How Much Can I Tow: 3 Tips for Towing
May 15, 2021
By Kunes RV
Whenever you purchase a new RV, you’ll need to consider the towing capacity of your vehicle. Towing an RV that is too heavy for your towing vehicle can be damaging to both the RV and the truck, but it is also a safety hazard for you and others on the roadway. So, if you find yourself asking, “How much can I tow?” We’ll help you find the answer below. Let’s start by looking at a few basic terms to understand before you start towing.
Basic Terms
- Dry Weight/Shipped Weight – The weight of the RV as shipped from the manufacturer without any passengers, cargo, liquids, or additional accessories or dealer installed options.
- Gross Vehicle Weight (GVW) – The current combined weight of the RV (dry weight) plus passengers, cargo, and liquids.
- Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR) – The maximum allowed weight of an Vehicle/RV, including passengers, cargo, fluids, etc..
- Cargo Weight – The total weight of all passengers, food, clothing, liquids, accessories, etc.. that you might put into your RV.
- Tongue/Hitch Weight – The weight/pressure applied from the trailer tongue/coupler to the conventional/bumper hitch on your vehicle.
- Pin Weight – This is often referred to as the weight/pressure applied from fifth wheel king pin to the hitch in the bed of your truck.
- Payload Capacity – For Trucks the amount of weight you can safely add to the bed of the truck. Your Fifth Wheels Hitch Weight or Pin Weight plus the actual weight of hitch plus any other accessories you have in the bed of the truck must not exceed the Payload Capacity amount. Confirm Payload Capacity with your vehicle’s manufacturer.
- Max Towing Capacity – The maximum weight limit that can safely be towed by your specific vehicle. This weight is calculated by adding the RV’s GVW with weight of all passengers, cargo, and liquids in your tow vehicle.
Find Your Vehicle’s Towing Capacity
Now that you understand a little more about some of the terminology let’s find your vehicle’s towing capacity. At Kunes RV, we offer an easy-to-use towing capacity tool to give you results in seconds. You just have to enter the year, make, and model of your truck to learn how much you can safely tow.
Find Your Dream RV
Next, all you have to do is find the RV you love and order from Kunes RV! We’ll help answer any questions you have about the dry weight and hitch weight of all of our RVs so that you can find the perfect fit for your needs. Shop our new RVs for sale today!
Contact us today for more information.
