These are the numbers that you need to understand if you want to buy a travel trailer and you want
to know if your vehicle can safely tow it. This is such important information because if you tow
a travel trailer that's heavier than your vehicle is capable of towing this could cause it to sway
and you could lose control. So you need to know these numbers. I'm not an expert and it can get
more complicated but knowing these basic numbers is necessary. There are four calculations that
you need to know and these numbers get real interesting as you're about to see. The first
term is the term that I think most people think about when someone asks the question what can my
vehicle tow? And that's towing capacity. Last year I bought a Jeep Gladiator Rubicon to tow
my Little Guy Max trailer so I'm going to use my numbers and show you how I was able to determine
that the Jeep could tow this travel trailer so you can see a real-life example and so you can see how
these numbers are going to apply to your vehicle. So my 2020 Jeep Gladiator has a towing capacity of
7,000 pounds. Most vehicles have this information in their owner's manual and sometimes you can
find this on the door jam in your vehicle on a sticker. Now I wasn't able to locate my vehicle's
towing capacity number in my owner's annual or in my door jam so I found a tool that will look it up
by my vehicle's VIN number. If you have trouble finding yours too I'll leave this
information in the video description below. And my Little Guy Max has a dry weight of
3,100 pounds so my travel trailer does weigh much less than my vehicle's towing capacity.
Sounds simple, huh? Personally, I think that the term towing capacity is misleading because to me
towing capacity should mean what your vehicle can tow but that's not the case as you're about to
see. There's much more to the what can my vehicle safely tow puzzle. The next calculation you need
to know is GCWR and GCWR stands for Gross Combined Weight Rating and this is easy to understand.
It's the total weight of the vehicle and your trailer with cargo combined. And my Jeep's GCWR is
12,450 pounds. This is the maximum allowed weight for my vehicle and travel trailer with cargo
combined. So the first thing we need to do is calculate the weight of any cargo that you can be
carrying with you in your travel trailer and you need to add that to the dry weight of your trailer
meaning what your trailer weighs without any cargo. I'm estimating that there's about an extra
250 pounds of cargo that I keep inside my trailer. And in the outside storage space, I'm estimating
about 400 pounds. Things like camping chairs, a grill, and tools can quickly add up in weight. So
when I add the inside and the outside cargo weight to the weight of my travel trailer
this totals 3,750 pounds. Now that I know my travel trailer's total weight I need to calculate
the same thing for my vehicle. I know my Jeep weighs 5,050 pounds so the next number I need
to add to this is the weight of all passengers. And next, you need to add the weight of any pets
who will be traveling in the vehicle with you. My dog princess only weighs 10 pounds but obviously
if you have a larger dog or more than one dog your dog's weight is going to be more. Next,
you need to estimate the total of the weight of all the stuff you're going to carry with you
in the cabin or the bed of your vehicle. Things like clothing, a cooler, firewood,
or anything else you'll be hauling in your vehicle.Now that I know what the total weight
of my Jeep is with cargo I add this number to the previous number I calculated for my trailer
with cargo. This gives me a total combined weight of 9,460 pounds. Because my vehicle's
GCWR is 12,450 pounds and my actual combined vehicle and trailer weight with cargo is 9,460
pounds so my jeep did pass the Gross Combined Weight Rating. if your combined total weight
exceeds your vehicle's GCWR then it cannot safely tow it. Looking at these numbers you might come to
the conclusion that my Jeep could actually tow a travel trailer that weighed 3,000 pounds heavier
but wait we still have two more calculations that we need to do that will tell me my real towing
capacity. Things are going to get real interesting as you're about to see. But before we get into the
next important calculation it's important to note that any of these numbers that I'm talking about
don't solely rely on the advertised rating numbers because different makes and models come with
different packages and different features. You need to look at your specific vehicle
to get accurate numbers. And I think it's also important to mention that you should never rely on
an RV dealership to tell you if your vehicle can safely tow a travel trailer. They're commissioned
salespeople and not that they're purposely going to try to mislead you but as I said every vehicle
is different. So without them doing these exact same calculations that we're doing here today,
they can't tell you with 100% certainty what size travel trailer that your vehicle can safely tow.
You need to be in charge because it's you and your family's safety at risk. The next
important calculation you need to know is your vehicle's payload capacity. And payload capacity
is the total weight of cargo and passengers but when you're towing a travel trailer you also need
to include the travel trailer's hitch weight into the calculation. The travel trailer's hitch weight
is the weight or the pressure that's applied from the trailer's tongue to the hitch on your vehicle.
You can usually find this number in your vehicle door jamb it will say combined weight of occupants
and cargo should not exceed and then it'll give you your vehicle's payload capacity. And my tow
vehicle's payload capacity is 1,152 pounds. There are hitch weight tools that you can use that will
tell you the exact weight of your travel trailer hitch but if you don't own one to calculate your
hitch weight a good rule of thumb is to take the weight of your travel trailer with all its cargo
and multiply this number by 10 to 15 percent. And I previously calculated that my travel trailer
with both the inside and the outside storage cargo was 3,750 pounds so I multiplied this number by
10. So my estimated hitch weight is 375 pounds. I do want to add that the more weight that's on
the tongue of your hitch the more your hitch is gonna weigh. For example, if your propane tanks,
your RV battery or let's say you added a heavier box on your hitch this is going to make it heavier
and you may be close to 15% or higher. I hope this makes sense. I just wanted to point this out. Snd
as I previously calculated the people, the pets, and the cargo weight for my vehicle that total
came to 660 pounds and when I add my hitch weight to this number the total is 1,035 pounds. My
vehicle's payload capacity is 1,152 pounds so this number is really close. Now this is interesting
because you can see if my travel trailer weighed more than 3,100 pounds it couldn't safely tow it.
Knowing that my payload is just below my payload capacity rating there are some precautions that
I take like I don't travel with a full tank of freshwater. One gallon of water weighs 8.3
pounds so my fresh 20-gallon water tank when it's full weighs 166 pounds. If your towing capacity,
your GCWR, and your payload capacity do not exceed your vehicle's rating you are just one calculation
away from knowing your vehicle can safely tow your travel trailer. If any of these numbers do exceed
its rating then it cannot. Before I go on to the last calculation you need to know I wanted to tell
you that I know that this is a lot of information to digest. And when I bought my Jeep and I started
researching all this I was a little overwhelmed at first. So be sure to re-watch this video as often
as you need to. And, I've also included timestamps on this video so you can quickly find that part of
the video that you want to re-watch. And these slides will also be available on my website at
randisadventures.com/towing. So if you want to just review the slides go to my website. I want
to make this just as easy as possible for you because this information is so important. Okay
on to the next calculation. And that is GVWR. And GVWR stands for Gross Vehicle Weight Rating. This
is the maximum your vehicle is allowed to weigh including the vehicle's curb weight, plus cargo,
plus the hitch weight of your trailer. And we already have this information from our previous
calculations. The GVWR for my Jeep is 6,250 pounds and my Jeep with cargo and my trailer hitch weight
combined is 6,085 pounds. It's very important that you never exceed any of your vehicle's ratings
and some people recommend that you stay ten to twenty percent below these numbers just to be
on the safe side. Because my payload and my GVWR numbers are so close I've added a weight
distribution bar with sway control to my trailer. If you have a question or if you have a comment
or if you think I left something out please leave your comment in the comment section below
and share it with others in this community. Because people do read the comments section and
this way we can all learn from each other. This video is part of a playlist called Make Memories,
Not Regrets. If you're a first-time RV buyer these videos will help guide you through the process
but more importantly stop you from making mistakes so you don't have any regrets. So click right
here right now so you don't have any regrets. I can't wait to see you over in those videos next.