal cargo, perfect conditions.
In real life, you add:
All of that comes out of payload — not tow rating.
Payload is how much weight your vehicle can safely carry on its own suspension. It includes everything added to the vehicle after it left the factory.
You’ll find it on the yellow or white sticker inside the driver door — not in the brochure.
Trailers don’t just get pulled — they also press down on the tow vehicle.
Typical tongue or pin weight:
A 6,000 lb trailer can easily add 750–1,200 lb to your payload before passengers or cargo.
Instead of starting with tow rating, start with payload and work backward.
Use the payload-first towing calculator to estimate tongue weight, payload usage, and margins.
Use the Towing CalculatorThe safest setups are the ones that look boring on paper — with margin.