RV Towing Mistakes, Payload vs. Tow Ratings & the New Towing Guide – RV LIFE 164

Could your truck be overloaded before you even leave the driveway?

Your truck’s brochure says it can tow 10,000 pounds, and your trailer weighs considerably less. That sounds like a safe combination, but there’s another number that could change everything.

In this special episode of the RV LIFE Podcast, Bob Zagami talks with RV LIFE Senior Content Editor Kris Bunker about the 2026 RV LIFE Trailer Towing Guide and the critical difference between towing capacity and payload. With approximately 25 years of RV industry editorial experience, Kris explains why even experienced RVers can overlook one of the most important limits on their tow vehicles.

Why payload deserves more attention

Passengers, pets, tools, camping gear, and hitch equipment all count toward your truck’s payload. Add the tongue weight of a travel trailer or pin weight of a fifth wheel, and it’s possible to exceed your truck’s carrying capacity without ever reaching its maximum tow rating.

Kris also explains why trailer dry weights can be misleading, what aftermarket modifications can and can’t accomplish, and why a trip to a CAT Scale should be part of every RVer’s safety routine. The updated towing guide provides another important tool for evaluating your truck and trailer combination before hitting the road.

Help shape what’s next for the RV LIFE Podcast

There’s another important announcement in this episode. Jim explains why the podcast is taking a break from its regular schedule to focus on something that’s been central to RV LIFE all along: community.

We’re inviting RV LIFE community members to help guide the show’s next chapter. Whether you’ve got a memorable travel story, a lesson learned the hard way, a favorite campground, or an opinion about what you’d like to hear, your input can help us build a podcast that better reflects the real experiences of RVers.

The Truth About RV Towing Capacity and Payload Limits for Safer Trailer Towing

Top Reasons to Listen Now

• Community: Find out how your stories, questions, and feedback can influence the podcast’s future.
• Towing Safety: Understand why your truck’s tow rating isn’t enough to determine a safe trailer match.
• Payload Limits: Learn how hitch weight, passengers, and cargo can overload a tow vehicle.
• 2026 Trailer Towing Guide: Discover the new payload information and why weighing your loaded RV matters.

Listen to the RV LIFE Podcast Episode #164

Listen and subscribe to The RV LIFE Podcast on Spotify or in your favorite podcast app. Or, read the full episode transcript below. Leave a comment, or contact us with any questions or feedback.

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Before You Tow That Trailer, Check Your Payload and RV Weight Limits for Safety

RV LIFE Podcast Episode #164 Full Transcript

ANDY: So for us, the community is really everything. And so it’s not just us as RV life, but when I say we, that means RV life, the community.

KRIS: When you’re towing a trailer, your truck is actually carrying a lot more weight than you might realize. You don’t camp with a dry weight. You don’t camp with a dry trailer.

JIM: Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello there, Jim here at RV Life. And boy, do we have some catching up to do. You know, ever since Renee and I took the helm here with our incredible co-hosts, we’ve been bringing you all the best that RV Life has to offer. In-depth conversations about travel destinations, the nomadic lifestyle, making a living on the road, and the latest RV industry insights. And all along, we guessed that this is what you wanted to hear. But that’s the thing, it was our best guess. And if you go back and listen to my very first interview with Andy, RV Life founder and CEO, you’ll hear how the future of this podcast is all about community. At least it was supposed to be. So, we’re going to be pulling over for a bit to take a closer look at that, at what you have to say, our community members. You’ll be hearing a lot more about how you can be involved with this evolution of the show, this revolution, because we’re going to be rocking the RV world with real life stories, authentic, practical voices from RV Life members. We’ll be bringing you true trip stories, lessons learned, questions, and answers about fun destinations, the best campground recommendations and more. But these things take time. Our first step is some serious research we should have done long ago. And that’s where you come in. Stay tuned to learn more or get involved now at rvlife.com/communities. Find a forum that fits your flavor of RV life. Van life, Class A, Schoolie, fifth wheel. Yeah, we got forums for you filled with like-minded folks. So join the conversation, leave a comment or give us a call at podcast.rvlife.com. Tell us what you want more of and what you could live without. Together, we’ll make this about what matters most out there on the road. Community. Meanwhile, as we work on what comes next, we’ve got something especially useful to share today. Our own Chris Bunker sat down with Bob Zagami to talk about the new 2026 RV Life trailer towing guide. Think your truck can safely tow your trailer just because the numbers say it can? There’s another rating that could change that answer. Bob and Chris discuss the one towing number that’s incredibly important, but far too easy to overlook. Payload. They explain why the big tow rating number for your truck doesn’t tell the whole story. Passengers, gear, hitch weight, that barbecue you’re bringing along, and everything else you load into your truck changes the equation. Knowing what your vehicle can safely carry matters just as much as what it can pull. So whether you’re shopping for a new tow vehicle or you’ve been towing for years, stay with us here. You may just discover your truck and trailer combination isn’t as comfortably within the numbers as you thought. Here’s Bob and Chris with everything you need to know about RV Life’s 2026 trailer towing guide, payload and all.

BOB: All right, welcome back to our podcast this morning. My guest this morning is Chris Bunker. And Chris, you are now the senior content editor for RV Life, part of our RV Life family. And tell us a little bit about your background and what you do and why you’re in that position.

KRIS: Well, I’ve been in the RV industry for longer than I’d like to admit, but about 25 years. And what I do now is I work with RV Life. I work with the content department with RV Life. And what we do is we do blogs. We make sure that our messaging is clear along the lines of our products. And I’m also heavily involved in the guides. And today we happen to be talking about the towing guide.

KRIS: There’s also the dinghy guide. Working on some other things that are pretty exciting for the future. But

BOB: Stop there for a second. Tell folks, a lot of people may be listening and they don’t, they may not even know what a dinghy is. What’s

KRIS: That’s a great question. Dinghies are also called toads. And when you see a motor home that is towing a passenger vehicle or a smaller truck or an SUV, that’s a dinghy vehicle. And there are several ways that you can tow a dinghy vehicle, but a true dinghy vehicle is four wheels down, meaning there’s no trailer involved. It is a hitch from the or a tow bar from the motor home to a base plate that is added to the dinghy vehicle itself. And not all vehicles are dinghy towable. There’s only a handful of vehicles, as a matter of fact, that are dinghy towable without, best case scenario, without voiding the warranty. Worst case scenario, without totaling the transmission, the truck, everything else or the car, everything else because they’re not designed to roll without something being engaged.

BOB: That’s a good point. But the thrust of the trailer towing guide is for people who are doing towables and understanding the importance of what we like to call in the industry weight management and payload. And you added a new feature this year with the payloads. So talk about the rating system, but also, you know, why did you add the payload this year?

KRIS: Well, we added payload because the tow rating is the major part in the equation, right? That is what can this truck or this SUV tow. But payload is another very, very important part of that equation. And quite frankly, it’s the main number that gets ignored, and it gets ignored pretty frequently. Maximum tow rating is what the truck or SUV can tow. It’s what it can pull. Okay, payload tells you what that same vehicle can carry. And there’s a very important distinction. When you’re towing a trailer, your truck is actually carrying a lot more weight than you might realize. You’got passengers, cargo, pets, tools, hitch hardware, and anything that’s added to that truck. And then when you’re towing a trailer, with a travel trailer, you have what’s called hitch weight or tongue weight. With a fifth wheel, you have what’s called pin weight. That’s a percentage of weight from the trailer that is actually being carried by your tow vehicle. All of that counts against the payload. Okay. So, we decided to add payload because a lot of times payload can be the limiting factor for towing before the tow rating. A tow vehicle can be well within its towing tow rating limit, but actually be over payload. Now, what does that mean? Being over payload affects handling. It affects longevity. It affects durability. Most importantly, it affects safety. If you’re overtaxing these components, there could be a dangerous towing situation that would affect you, that would affect your family, whoever’s with you, and that would also affect people on the roads. And we do not want that to happen. Now, when you’re driving on a road and you see an RV, or a lot of people when they see an RV, they think, “Oh boy, here we go.” Maybe RVers don’t have a great reputation, and I don’t believe that’s warranted at all. However, staying within these ratings ensures that you’re having the safest, most comfortable towing situation, and it keeps everybody around you safe and comfortable as well. There’s no, you know, you don’t see the trailer swaying quite so much. You don’t see people going back and forth in the lanes. It’s just important for comfort. And again, like I said, we’re all about safety. And these ratings are put in place for a reason. And just because you can exceed a rating, a payload rating or a tow rating, we would never recommend that. We never will recommend that. Stay within those limits, keep everybody safe, happy, and on the road.

BOB: Yep. When we look at it from an industry standpoint, I think the most important part of the publication that you’ve done, like you say, for almost 25 years, you did it when you were at Trailer Life. You did it when you were at Motor Home. The most important part is education. And we as an industry have to do a better part. So RV Life is taking a good leadership role as you’done for 25 years. And I wish our dealers would do more. Dealers should have classes on payload, on weight management, on what a truck can seriously tow or an SUV, what you can and cannot do. Not because it makes them feel good. It should be an educational tool that the consumer, and if you’re the person that educates the consumer on the safety features that allow them to drive down the road and feel comfortable with their rig, feel comfortable about the RV lifestyle, they’re going to come back and do business with you. And that’s why this guide, which they say has been out there for so many years, I look forward to it every year. And it’s always on my desk. It’s always at my seminars. I always bring it up in the seminars because people have to know, and we have too many people buying and using RVs who have not been taught the importance of weight management.

KRIS: Right. Right. And again, you touched on a good point. When you go to a dealership, a lot of times the question is, “Oh, you know, I have a trailer that weighs this much. Will this truck tow it?” Yes, absolutely. No problem. You know, if it falls within the maximum tow rating, of course it will. But again, we go back to you can, but should you? And the answer is no, because you have to take into consideration trailers aren’t, let’s start with the trailers. You don’t camp with a dry weight. You don’t camp with a dry trailer. Your trailer has fluids. It has tanks. It has propane. It has hopefully, it has comfort items like food, water, things like that. So already your dry weight is out the window. Dry weights are tools. Dry weights are a starting point. A lot of these weights are a starting point. So you have a ballpark figure, but you know, once you get into the actual act of RVing, you realize that there’s a lot more that goes into it than what’s in the brochure. There’s certainly a lot more that goes into it than what the salesperson told you, “Yes, that can tow that.” I mean, you got to remember like payload is what you can carry. Okay? Towing an RV right off the bat eats up a lot of that payload because you have a trailer, a travel trailer, that’s 10 to 12% of that travel trailer’s weight rides on the truck.

BOB: Well, you know, between

KRIS: Yeah.

BOB: The other thing is when we don’t educate people the right way and we have newbies that buy their first trailer or their first fifth wheel or first motor home, they look at all the storage and say, “Look at all the stuff I can take with me.”

KRIS: Okay. And before they ever leave the driveway,

BOB: You know, because we haven’t told them, and if you make them bigger, they take more stuff with them.

KRIS: Right. Right. Yeah. And this towing guide, that’s a great point. This towing guide, again, these numbers are a basis to start the conversation. Now, they’re set in stone, but you take a look at these numbers. So, from again, when you have a towing guide that includes the new vehicles, like this is 2026 vehicles. Okay. So, what we’re trying to do is get people who are shopping for a truck. Maybe they already have a trailer, maybe they’re considering a trailer, but these are starting points. And unfortunately, we don’t even get into packing and load and weight management in that aspect apart from some of the supplemental stories that are included. Now, we do our best to cover those things, but that’s a whole other guide, Bob. That’s quite a bit of information. And what we’re trying to do is we’re trying to take what we feel are the two most important parts of the RV towing experience, tow rating and payload. Can my truck tow it? Will my truck safely tow it? We actually believe that that is the more important question is can my truck or SUV in, you know, in some cases, can it do its part? Can it carry its part of the equation so I have a safe and confident trip down the road without having to worry about, you know, can it stop? You know, stopping distances increase exponentially as soon as you connect a trailer to your tow vehicle. So, everything is tested and again, these numbers are set in stone. We recently ran a story about can I increase my vehicle’s tow rating. No, you cannot. You cannot. You can upgrade components. You can make things feel more comfortable. You can do all these things. You cannot change a manufacturer designated tow rating, and you certainly can’t change a payload because payload is specific to each individual vehicle.

BOB: Yep. Yep. And this the 2026 RV life trailer towing guide goes a long way to doing that and does it excellently, and hopefully everybody downloads it, prints it out, keeps it in the vehicle, takes it to the dealership when they go. Our guest today has been senior editor for RV Life, Chris Bunker. Chris, truly enjoyable to have you take time out on this day to join us on the RV Life podcast, and always happy to be a part of the RV Life team. And anything you, any closing comments for our fans before you head out for the holiday weekend?

KRIS: Well, I just one thing really quick and obviously safety is at the forefront. So, if there’s one thing that I would ask RVers to do to kind of make sure that everything’s okay is get your truck and trailer, or if you get your motor home, load it up how you would travel. And I’m talking about everything. The dog, the whole crew, soaps and sodas, we used to say, everything. Get it weighed. Take it to a cat scale. Go to catscale.com. There’s a location module there. Find the nearest one to you. Take it to that cat scale. Weigh everything you can. Okay? If they kick you out, go back and weigh again. It’s 20 bucks. That $20 goes a long way toward not only comfort, but also safety for yourself and for others. So, that’s one thing that I really think needs to be done more.

BOB: Yep. Yep. And again, that’s part of the dealer responsibility. That’s part of the education, and most of the pilot truck stops have scales also.

KRIS: Yeah.

BOB: And some of the Loves are starting to as well. So there, you know, you can all, there’s recycle centers.

KRIS: Right. Right.

BOB: There are places, you know, everybody just put weights “cat scale near me” and see what comes up. Chris, thanks for joining us today. We’ll see you down the road.

KRIS: Sounds great. Thanks so much, Bob. Appreciate it.

JIM: And that’s it for this special episode of the RV Life podcast. Special because this year’s towing guide talks about payload in addition to tow ratings for trucks, vans, SUVs, and simple explanations of towing capacity, weight ratings, and more. But also special because of you, our community members who make the RV Life podcast possible. You have the power to steer the new direction this show is headed. So, we want to hear from you. Are you an RV Life community member, app subscriber, social follower? Let us know. Visit your favorite forum or stay subscribed to hear more about how your feedback will help us get us back on a regular schedule. And if you’re wondering where the usual crew is, don’t worry. We got a few more tales to tell. And we may all be back to share stories and tips from community members like you. Or maybe yours is the next voice we’ll hear here. Until then, get involved. Reach out to us at podcast.rvlife.com. Travel safe, folks. Be sure to weigh your rig. Watch that payload. And if your truck’s numbers say you can tow that bigger trailer before you hook it up and hit the road, remember,

KRIS: You can, but should you? And the answer is no.

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FAQs About RV LIFE Podcast Episode 164

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