Determining what can I tow with my car. If you plan on towing a travel trailer or any type of trailer for that matter it’s very important to know what your vehicle is capable of. There are many factors that seem to be a mystery however was a little research and getting the numbers you can find out just how much your vehicle can hold and toe safely.

The majority of this information can be found on the doorjamb of the driver’s side door of your car. This can it tell you the total capacity of the weight or gross vehicle weight rating or GVWR it will also give you the capacity of the front and rear axles individually this way you won’t overload the rear axle by adding too much tongue weight from your travel trailer.

Other numbers you need to gather is the gross vehicle weight rating of your camper and this is typically the dry weight which means it does not include any of your belongings or any water in the tanks. Once you have all of the important numbers you can then determine what you can safely toe. One number you may not find on the doorjamb is the actual towing capacity of the car but this typically can be found in your owners manual. If you don’t find it there then contact the manufacturer or dealership to get the information needed.

In my opinion, one of the biggest dangers of overloading or improperly loading your tow vehicle and travel trailer is the ability to stop or keep the vehicle under control. If you overload the front of the travel trailer or the rear of your tow vehicle to put tremendous pressure on your rear axles making it difficult to control. The same is true if you overweight the rear of your travel trailer this can potentially create negative weight on your tongue which will definitely cause your travel trailer to sway back and forth and if you’ve watched any YouTube videos seeing this happen it typically results into a bad crash totaling both the car and travel trailer. Once you have all the important information annual loaded up I strongly urge that you take your vehicle to a scale to get the actual weight and the weight on each of the axles you know exactly how your load is distributed and whether or not you need to make adjustments.

There is one additional sticker on this particular vehicle which I don’t think is common however it’s something to look for, in this case the gross vehicle weight rating was adjusted by the manufacturer sometime after production now on this Toyota Highlander it was only about 15 pounds but it may be a lot more or less on your vehicle so it’s important to know look for that sticker and if you buy a secondhand vehicle I would still reach out to the manufacturer to confirm the actual capacity and tow rating.

Also you’ll hear me mention in this video several times about not loading a vehicle to the max even if it says it safe to do so I realized the manufacturer certainly has factored in a safety margin but it would not hurt for you to factor in some as well loading these vehicles to the maximum capacity will make them work harder and potentially be unsafe if not loaded correctly. So do your research get your numbers and find out ahead of time what you can toe safely. Also don’t forget to download my free e-book and pretrip checklist to make sure you and your vehicle are ready to hit the road and can be as safe as possible.

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