Maximum towing weights

Over 25 years of experience in the towbar industry.

Here at A&S Towbars, we are used to getting asked how much weight a specific type of vehicle can tow. If you are unsure about how much weight your vehicle can tow, it’s worth finding out for safety and legal reasons.

Places such as the owner’s handbook and the manufacturer’s website may hold information about maximum towing weights, but these should only be taken as a guide. For exact towing capacity figures, you should be referring to your vehicle’s VIN plate (Vehicle Identification Number).

You can find your vehicle’s VIN plate by looking under the bonnet or behind a door pillar. It will either be a metal plate or a sticker. If you can’t find it, refer to the owner’s manual.

The plate will exhibit either three our four sets of weights, which are usually displayed in the following order:

• Gross vehicle weight – maximum allowable mass (MAM) of the vehicle which includes occupants, fuel and payload.
• Gross train weight – the combined MAM of the vehicle and trailer.
• Maximum axle loads – front and rear respectively

To work out the maximum towing weight of your vehicle, you need to subtract the gross vehicle weight from the gross train weight.

Certain types of vehicles, such as performance, hybrid or city vehicles, were not designed to tow. In these instances, the VIN plate will often not display a gross train weight at all, or the value will simply be set to zero.

If you have any questions about towing weights, or would like to know which towbar would best suit your vehicle, all you have to do is get in touch.