How to Tow a Trailer Safely: A Beginner's Guide

Towing a trailer safely comes down to four numbers and one habit. The numbers are your vehicle's tow rating, the trailer's GVWR, the tongue weight, and your combined gross weight. The habit is checking all of them before every trip rather than once when you buy. Get those right and towing is uneventful. Get them wrong and no amount of careful driving compensates.

The four numbers

Your vehicle's tow rating. In the owner's manual and on the door jamb sticker. This is the maximum the vehicle can pull, and it assumes a properly rated hitch.

The trailer's GVWR. On the rating plate riveted to the tongue. This is the trailer plus everything on it. Compare this to the tow rating, not the trailer's empty weight, because you will be towing it loaded.

Tongue weight. The downward force the coupler puts on the hitch ball, normally 10 to 15 percent of the loaded trailer weight for a bumper pull. Too little and the trailer sways. Too much and the front of the tow vehicle goes light and steering degrades.

Combined weight. Vehicle plus trailer plus everything in both. Your vehicle also has a gross combined weight rating, and it is easy to be inside the tow rating and still over that.

Loading

Put roughly 60 percent of the load ahead of the trailer's axle centerline. This is the single most effective thing you can do to stop sway. A rear-heavy trailer will fishtail at highway speed regardless of how good your tow vehicle is. Strap everything down, because a shifting load changes your tongue weight while you are driving.

Before every trip

Coupler latched and pinned. Safety chains crossed under the coupler so they cradle it if it drops. Breakaway cable attached to the vehicle, not to the hitch. All lights working. Lug nuts torqued. Tire pressure at the sidewall rating, cold. Two minutes, every time.

Driving

Everything takes longer. Braking distance roughly doubles. Leave twice the following distance you normally would, brake earlier and more gently, take corners wider because the trailer cuts inside your line, and slow down before a descent rather than riding the brakes down it. If sway starts, ease off the accelerator and steer straight. Do not brake hard and do not steer against it.