Calculator
Tongue Weight Calculator
The most important number in towing, checked against the band it needs to sit in.
Weighed loaded, the way you actually tow it - not the brochure dry weight.
From a scale or a hitch gauge. How to measure it.
Enter both figures to see the percentage and whether it sits in the 10 to 15 percent band.
Always confirm against your vehicle’s door-jamb sticker and owner’s manual, and against your trailer manufacturer’s documentation. This tool only does arithmetic on the numbers you type in - it holds no vehicle data of its own.
Tongue weight should be 10 to 15 percent of the trailer's loaded weight. Below 10 percent is where sway concentrates; above 15 percent you are loading the back of the tow vehicle heavily and lightening its steering axle. This calculator does one thing: it tells you which of those three situations you are in.
What you need before you start
Two measured figures. The loaded trailer weight means the trailer as you actually tow it - water, propane, batteries, gear, everything - rather than the dry weight on the brochure, which routinely understates by a four-figure margin. The tongue weight comes from a scale, a hitch gauge, or the free public-weighbridge method.
What the result does not tell you
Whether your tow vehicle can carry it. A tongue weight can sit perfectly in the 10 to 15 percent band and still exceed what your payload allows, because every pound of it is cargo as far as the vehicle is concerned. That is a separate check, and the payload headroom calculator does it.