The number that runs out first is payload, and it is not on the tailgate sticker.
Tow rating is the number the manufacturer prints in the advertisement. Payload is the number printed on a yellow label inside the driver's door, and it is the one that stops you. Everything you put in the truck comes out of it, and so does the tongue weight of the trailer.
Here is the arithmetic, done the way we do it in the yard with a customer standing there.
- Start with the door label
- It reads something like the combined weight of occupants and cargo should never exceed 1,640 lb. That is your entire budget. It is not the tow rating and it is usually about a third of what people assume.
- Subtract the people
- Four adults and a dog is roughly 700 lb. On a family truck you have now spent nearly half the budget before the trailer exists.
- Subtract the tongue weight
- A bumper pull puts 10 to 15 percent of the loaded trailer on the ball. A gooseneck puts 20 to 25 percent straight down through the bed. Trailer F on our lot, loaded to 12,000 lb, is around 2,700 lb sitting in the bed of your truck. That is why a half ton does not do it, and the tow rating never told you.
- Then check the ball, the hitch and the coupler separately
- Three parts, three ratings, and the chain is only as strong as the smallest of them. A 2 in ball rated at 5,000 lb under a coupler rated at 7,000 lb is a 5,000 lb setup.
- Brakes
- Missouri requires trailer brakes above 3,000 lb gross. That is why so much of the lot is rated 2,990 lb: it is not a coincidence and it is not a compliment to the trailer.
- The honest summary
- Half ton: trailers A, B and D loaded sensibly. Three quarter ton: anything on the lot except F loaded heavy. One ton: all of it. If your truck is not on that list for the trailer you want, we would rather lose the sale than sell it.
Bring your door label
Photograph the yellow sticker inside your driver's door and bring the photograph. Two minutes with that and we can tell you exactly which of the six is right, and we will say so out loud even when the answer is the cheaper one.